This past year, torn-up-yet-resilient women found more critical success than they have since the 1970s. According to Album of the Year—which tracks and aggregates online album ratings and the end-of-year lists—the boygenius, Caroline Polacheck, Lana Del Rey, Olivia Rodrigo, and Mitski albums were the internet’s favorites of the year. Sufjan Stevens’s Javelin is wedged in there too, and for good (devastating) reason.
The ladies killed it this year, and everyone should go listen to all of their albums. I have this working hypothesis about the demand for emotionally torn-up white girl music, namely that all the 15-year-old female Taylor Swift fans have now turned 18, went to college, joined their university radio stations because they love music, and have discovered slightly more complex music, and that’s why there’s so much demand. On the supply side, it just seems like, especially with Caroline, Lana, and Mitski, they are totally at the peak of their maturity as producers and songwriters. Total mastery. I digress.
Three Artists, Ten Songs
I wanted to highlight three artists that I fell for and who I don’t want to be lost in the barrage of quality in 2023. HERE is a playlist of ten songs from the artists below. They’re three very different kinds of music—country, reggaeton, and punk. Their work isn’t really the critically acclaimed stuff. It’s all a bit under the radar. It’s the stuff that I really wasn’t expecting to fall for—the stuff that came out of nowhere and pulled me under like a sonically omnivorous maelstrom. They’re all boys; sorry, I’m a boy too!
I don’t remember where, but sometime this year I heard someone describe Stephen Wilson Jr.’s album søn of dad as “Death Cab for Country,” and I think that’s right on. This is a really recent find for me, but it has taken me under its spell big time. Every track feels unique and right on the cutting edge of the alternative country whirlwind that’s ripping through our heartland and cities.
Tainy has been behind the scenes for almost two decades as one of Puerto Rico’s top reggaeton writers and producers. He’s been behind acts like Nely, Daddy Yankee, Wisin & Yandel, J Balvin, and Bad Bunny, and despite this, he hasn’t really released much of his own music. Data is phenomenal. It’s a massive swirl of textures—in every song, it feels like you can touch the sound.
On his Spotify bio, punk Jeff Rosenstock says that he:
“makes increasingly chaotic albums for an incraesingly chaotic worl. With each passing year, it feels like the temp of the universe boils 5 degrees hotter…a planet on fire, a mere 90 seconds to midnight on the doomsday clock, and the release of Rosenstock’s appropriately titled, anarchic record, HELLMODE.”
HELLMODE is a rare punk masterpiece. It has accessible songs that would be on a Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack, and others that push the anarchic vibes further. While staying true to all things punk, Rosenstock has managed to grab me and bring me into something that feels timeless and fun. This album feels like a cure for the sonic stagnancy of acts like boygenius. Like almost all of my favorite albums, this one is somehow sweet, sensuous, empowering, and punk.