The Charlotte Awards
2023's music, ranked and evaluated in the most prestigious of arenas
It has been a long year. This past summer in particular has included a lot of forest fire, office sitting, and most of all idle time in which I listened to copious amounts of music. Some of it came on shuffle on Spotify and snuck up on me until I realized I loved it, some of it was recommended by my trusted music advisors (friends), and some of it was revealed in visions (tiktok).
I’m not sure whether this will continue into a series of music reviews, but I’m not holding myself to anything. For now, these are my top albums from 2023, not at all definitive and without making an effort to be exhaustive in my listening. If you think I’ve snubbed someone, I probably just didn’t listen to it. Or maybe I did, and it deserved to be snubbed. I just happen to listen to music in a much deeper and more nuanced way than everyone else, and therefore my thoughts and opinions on said music should matter more than your own.
without much further ado about nothing:
6. METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (SOUNDTRACK FROM AND INSPIRED BY THE MOTION PICTURE)
Metro Boomin
Sorry about the very loud title. I was going to have an even five albums on this list, but I simply couldn’t leave this one out. It had its moment when the film came out, and then seemed to fade into the background, and I can’t have that, can I? If you watched the movie and thought, wow that’s a good song, and then never acted on it, this is your sign to listen through the album in its entirety.
Most popular song: Calling. The synthesized guitar, the sci-fi base, the “meTRO!” at the beginning. It’s the song you’d want playing during a kickboxing session in the middle of a training montage.
Most underrated song: Nas Morales. Nobody looks up no more!! Sing it, Nas!! No song will make you feel downright cool like this one. The album closer, it shifts tones a few times and leaves you feeling like you can take on the spiderverse.
If you like this, you’ll like: THE MOUSE AND THE MASK by Dangerdoom, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar
5. Come Around and Love Me
Jalen Ngonda
Picture this: you’re wandering into record shops in Kensington Market in late September, 2023, and a fellow shopper asks to try playing a record. Sure, the owner says. That one came out just last week, they’re saying he’s the new Marvin Gaye. The record is played. Your mind is blown. If I were a big time record company owner in a Disney movie, that would have been the moment where I’d snap my fingers at my grubby assistant and say “get that kid in my studio NOW!”
But I’m not. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s a good record, and get in on this stellar debut before those suit-wearing executives can. As the aforementioned shop owner said, his voice is comparable to Marvin Gaye or Otis Redding, and every track hits exactly what it needs to to make this a classic funk/soul album.
Most popular song: If You Don’t Want My Love. Yeah this is it folks. Your feet will be tapping, your head will be bobbing.
Most underrated song: So Glad I Found You. Slowing it down, this is the song you want to hear on the dance floor when they call for a slow dance. If anything can make that middle school moment less awkward, it’s this song. You’ll be too distracted by the sick chorus to notice any sweaty hands or stepped-on toes.
If you like this, you’ll like: Thee Sacred Souls self-titled, What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye
4. Bewitched
Laufey
Consider me bewitched!!! As a professed Laufey enjoyer, I was very excited about this album, and it did not disappoint. It found itself on repeat during many a long shift at work in the archives, and didn’t tire itself out in the slightest. It builds on the same jazz/bedroom pop songs from her debut album Everything I Know About Love, with a more confident voice and more of the classics she’s been known to cover. I won’t say she’s bringing back jazz or that she’s the youth’s face of the jazz genre, because other young singers are doing that too, but she’s definitely doing her part. With inspirations from both classical music and singers like Ella Fitzgerald, there’s lots to dive into in these seemingly simple love songs.
Most popular song: From the Start. An upbeat bossa nova, it was the perfect song to release as a single, and captures her playful approach to every kind of love song.
Most underrated song: Misty. Laufey’s voice is one of the reasons for her grip on the jazz/bedroom pop world, and this classic cover puts her vocal ability on full display. Unlike much of the album, it’s pure jazz, and it fits perfectly in her repertoire.
If you like this, you’ll like: Linger Awhile by Samara Joy, Aretha Now by Aretha Franklin
3. Jenny from Thebes
The Mountain Goats
Fun fact about The Mountain Goats: it started as just one guy, melodically yelling weird lyrics into a tape recorder in his attic. The name comes from the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins song “Yellow Coat”, which in itself is just some guy yelling lyrics as well, and describes “twenty mountain goats/all gathered ‘round at sundown to see my yellow coat”. Well, those twenty goats put on a trench coat, bought a mic, and made a band. It’s true, I was the twenty-first goat.
Since that one guy John Darnielle started releasing cassette tape records in 1991, the vibe hasn’t changed much. The music is alternativey, rockish, and involves a lot of strangely specific narratives. Most notably, earlier album All Hail West Texas shares jumbled snippets from a story about a house for misfits in West Texas, and the people that passed through it. It’s got a guy named William Staniforth Donahue, Kawasaki motorbikes, and lots of guitar riffs.
