Well I’m back in the office most of the week and my music listening Spotify minutes are down this year, but despite this extreme adversity I have put together another thrilling Year-End list. The 17th edition of the “Mangosquash’s Best Of” list contains between 4-6 artists making their debut, depending on how you count it. 8/10 artists are female-lead, which matches a high previously set in… 2022, 2020 and 2018. Unlike last year where 6/10 of my list DIDN’T garner enough attention to have a Metacritic aggregate score, this year, 10/10 have one… and 10/10 have good scores. Perhaps my most critically acclaimed (boring?) list ever.
I knew what my favorite album of the year was going to be with 90% certainty on January 18 when it was announced, even though it didn’t come out until March. I was right (spoiler), though a couple others came within spitting distance. Here we go:
(Some links to playlists and stuff at the end)
10. Caroline Polacheck – Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
On this list of critically acclaimed albums, this is the most critically acclaimed-est. Ms. Polacheck’s only previous appearance on this list was in 2016 with her group Chairlift’s final album, Moth. Overall, I think I like that album better, but the highs here are absolutely riveting.
This is the most dance/pop-y of an otherwise very guitar/rock focused top 10. The first 4 tracks of this one are fantastic, and then I get a bit lost after that. Still worth your time!
9. Indigo De Souza – All of This Will End
I don’t have anything to say about this album. I like it.
8. The Mountain Goats – Jenny from Thebes
Making their 8th appearance on this list (the most by any artist, and it isn’t close!) are The Mountain Goats. They’re back on the list for the first time since 2019, though they’ve released several albums in that span, and I’ve enjoyed them.
They went for my jugular with this one, billing Jenny from Thebes as a direct sequel to 2002’s All Hail West Texas – the best/my favorite Mountain Goats album, and one of my favorite albums of all time. To be honest, while I spend a lot of time listening to and thinking about The Mountain Goats, I am not fully in tune with the many story lines that wind through their albums. So while the thematic play got me through the door, the good songs are what make this one stick for me. Some of John Darnielle’s best work in awhile!
7. Ratboys – The Window
Good driving rock fun. Ratboys (Neither rats, nor is the lead singer a boy) have been shuffling through my Spotify algorithms for awhile, but this album is the first one that’s grabbed me.
6. Wednesday – Rat Saw Good
Another band I’ve been kicking around for awhile but never found an album to hold onto. What changed? In 2022 I loved their guitarist MJ Lenderman’s solo album, and so I forced myself to pay more attention this time. He doesn’t sing at all on this album, as far as I can tell, but that’s fine.
There are lots of great tracks on this album, but “Chosen to Deserve” is a contender for my favorite song of the year… probably not a winner, but a contender. This is the loudest/closest to shoe-gaze album ever to make this list? Saw them at Off Broadway this year and they were very good.
5. Blondshell – Blondshell
The 90’s-est rock album on the list? Bops from top to bottom. 9 great tracks.
4. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin
He’s Back, Baby! It’s been 8 years since American Treasure Sufjan Stevens has shown up on this list, which he topped with 2015’s classic, Carrie & Lowell. Since then he’s released… I don’t know, 7 albums? They’ve all been interesting in their own way, and I’m glad he’s making things. But they haven’t been for me. Some of them very much not for me, and some of them just barely not for me.
By his own categorization, Javelin is a return to form and his first pure singer/songwriter album since Carrie & Lowell, and he’s still got it. This one didn’t quite resonate with me the same way that Carrie & Lowell did, but if you like any earlier version of Sufjan, there will be something for you here. If you think listening to a Sufjan song called “Will Anybody Every Love Me?” will be a devastating experience, you are correct!
3. Jess Williamson – Time Ain’t Accidental
Prior to Plains, her 2022 collaboration project with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, Jess Williamson was not on my radar at all. I thought Plains – I Walked With You A Ways was great (My #3 album of LAST YEAR) and this might be even better? A country album with some modern sensibilities. Beautiful storytelling and melodies throughout.
2. Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS
Look at me, another middle-aged man who thinks Olivia Rodrigo is great. I really liked SOUR (#9 of 2021… would rank it higher today) and GUTS is so much better in every way. I was expecting SOUR to be a bit of a lightning in a bottle type situation and that I’d be disappointed by the follow-up… but then I heard Vampire. And then I heard Bad Idea Right? Two absolute gems. And then I heard the whole album, and those maybe aren’t even my favorite 2 songs on it? (All American Bitch, Get Him Back, perhaps might be).
1. Boygenius – The Record
AHHHH How could something that I had such high expectations for meet & exceed them in every way? In 2018, the supergroup (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus) released a perfect 5 track debut EP, and the output of the members of this group (and their friends and producers and collaborators) has been the epicenter of my musical experience.
From 2006 – 2017, on average 1.5/10 artists on each Top 10 were lead by females. From 2018 – 2023, that average is now just over 7 as of this year. I went from never listening to women to only listening to women. Is boygenius three-handidly responsible for this? No, not close. But they are a big part of it.
5 years after that EP, after they each released great solo albums, they released an album in March and it’s everything I could have hoped for.
Spotify Playlists:
Almost Made The Top 10:
- Bully – Lucky For You
- Speedy Ortiz – Rabbit Rabbit
- Islands – And That’s Why Dolphins Lost Their Legs
- Pearla – Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming
Other Stuff I Really Liked:
- Rett Madison – One for Jackie
- Claud – Supermodels
- Body Type – Expired Candy
- Jenny Lewis – Joy’All
- Miya Folick – ROACH
- Oracle Sisters – Hydranism
- Kara Jackson – Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love
- Small Crush – Penelope
- Alex Lahey – The Answer Is Always Yes
- Palehound – Eye on the Bat
mangosquash 
Leave a comment