Jish’s Best Albums of 2023

10.

In The End It Always Does
The Japanese House

Dirty Hit
Jun 30, 2023
Indie pop

On The Japanese House’s sophomore album, she pivots from indie “singer-songwriter music” to full blown indie pop. With the help of The 1975 drummer, George Daniel, The Japanese House delivers a fun and upbeat indie pop record that’s vibrant and moody—even if it lacks the same level of emotional gravity of her previous work.

Favourite track: Touching Yourself

9.

UNFORGIVEN
LE SSERAFIM

Source
May 1, 2023
K-pop

LE SSERAFIM doesn’t sound like most K-pop groups. UNFORGIVEN, sonically, is a mix between familiar K-pop sounds and successful Western pop attempts. Among the variety of styles, you’ll hear bass-heavy K-pop, disco revival (CC Dua Lipa), reggaeton, and early 2000s pop. Whether LE SSERAFIM is K-pop or simply Korean language pop, their execution of the sounds they take on is bullseye.

Favourite track: FEARLESS

8.

Life Under the Gun
Militarie Gun

Loma Vista
Jun 23, 2023
Hardcore

Is hardcore back, or is hardcore only now in? Is Militarie Gun the second wave, behind Turnstile, of hardcore revival in the mainstream rock consciousness, or have the two bands simply pushed the genre to the forefront? The melodies Militarie Gun strategically layer into Life Under the Gun make the record much smoother to digest for those new to the genre, without compromising the bite the band brandish (say that last part five times fast).

Mid-year review of Life Under the Gun.

Favourite track: Do It Faster

7.

the record
boygenius

Interscope
Mar 31, 2023
Indie rock

Roll out the red carpet; boygenius is here for the mainstage. the record is a fusion of wider appealing versions of its members Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. None are operating at their zenith, but the cohesion is as good as Avengers linkup collaborative projects get. Phoebe Bridgers is less existential, Lucy Dacus is less nostalgic, and Julien Baker is less dreadful. The three perfectly shift around each other from track to track like a well trained cycling team.

Mid-year review of the record.

Favourite track: Not Strong Enough

6.

JAGUAR II
Victoria Monét

Lovett Music/RCA
Aug 25, 2023
R&B

JAGUAR II is as fierce as the title suggests. Victoria Monét prowls over multi-dimensional production on the succinct 11-track record—hardly a miss present. This record is sexy, transitions smoothly from track to track, and oozes with confidence. Monét’s evolution from songwriter to performer has been exciting to watch, and what’s next for her should be on the radar.

Favourite track: Smoke (feat. Lucky Daye)

5.

GUTS
Olivia Rodrigo

Geffen
Sep 8, 2023
Pop

The future of pop is… purple? The lustre of Olivia Rodrigo’s “whoa what’s this” moment has dulled slightly from her universally acclaimed debut sour, but her direction is as focused as ever. Writing exactly what she feels without pulling any punches is Olivia’s M.O. She writes from the heart and sings earnestly. So much so, that it feels like she’s melodically spilling streams of consciousness into songs.

Olivia is much more self-aware on this record which is an angle that wasn’t present on sour, and she sings us through this new layer of fame she’s achieved and how it factors into her ever-present hyper-awareness of her emotions. Olivia Rodrigo is an apex popstar with a hard to rival gift for deeply emotional songwriting.

Favourite track: love is embarrassing

4.

The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We
Mitski

Dead Oceans
Sep 15, 2023
Indie pop

Mitski’s seventh studio album is not any more emotional than her previous works, but the stripped-down nature elevates the natural emotional depth of her songwriting. The core story of this record, however, is its meaning for the Mitsky storyline. It’s fitting that her record that’s enjoyed the most mainstream success comes after she seemingly figured out a way to embrace her status as an indie music icon. “My Love Mine All Mine” became Mitski’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry, and now tracks from her back catalogue have been making the waves on TikTok. Longtime fans of Mitski, however, could find it completely ironic that the (TikTok?) world has discovered their long gatekept secret, considering how conflicted the singer-songwriter has felt about fame and performing.

The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We is a pillar in the entire Mitski arc—a point in her arc that could change the trajectory of her future. It’s not that Mitski needs more fans—she probably rather have fewer—but she may now get the appropriate recognition from circles outside of music critics, and transition from a music critic darling to a widely respected singer-songwriter.

Favourite track: The Frost

3.

Get Up (EP)
NewJeans

ADOR
Jul 21, 2023
K-pop

All aboard the NewJeans train! On their second EP, Get Up, NewJeans continue to push the boundaries of what a K-pop group can sound like. Like their HYBE HQ divisionmates LE SSERAFIM (NewJeans is signed to ADOR and LE SSERAFIM is signed to Source Music; both are labels under the labels division of Hybe HQ), NewJeans explores a variety of subgenres that would sound foreign to Eastern K-pop audiences.

K-pop as a genre in itself has long been heavily influenced by electronic music and hip-hop, but new players like LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans are introducing fresh flavours to the K-pop monument. The most explorative of the bunch is certainly NewJeans. They’re dabbling in Baltimore club (“Ditto”), drum and bass (“Super Shy”), early 2000’s R&B (“Attention”), among others subgenres. They do all this genre traversing with the precise execution that you would expect from any group formed from the K-pop machine. NewJeans is fresh, exciting, and is at the forefront of the current stage of K-pop’s movement westwards.

Favourite track: New Jeans

2.

Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
Lana Del Rey

Interscope
Mar 24, 2023
Pop

One of pop music’s great storytellers has nailed the approach to the next act of her nuanced career. Over her last few projects, Lana Del Rey has slowly shifted away from her classic trip hop and synth sound to production much simpler. We’re talking pianos, acoustic guitars, instrumentation that allows the Lana Del Rey element to push through to the forefront of the music. At times, Lana’s voice is even used as an instrument in lieu of synths. What the previous few projects missed was the blend of old and new, and on Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, she perfects it. Lana foregoes her usual approach of building a world within a record, and instead takes us on a journey through various emotions and feelings. This is the current act of Lana Del Rey, and it’s in contrast to her past, but equally as effective.

Mid-year review of Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.

Favourite track: A&W

1.

Zach Bryan
Zach Bryan

Belting Bronco/Warner
Aug 25, 2023
Country

Zach Bryan is in his male sadness BAG. A lot of Zach’s music has always been poignant, but never has he had a project this collectively melancholic. Zach Bryan is blue, but it’s not “sad boy music”. For the most part, this isn’t breakup music. This record is Zach’s exploration of who he is now in comparison to before—as a man, as a musician, as an Oklahoman. There’s homesickness, there’s regret, there’s identity crisis.

The self-exploration doesn’t stop at the lyrics and themes. Sonically, Zach taps into indie rock, folk, and Americana influences to depart from the slightly more conventional country sounds of his previous work. The whole package comes together as another layer in Zach Bryan’s unintentional, but inevitable push of country music’s boundaries.

Every single lyric comes from the core of the man’s heart. Every single strained vocal comes from the depths of the man’s soul. Zach Bryan put everything he had into this record and you can feel that from the first track to last.

Favourite track: I Remember Everything (feat. Kacey Musgraves)