The best music of 2023: A mix of politically searing artistry and pure pop joy

From 10,000 feet, 2023 was a year of contrasts. As the long shadow of the pandemic lifted and a sense of normality returned, music lovers around the world reshaped their connection to the dance floor and the joyful experience of live music. But that sense of normality was also punctuated by unprecedented environmental and political crises.

My listening habits this year reflected these tumultuous times — I was drawn to music that was political or deeply personal one day, only to find myself craving something fun and mindless the next. What follows is an earnest, if self-indulgent, attempt to capture not necessarily the best albums released this year, but the ones that had the biggest impact on me as a listener. I’ve also pulled together an extended playlist of all my favourite songs from 2023, which you can find here. Enjoy!

13. Danny Brown: Quaranta

In a recent interview promoting his new ambient flute album, André 3000 suggested he was too old to put out a rap album. “Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way,” the 48-year-old legend explained, dismissing the idea that fans would want to hear songs about colonoscopies and bad eyesight. That same week, Danny Brown released “Quaranta,” a surprisingly vulnerable project from the shape-shifting Detroit rapper.

Framed as a sequel to “XXX” — Brown’s 2011 breakout, which introduced the world to his chaotic tastes and hyperactive flow — “Quaranta” marks a significant departure for the 42-year-old, who checked into rehab for substance abuse following the release of “Scaring The Hoes,” a chaotic collaborative album with JPEGMAFIA that was released in March. “This rap sh — done saved my life / And f — ed it up at the same time,” Brown raps over spectral electric guitar lines on the downtempo title track, setting the tone for a 34-minute album that explores new-found sobriety (“Celibate”), the impact of gentrification in Detroit (“Jenn’s Terrific Vacation”) and moving reflections on childhood and family (“Bass Jam”). Some might balk at this more subdued iteration of the typically irreverent Brown — he’s referred to the record as a “trauma dump” — but it’s impossible to not admire the courage to neither burn out nor fade away.

12. Black Belt Eagle Scout: The Land, The Water, The Sky

One of the best indie rock records of 2023 tells the story of an artist’s journey home, and the rediscovery of its spiritual power.

During the pandemic, singer-songwriter Katherine Paul — who performs as Black Belt Eagle Scout — moved home to Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in the Pacific Northwest after spending 13 years in Portland. While there, she began recording “The Land, The Water, The Sky” an album rooted in the natural world, which takes listeners on an immersive tour of her homeland, evoking imagery of distant tree lines, a narrow footpath snaking through a densely forested area, salmon swimming upstream, a multicoloured sky at sunset. But her concerns transcend the physical — through her sparse lyricism and expressive guitar playing, Paul conveys a deep relationship to the land: the way it nurtures and provides healing for her community, and creates a bond between the living and their ancestors.

“The Land, The Water, The Sky” contains all the hallmarks of a great Black Belt Eagle Scout project — whispery verses followed by crashing choruses, guitar shredding and breathtaking music videos. But the album reaches its emotional climax on “Spaces,” an understated song that begins with a simple melody and softly strummed guitar before building steadily into a tapestry of slide guitar, strings and gorgeous backup vocals provided by Paul’s mother and father.

“You can mainly hear my dad, because he has this really strong pow wow voice,” Paul told me last winter, referring to the deep vibrato that dominates the song’s second half. “He sings in that way to help heal people.”

Read the Star’s profile of Black Belt Eagle Scout from February here.

11. Witch Prophet: Gateway Experience

On “Gateway Experience,” Toronto singer Witch Prophet and her producer/wife Sun Sun perfect their blend of jazzy neo-soul and lurching trip hop to create a psychedelic journey that feels a bit like floating through a hazy, dreamlike landscape of shifting colours and sounds. Featuring a stacked roster of Canadian talent — including singer Begonia, rapper DillanPonders and trumpet player Tara Kannangara — Witch Prophet’s third studio album also offers a bold. affecting glimpse into the singer’s experience with focal aware seizures, a condition that causes acute out-of-body experiences or episodes of déjà vu or déjà rêvé, alongside debilitating side effects.

