Best Overlooked Albums of 2023
Greetings – it is currently 11:17am on December 29th, 2023, as I begin writing this article. Commissioner Daniel has issued me a strict deadline of being “done in time to give my full attention to the VRBO Citrus Bowl”, in which my beloved Hawkeyes take the field one last time this season. What he doesn’t know is that I’d rather chew glass than watch that dreadful offense again (Joke’s on me though- I’m a football masochist and will not miss a second of the three-and-a-half hour puntfest. G’Hawks.) Did you know that Caitlin Clark is averaging more than twice as many points this year as the Iowa football team did during B1G play? Wild stuff.
But you’re not here for a Citrus Bowl preview! Besides, it's easy: Haaks 13-10, under hits comfortably. You’re here, surprisingly, for my five favorite albums of the year! Maybe we all have a little masochism in us? Anyway, as a reminder, I’m not ranking the five objectively best albums I’ve heard this year; I’m simply highlighting some projects that I’ve loved personally. Let’s get it!
Honorable Mentions:
High School Football, Brevin Kim
Good Thing We Stayed, Julia Wolf
L O W B L O W, indie tribe
4TH WALL, Ruel
could the grass be greener // remy
This list kicks off with could the grass be greener, a project by a guy that’s sneaking into just about every playlist I put together these days. The New York-based artist known as remy grew up on emo pop stalwarts such as Fall Out Boy and Motion City Soundtrack before getting into the music industry producing for the likes of Alexander 23 and The Chainsmokers. This diverse background allowed remy to create a musical flavor that is emo indie hip-hop personified, mixing East Coast hip hop production with lo-fi instrumentals and smooth emo vocals. What I think makes could the grass be greener so successful, though, is the juxtaposition of the content and delivery of the lyrics. While the words being crooned are, for the most part, your typical sad-boi lyrics, the presentation is just so dang catchy! I’ve found myself bopping along to just about every song on the record, whether it's a “sad song” or not. For example, there’s a song literally called “ur the devil and i’ve seen the truth”, and I’m just humming along smiling to myself in the grocery store on a Saturday morning. Weird but fun stuff.
Standouts: "different things", "i broke my neck when i fell for you", "closer to thirty", "checked out"
MUST LISTEN: "don’t mess a good thing up"
Wisconsin // Carlie Hanson
Singer-songwriter Carlie Hanson tried on Pop Rock with her sophomore album Wisconsin and hoooo boy does it suit her well. She’s been a rising star in the indie world ever since her 2018 single Only One, but has been trying to find her distinctive musical identity in the years since. I truly think she’s found it with this album; her lyricism has always been sharp, but packaging it in almost blunt production (and I mean that in the best way possible) delivers her writing in a completely unique way. Hanson’s haunting, fluttering vocals are paired with refined auto-tune, booming 808s, and electric guitar backings in a powerfully unique way. “Window” is a goosebump-inducing love song that leaves you aching for another verse/chorus; “608” would be at home in either Interstellar or Stranger Things.
Standouts: "Window", "Hopelessness", "Illusion", "Wisconsin"
MUST LISTEN: "608"
I'M OK NO I'M NOT (Deluxe Edition) // Abby Holliday
I’m not even sure how I stumbled upon Abby Holliday, to be honest. I was probably listening to Spotify's radio for Lizzy McAlpine (an entrant in #BOA2k22), who is the type of artist Holliday would seem to, at first listen, naturally fit in with sonically. And while she definitely has that classic Gen-Z-singer-songwriter-indie vibe, her production really takes I’M OK NO I’M NOT over the top. I affectionately dubbed the style of music she’s bringing to the table Bedroom Pop – AKA Bop (yes, I know that’s a thing already, I’m co-opting it). A Bop, in my eyes, is an indie pop song that feels bigger than just guitar/vocals; it uses production to sonically fill out the atmosphere of the song but could realistically be made in Pro Tools in someone’s bedroom, ya know? Anyway: Abby Holliday does this really really well. She could be a successful artist with just a guitar & drum set, but the music on I’M OK NO I’M NOT separates her from that somewhat crowded genre. Just listen to album-ending duo “Ohio Laundry Room” and “i’m ok” – an absolutely SMASHING end to a tight 7-track project. What would have been a solid release becomes a “ummmmmm WHAT I am I listening to????!!!?” It’s so good.
