Favorite Music of 2023

One might think that a new year calls for looking forward and not backwards…but I didn’t get a chance to report my favorite albums of 2023.

It was a good year for new music, but the year 2023 was dominated by an album from 2021 that I only discovered in December 2022. But I’ll hold off on that reveal until the end.

New Discoveries of Old Music

My twenty-two year old son is interested in legacy artists, that is older artists who continued to make music in the 2000s. When he makes a new discovery, he’ll pass it on to me. As a result, 2023 was the first time I listened to America’s Human Nature (1998) and Hall and Oates’s Do It For Love (2003). I stumbled onto the reissue of Ivy’s The Apartment Life (1997), a delicious slice of late 90s pop. That album led me to my wife’s CD collection and to the Everything But the Girl album, Amplified Heart (1994). Another selection from my wife’s collection was the 2022 album Dripfield by the band Goose. We spun that one quite a bit as well as I Don’t Live Here Anymore (2021) by The War on Drugs. 

Another one my wife and I listened to a lot while playing daily games of backgammon and Yahtzee was Sam Fender’s Seventeen Going Under (2021) and it’s fantastic title track. Yes, there are definitely echoes of Springsteen, The Killers, and other music this guy listened to and filtered into his own sound, but this record is wonderful. 

New Music of 2023

In terms of new albums released in 2023, there were so many good ones. Extreme released Six, their sixth album and first since 2008. Lead single “Rise” is an in-your-face rocker with an outstanding guitar solo by Nuno Bettencourt. This guy has got to be one of the more invention and proficient guitarists out there. But then they come back with the acoustic pop of “Beautiful Girls” and you wonder just how big a single that would have been back in, say, 1993.

Foo Fighters returned with Rescued, their first album since the untimely death of longtime drummer, Taylor Hawkins. Founder Dave Grohl leads the band in ten songs that don’t flinch from the pain of losing one of their band members but also contains the vibrant and cathartic thrill that only music can deliver. 

Matchbox Twenty also released a new album, Where the Light Goes, after an eleven-year hiatus. Band leader Rob Thomas just knows how to write clever, singable songs and this album has more than a few fist-pumping tunes that would have topped the charts in the early 2000s. See “Friends.”

Another pop master is Ben Folds who released What Matters Most after fifteen years. He’s rather hard to characterize, but his unique blend of pop, singer/songwriter, and quirkiness is always a breath of fresh air. Do yourself a favor and check out the video to his single, “Exhausting Lover.” Not only is the song fun, but you’ll wonder which came first: the idea for the song or the idea for the video.

Speaking of singles, Texas musician Reagan Browne underwent a musical transformation in 2023. He first landed on my radar back in 2016 with his melodic rock album Rhapsodic Roar. By 2023, he followed his muse and began releasing new music inspired by his time in Nashville and his roots in Texas. “This Heart’s For Dreamers” was the first of a handful of new tunes he released last year that will culminate in a new album in 2024. 

Michael Bolton released one of my favorite songs from 2023. “Spark of Light” is that type of pop song that compels you to smile and tap your foot. The lyrics convey the positive message and I spun this tune often. The rest of the album was good as well—including the brassy “One Life”—which counts as the first time I’ve ever listened to a Bolton CD. 

Two veteran musical acts put out new music in 2023. For every full moon in 2023, Peter Gabriel released a song from his new record, I/O. Because of course he would do something like this. It’s his first new material since 2002 and the entire collection of twelve songs is quite good. Not surprising, but the last few things he released were all slow and somber and a bit sleepy. There are a few tunes like this on the new record, but it’s good to hear Gabriel do some uptempo songs.

For me, the Rolling Stones are a greatest hits band. I like their hits but little else. Until the new album, Hackneyed Diamonds. They break little new ground with this collection, but I was shocked to discover I really enjoyed the record. Producer Andrew Watt is no stranger to working the boards for veteran acts and he did a great job at bringing out what makes the Stones, well, the Stones.

My Favorite Album Released in 2023

My favorite new band of the past eight years is The Struts. These guys remind us that rock and roll can just be fun and that’s the kind of music they make. Yes, they wear their influences on their sleeves, but I’m completely fine with that. In November, they released my favorite new album of 2023: Pretty Vicious. It’s their fourth overall, and every album is worth your time. This new collection of eleven songs shows the foursome from Britain honing their songwriting skills into playful songs (“Too Good at Raising Hell”), heartfelt odes to perseverance (“I Won’t Run”), and melancholy meditations (“Somebody Someday” a cover of Ian Hunter’s “Irene Wilde”). 

The Struts also put on my favorite concert of the year, a mere two weeks after the album’s release. The House of Blues here in Houston was rocking with a good percentage of the audience older folks like myself. It’s a remarkable thing for a young band to have such a wide swath of the listening public enjoy their music.

My Favorite Album of 2023 

In any other year, The Struts would top my list, but there was one album that dominated the year, and its genesis was in the Christmas season of 2022.

At work, I listen to YouTube and two Christmases ago, I wanted to listen to one of the Christmas albums released by Dave Koz. I went to his YouTube page and got immediately sidetracked by an album I’d never heard of. “The Golden Hour” is a 2021 album by Koz and a guy I’d never heard of: Cory Wong. The album cover entranced me so I opted to see how the music sounded before I listened to that Christmas album.

I never listened to that Christmas album that day because I listened to The Golden Hour about four times.

Holy cow is this album good. And I got introduced to guitarist Cory Wong and his incredibly tight band of about ten guys. The Golden Hour is Koz writing songs and playing with Wong’s band. Every cut is superb, including the one vocal piece, and an updated version of Koz’s hit “Together Again.” I bought the album the day I discovered it. Nearly all of the videos from this album on YouTube are of the band in the studio so you can see them play this incredible music.

I literally listened to The Golden Hour every week in 2023, often more than once. I listened so many times that I can now sing along with Koz’s sax on many of the tracks. I play sax so I would share songs with fellow sax players in my various ensembles, especially the effects-heavy bari sax solo in “Getaway Car.” This album also compelled me to find the music for the songs on which Koz plays alto sax and play along. That hasn’t happened in…forever.

Naturally, this album also led me to seeking out Wong’s own music. I bought four albums including his 2023 release “The Lucky One.” Additionally, I listened to a lot of YouTube videos where Wong talks about his guitar technique and tried to incorporate his style into my own guitar playing. Not very successful, mine you, but I had a blast doing it.

So there you go: my favorite music of 2023. It was a good year, filled with unexpected discoveries and new music from legacy artists. I can only hope 2024 brings an equal number of new music, and I hope to discover more new artists. 

What were some of your favorite music from 2023?