But despite its otherworldly concerns with psychic portension and altered states of consciousness, “Gateway Experience” is, at its core, a love letter. “I remember, the way I was / Falling all over, hypnotized / By your eyes,” Witch Prophet sings over an irresistible bass groove and brittle percussion on “Dreaming,” recounting the first time she met Sun Sun. “My heart skipped a beat / Temperature rising / Saw you, in my dreams.”

Read the Star’s profile of Witch Prophet from April.

10. billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps

There’s a chance that 2023 will be remembered as a year of disappointing hip hop blockbusters, with bloated and forgettable albums from fan favourites like Drake, Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert. Thankfully, the faceless New York MC billy woods and LA producer Kenny Segal proved that the sprawling rap epic was still viable with the release of “Maps,” a wholly original project featuring a roster of underground rappers and gritty, madcap production. But it’s woods who steals the show on “Maps,” which invites listeners to bear witness to the various misadventures of life on the road of a middle-aged rapper over two decades into his career.

“My daily routine narrated by an Attenborough,” he quips on “Soft Landing,” a laid-back track that sees woods serenely sipping daiquiris at 40,000 feet: “For a brief, sweet, moment it was nothing in the thought bubble / From up here the lakes is puddles.” On the hilarious “Blue Smoke,” woods showcases his inventive flow over a frantic jazz sample as he flaunts his cooking skills: “The pork belly was brined, braised, then deep fried / Fresh mint, Thai basil, pickled watermelon rind / Julienned scallions and other alliums, gave the peppermill one grind / Noncommittal when she said she’d cook next time.” Then there’s the show-stopping dystopia of “Year Zero,” on which woods summons a morbid but utterly conceivable occurrence of “two unrelated active shooters / same place, same time” over a murky, industrial beat.

Endlessly weird, humorous and unpredictable, it’s the best hip hop album of the year.

9. Jeremy Dutcher: Motewolonuwok

Earlier this month, singer Jeremy Dutcher performed at Massey Hall for the first time, holding an enraptured, sold-out audience in the palm of his hand as he moved through a set list that included the reimagined songs of his ancestors, original compositions about grief and Indigenous resurgence, and a rousing cover of Feist’s “Graveyard.” It was a moment of triumph — there was nary a dry eye in the theatre — for the Two-Spirit tenor from the Tobique First Nation, whose long-awaited sophomore effort “Motewolonuwok” arrived this fall, five years after his Polaris Prize winning debut. The new LP is both an even bolder experiment in Dutcher’s unique approach to neo-classical music — featuring orchestral arrangements from composer Owen Pallett and contributions from a list esteemed jazz musicians, it moves seamlessly between lush neo-classical and rollicking art-rock; between Wolastoqey and English; between deeply personal and politically searing storytelling.

“Motewolonuwok” pulls from the sounds of renowned song carrier Maggie Paul, the flamboyant musicality of Jeff Buckley and the political sensibility of Nina Simone. Across 11 songs, Dutcher stares down the horrors of violence against Indigenous women and the suicide crisis, while drawing strength from the writings and music of his ancestors and peers. “This may be a personal record, but as a queer, Indigenous young person in this country, my existence has always been political,” he told the Star in an interview this fall. “For me, the record is all about that juxtaposition: hard reality, strong resilience.”

Read the Star’s profile of Jeremy Dutcher from November.

8. Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me

Picture, if you will, a Venn Diagram made up of Elliott Smith, Randy Newman, Bright Eyes and early Joanna Newsom. At its centre you’re likely to find “I’ve Got You,” the scrappy sophomore album from New York singer-songwriter Joanna Sternberg. Clocking in at an efficient 32-minutes, the album is deceptively simple on its surface — most songs feature little more than Sternberg on a piano or acoustic guitar. And yet these songs — packed with punchy hooks, biting humour and diaristic storytelling — contain a timeless quality that is difficult to resist.

