Albums Of 2023 (10)

Weval – Remember

So, here we go – in reverse alphabetical order: the top 10.

I really enjoyed Weval‘s debut album back in 2016 and have kept up with them since. This is another classy effort, marrying fizzy electronic production with inventive song-writing. This is vibrant, colourful music (not unlike the cover!) and there’s plenty to hold the interest – I particularly enjoy the occasional bursts of live percussion augmenting the digital.

Albums of 2023 – Honourable Mentions

Welcome back! As usual, to kick off my round-up of albums of the year, here are the ones that missed out on the top 10. I didn’t feel like 2023 was quite as strong as 2022, albums-wise, but when I came to narrow down the top 10 the long-list was surprisingly long, so here are six that are great but that didn’t quite make the cut.

Beta Librae – Daystar / Doc Sleep – birds (in my mind anyway)

This is probably true of any genre you’d care to pick but I feel like there’s a really healthy scene bubbling along in the electronica world at the moment, with these two albums being good examples of what’s on offer (see also last year’s top 10 entry from Salamanda).

Hammock – Love In The Void

You can read more about what I think of Hammock here but this was a welcome return to what I love about them after a run of three albums more focussed on strings and choirs than guitars and drums.

John Carroll Kirby – Blowout

A bit different to my usual fare but I really enjoyed this jaunty instrumental jazz-funk. Pour yourself a cocktail and drift away…

Nathan Micay – To The God Named Dream

I enjoyed Nathan Micay‘s debut album, Blue Spring, in 2019 and this is an excellent, if not better, follow-up. I can hear a strong seam of 90s dance music in his production and I, for one, am all for it.

Yussef Dayes – Black Classical Music

Drummer Yussef Dayes makes an excellent case here for jazz to be regarded as black classical music. I’m instinctively a fan of long, ambitious albums and, at 19 tracks and 74 minutes, this is very much one of those. The kind of album that you can really get your teeth into.