End of the Year // Matt DeMello’s EOY Listomania 2023 – Favorite Albums 1-25

About the Author:

Matt DeMello is a songwriter, producer, professional AI researcher and “grand theorist” of the Salieri Records label. His latest original album is 2022’s Confetti in a Coalmine, which was hailed by former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and Ratboys producer Chris Walla as ”nuts and I’m not sure what time of day I’m supposed to put it on, but it’s far from awful!” You can check out his latest Abbey Road tribute and more at the Salieri Records bandcamp page. You can find bandcamp codes for some of the more prominent records in his discography via his GetMusic page while codes are still available.

Key:

• Bold designates a “DIY” artist (=likely spends <$5,000 to release their record, has no large-outlet reviews, i.e. pitchfork, stereogum, etc.), please prioritize them and any direct bandcamp links in any promotions.

Caveats:

• I listen to about 5 albums a day alongside a fairly demanding day job, if something is good enough to get repeated, it ends up in the top 50. The top 10 are played multiple times and the top 5 are played 20 – 50 times before year end, mostly because they seem to be worth the time investment but can tend to bias results toward May – October releases.
• The songs lists are almost always underdeveloped and should be taken with a grain of salt approximately twice as large as whatever salt dosage you’re taking the albums list.
• I try to go by gut instinct of what I think made the biggest impression on me personally, but part of including mega artists is to concede that I’m always part of a larger conversation. True taste is in finding and baring one’s niches and bandwagons honestly. And honestly, yeah, I liked one Jack Harlow song, okay?

1. micro imagination – waavypanda (Pause and Reflect Music.)
2. SCARING THE HOES – JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown (AWAL / Peggy)
3. I’ve Got Me – Joanna Sternberg (Fat Possum)
4. Post-American – MSPaint (Convulse)
5. Javelin – Sufjan Stevens (Asthmatic Kitty)
6. My Back was a Bridge for You to Cross – Anohni & the Johnsons (Secretly Canadian)
7. Koppen – Whettman Chelmets (Strategic Tape Reserve)
8. Karpeh – Cautious Clay (Blue Note)
9. somebody had to – phoneswithchords (Z Tapes / Totally Real)
10. The Age of Pleasure – Janelle Monae (Wondaland / Bad Boy / Atlantic)
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11. GOD IS LUCK – Bad History Month (Exploding in Sound)
12. GUTS – Olivia Rodrigo (Geffen)
13. Lucky for You – Bully (Sub Pop)
14. Me and the Glassbirds – Heejin Jang (Doom Trip)
15. lord of the shithouse – draag me (Doom Trip)
16. Ignore Grief – Xiu Xiu (Polyvinyl)
17. the worst is yet to come – Big Head
18. Poor Things OST – Jerskin Fendrix (Milan)
19. Our National Tragedy – The Deep End (Lover’s Abyss / Pause and Reflect Music.)
20. Praise a Lord that Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) – Yves Tumor (Warp)
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21. Seven Psalms – Paul Simon (Owl / Legacy)
22. No Magic Hand – Ben Gunning (Halocline Trance)
23. 10,000 gecs – 100 gecs (Dog Show / Atlantic)
24. Spike Fields – Maria BC (Sacred Bones)
25. Something to Give Each Other – Troye Sivan (EMI Australia / Capitol)