Another year is finishing up and @RockBodElec wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE presents 2023's Favorite Albums Part 3: Top Five.
In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album, either on this site or elsewhere, we will link to that review and just give a quick summation; click on the name/title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.
Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but long playing releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle, Spotify, or singles for us.
The number ten just works for this, so here is the second part of our top ten, numbers five through one. You can see the back end of our top ten and the honorable mentions albums that just missed our top ten as well.
Like all of our lists or 'best of', these are meant to start conversations, not end them...
RtBE are big Hold Steady fans, but their last studio effort, Open Door Policy, was our least favorite of their career (maybe tied with Teeth Dreams) and we did not have high hopes for the new album. Well, it is nice to be pleasantly surprised as The Price of Progress is their most assured, and evolved release in years.
Speaking of surprises, this opening sentence from our review covers it pretty well: The self-titled debut from Blondshell is an unfiltered look at a modern life littered with late-night self-reflection, bleakly humorous malaise, and poor romantic choices. Heavy doses of ’90s-tinged alternative rock mix with pop affections to create one of the more impressive debut albums in some time.
The fact that this album isn't nominated for a GRAMMY in the Contemporary Blues category just proves what a joke that award show is...
What Buffalo Nicholas does with "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond", sampling the original, inserting beats, making it his own is worth the award itself, but Nichols consistently reimagines the blues throughout The Fatalist. To these ears, it was the most impressive album of 2023.
While Buffalo Nichols’ debut was a warm and welcoming affair, this follow-up is a complete 180. This record is also a huge stride artistically forward for Nichols, as he tries something very out of the box and it works completely well. This isn't strictly a blues album as it brings in different genres and reshapes sounds in unique ways.
The Fatalist gains in stature with each spin and when each dark night falls, as Nichols displays his affinity for electro beats and goth-like sounds that color his dramatic wordplay and deep reverence for a genre he loves and reshapes into the future.
RtBE Top Ten Favorite Albums of 2023:
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment on your favorite albums in the comments and as always thanks for reading.
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