Chris Stapleton became a major star, and the kind of country singer that people who dismiss most mainstream country will embrace, that I was never in a rush to fall in love with his music, I figured it would happen eventually if he was really as good as people said he was. And that's really started to happen with these last couple albums, I get it now. I particularly like the way his wife Morgane Stapleton harmonizes with him on a lot of the songs on Higher, especially the opener "What Am I Gonna Do." Here's the 2023 albums Spotify playlist I'm always updating with every new album I've listened to this year. 

A couple months ago I wrote a Baltimore Banner piece about the High Zero Festival, and when one of the festival's organizers offered me a chance to interview Susan Alcorn for the story, I jumped at the opportunity, because I absolutely love what she does with steel guitar in an experimental context. So I got some quotes from Alcorn for that piece, but I interviewed her at length about a variety of topics, for a longer piece about her that will be published next year. And one of the things we talked about was this album, Canto, which she traveled to Chile to make with a group of musicians down there. I was really curious to hear it when she described the album to me, and it's fantastic stuff, check it out on Bandcamp. 

Semisonic are one of those one hit wonders where I still listen their hit every time it comes on the radio, but I liked a lot of their songs and always kinda wished they'd had a bigger mainstream run and stayed together longer. And after Dan Wilson pivoted to a successful writing/producing career, I figured we'd probably never get another Semisonic album (he co-wrote a great song on the Chris Stapleton album!). So I was pleasantly surprised when Semisonic returned with 5 great new songs in 2020, and 12 more this year. They haven't entirely turned the clock back to sound like '90s Semisonic, but Wilson's voice feels like an old familiar friend. 

I'm not a big "play my favorite song on loop" type person, so a lot of times the music I stream the most is either music I'm writing about, or things on my playlist of recent singles that I'm considering for my "monthly singles" report. "Loving You" by Cannons was on that playlist for so much of 2023 that it ended up being the #1 song on my Spotify Wrapped the other day, which is funny, but it's a good song, I really like this band's sound. Heartbeat Highway ends with a cover of Thin Lizzy's "Dancing In The Moonlight," made to sound like a Cannons song, which is kind of funny but totally works. 

2016's Collegrove was held back by a little by contract issues preventing it from Lil Wayne being on every song, but I'm glad they came back for a sequel that's more of a proper duo project. Both these guys are just all-time great punchline rappers and both of them are in good form here. Wayne's writing better than he was in '16, and 2 Chainz has a great ear for beat selection and sequencing to make this a lot more solid than most of Wayne's post-peak projects, the Mannie Fresh tracks "Long Story Short" and "Big Diamonds" are killer. 

I guess it's a coincidence that Welcome 2 Collegrove and Too Good To Be True were released a week apart, but it might as well have been deliberate, and several people worked on both albums (Ross, Fabolous, Vory, Murda Beatz, and Hitmaka).  Both albums would've hit harder in the previous decade, but I think both are still pretty high quality, better late than never. Ross and Meek have a good number of classic songs together, and I don't know if anything on Too Good To Be True quite stands up to those, but there are very few misses, the MMG formula is still solid. 

Dennis Daugher is a very solid debut album that mostly sticks to what I liked about Lola Brooke when "Don't Play With It" first hit. But it does have some of the usual boring stuff that drags down new New York rappers' albums -- nostalgic samples of NY rap classics, French Montana feature, etc. If she had just taken the dozen singles she put out before she was signed and called it an album, it probably wouldn't been better than this, which is a real testament to how worthless labels are these days. This album missed the charts so completely that she didn't even get clowned for debuting low on the charts like City Girls or whoever, people didn't even know it came out. 

PinkPantheress was such a breath of fresh air two years ago, in that weird way that it filtered old drum'n'bass sounds through a younger Soundcloud aesthetic, and it's been cool to see her land a huge international top 5 hit this year. And while Heaven Knows does expand her sound in some cool ways, it does make me wonder how limited she is as a singer and songwriter, especially since Kenya Grace's "Strangers" just got a #1 in the UK with a streamlined version of the PinkPantheress aesthetic. Kelela is featured on one song on Heaven Knows and there's just this very dramatic difference in singing ability that's unflattering. 

Terrace Martin has been on a hell of a run lately, he released my favorite album of October with Alex Isley, released two more collaborative albums with Gallant and Calvin Keys in November, plus a Christmas album at the top of December (not to mention 4 other projects earlier in 2023). The Maryland-born singer Gallant's two major label solo albums kind of existed in this difficult-to-categorize niche somewhere between R&B and alternative and pop. And Terrace Martin kind of leans into that with his productions here, but definitely lets Gallant be a bit more of a soul singer, they sound great together. 

Speaking of prolific runs, E-40 went crazy in the 2010s, releasing 16 solo albums plus a few collaborative projects. He's chilled out a little bit in recent years, releasing just a couple EPs in 2020 and the Mount Westmore album last year. But his first full solo album since 2019 appears to be the first in a series, so I think E-40 fans are about to get another feast of music. Rule 1 isn't anything new but he continues to be incredibly consistent, love his ear for beats.  

"Try That In A Small Town" didn't entirely come out of nowhere, since Aldean and his wife's political views had been well known in country circles. But I was curious if he'd lean into the crypto conservative crap on his new album or if the song would remain kind of an outlier in the catalog, and it's the latter. Funnily, Aldean actually actually co-wrote three songs on this album, the first time he's written anything since 2009, but the whole album is pretty generic songs about relationships and occasional apolitical tough guy posturing. "Knew You'd Come Around" is the only above average song I'd put up there with the handful of Aldean hits I really like. And the attention around the single has really dissipated, because the album missed the top 10, Aldean's lowest charting album in 18 years. 

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