For those just tuning in: In 2021 I set out to catch up on newer music. I listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked my favorites. I did the same for 2020, picking my top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And I listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun that I decided to do it again in 2022 and 2023, listening each month and picking out the 22 best albums of 2022 and the 23 best albums of 2023.

There are links to the albums in those posts above, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in Spotify for the 2021 top 21 and the 2022 top 22, and in YouTube Music for 23 Best Albums of 2023. (Eventually I’ll move the 2021 and 2022 lists to YouTube, because artists are asking us to avoid Spotify for very good reasons.)

Okay, so now you know what we’re doing. Well guess what? I’m doing it again! Here’s the previous edition if you missed it:

( January )

A quick word on the “yes” and “maybe” categories I’ve sorted things into, before we get going with February:

Yes– This isn’t a guarantee, but it represents the albums that, upon first listen, I think could definitely be in running for best of the year.

Maybe– These albums have something to recommend them, but also something that gives me pause. I’m putting them in their own category, because I have found “maybes” sometimes linger and eventually become “yeses”.

And now, without further ado, let us get on with my top picks from 75 new releases that I listened to from February!

Allie X, Girl With no Face– The snark of “Off With Her Tits”, delivered with brisk electronic beats that sound both modern and eighties avant garde is a great indication of what’s going on here! The whole thing sounds unbound in time, and it never let me down for a single track. Alexandra Ashley Hughes, known by her stage name Allie X, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and visual artist, and is up to something pretty fascinating here.

Bear1Boss, Super Boss!– This fragmented mix of video game samples, rally horns, and autotuned pop is not only fresh, the album is held together by repeated sonic motiffs. Look, I’m just saying someone’s got to manifest new sounds to get us out of our current musical impasses, and I think this Atlanta 24 year-old could be part of that!

Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Thee Conductor, Ennoia– The combination of earnest yearning Americana, crackling lo fi, and experimental flourish here is winning. I like the Bonnie “Prince” and I like this collaboration even more.

Brittany Howard, What Now– From the bruising and soaring soul opening, to the classic yet somehow off-kilter groove of the second track, on to the more challenging and contemporary electronic beat of the third, every song here delivers sterling sound from the past few decades of soul and R&B, but keeps feeling unexpected. This excellence is no surprise- this is the second solo album from Alabama Shakes co-lead Howard, and her mastery of her craft is evident.

Corb Lund, El Viejo– He was on my honorable mention list a year or two ago for Songs My Friends Wrote, and now with a batch of his own songs (some of which were inspired by the passing of one of those friends), he’s done it again. If you want country that sounds spontaneous, sincere, and not of the current formula, this could be for you!

Declan McKenna, What happened to the beach?– Well this is a welcome kaleidoscope of sound! I went in hearing that he had Hendrix, Bowie, and the Beatles as reference points, and loved rock operas, which was all promising. And indeed, you can hear all of that here, but it undersells how varied and creative it is at bringing many decades of pop strands together. The artist has talked about how the album came from an attempt to free himself from the expectations that came with initial stardom at 15, and diving more fully and confidently into sounds he loved. It shows!

Heems & Lapgan, Lafandar– Left of center neo-psyche hip hop with a heavy South Asian influence via this Queens-born, Punjabi American rapper. It is full of social consciousness and sonic inventiveness and reminds me of the high holy days of Madlib. Which is very welcome!

Laura Jane Grace, Hole in My Head– Solo album from the lead of Against Me! Eleven songs in 25 minutes! Good old fashioned third generation punk sound! With plenty of verve, wit, and music that pushes beyond the obvious with lyrics consciously looking back on the singer’s and the genre’s history. Heck yeah!

Liam Bailey, Zero Grace– A reggae album with both a sun-kissed fuzzy 70s AM radio sound, multiple contemporary touches, and some deeply probing lyrics. This 40-year-old English singer-songwriter from Nottingham noted for his soul, reggae, and blues-influenced vocal style has produced a touching and special album.

Mary Timony, Untame the Tiger– Beautiful guitar lines reminiscent of nineties rock, and going back to 60s and 70s classic rock beyond that. There is a vocal and musical spareness to it that keeps things straight-up and feels real as the singer’s literate lyrics describing the emotional insides of relationships.

