my top 5 albums of 2023

2023 has been a big year for the music industry; most artists have returned to touring, new artists have taken the industry by storm, concert movies became a norm, vinyl records oustold CDs for the first time in decades, dozens of incredible albums flooded the Billboard 200 charts. While I don't consider myself to have the credibility to "rank" the best albums of the year, I can rave about my top 5 albums released in 2023. Here is my ranking of my favorite albums of the year; the ones that caught my attention and kept me repeatedly hitting play throughout 2023.

5. Speak Now (Taylor's Version), Taylor Swift

My Stats:

Released: July 7, 2023

First listened: July 6, 2023

Minutes listened: 1,163

Most streamed song: "I Can See You (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)

Top 3 Favorite songs: "Sparks Fly (Taylor's Version)", "Haunted (Taylor's Version)", "Long Live (Taylor's Version)"

This updated Taylor classic is one that I gushed about back when I reviewed it following it's release in July (read the review here). Speak Now (Taylor's Version) gave me a good dose of nostalgia and gratitude to have grown up in the same era as Taylor Swift (looking at you "Long Live (Taylor's Version)"). This one may be considered underrated in her discography, but I fell back in love with it all over again the way I did back in 2010 with the original.

4. Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, Kelsea Ballerini

My Stats:

Released: February 14, 2023

First listened: February 14, 2023

Minutes listened: 507

Most streamed song: "Penthouse"

Top 3 Favorite songs: "Penthouse," "Blindsided," "Mountain With a View"

I've been a longtime admirer of Kelsea and her girlishly clever pop-country songwriting, but telling the emotional tale of the unraveling of her marriage through this expertly produced six-song EP really is the highest peak her career has taken thus far. I might be overdramatic, but I think I audibly gasped over lyrics like "it was love/then it was just married" and "were you blindsided?/or were you just blind?." The short film that accompanies the EP is one of my very favorite music videos of the year and the later-released version of the album Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good) made this work of art a staple in my listening this year.

3. GUTS, Olivia Rodrigo

My Stats:

Released: September 7, 2023

First listened: September 7, 2023 Minutes listened: 1,255

Most streamed song: "vampire"

Top 3 Favorite songs: "making the bed," "pretty isn't pretty," "love is embarrassing"

2023 was the year that Olivia Rodrigo came back with a bang, leaving behind the butterflies and heartbreak of her debut and crashing onto the scene with black nail polish, untouchable power vocals, and a badass attitude that made GUTS an addictive teenage escape of an album. I'll be honest, at first I was skeptical of GUTS and its distinctive departure from SOUR, but I've grown to love the cheek, messiness, and raw, overdramatic emotion across this compilation of stunning piano ballads and edgy pop-rock bangers that make Olivia a star in her own right.

2. 1989 (Taylor's Version), Taylor Swift

My Stats:

Released: October 27, 2023

First listened: October 26, 2023

Minutes listened: 1,663

Most streamed song: "Say Don't Go (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)"

Top 3 Favorite songs: "Style (Taylor's Version)," "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)," "Say Don't Go (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)"

1989 (Taylor's Version) is undoubtedly the best re-recording Taylor has released yet. I have the original album engrained so deep in my mind that I can pick out every little difference between the original and the re-recording. I was floored by the realization that the only changes I noticed were those that made this pop perfection even better. Honestly, calling it "pop perfection" seems like an understatement; "Style (Taylor's Version)" shook the bass in my car, "Welcome to New York (Taylor's Version)" sounds twinklier, "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" sounds effervescent, and the duo of "Slut! (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)" into "Say Don't Go (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)" had me texting friends back to back messages saying "I love you Harry Styles!" and "I hate you Harry Styles!" 1989 (Taylor's Version) only lost the top spot on my album ranking this year due to the lack of novelty of most of the album-- in my mind, 1989 (Taylor's Version) is about as close as you can get to a perfect album from start to finish.

1. Good Riddance, Gracie Abrams

My Stats:

Released: February 24, 2023

First listened: February 24, 2023

Minutes listened: 2,144

Most streamed song: "I know it won't work"

Top 3 Favorite songs: "The blue," "Right Now," "Best"

My favorite album of the year? Good Riddance. Without a doubt. I don't quite have the words for how deeply I cherish this album. It's delicate, it's powerful, it's emotional, it's beautiful, it's creative, it's reflective-- from the first listen, I knew that Gracie had created something that resonated with me so profoundly. Production-wise, Good Riddance is classically instrumental, yet unique in how it's immersively layered. Lyrically, Good Riddance is nothing short of phenomenal. With it's brutal self-deprecating honesty on songs like "Best" and "Will you cry?," palpable hopeful romanticism on songs like "The blue" and "Full machine," and fragile yearning ambition on songs like "Right Now" and deluxe track "Unsteady," Good Riddance makes those of us who feel everything deeply feel seen. How I feel about the release of Good Riddance this year is summed up perfectly by the lyrics of one of my favorites on the album: "You came out of the blue like that, I never could've seen you coming, I think you're everything I've wanted."

Here's to more great music & great albums in 2024. Thanks for reading. ~A

THINK LATER, Tate McRae

It's well known in the music industry that an artist's sophomore album can make or break their longevity as an artist; with THINK LATER, Tate McRae is undoubtedly here to stay.

Compared to the one or two rock-solid hits on her 2022 debut i used to think i could fly, THINK LATER is chock-full of hits from start to finish. Genuinely, is there a single skip on this album? The stylistic choices Tate has taken on THINK LATER most remind me of a modern take on the albums released by the pop girls of the early 2000s like Hilary Duff and Aly & AJ. THINK LATER is dance-able female empowerment with perfectly raspy vocals, ear candy production, and just enough confident spite lyrically to make me believe that I too could send "kisses to my exes who don't give a shit about me."