“All my faults and flaws and lies / Are no one’s fault but mine / Between self-hatred and self-awareness / Is a very small thin line” Sternberg sings with detached irony on the album’s jaunty title track, cycling through the typically dark inner-thoughts that attend a breakup, before rediscovering their strength in a simple truism. “I’ve got me in the morning / I’ve got me in the evening / I’ll let you be because / I’ve got me.”

7. Romy: Mid Air

Buried deep in the psyche of every Millennial (or perhaps just this Millennial) is a distinct sense of joy and yearning innocence associated specifically with the fusion of indie rock and electronic music that took place between 2007 and 2011. Romy — the artist best known as the singer and guitarist for the beloved indie band The xx — brilliantly taps into the magic of the late aughts on her debut solo project, “Mid Air.” Featuring irresistible production from a trio of in-demand electronic artists — Fred Again …, Jamie xx and Stuart Price — the breezy 11-song effort that moves between dance floor melodrama and triumphant anthems of queer love.

On “Enjoy Your Life,” Romy captures the essence of the Millennial condition while name-checking one of the generation’s most important musical figures: “I’m too afraid to watch the news / Dancing on my own again / Anxiety, my old friend / Since why would you try somethin’ new?” she frets over a driving disco beat and thick bass line. She finds salvation, of course, on the dance floor: “Enjoy your life,” she repeats — a vocal line borrowed from the great new age singer Beverly Glenn-Copeland, as the track blooms into euphoric rapture.

6. Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We

Mitski continues to reinvent herself on her seventh LP, which trades the nostalgic synth-pop of 2022’s “Laurel Hell” for lonely Americana and lovelorn country ballads. And boy, does it work. Recorded in Nashville with a 17-person choir and a full orchestra, the record draws from a broad range of sounds — Mitski notes the influences Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western scores, the music of “Fargo,” avant-garde cellist Arthur Russell, Igor Stravinsky — to create a out-of-time, sepia-toned world for her existential musings.

Fans immediately latched onto “My Love Mine All Mine,” a lush, unhurried country ballad that — somewhat surprisingly — went viral on TikTok, where listeners shared their emotional responses and experiences of love (it became Mitski’s first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 26). But the record also digs into darker territory on songs like “I Don’t Like My Mind,” on which the 33-year-old singer’s details self-destructive thoughts that occupy her psyche, culminating in a painful bout of binge eating — “A whole cake, all for me,” she sings over muted percussion and antique slide guitar. It’s that seamless movement between darkness and light, love and despair, that makes Mitski one of the great indie stars of our generation.

5. Kara Jackson: Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love

On her achingly raw debut, Chicago poet and singer Kara Jackson offers an unfiltered glimpse into the dark swirl of grief, pain and self-discovery that often come in the wake of loss. In 2016, when she was still a teenager, Jackson lost her best friend, Maya, to cancer. “I’ve buried old and young / I’ve watched them lower a saint / We’re only waiting our turn,” she sings on the album’s sprawling title track. “We were going to start a band / Hijack my folks’ minivan / Actualize our silly plans / The lifelines written in our hands,” she recalls fondly on the song’s second half, amid a bright rush of strings and simple percussion.

Musically, the album is both an intoxicating array of simple but unpredictable folk songs — buoyed by Jackson’s deep, textured voice — and wry lyricism. “I wanna be as dangerous as a dancing dragon / Or a steam engine, a loaded gun,” she muses on “no fun/party.” On the hilarious “dickhead blues,” Jackson dismisses those who take her for granted. “I’m not as worthless as I once thought / I am pretty top notch,” she affirms with the aural equivalent of a wink. These moments of levity punctuate the sadness at the core of this album, and reflect an artistic impulse to embrace — rather than be defeated by — the tragic absurdity of the world.

4. Caroline Polachek: Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

No musician put out a grander or more ambitious statement in 2023 than Caroline Polachek, whose fourth solo album became an instant art-pop classic, brimming with kinetic energy. From the spine-tingling vocal run that introduces the album’s opener “Welcome to My Island,” to the transcendent outro of the closing track “Billions,” the project is filled with so many soaring heights and delightful left-turns that each listen can feel like a small miracle. Much of that has to do with Polachek’s riveting voice, which she yields with supreme confidence, but plenty of credit also goes to Danny L Harle, whose wizard-like production fills these 12 tracks with delightfully inventive sounds and textures — see, for example, the thrilling breakbeat the underlies the Grimes and Dido collaboration “Fly To You,” or the crying baby sample that punctuates “Bunny Is a Rider.”