Standouts: "Ohio Laundry Room" (and also the stripped Sister Version), "Predictable Life", "IDK WHAT I WANT"
MUST LISTEN: "i’m ok"
EREMOS // Jon Keith
Where do I start with EREMOS? I think it has to start with the production. Charlie Powers, Enzo Gran, Carvello, and Jon Keith himself absolutely crushed the production of this album. EREMOS pulsates with energetic basslines, screaming electric guitars, deeeeep 808s, and addictive melodies. You can tell Keith was influenced by Young Thug and others in the hip-hop industry who are combining hip-hop, trap, and rock into a new, flourishing subgenre. On EREMOS, Keith pushes that inspiration even further, sometimes making the switch from trap to metal within a beat or two (the best example of this is in the back half of “UNINVITED”).
Move past the production, though, and you’ll find Keith provides a vulnerability on EREMOS that’s also hard to find in hip-hop. Seriously: the first line of the entire album is “Where is God when I feel like taking my life?”. Keith doesn’t shy away from talking about his depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies, both in his past and present. I’m not qualified to dissect the minutiae of his mental health, but I just find his candor to be an incredible breath of fresh air in the Christian music industry, where often the blanket answer to problems is “Jesus” with zero thought of how it’s applicable or even harmful. Jon does talk about the relationship between his faith and his mental health, but he never draws that black & white line between the two. In maybe the most powerful song on the album, “THE BRIDGE”, he raps “I know God is walkin' with me / But depression ain't disappearing 'cause He is not Houdini … We fightin' lions, walkin' on ropes, we live at the circus / But Jesus chose to die so I wouldn't, I'm here on purpose”. The album ends with an answer to the question posed at the beginning of the first song: simply, that “He’s here”. Whether you’re a fan of Christian hip hop or not, I needneedneed you to listen to some of these tracks. Keith is on the edge of something completely new here.
Standouts: "DIE", "REMEDY/TRYING", "DRAMATIC", "THE BRIDGE"
MUST LISTENS: "WHO’S LAUGHING" AND "UNINVITED"
Sunburn // Dominic Fike
If you haven’t noticed yet, I love when artists blend genres into something new. Dominic Fike does this the best of any of the artists on this list, and Sunburn is a beautiful culmination of his music journey. I have a Spotify playlist called #AltEmoPopRocks (shameless plug), and Fike is a perfect representative for it – he seamlessly blends alternative, emo, hip-hop, rock, and even Americana into his latest album Sunburn. The former BROCKHAMPTON collaborator uses an absolutely grooving acoustic guitar (perhaps Fike’s most distinctive calling card) like a unifying cord across the 15 track project. Often showing up next to those strings is a jumping bassline, crisp production, and his always-inventive lyricism. A microcosm of those things can be found in the second verse of “Think Fast”, where Fike raps: “Shе said, ‘Two is a odd number if you is involved’ / I laugh, Louis C.K. scumbag, Louis Vuitton / I think life is a gamе, I'm just playing along / I had something to say then forgot what it was” – I mean, how can you not join in on the fun??
In a deeper cut from the album, the made-for-summer smash “Bodies” is such a catchy tune that if you’re not barking “IT’S OKAY, BABY, WE CAN START FRESH TODAY, AYE” the rest of the year there’s something wrong with you.
Sunburn is a success, in that you could listen to it 15 times and find something different to love about it each time. It’s a legacy album from a genius artist that I know will be in my rotation for years to come.
Standouts: "Dancing In The Courthouse", "7 Hours", "Frisky", "Dark"
MUST LISTENS: "Think Fast" AND "Bodies"
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