Stand-out tracks: "cut my hair" "greedy" "hurt my feelings" "exes"

My favorites: "run for the hills" "we're not alike" "calgary" "think later"

You know you're in for a treat of an album with an opener like "cut my hair." The title's symbolism, deep trap beat, and lyrics like "I've been playing nice, little too long, Driving on the high road and hit a dead end"makes it incredibly clear that you're going to spend the next 38 minutes and 22 seconds of this album feeling bold. "greedy" is arguably Tate's biggest hit to date; it's no wonder considering how aboslutely addictive the chorus is. "run for the hills" and "hurt my feelings" match in their energy of realizing how down bad you are for someone incredibly toxic.

Things slow down for a few tracks with "grave" and "stay done." While the previous two tracks were the frustration and telling yourself to keep your head on straight, "grave" and "stay done" are the submission of telling yourself maybe they're not so bad even though you know deep down that yes, yes they are that bad.

I dare you to not dance or flip your hair while listening to "exes"-- can't do it? Me neither. This one ate up the TikTok-sphere with it's incredibly catchy and off-the-cuff "Kisses, kisses to the next ones who think they can live without me; We make up, then we break up, then they swear they'll never call me.""we're not alike" is the one moment of anti-feminism on THINK LATER. It sounds like some girl wasn't a girl's girl and stabbed Miss Tate in the back over a man, so she has every right to be as cheeky and mad as she comes across in this song.

"calgary" is the most vulnerable Tate has ever been musically, tapping into emotions of self-doubt and introspection paired with beautifully haunting vocals that tell you that she really feels this one deep in her bones. "messier" is vulnerable in a different way; it's bass rattles your bones as lyrically Tate finally gets to a point in THINK LATER where she realizes that leaving would hurt less than staying.

The last big punch of THINK LATER comes with the pairing of "think later" and "guilty conscience." This is that moment of weakness when you let the toxic person sneak back in; all thoughts of being better off alone disappear in a moment across these tracks, with "think later" thrumming with clubby bass hits and lyrics like "Live now, think later, I do it so well, Fall hard, heart breaker, I want him, oh well." The toxic bad boy continues to be bad news with the bumpy, addictive rhythms and "All my morals shot, even that don't phase me, Loving you batshit crazy, Kinda reckless lately, If that's wrong, Guess I'll live with a guilty conscience" of "guilty conscience."

The decrescendo of THINK LATER is the conclusion of "want that too" and "plastic palm trees." The pairing of these two are the resurgence of those thoughts that it's really not worth it to keep someone in your life no matter how much you want to. Together, they really to make a beautiful conclusion to the tumultuous story of THINK LATER.

THINK LATER is cohesive, addictive, empowering, unrelenting, confident top-notch pop from start to finish. There's no sophomore slump here-- Tate McRae has solidified herself as a modern pop superstar.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: FULLY OBSESSED

REVIEW: ENJOY THE RIDE, Almondmilkhunni

After fearlessly dropping her record label and going independent after her debut self-titled 2020 EP, Almondmilkhunni has truly hit the sweet spot in creating a conceptual project that's the perfect balance of fun and introspective with ENJOY THE RIDE.

Stand-out tracks: "liar""ANXIETY"

My favorites: "fake deep" "playlist"

This 11-track project starts with "intro" that blends seamlessly into "fake deep," with the former being a spacey instrumental with distorted spoken vocals seeming to set up the story of creating ENJOY THE RIDE, including "Should I just start?" and "Basically I completely forgot who I was." The instrumentals fade flawlessly into my personal favorite"fake deep," which finds Almondmilkhunni asking "Don't you wanna be real for once in your life?" backed by one of the best boppy and catchy instrumental productions on the album.

"liar" takes Almondmilkhunni's natural cool and collected vocals and gives them an air of flippancy towards someone who has repeatedly been untrustworthy-- as she puts it herself, she's clearly "getting so damn tired of you." "MISS U" has a little bit of a 2000s pop vibe with electronic mixing, twinkly production, and the repeated sincere-but-girly "I get lost with you and I can't help that I miss you." "BODYBAG" is probably the most ruthless track on ENJOY THE RIDE, with its addictive trappy production and fully-fleshed out comparisons of a toxic relationship to a crime scene-- the details in this one really make the cheating-to-crime metaphor work seamlessly.

"ANXIETY" is the track on ENJOY THE RIDE that, in my opinion, deserves to be her breakout hit. It hits all the right notes in illustrating how anxiety really feels with the back and forth of "Is it you? Is it me? Or is it my anxiety?" followed by "I don't know/I think it's me/Or maybe my anxiety." The production is just the right balance of fun and chaotic to make it a track that's incredibly easy to repeat over and over.

The back-to-back of "IF I DIE" and "COMA" are intensely opposite in terms of lyrical content but they pair together beautifully in terms of production. "IF I DIE" illustrates deep-felt emotions in moments of passionate connection with someone, while "COMA" illustrates the need to just get away from it all sometimes.

Ending ENJOY THE RIDE with "playlist" is the perfect way to culminate the album; it almost seems to lyrically reference each track on the album individually throughout the song. And the chorus thrums with "I made a playlist/of songs that I hated/now I kind of crave/cause it reminds me of you," beautifully signing off the album with the perfect combination of humility and ambition.

ENJOY THE RIDE is all about the highs and lows of growing pains, and it hits just the right balance of satisfaction and leaving the listener wanting more. Almondmilkhunni has started to hit her stride as an artist and her first independent album just leaves you waiting to see what she does next.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: FULLY OBSESSED