Mdou Moctar, Funeral for Justice– This is musically such a breath of fresh air, a stirring mix of sounds invoking classic rock of yesteryear while incorporating African influences. It ends up feeling intensely familiar and yet new at the same time. My only regret is that the language barrier keeps me from the lyrics, which I’m guessing by the album and song titles have some serious punch to them as well.

The Dead South, Chains & Stakes– Well this is a thoroughly delightful batch of short sharp country/bluegrass (North) Americana songs delivered with a rock edge and punk spirit. This Regina, Saskatchewan band has been going since 2012, and the noise is joyful!

The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy– This is really something! It reads like sometimes over the top delivery times classic theatrical soundtrack times earnest exploration of the inner turmoil of love (with a great deal of queer content as well). This London group has been getting a lot of buzz since 2021, and I think it’s well-founded!

The Paranoid Style, The Interrogator– The Paranoid Style is the DC-based rock outfit of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, labor organizer, and sometime journalist Elizabeth Nelson. That sounds like a promising start, and then i read that the album was inspired by ZZ Top’s Eliminator. Nelson explained what drew her: “Billy Gibbons’ incipient fascination with Depeche Mode and Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, and his desire to embroider the sound of those bands onto the Top’s inimitable Texas boogie. To me it sounds like heaven.” That is all a big up-front just to say if anything her description undersells how delightful the arch wit, no-nonsense vocals, and rocky sheen balanced by a way with melody are.

Maybe

• Grandaddy, Blu Wav– The review that got me to listen to this said, “sort of like a weird, very post-modern take on the Flying Burrito Brothers if they owned a bunch of Flaming Lips records.” They aren’t wrong! And it is more haunting than that lets on. Sort of all in one tone sonically which is my one reservation with this indie band from Modesto which has been going since the nineties.
  
  
• Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive– Beautiful indie rock with a strong Americana/alt country flavor. The music, lyrics, and vocals sound natural and unforced on every track, it comes out like a spontaneous classic. The back end had one big sequential slow-down that almost lulled it out, but that is my only complaint.
  
  
• J Mascis, What Do We Do Now– Suitably weary veteran album from Dinosaur Jr. frontman Mascis, backed by a clear and crackling band. It’s full of hazy guitar yearning, and, if all a tone, it’s a welcome tone!
  
  
• Lee “Scratch” Perry, King Perry– I am such a fan of dub in general and Lee “Scratch” Perry in particular that I have a lot of room in my soul for posthumous releases as long as they’re well-founded. This one certainly passes that test, billed as his final studio album, it’s comprised of tracks he worked on until days before his death in 2021. If the sounds aren’t the newest ever, it’s as beautiful (and often, challenging and interesting) set of dub as one could ask for, right down to the final “goodbye” on the last track.
  
  
• Persher, Sleep Well– This is striking me like a pop screamo album. Not in the watered-down pop sense, but in the “fun, song knows how to move along” kind of way. And yet sludgy, dark, sometimes industrial, and appropriately grating. Listening to this is perhaps what stumbling across a young Nirvana might have been like. Persher is a side project of techno producers Blawan and Pariah, otherwise known as the duo Karenn, who have been working together since 2011, and while it might be a little rough listening for some, there’s magic here.
  
  
• Pouty, Forgot About Me– Forgot About Me is Rachel Gagliardi’s debut LP as Pouty, but she has been around power-pop for a while as one half of Slutever and a collaborator of Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner and, in Upset, played with members of Hole and Vivian Girls. As you might predict from all that, I was knocked back to the 90s in a way I quite appreciated and was thereupon done for. It is by design not the newest sound in the world, but boy did I groove on it the whole way through.
  
  
• Revival Season, Golden Age of Self Snitching– This album brings together the spirit of hip hop and rock in a way that feels like a continuation of the inventive and playful eighties experimentation. AMG says: “Atlanta rap duo whose exploratory sound blends dub, indie rock, and post-punk influences.” Yes, I’ll go along with that! And, if it starts to sound a little samey toward the end, it opens new sonic space in-between.
  
  
• Usher, Coming Home– I kind of hate myself for loving this, but the perfect production here suits a master of 21st century pop. It’s all just too damn groovy track by track to dislike, even if I do have qualms about the length.
  

And there you have it, February out before the end of June! Let’s see if we can get March & April before July ends…