We Let the Liquor Talk: The Top Albums and Songs of 2023

Instigating a cappella singalongs of Morgan Wallen’s hit “Last Night” at parties, backyard barbecues and amid crowds of strangers in public spaces was my favorite prank of 2023. It’s the song by which I’ll remember the year. Determining my favorite album wasn’t as easy. A dozen releases listed below spent time at the top of my albums list during 2023. Wallen’s One Thing at a Time might have been a contender, but I elect not to duplicate artists in these tabulations.

The Top Fifty Albums of 2023

1. Karol G- Mañana Será Bonito

2. Sebastian Rochford- A Short Diary

3. Bad Bunny- Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana

4. Kassa Overall- Animals

5. Billy Woods and Kenny Segal- Maps

6. Jason Moran- From the Dancehall to the Battlefield

7. Grupo Frontera- El Comienzo

8. Elle King- Come Get Your Wife

9. Hilary Hahn- Eugène Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for Solo Violin

10. JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown- Scaring the Hoes

11. Young Fathers- Heavy Heavy

12. ANOHNI and the Johnsons- My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross

13. Sylvie Courvoisier- Chimaera

14. Lonnie Holley- Oh Me Oh My

15. Kelela- Raven

16. Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi- Our Daily Bread

17. Buddy and Julie Miller- In the Throes

18. Matt Otto- Umbra

19. Atmosphere- Talk Talk

20. Henry Threadgill- The Other One

21. Cécile McLorin Salvant- Mélusine

22. The Art Ensemble of Chicago- The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris

23. Armand Hammer- We Buy Diabetic Test Strips

24.Wilco- Cousin

25. Aja Monet- when the poems do what they do

26. Killer Mike- Michael

27. Bonnie “Prince” Billy- Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

28. Laura Schuler Quartet- Sueños Paralelos

29. The Clientele- I Am Not There Anymore

30. Irreversible Entanglements- Protect Your Light

31. Sampha- Lahai

32. Tyshawn Sorey- Continuing

33. Mike Dillon & Punkadelick- Inflorescence

34. Willie Nelson- I Don’t Know a Thing About Love: The Songs of Harlan Howard

35. Zoh Amba, Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt- The Flower School

36. Rudy Royston’s Flatbed Buggy- Day

37. Christian McBride’s New Jawn- Prime

38. Mette Henriette- Drifting

39. Kali Malone- Does Spring Hide Its Joy

40. Johnathan Blake- Passage

41. King Krule- Space Heavy

42. The Necks- Travel

43. Ambrose Akinmusire- Beauty Is Enough

44. Cleo Sol- Gold

45. Jaimie Branch- Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

46. Tilo Weber- Tesserae

47. Lana Del Rey- Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

48. El Michels Affair and Black Thought- Glorious Game

49. Ingrid Laubrock- The Last Quiet Place

50. Bertrand Chamayou- Letter(s) to Erik Satie

The Top Fifty Songs of 2023

1. Morgan Wallen- “Last Night”

2. Jamila Woods and duendita- “Tiny Garden”

3. Joshua Redman featuring Gabrielle Cavassa- “Chicago Blues”

4. L’Rain- "Pet Rock"

5. Meshell Ndegeocello featuring Brandee Younger and Julius Rodriguez- “Virgo”

6. That Mexican OT featuring Paul Wall and Drodi- “Johnny Dang”

7. Shirley Collins- “High and Away”

8. Military Gunn- “Do It Faster”

9. The Streets- “Gonna Hurt When This Is Over”

10. Danny Brown- “Tantor”

11. Austin Plaine- “Turn It Around”

12. Yahritza y Su Esencia- “Rositas”

13. SZA- “Kill Bill”

14. Jessie Ware- "Pearls"

15. 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne- "Presha"

16. Turnstile and BadBadNotGood-  "Underwater Boi"

17. Stik Figa with the Expert and Blu- "Uknowhut?"

18. Lauren Watkins- "Grain of Salt"

19. Carin Leon- "Primera Cita"

20. Brent Cobb- "Devil Ain't Done"

21. Joanna Sternberg- "I Will Be With You"

22. SexyyRed- "SkeeYee"

23. Tokischa- "Candy"

24. Kali Uchis- "Te Mata"

25. Cultura Profética- "Para Mí"

26. Snoh Aalegra "Wait a Little Longer"

27. Tech N9ne and the Popper- "They Know Meh"

28. Alien Nosejob- "Split Personality"

29. Camilo and Diljit Dosanjh- "Palpita"

30. Raheem DeVaughn- "Let's Fall in Love"

31. Don Omar- "Carcelero"

32. Peso Pluma- "Bye"

33. Ice Spice- "In Ha Mood"

34. 100 gecs- "Dumbest Girl Alive"

35. Big Freedia- "Gin In My System"

36. Luke Combs- "Love You Anyway"

37. Robert Glasper featuring SiR and Alex Isley- "Back to Love"

38. esperanza spalding- "Não Ao Marco Temporal"

39. Sleaford Mods- “So Trendy”

40. Noname with $ilkmoney, Billy Woods and Stout- "gospel?"

41. Maria Elena Silva- "Love, If It Is So"

42. PJ Harvey- “I Inside the Old Year Dying”

43. Sam Hunt- "Walmart"

44. Fuerza Regida and Becky G- "Te Quiero Besar"

45. Slauson Malone 1- "New Joy"

46. Bizzy Banks- "Ok Ok Ok"

47. SleazyWorld Go- "Off the Court"

48. DJ Lucas- "The Climb"

49. Megan Moroney- "Kansas Anymore"

50. Mireya Ramos & the Poor Choices with Los Texmaniacs- "There Stands the Glass"

There Stands the Glass’ top 50 performances of 2023 are listed here.

