The year 2023 brought lots of interesting events. While there was a lot of happiness and good times, there was also a lot of conflict and confusion going on in the world. If there is anything that I’ve learned in my sixteen years of life, it is that music can heal anything. Looking back on last year, there were TONS of amazing albums released to help combat the messiness around us. In this article, I’m going to point out some of the most notable album releases of 2023, and even give a bit of my opinion on some of them.
To start out, the pop genre had a big year. As many know, the “music industry” herself, Taylor Swift, has had what might be considered her biggest year yet. While she didn’t exactly release any new album material due to the fact that she was touring non-stop, she released two re-recordings of her albums Speak Now and 1989, complete with a few new songs from the vault. Newcomer Olivia Rodrigo released her sophomore album Guts, which takes a bit of a different direction musically than her debut album Sour. The Jonas Brothers came back strong as well with The Album, which did pretty well on the Billboard charts in 2023.
Lana Del Rey released her ninth studio album Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd in March of 2023. In my opinion, this album was the greatest album to come out of 2023. It features many songs that I can already predict are going to become modern classics like the song “Let The Light In.” Lana Del Rey is one of those artists who is incapable of making bad music, no matter how many albums she has released. Another favorite in the indie genre, Mac Demarco, released a new album earlier in the year that was strictly instrumental. Not many artists have the musical ability to pull off an enjoyable instrumental album, but Mac Demarco rightfully proved that he could with this album. He also took all of his old demos throughout the years of his career and compiled them into a 199 track album titled One Wayne G, released in April of 2023.
The most notable music moment of 2023 for me was the indie music supergroup Boygenius comeback. The group Boygenius, which consists of solo artists Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker, made a groundbreaking EP (a recording that contains more than one song, but less than an album) in 2018 and had not released anything after that. Fans were unsure that the group would even release anything ever again due to the fact that the three of them were more focused on their solo music careers. In 2023, the Boygenius drought ended, and they released their first full album titled The Record. When asked what her favorite album this year was, the first thing Addison Wikoff, a student at Dover High School, had to say was The Record. She explained that there was nothing else quite like it, which I definitely agreed with.
Many popular country music artists had big releases this year as well. My favorite of those would have to be Zach Bryan’s self-titled album. It is an album full of emotion, and I have always thought that he was a very vivid songwriter and his latest release is no exception. Also, Luke Combs released his sixth album Gettin’ Old in March, and it proved to be a pretty successful album. Last but not least is Chris Stapleton’s substantial album Higher, which earned much approval from fans.
The rap genre also thrived in 2023 with so many iconic artists releasing albums, and some newcomers starting out their careers. Drake released his eighth studio album For All The Dogs this past October. The album features quite a few of today’s more popular artists such as SZA, 21 Savage, J. Cole, and Bad Bunny. The “queen of rap” herself, Nicki Minaj, came through with the much anticipated Pink Friday 2, a sequel to her 2010 album Pink Friday thirteen years later. Newer rap artist Ice Spice really captured people’s attention this past year with the release of her first EP titled Like..?. She has also collaborated with Nicki Minaj on the song “Barbie World” featured in the blockbuster Barbie and also collaborated with Taylor Swift on her song “Karma” and made an appearance at the Eras Tour because of this. We also saw album releases from Travis Scott and Doja Cat this year as well.
We were so blessed this year with so many releases from very talented artists. One month into 2024, I am hopeful that the music to come this year is just as good as the last.