Then there’s “I Believe,” a stunning tribute to Polachek’s friend SOPHIE, the pioneering electronic producer who died in 2021. Built around ’90s-style dance beat and a massive vocal hook, the track channels the anthemic spirit of Janet Jackson’s “Together Again”: “I don’t know, but I believe / We’ll get another day together,” Polachek belts, her voice rising like a helium balloon stretching toward infinity.

3. Hannah Diamond: Perfect Picture

Surely, 2023 will be defined as the year that the world was overcome with enthusiasm for a fantastical take on pink-hued pop-culture that sought to subvert our notions of childhood innocence. I’m not talking about “Barbie,” but Hannah Diamond, the English singer and hyperpop pioneer known for her exaggerated bubble gum sound, and her glossy esthetic.

Released in October as one of the final releases on the storied and experimental PC Music label, Diamond’s “Perfect Picture” is a 40-minute dopamine rush, an all-you-can-eat buffet of glistening synthesizers, immediately gratifying hooks, digitally modulated vocals, and perfectly crafted pop songs. Produced by influential 80s keyboardist David Gamson, there is a formula to these songs, though each is adorned with unique and sugary details, like a meticulously decorated ice cream cake. Heartless skeptics might scoff at the ultra-earnestness of Diamond’s lyrics, which are hyper-focused on themes of digital love and technological alienation, but one can only admire the absolute perfection of the craft. Personally, I’ve had it on repeat more or less non-stop since the fall.

2. 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs

That the long-awaited sophomore album from 100 gecs opens with the famous THX Deep Note is a perfectly on-the-nose symbol of what’s to come: like a blockbuster movie projected onto an IMAX screen, “10,000 gecs” is a thrillingly absurd spectacle; a Mountain Dew-green firehose of mindless fun that blasts your senses into oblivion.

Four years after their trail-blazing debut dragged the nebulous idea of hyperpop into the mainstream, Laura Les and Dylan Brady decided to change gears, replacing glitchy electronic beats with caustic electric guitars and muscular drumming. The result is a dizzying alchemy of arena-sized pop-punk (“Hollywood Baby”), strung out dub (“The Most Wanted Person in the United States”) screwball alt-rock (“Doritos & Fritos”), plus a healthy dose of ska and nu-metal. For the uninitiated, this might feel a bit like speed-scrolling through TikTok on mushrooms, but for those willing to embrace the weird, listening to gecs can feel like a shot of pure, hedonistic adrenalin.

1. Anohni and the Johnsons: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross

In a year marked by environmental chaos, political turmoil and war — a year when artists and writers were silenced or censored for their views — no album felt as urgent as Anohni’s “My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross,” a soulful, galvanizing protest album on which the reclusive singer resumed her role as radical truth-teller.

“It’s time to feel what’s really happening,” Anohni has said in interviews describing the theme of the record, which interrogates what it means to live in an age of extinction. “Feel the trees begin to leave / Smoke swallows each mountain side,” she sings in her sonorous, celestial voice on “Why Am I Alive Now?” “All our memories are sinking / Into un-living,” she mourns, surrounded by an exhilarating string arrangement from composer Rob Moose. On the harrowing “Scapegoat,” Anohni narrates a detailed, violent allegory of the ongoing crackdown on trans and gay rights across North America, which culminates in a wailing guitar solo that lands with the cathartic weight of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

But despite its heaviness, “My Back Was a Bridge,” also contains glimmers of hope (the Marvin Gaye-inspired “It Must Change”) and moments of poignant beauty (the downtempo Lou Reed tribute “Sliver of Ice”).

“Even though the material is heavy, my intention isn’t to burden people,” Anohni told me in an interview last summer. “It’s actually just a relief to just tell the truth.”

Read the Star’s profile of Anohni from July.