There Stands the Glass’ top albums and songs of 2022 are listed here.

Album Review: Jason Moran- From the Dancehall to the Battlefield

Jason Moran aggravated me when he released From the Dancehall to the Battlefield on January 1.  Issuing what at the moment seemed like 2023’s album of the year on New Year’s Day took much of the suspense out of the artistic horse race.

Inspired in part by the life and music of James Reese Europe, Moran refreshes the music made by the groundbreaking bandleader more than a century ago.  Respectful but forward-thinking, he filters pre-jazz “syncopated” music through the subsequent innovations of Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Albert Ayler, Randy Weston and Henry Threadgill.

I heard an entirely different version of the American music of World War I on Wednesday, June 7.  Frederick Hodges’ 50-minute "Music Will Win the War" fascinating presentation at the National World War I Museum and Memorial focused on the sound of Tin Pan Alley.

Yes, that’s me lurking in the back during the second half of the concert.  I was driven from my seat by a man with an ominous cough.  I hope I don’t miss an opportunity to catch a performance of From the Dancehall to the Battlefield before succumbing to whatever I may have picked up at the museum.

February 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of Cicely Tyson and Sammy Davis Jr. in the trailer for A Man Called Adam by There Stands the Glass.

Top Ten Albums (released in February)

1. Benoît Delbecq- The Weight of Light

My review.

2. Pooh Shiesty- Shiesty Season

Brrrrd.

3. Benjamin Grosvenor- Liszt

My review.

4. Quatuor Bozzini- Alvin Lucier: Navigations

Creepy drones and controlled cacophonies.

5. Archie Shepp and Jason Moran- Let My People Go

A feast in the wilderness.

6. Femi and Made Kuti- Legacy+: Stop the Hate and For(e)ward

Family tradition.

7. Cassandra Jenkins- An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

Astral minutes.

8. Tindersticks- Distractions

Focused.

9. Pink Sweat$- Pink Planet

Softer than John Legend.

10. R+R=Now- Live

Genius plus hubris equals fascinating complications.

Top Ten Songs (released in February)

1. Syd- "Missing Out"

Fomo.

2. Nana Yamato- “Burning Desire’

Temperature rising.

3. H.E.R.- "Fight For You"

Throwback anthem.

4. Kevin Gates- "Plug Daughter 2"

Roadside assistance.

5. Polo G- "GNF (OKOKOK)"

I care a lot.

6. Cardi B- "Up"

Once upon a time...

7. Ariana Grande- “Test Drive”

Ride or die.

8. Cherry Glazerr- "Big Bang"

Universal.

9. Sada K- "You"

Nothing compares.

10 Nick Cave and Warren Ellis- “Albuquerque”

Stasis.

Top Ten Movies (viewed for the first time in February, in lieu of live music)

1. A Man Called Adam (1966)

Miles ahead.

2. The Silver Chalice (1954)

Astoundingly bad or exceptionally good?

3. The Golden Coach (1952)

Jean Renoir’s luminescent critique of colonialism.

4. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

An odd but stellar interpretation of Carson McCullers’ novel.

5. It Should Happen to You (1954)

Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon are adorable.

6. Juarez (1939)

¡Viva México!

7. Native Son (1951)

Richard Wright stars in an uneven rendering of his classic work.

8. Murder, She Said (1961)

Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple is just too much.

9. Treasure Island (1934)

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.

10. His House (2020)

Political asylum as horror.

January’s recap and a link to last year’s monthly surveys is here.

Molto Agitato

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I attempted to sleep in a different room in my home last night. The slight variances in the hum, buzz and whoosh of appliances, wind, passing vehicles and furnace were just different enough to forestall sleep.  Much as I was thrown off by the ambient noise, I’m obsessed with the varied sonic textures of three solo piano recordings released in the first couple weeks of 2021.

The splashy sound of Behzod Abduraimov’s Debussy Chopin Mussorgsky resembles a raging torrent on the precipice of a waterfall.  The more conventional sound field of Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, a compelling new recital by MinJung Baek, possesses the resonance of a concert hall.  The treated instrument played by Raffaele Grimaldi on John Cage: In a Landscape/Dream/Haiku sounds more like a harp than a piano on “Dream.”  Elsewhere, the 21-minute EP emphasizes the manipulated components of the apparatus.

Jason Moran further advances pianistic evolution on his forthcoming solo album The Sound Will Tell You by applying “a filter to allow the sound (to) cast a shadow” on some tracks.  The wealth of possibilities inherent in the seemingly staid instrument remains staggering.  I intend to have sweet dreams about the only live ticket I’m holding: a fourth-row center seat I purchased at a steep discount for a rescheduled Daniil Trifonov concert in 2022.

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I review Blob Castle’s La Tierra Se Está Doblando at the Kansas City jazz blog Plastic Sax.