Jenny from Thebes is presented as a sort of sequel to this album, and while it’s got the chaotic specificity of earlier albums that make the Mountain Goats what they are, the band’s first studio album recording is mixed and mastered on a whole new level. String arrangements, saxophone solos, and the lack of cassette tape garbling make it pieces of a puzzle you can’t help but try to listen closely and solve.
Most popular song: Clean Slate. The opening track has light and breezy piano and violin, and reads like the opening song in a musical. Darnielle’s signature vocals - who could misplace his sort-of-speaking-but-still-in-tune voice - are carried above the instrumentation.
Most underrated song: Jenny III. The solo string arrangement in the last minute of this song is what got me. If you don’t like string arrangements, well…. anyways. The lyrics summarize the larger-than-life character of Jenny the album’s about, cryptic and bittersweet with those same strings weaving throughout.
If you like this, you’ll like: Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road, Funeral by Arcade Fire
2. Stick Season (We’ll All be Here Forever)
Noah Kahan
Forgive me. I have jumped, leaped, heaped myself onto the Noah Kahan bandwagon. I didn’t discover this album until later in the year, until after I had returned from my brief exile (work trip) to Red Lake, Ontario, capital of flannel-wearing bearded men. This album will hit the sensitive spot for anyone from a small town, and as someone from “the north” and having recently started a year off from school with no real plan for the future, it really worked its magic. This album’s voice is beautifully clear: post-pandemic, just a little too old to be in your coming-of-age phase. It conveys the grief, confusion and compassion that come with being left behind.
But what about the music? Kahan’s strength is in his imagery, often opening with a line that packs enough punch to power you through the song (see: “Come Over”). He’s always had the rocking, energetic guitar that makes you want to hop up and dance, and the folksy, gravelly voice that conveys all the nuance that can be conveyed in a voice crack, and in this album they’re all at their peak.
Most popular song: Stick Season. The Olivia Rodrigo cover doesn’t hurt this song’s popularity, but the short, ironic lyrics that cut off halfway through the line are addictive, relatable, and infinitely sing-along-able. It’s foot-tapping and fun, despite its encroachment on overplayed territory.
Most underrated song: Homesick. This one has been on repeat, I confess. A universal small town described, a sick beat drop, and even sicker guitar solo, and three minutes of absolute banger.
If you like this you’ll like: Zach Bryan self-titled, five seconds flat by Lizzy McAlpine
1. The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We
Mitski
In many years of listening to alternative music, I’ve never heard music that sounds like Mitski. It’s haunting and earnest and very mentally ill. This album is the same, but with a folksy lean, and feels like jumping into icy water with the first shock of “FAAAMILY” in the opening track.
Most popular song: My Love Mine All Mine. folks, there’s a reason this one is the most popular, and even made Obama’s end-of-year pulled-straight-from-TikTok list. It feels like gasping for air - the low ‘my love’ hits you right in the chest, desperate and earnest. It sounds like a warm Ikea lamp lighting up a room in the evening, and reminds me of a quote from superb short story collection How To Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa, which really sums up the theme of the album:
The only love Red knew was that simple, uncomplicated, lonely love one feels for oneself in the quiet moments of the day. It was there, steady and solid in the laughter and talk of the television and with her in the grocery aisles on the weekends. It was there every night, in the dark, spectacular and sprawling in the quiet. And it all belonged to her.
Most underrated song: The Deal. it’s about the lyrics, you guys. it’s about the Wordsworth-like storytelling and folk tale quality to it. it’s about the steady and leisurely chugging of the guitar layered with the birdlike violins and the frantic drums increasing in volume that mimic the flapping of wings. it’s about the “you won’t hear me singing/ you’re a cage without me” !!! iykyk !!!
Overall, it’s got orchestration, it’s got lyrics, it’s got Mitksi’s lovely voice, it’s got a country twang in some spots! What more could a Mitski enjoyer ask for, I say. It’s the album I haven’t been able to stop thinking about - the lyrics, the string arrangements, the vocals, the hyper-realistic dog barking (do NOT listen to this album while out on a walk, I repeat do NOT) - and for that reason it takes the top spot.
This list was not easy to make, and there are many underrated albums that didn’t quite make the cut but are well worth listening to:
Chris Black Changed My Life by Portugal, the Man
Salt by Half Moon Run
Born Again by Danger Mouse & Jemini the Gifted One
Live at Bush Hall by Black Country, New Road
Revealer by Madison Cunningham
Zach Bryan self-titled album
Enjoy! Or don’t! May we all find new music and people to share it with in 2024.
Cheers,
Charlotte