Gorilla vs. Bear’s Albums of 2023

Presenting our favorite albums of 2023: The most subjectively correct year-end list in the world, every year since 2005. Of the countless albums I enjoyed in 2023, here are the 55 I loved most, ranked in descending order of how much I loved them (at press time). Blurbs for the top 10. Click the links to support the artists.

p.s. As always, while I adore them all, the records released this year on my label Luminelle (Magdalena Bay's mini-mix vol. 3 , Alaska Reid's A. G. Cook co-produced debut LP Disenchanter, Sea Lemon's Stop At Nothing EP, Georgia Gets By's solo debut Fish Bird Baby Boy, MUNYA's Jardin, and Enumclaw's Toro y Moi-produced EP) were not eligible for consideration.

GORILLA vs. BEAR's ALBUMS OF 2023

25) JIM LEGXACY | hnpm

24) LAUREL HALO | Atlas

23) ARMAND HAMMER | We Buy Diabetic Test Strips

22) RAINY MILLER x SPACE AFRIKA | A Grisaille Wedding

21) MARINA ZISPIN | Life and Death - The Five Chandeliers of the Funereal Exorcisms

20) TUJIKO NORIKO | Crépuscule I & II

19) AVALON EMERSON | & the Charm

18) LANA DEL REY | Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

17) BAR ITALIA | Tracey Denim + The Twits

16) NIECY BLUES | Exit Simulation

15) NEWJEANS | Get Up

14) JESSY LANZA | Love Hallucination

13) TIRZAH | trip9love…???

12) OLIVIA RODRIGO | GUTS

11) JPEGMAFIA x DANNY BROWN | SCARING THE HOES

10) BEING DEAD | When Horses Would Run

We were lucky enough to host Austin's Being Dead at our SXSW show earlier this year and it was love at first sight, as the hometown heroes ripped through a gloriously raucous and swaggy set that didn't quite fully prepare me for how hard their impending debut LP When Horses Would Run would hit. Start with "Daydream", the best '60s jam of '23, and stick around for a delightfully immersive and transportive psychedelic surf-rock trip, courtesy of a couple of true weirdo geniuses + BFFs named Falcon Bitch and Gumball.

09) SOFIA KOURTESIS | Madres

We've been huge Sofia Kourtesis fans since day one, so it's a thrill to hear her hone and wield her brilliance on this, her stellar long-awaited debut full-length. Madres is a life-affirming opus of luminous, emotionally soaring dance music, dedicated to Sofia's mother -- and in one of the most heartwarming and improbable connections of the year -- the doctor who saved her life.

08) JAM CITY | Jam City Presents EFM

The album of summer '23 for me. With assists from esteemed guests Wet, Empress Of, the dude from Show Me the Body, and others, Jam City hooks up an exhilarating set of shimmering, widescreen dance-pop bangers that feel equally suited for the club and late night drives through the city.

07) MEAGRE MARTIN | Gut Punch

Meagre Martin arrive, fully-formed, with one of best debut LPs of 2023, the wonderful and appropriately-titled Gut Punch, on which the Berlin-based group display a natural flair for turning the most vulnerable and relatable sentiments into poignant, timeless anthems that are catchy and cathartic. A little bit country, a little bit Stevie Nicks.

06) ANDRE 3000 | New Blue Sun

It's fair to say we definitely wouldn't have been all that psyched on an improvisational flute album if it was by some random Leaving Records guys (no offense, very dope label, shout out to Matthewdavid rocking "mycelial electronics" on this one), which I guess speaks to the subjective nature of music and why we love what we love. Still, while I was genuinely excited for this, I didn't anticipate the kind of bliss I'd feel listening to one of the greatest artists of all time -- and a guy who's been one of my idols for over 25 years -- learn a new musical language in real time, with results that are often enchanting and always endearing, as if the guy can't help but radiate absurd charisma and an effortless musicality. If you think it's a bit tedious, wish there were bars, etc., I get that, but hearing 3000 approach his chosen instrument on New Blue Sun with a palpable curiosity, purity, reverence, and love for the possibility of discovery is legit one of the few things in music that's elicited actual joy for me lately (the memes are funny because they're true), a feeling I liken to what I felt watching my daughter learn to play “Vampire” on piano this year. The great Coby Sey, who appears on this year-end list a couple times himself, called New Blue Sun "nourishing", and that's probably the right way to put it.

05) HELENA DELAND | Goodnight Summerland

Helena Deland dials it back a bit on her sophomore full-length, the understated, quiet folk masterpiece Goodnight Summerland. And of course, HD being HD, it's stunning and heartbreaking. An intimate, achingly poignant, and hopeful rumination on loss and grief from my favorite songwriter.

04) LAURA GROVES | Radio Red

London's Laura Groves graces us with the first full-length released under her own name, and it's an exquisite and eerily familiar collection of sophisticated and gorgeously stirring pop ballads that feels like it could have existed -- and felt just as vital and contemporary -- at any point in the past 40 years. Sampha fans take note: his distinctive, ethereal voice can be heard on radiant album highlights "Good Intention" and "D 4 N".

03) BILLY WOODS + KENNY SEGAL | Maps

woods extends his unprecedented winning streak as the best rapper currently doing it, as he drops yet another another cinematic masterpiece (see Aethiopes near the top of last year's list), this time with producer Kenny Segal providing the mercurial post-apocalyptic score for woods' vivid and gripping post-pandemic tour chronicles.

02) ML BUCH | Suntub

Danish artist ML Buch's new LP Suntub is the most soothing and unsettlingly beautiful record of the year, as the visionary composer + producer envelops the listener in an otherworldly cocoon by tapping into some uncanny, unshakeable deja-vu shit here that's hard to put into words but feels very real, like a gleaming, half-remembered soft-rock mirage you keep hearing in your warmest, fuzziest dreams.

01) NOURISHED BY TIME | Erotic Probiotic 2

Massive thanks to The Homie for generously tipping me to Baltimore's inimitable Marcus Brown, aka Nourished By Time, a couple years back. NBT has since become one of my favorite artists, and his newest gem is a refreshing, genre-defying outlier that's earned Brown lofty but deserved comparisons to singular luminaries like Arthur Russell, Blue Nile, SWV, and Prince. Of course, Erotic Probiotic 2 sounds like no one but Nourished By Time, as Brown conjures a magical, one-of-a-kind modern synthesis of ‘90s R&B, ‘80s freestyle, bedroom pop, and soul that transcends any and all of his myriad influences. Also the best live show I saw this year.

GORILLA VS. BEAR's ALBUMS OF 2023

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Filed Under: 2023, albums, albums of the year, best of, nourished by time

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