The writing was on the wall ten years ago. Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson released “We Are The Best!”, a vibrant coming-of-age story about three 13-year-old girls who form a punk rock band despite having no discernable musical ability. The riot grrrl movement was alive and still kicking.
Riot grrrls arrived around the same time as hip hop. Both were mid-‘70s phenomena. A couple of decades later, hip hop would come to dominate the world. The riot grrrls would keep bubbling up under the surface. Now, some fifty years on, when hip hop is attempting to redefine itself in an oversaturated market, the riot grrrls and their offspring are consistently cranking out some of the best music of 2023.
Three of my top four albums last year were alt-country releases (Akeem the Artist, Ashley McBryde, Ian Noe). This year, the riot grrrls have come out in full force. For the most part, the best of them have gravitated toward hyperpop, a busy, noisy, electronic brand of pulsing dance music that can shriek or pout equally well. But the shadow of riot grrrls extends well beyond any one genre.
So, in a year that featured pretty decent releases from icons like The Rolling Stones and Dolly Parton, from critical darlings like Lana Del Rey and Boygenius, from acclaimed hip hop hermits like Killer Mike and Noname, and from many of my own personal crushes like Iris Dement, Jason Isbell and the Dollyrots, none of them make my top twelve. (Killer’s Mike’s “Michael” was the last title out at 13.) Here are the artists who do.
12 best albums of 2023 so far include strong female voices
12. Todd Snider - Crank It, We're Doomed
I have a theory about Todd Snider, but I have no hard evidence on which to base it. I suspect that somewhere around 2007, he got tired of being tied to “funny” songs. “Beer Run” put him on the map a few years before, but like Warren Zevon and “Werewolves of London,” it became a curse. I think Snider wanted to write different kinds of songs.
That might explain the panoply of stories we get in Crank It, We’re Doomed, and why the album, originally recorded in 2007, was on the shelf until 2023. The label wanted more “Beer Runs.” Snider was giving them so much more. Some of the tracks on the long-rumored Crank It… showed up on his Peace Queer EP in 2008, and he has sprinkled them into his live set over the years.
But it is awesome to hear them in their original, stripped-down form. Snider has always been influenced by the greats of country folk rock, and we get actual duets here with Loretta Lynn (on the boisterous “Don’t Tempt Me”) and Kris Kristoferson (“Good Fortune”). We also get a lovely Jimmy Buffett cover (“West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown”). And the outlandish tale of Dock Ellis’ LSD-fueled no-hitter (“America’s Favorite Pastime,” which could be a Dylan song from “Desire.”) The recordings are minimalistic, but get great mileage out of a well-placed organ or prominent bass lines.
BEST TRACK: HANDLEMAN’S REVENGE (which fans may know as STUCK ON THE CORNER)
11. Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
One day, all witty, snarky pop divas will seek out Daniel Nigro and his magic will finally wear off. But if he keeps working with Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan, that won’t happen anytime soon. If Chappell Roan’s songs aren’t as consistently sharp as Rodrigo’s, she offers a broader range of styles, from the Katy Perry pop of “Red Wine Supernova” to softer power ballad like “Coffee,” that would not be out of place on an Adele album.
There’s even the Swiftian revenge of “My Kink is Karma.” And on the anthemic “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” she begins as a Rodrigo sound-alike but quickly morphs into an extraterrestrial extravaganza worthy of its title.
BEST TRACK: SUPER GRAPHIC ULTRA MODERN GIRL
10. Ashnikko – Weedkiller
2019’s "STUPID" was a major hit and a minor song. A couple of mixtapes later, Ashnikko hits 2023 with Weedkiller, and there is nothing minor about it. From the opening cosmic stew of “World Eater,” the 27-year-old has bigger things on her mind than stupid boys and sex.
Weedkiller is both angrier and more romantic than anything we have heard so far. She can toss insults with the best of them (“You Make Me Sick!”) and call up righteous retribution (“Chokehold Cherry Python”). And she can offer up beautiful coming-of-age heartbreak (“Miss Nectarine”).
