Kyle Kohner’s Top 20 Albums of 2023
Mirroring my 2022, more loss and heartbreak filled 2023. For the second straight year, death, depression, and gloom, numbed by a bit of Wellbutrin along the way, encroached almost every day with a malevolent closing creep. But it wasn’t completely void of goodness to cherish — I got engaged to my partner of nearly a decade, and how sweet it’s been to sit in and celebrate this new season of life. Amidst it all — the heart-filling, heartbreaking, and even the middling, melancholic in-between, music has soundtracked each waking second to get me through. So, without further ado, I present my personal, subjective ranking of the 20 best records of 2023 — the 20 projects that breathed life into and formed memories from a tumultuous, life-altering, and perspective-shifting 2023 — I really couldn’t have done life this year without them.
20. Strange Ranger – Pure Music: Strange Ranger’s Pure Music is not just an expansive and captivating parade of growth; it’s a musical transformation that has culminated into something special and completely unforeseen. It’s just too bad we won’t get the chance to see how the band could have expanded upon this impressive showing — an enrapturing goodbye.
19. 100 Gecs – 10,000 Gecs: On 10,000 Gecs, 100 Gecs toed a line they so cleverly drawn in the dirt — that of loud hollowness and pyrotechnic sincerity. But the follow-up to their raving debut has cast them under the light of the latter — as genuine visionaries of — well, visionaries of whatever the hell they want to call their music. Now, 10,000 Gecs doesn’t throw you in loops, but it does offer variety that is tasteful, still arm-gripping, but more seamless and intent on deconstructing genre music and tropes that these various songs fall within.
18. Nicole Dollanganger – Married In Mount Airy: Nicole Dollanganger is no stranger to the tightrope walk between light and heavy. But on Married In Mount Airy, she may have delivered her most harrowing performance, scaling a gradient of emotion to paint a disturbing baroque pop picture that blurs themes of love and abuse, where innocence intertwines with horror — it’s a twisted fairytale that nudges you to reach a deeper beneath its truly dark underbelly.
17. Underscores – Wallsocket: I’m in complete awe of undescores’ willingness to go in directions that could easily come across as “genre-hopping.” But it’s not; Wallsocket possesses an intrinsic strangeness that renders its diverse musical statements sensible, given how proud underscores embraces the niche space she occupies and just how brazen she wears weirdness on the sleeve.
16. Model/Actriz – Dogsbody: For a few years, Model/Actriz resided in the peripherals, teasing intrigue, then went ahead to unleash what potential brilliance resided within on their debut, Dogsbody. From punchy noise-rock bangers to enveloping slow-mourning cuts, no record will leave you feeling intimidated and intoxicated at once like Dogsbody. It’ll have you indulge, dance, repent, and even cry — Model/Actriz’s debut is a hyper-stimulating wonder of cathartic multitudes.
15. Squid – O Monolith: A towering testament to their boundless creativity, Squid defies their own expectations on O’ Monolith. Every bit as exciting and unpredictable as their debut, they transcend their groove-driven post-punk roots to venture into expansive, proggy soundscapes as deep as they dive into late-capitalist malaise and ecological despair.
14. Liturgy – 93696: A profound exploration of Liturgy’s evolving theological quest for God expressed through cataclysmic black metal, 93696 transcends ecclesiastical music with complexity on this sprawling journey into cosmic love and metamorphosis. It is many things, but at its simplest, 93696 is pure release, an ongoing engagement between light and dark.
13. Empty Country – Empty Country II: Billowing post-rock, deeply felt emo and haunted Americana convene to reflect the dark, receding dimensions of an even more haunted America on Joe D’Agostino’s second record as Empty Country, An obvious continuation of a drab world not too distant from our own, D’Agostino, a poet’s poet, tells his most depressive tales with his falsetto so pained and true — it isn’t even close.
12. Spanish Love Songs – No Joy: Embracing a brighter sonic shift away from the pop-punk and emo that made them so loved for years, the swooning heartland and stadium-shaking ’80s pop of No Joy marks a graceful evolution for Spanish Love Songs, and no one really expected it from a band usually dwelling in death’s grip. Now, they’re urging us to find solace in the simple act of living.
