AP’s top albums of 2023: Music from Karol G, Andre 3000, Peso Pluma and more

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Ten of the top albums of the year, as chosen by Associated Press Music Writer Maria Sherman.

It was a blockbuster year across genres, but only a few could make AP’s list. Instead of embracing the antiquated practice of ranking very different albums against one another, we’re celebrating the best next to the best. Enjoy.

Génesis, Peso Pluma

The year belongs to regional Mexican artistes, who brought their banda, norteño, mariachi, sierreño, and more to geographies well beyond Mexico and the southwest US. As Carín León told The Associated Press earlier this year, it is no longer “regional,” but “global” music. Leading the charge is Peso Pluma, whose third studio album, Génesis, became the highest-charting regional Mexican album of all time. Across 14 tracks, Pluma marries contemporary swagger with traditional corridos tumbados, bringing the coluorful and once-maligned music to the masses – and making it all his own in the same breath.

GUTS, Olivia Rodrigo

In the two years since her tear-jerking ballad Drivers License came in like a wrecking ball, Olivia Rodrigo experienced a lot of life in a short period of time, resulting in GUTS, her sophomore album. Across 12 tracks of big-feelings balladry and riot grrrl-informed power pop-punk, Rodrigo expertly soundtracks the throes of fame – and the experience of entering your 20s.

Lucky, Megan Moroney

Let’s cut straight to the chase: Country music dominated this year. Morgan Wallen’s Last Night and Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car held on to the top of the Billboard charts for the majority of 2023. But beyond those impressive metrics should be recognition of Megan Moroney, whose stellar debut album Lucky emerged fully formed. Her swooning single Tennessee Orange was ubiquitous on country radio this year, but it’s the whole of Lucky that makes her one to watch.

Hackney Diamonds, The Rolling Stones

Prior to Hackney Diamonds, the Rolling Stones hadn’t released an album of original material in 18 years. No one saw this album coming, as raw and rocking as ever: a collection of 12 crackling songs, their first since the 2021 death of drummer Charlie Watts, produced by Andrew Watt featuring Lady Gaga, and a rapturous addition to their already legendary discography. But that’s the Stones for you – it’s as if they invented new ways to approach longevity.

Raven, Kelela

On her sophomore album, Raven the fluid R&B singer Kelela offers a masterclass in sensual breakbeats and experiences in queer black motherhood. If pulling from UK garage, ‘90s house and electronica has become a trend in 2023, Kelela does it with a restrained intensity – soulful vocals atop dance rhythms, hazy sunset music set in a vintage club.

Mañana Será Bonito, Karol G

It took decades for reggaetón to be recognised in the mainstream arena and outside of the diverse Latin communities that created it – music comprising Jamaican dancehall riddims, Puerto Rican el underground, Panamanian reggae en español, New York hip hop and beyond. But even now, when reggaetón enjoys worldwide success, men dominate the conversation: Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, and Rauw Alejandro, to name a few. On Mañana Será Bonito, the greatest album in Karol G’s discography, the Colombian superstar proves there has been some serious gender oversight. This album should be considered part of a modern canon for the explosive dem bow of Ojos Ferrari, the dance-y Ciaro, the breathy TQG, featuring Shakira, the Afrobeats of Carolina.

New Blue Sun, André 3000

It’s not a rap record, but the opening track is titled I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This is Literally the Way the Wind Blew me This Time. That one features California alt-jazz experimentalist Carlos Niño and sets the tone for the most daring release of 2023. For the first time in 17 years, André 3000 – half of the best-selling hip-hop duo of all time, Outkast – has released a new album of original material. Across 87 minutes, the musical innovator plays upward of 40 different types of flutes from around the world on this ambient jazz LP. `In 2014, he told the AP he wondered if he would always be the “Hey Ya!” guy. He can wonder no longer.

Sundial, Noname

In a little over half an hour, Noname’s Sundial jolts the Chicago rapper-poet’s audience. The highlight, if just one, is Namesake, a track where Noname targets Rihanna, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s ties to the NFL. “War machine gets glamorized / We play the game to pass the time,” she raps, before flipping the lens on herself and her own shakable politics.

Rat Saw God, Wednesday

At the heart of Rat Saw God, Wednesday’s fifth album, is a tension that plays out like a sonic embrace. It is an album about the complications of Southern identity, the pride and grit and shame and particularities of American geography that come out in songs about machine guns, race car drivers, crickets, trucks, Dollywood, sedans and Narcan. Evocative, to say the least.

My Soft Machine, Arlo Parks

It hasn’t been too long since Arlo Parks truly made a name for herself in 2021 when her unique brand of introspective R&B earned her a Mercury Award and two Grammy nominations for her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. Parks’ acute understanding of writing early-20s ennui has only sharpened. She manages to weave sounds together that shouldn’t quite fit together, finding congruency in her downy melodies and romantic lyricism.