Top 20 Records of 2023

2023 was another great year for music and for Paradise Found Records and Tapes. In April we celebrated our second anniversary at our Pearl Street location and in September we opened a new store in Petaluma, less than an hour north of San Francisco. A huge thanks to all of our customers in Colorado, California or wherever you are (that’s right, we ship to other states) for shopping with us and for coming in for listening parties, concerts and other in-store events. We couldn’t do it without you! We appreciate your business and we love your smiling faces! Just a reminder that both stores will have expanded hours to help you find that perfect gift or just to buy yourself some much-deserved music. We’re also having a listening party to share our favorite music of the year on Friday, December 15th at 7:15 pm. Reserve your spot now in store or by phone (303/444-1760) for $10 (which counts towards any purchase).

Here are my favorite records of the year including archival releases, along with a mention of an amazing live event. I’ve listed the new releases in alpha order, but this is the third year in a row that the first-record-by-alpha is also my best album of the year (following 2022’s Big Thief and 2021’s Courtney Barnett LPs):

Boygenius – The Record

Supergroups are typically more an excuse for famous musicians to play together than an opportunity to break new ground. The debut full-length release from boygenius, the trio first formed in 2018 by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, is that rare instance where the sum exceeds its parts. Following up their initial EP, The Record is a sad girl supernova in which the trio largely alternate songwriting credits. But even as they take turns in the spotlight, the material brings out the best of each member and the choruses are divine. It might resonate most with twenty-somethings, but its indie-rock and folk grooves are multigenerational. The group also released a second EP, The Rest, in October. (Favorite track: “True Blue”)

Feist – Multitudes

Canada’s Leslie Feist, who goes by her last name, is nearly twenty years past the breakout fame that followed Apple’s use of The Reminder‘s “1234” in an early iPod commercial. Multitudes is just the third record she’s made in the intervening years, but it’s her best album to date, slightly ahead of 2011’s superb Metals. Written in the wake of her simultaneously becoming a parent and losing a parent, the fragile folk songs mirror the delicacy of life. The compositions are tender, sparsely illuminated songs that dissolve into nothingness or explode into lush, harmony-filled choruses like flowers bursting into bloom. (Favorite track: “Hiding Out in the Open”)

Foo Fighters – But Here We Are

The eleventh studio effort from Dave Grohl’s band carried an emotional weight not heard since the group’s debut following Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Both Grohl’s mother and best friend/bandmate Taylor Hawkins died in 2022, and here he begins to come to terms with his grief-filled year, dealing with loss while looking for strength and insight to create new art. Daughter Violet lends her chops to “Show Me How,” and Grohl resumes drum duty throughout for the first time in decades. The album’s next-to-last track, the epic “The Teacher,” is ostensibly about Grohl’s public school teacher mother, but it certainly also applies to Hawkins. It’s impossible not to be moved hearing Grohl try to blot out his dark reality by screaming “Wake up” before mournfully singing “Goodbye” over and over again at the song’s coda. Sad, stunning and powerful. (Favorite track: “The Teacher”)

PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying

PJ Harvey’s tenth studio effort fits with the rest of her discography in her devout focus on following her muse regardless of sales potential. I Inside The Old Year Dying‘s British folk seems steeped in centuries-old lore from some dark foreboding countryside. Inspired by an epic poem she wrote entitled “Orlam,” many of the songs feature their own language while also referencing the Bible, Shakespeare and Elvis Presley. The end result is intoxicating and mysterious, a ticket into an intense, sometimes scary but ultimately rewarding journey. (Favorite track: “Lwonesome Tonight”)

Mitski – The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We

Last year’s Laurel Hell, featured Mitski channeling Abba and Motown to create her most accessible music.  Not surprisingly, it helped cement her indie diva status and led to ever-increasing crowds. Her follow-up comes after an unusually short interval and is a stark about-face that steers clear of pure pop. This is the first Mitski album to feature pedal steel since she relocated to Nashville in 2020, but that doesn’t mean it’s remotely country. She’s still struggling with how to avoid dark mental corners and find a degree of contentment, and here Mitski discovers a quieter, more reflective orchestral pop that is no less evocative even if it’s a little less welcoming. (Favorite track: “Heaven”)

Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

Former Buff and Chairlift member Polachek unleashes a torrent of electro-pop heaven on her fourth solo album. Desire, I Want to Turn Into You isn’t afraid to source the classics: “Welcome To My Island” steals the “hey hey hey hey’s” from “Don’t You Forget About Me,” while “Pretty In Possible” borrows liberally from “Tom’s Diner.” With veins of rock, trip-hop and electronic music pulsing throughout, Polachek’s sound is simultaneously familiar and new. Famous fans like Taylor Swift and the Haim sisters are already on board. Can the American public be far behind? (Favorite track: “Welcome to My Island”)

Margo Price– Strays

Like Caroline Polachek, Margo Price is a musician who’s been bubbling under the surface for years and is due for more widespread recognition. Price has been navigating the country and Americana worlds since 2016; her excellent 2022 memoir, Maybe We’ll Make It, told of her struggle to find her audience. Strays, her fourth studio album, is her most mature to date. It may have been conceived under the influence of psychedelics, but it showcases the most wide-ranging songwriting skill of her career. With the help of friends including Sharon Van Etten and Mike Campbell of Heartbreakers fame, the record rocks hard at times (“Been to the Mountain”) but also includes radio-friendly grooves (“Radio”), longer story-songs (“County Road”) and deeply personal, solo folk (“Lydia”). Price released Strays II, a follow-up of additional tracks from the sessions, last month. (Favorite track: “Radio”)

