The best albums of 2023 (so far)

Janelle Monáe, Lana Del Rey, boygenius, and Yo La Tengo are just some of our favorite offerings from the first half of the year

By Peter Helman | June 19, 2023 | 12:00pm

Music Lists Albums

Album covers (clockwise from top left): Lana Del Rey: Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Interscope); Janelle Monae: The Age Of Pleasure (Atlantic Records); Kali Uchis: Red Moon In Venus (Geffen); boygenius: the record (Interscope); 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Atlantic Records); Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Interscope) Graphic: Karl Gustafson

We’re officially halfway through the year, which means it’s time to take stock of all the new music we’ve listened to and loved in 2023 so far. We’ve gotten big drops from Lana Del Rey and boygenius, nonstop pleasure parties from Janelle Monáe and Jessie Ware, new transmissions from rap iconoclasts like billy woods, Danny Brown, and JPEGMAFIA, experimental pop whirlwinds from 100 gecs, Caroline Polachek, and Water From Your Eyes, and a whole lot more. Consider this rundown, with artists listed in alphabetical order, a hefty gauntlet thrown down for the year’s second half.

100 gecs - Dumbest girl alive {OFFICIAL VIDEO}

100 gecs didn’t invent hyperpop, but they may have perfected it. In the years since their internet-addled 2019 breakthrough 1000 gecs rearranged the weirdo pop music landscape, plenty of kindred spirits and imitators have picked up the hyperpop torch and run with it, and it seemed like 1000 gecs might be destined to become a singular flash in the pan. But with their major-label follow-up 10,000 gecs, Dylan Brady and Laura Les have returned to show the pretenders how it’s done, embracing oft-maligned genres like ska, nu-metal, and pop-punk and delving even further into their world of wonderfully ludicrous post-ironic chaos.

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