11. Sampha – Lahai: Lahai is an album of immense musical evolution replete with an emotional intensity that surpasses the intimacy of Process through soul-baring musings upon time, spirituality, familial connection, and profound love of everyone within his proximity. But Sampha leaves listeners most in awe with his versatile musicality and his determination to make every moment a shape-shifting marvel.
10. Mckinley Dixon – Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?: Mckinley Dixon wields words directly from his heart with acrobatic precision on the Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?. Always verbose, self-aware, and possessive of a tongue with more than a trick or two, Dixon solidifies himself as one of our generation’s most impressive, heartfelt, and necessary storytellers.
9. Jeff Rosenstock – HELLMODE: Once again pressing and equally self-reflective, HELLMODE all but confirms the sincerity electrifying the voice of our charming punk hero, Jeff Rosenstock. With little hope to hold onto as he grows older, as any of us grow older, he’s still as angry and prescient as ever.
8. Militarie Gun – Life Under The Gun: The usually rowdy and ballistic Militarie Gun and their debut full-length, Life Under The Gun, is a considerably tamed departure from their traditional hardcore devotion, and yet, miraculously, they prove that few bands remain so confident in their vision than this outfit.
7. Joanna Sternberg – I’ve Got Me: Joanna Sternberg’s I’ve Got Me is an undeniably raw projection from the depths of their heart. Swaddled in its own poetic frankness, their latest renders self-hate and doubt as startling and real as real can be by suspending diaristic folk with playful piano and gentle guitar strums to isolate the pained words that rest within. Nothing feels more authentic than I’ve Got Me in 2023.
6. MSPAINT – Post-American: Post-American charges forward like a runaway freight train, and you’ll feel like one depending on what you’re doing or who you’re around. Is your beloved next to you? Dog? Worst enemy? It doesn’t matter; make sure they stray clear, otherwise they’re dead meat as you yourself are steamrolled by the band’s unceasing momentum of synth-warped hardcore.
5. Youth Lagoon – Heaven Is A Junkyard: Emerging from the grave of creative and physical limitations, Trevor Powers returned home to his Youth Lagoon moniker with a haunting comeback about — well, about home. Set against the melancholy and unconventional paradise of Idaho, Heaven Is A Junkyard is a little miracle of a record that sees Powers at peace, embracing the imperfect beauty of his comforts to unearth a newfound humanity in his own art.
4. Dougie Poole – The Rainbow Wheel of Death: Amidst profound bleakness found in the spinning technicolor Rainbow Wheel of Death, the understated and easy-going alt-country of Dougie Pool frequently surprises with the sudden impulse to smile. His music has always been unassuming, but he toned it down to reveal a more somber and complex cowboy from New York.
3. Home Is Where – the whaler: Only Home Is Where can make 9/11, Dale Earnhardt, and entrails strung along telephone lines coalesce in a single breath — one guttural, deeply-pained, and slightly anxious drawn-out breath. Addressing trauma, transphobia, and societal turmoil with a sneer, the thematic intensity of the whaler makes it one of the most brutal and evocative listening experiences of 2023.
2. Parannoul – After The Magic: I distinctly remember listening to After The Magic on the way home from the downtrodden, earthquake-struck ghost town of Trona, California, earlier this year. During the several-hour drive back, I was discussing the project’s inexplicable beauty and grasp of shoegaze with a friend when, out of nowhere, a Subaru zooms by on the left, donning a customized license plate that read “SHOEGZE.” Fate or pure coincidence, the world had affirmed the special and inexplicable bearing of After The Magic in my life — and this is without even mentioning the incredible music itself!
1. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin: In the wake of a year defined by personal tragedy — losing my brother and then my father just months ago — I’ve been navigating a landscape of suppressed emotions, yearning to cry. As it has for countless others for years now, Sufjan Stevens’ music has become an emotional refuge — a conduit for tears refusing to flow. His intimate understanding of loss has always resonated deeply, and Javelin, his latest masterpiece, weighs heaviest in hearts — in my heart — as a poignant soundtrack to emotional turmoil, proving that if Sufjan can find beauty in tragedy incessantly coinciding with his existence, anyone can.