Vampire Weekend – Frog On The Bass Drum Vol. 01

If you weren’t lucky enough to see and jump on the email announcement, you missed out on Vampire Weekend’s first live album, available only through their fan site and gone inside an hour. But what a gift for those lucky enough to get a copy: the record included the rare B-side “Ladies of Cambridge,” an extended take on “M79” from their debut, a rendition of “Pizza Party” from Ezra Koenig’s first band L’Homme Run, and best of all, ten glorious minutes of the group covering Bob Dylan’s “Jokerman,” from his oft-overlooked eighties gem Infidels. (Favorite track: “Jokerman”)

Wilco – Cousin

Wilco’s response to the pandemic was to hunker down in their Chicago loft and create Cruel Country, a double album call back to their earlier alt-country days. Their follow-up is more of the alt-rock territory they’ve been travelling since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Produced by Cate Le Bon and recorded both pre- and post-pandemic, Jeff Tweedy re-embraces dissonance and noise on Cousin, and in the process continues the band’s resurgence nearly three decades after their debut. (Favorite track: “Meant To Be”)

Lucinda Williams – Stories From a Rock’n’Roll Heart

How strong is Lucinda Williams’ artistic will? In the wake of a 2020 stroke, she put a series of tribute albums to the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan among others, followed by Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You, her revealing memoir released in April. For the first LP of new material since her recovery, she recruited Bruce Springsteen, Angel Olsen and Margo Price. The end result doesn’t reach for the emotional depths of her finest work, but that doesn’t make its hard-rocking selection of tracks any less vital. A worthwhile addition to a substantive discography. (Favorite track: “New York Comeback”)

The next six: Margo Cilker – Valley of Heart’s Delight; Peter Gabriel — I/O; Rhiannon Giddens – You’re the One; Jenny Lewis – Joy’All; Paramore — This is Why; Chris Stapleton – Higher

Top Four Archival Releases of the year: 

Grateful Dead – RFK Stadium, Washington, DC 6/10/73

Does any other band mine its archives as frequently as the Grateful Dead? There was no shortage of material to pick from in 2023, but the highlight was this 8LP box of one of the group’s most famous shows, a coheadlining turn with the Allman Brothers from 1973. Through four and a half hours (!), the Dead offer classics, new material and songs in early forms: “Wave That Flag” became “US Blues” and “They Love Each Other” evolved into a shuffle on Jerry Garcia’s Reflections. The highlight–not including the nearly-thirty-minute “Dark Star”–is the lengthy jam at the end that finds the Dead and Allmans combining for strong covers of Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Arthur Crudup and Chuck Berry classics. The joyful sound of Jerry Garcia and Dickey Betts sparring on lead guitar should be required listening for jam band aficionados. (Favorite track: “It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”)

Joni Mitchell – Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years 1972-1975

Blue might be Joni Mitchell’s most famous album, but her growth in the years that followed was no less impressive as she moved in a jazz-focused direction without sacrificing her ear for melody or confessional songwriting. The latest edition of her Archives series digs deep into her richest period, when she created Court and Spark, her biggest selling album, and The Hissing of Summer Lawns, its follow-up. There is so much to love about the unreleased tracks from this period: revised takes of “Raised on Robbery” with, alternately, Graham Nash and Neil Young, a long piano medley of Court and Spark tracks, and revealing mid-seventies concerts including a solo Joni from Carnegie Hall and one with the L.A. Express supporting her in Los Angeles. Nirvana for Joni Mitchell lovers. (Favorite track: “Help Me”)

My Morning Jacket – Live Vol. 3: Bonnaroo 2004

Nearly twenty-five years after their debut, My Morning Jacket have cemented their status among the jam band crowd and southern rock fans; they mix up their setlists as well as anyone and can turn any song into a long, inspired exploration. This release is of one of the band’s most famous shows, which took place in the pouring rain and burnished their reputation as a live act. The group plays most of It Still Moves, the third and still best album in a career of exceptional work. Previously only available digitally, this 2LP set is a great introduction to the band and includes powerful versions of MMJ gems “Phone Went West” and “Steam Engine.” (Favorite track: “Steam Engine”)

The Who – Who’s Next/Life House

The Who are one of the defining acts of classic rock, and perhaps no Who album is more beloved than Who’s Next, the masterpiece bookended by “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Two years past its fiftieth anniversary, Pete Townsend finally got around to releasing the treasure trove of demos and outtakes that started as a rock opera called Life House before ultimately becoming the less thematically ambitious Who’s Next. Through 155 tracks–89 never released before–this box chronicles an artist struggling to convert his vision into reality while following-up another landmark, Tommy. For background, the box contains a 172-page graphic novel of the story Townsend was trying to tell, a prescient narrative which foretold the Internet and the hive mind. (Favorite track: “Teenage Wasteland”)

Best Live Show of the year: U2:UV at The Sphere, Las Vegas

It’s so rare when something so overhyped exceeds expectations, but U2’s ongoing residency at the new, orb-shaped venue in Las Vegas scores on all levels. Presenting the group’s innovative 1991 Achtung Baby album, which somehow managed to top the 1987 Joshua Tree LP that made them global superstars, the band makes the most of the venue’s incredible technology. I’ve never heard a better sounding concert, and yet there wasn’t a single speaker in sight. Roughly speaking, the show was 33% bare bones musical presentation, 33% music with images of the band performing in startling depth and clarity at massive projection sizes, and 33% jaw-dropping, overwhelming and unforgettable visual effects. Tickets may be pricey and hard to get, but U2:UV is well worth it both for fans of the band and lovers of the live music experience. See it if you have the chance before the residency wraps up in early March.