She does it all with the voice of a pop star and the music of some post-industrial noise band. She makes it fit – even when it doesn’t exactly fit. “Worms” could be a 100 gecs tune – Dylan Brady plays guitar on the track – with its sing-song chorus. But it is undeniably catchy, and if it is a sillier tune, it provides nice balance to some of the vitriol that surrounds it. Her first full album is a major work.
BEST TRACK: MISS TANGERINE
9. Ratboys – The Window
There may not be a more perfect song to capture the music scene in 2023 than the lead track from the Ratboys' fifth album – “Making Noise for the One You Love.” Julia Steiner’s songwriting has never been as consistently strong. On The Window, she and her bandmates from Chicago have crafted a near-perfect rock album, with bouncy power chords and country-tinged ballads. Several of the songs may overstay their welcome (it’s hard to pull off the extended jam of “Black Earth, WI” if you’re not an Allman Brother), but even those songs tend to be so good that it barely seems to matter.
BEST TRACK: THE WINDOW
8. Megan Moroney – Lucky
Beyond the generic impulse toward female empowerment, there may be nothing riot-grrrl about Megan Moroney’s debut. She’s traditional country and makes no apologies. Indeed, when her hit single “Tennessee Orange” landed last year, she sounded about as traditional as you get – going as far as using SEC football rivalries as a potential roadblock to romance.
But the deeper you go into Lucky, the more you hear an artist carving out her own course – which fortunately for her coincides with popular modern country. Every country artist from Tanya Tucker to Gretchen Wilson to Ashley McBryde has a “girls gone wild” drinking song like “Lucky.” They all may have a self-reflective heartbreak song “The Girl in the Mirror.” Or a free love anthem like “Another on the Way.” It’s just that Moroney nails every single one of them. And then there are quirky sweet/sad ballads like “Why Johnny” (addressed to June Carter Cash) and “God Plays a Gibson.” By the time you her signature “Georgia Girl,” you have to be a fan.
BEST TRACK: GEORGIA GIRL
7. Skating Polly – Chaos County Line
On their first album in five years, step-siblings Kelli Mayo, Peyton Bighorse, and Kurtis Mayo kick things off with the rollicking post-cow punk of “Baby on My Birthday.” Then they immediately spin into the sweet harmonies of “Masquerade.” That establishes a basic pattern of rockers and ballads which constitutes their longest (68 minutes) and strongest collection of songs to date.
They can rock as hard as any band (“Singalong”). Or they can be slyly cute and flirty (“Booster Seat”). They can do heartbreak (“Charlie’s Brother”) and vitriol (“Send a Priest”). They can crank out power pop ballads (“Hush Now”). They often find ways to do it all in one song. Skating Polly has been around forever and they are still ages away from their 30’s. It will be fascinating to see where they go from here.
BEST TRACK (MAINSTREAM): TIGER AT THE DRUGSTORE or (ALT) BABY ON MY BIRTHDAY
6. Underscores – Wallsocket
I’m a big fan of minimalists like Blaze Foley and John Prine. Well, Underscores is no minimalist. Her second album, Wallsocket, is jam-packed with so many voices and sounds and ideas that it’s easy to get lost in the maelstrom. She released a single earlier this year (“Count of Three”) with production help from Benny Blanco. But she was wise to stay away from hitmaking machines on Wallsocket. That would have neutered it.
From cleverly namedropping M.I.A. on the opening track (which comes across as an update of “Paper Planes”) to the sweet sendoff of “Good Luck Final Girl,” she takes us on a journey through young womanhood which should be de riguer listening for parents. There’s the terrifying sing-song of sexual predators (“Johnny johnny johnny”), the cliquish bullying (“Old money bitch”), multiple paeans to jealousy and frustrations, and finally the epic scope of “Geez Louise,” given extra dimension by Henhouse!’s collaboration.
Does the excess go too far at times? Sure. Several songs could have benefitted from an editor. But I’d rather have too much Underscores than not enough.
BEST TRACK: GEEZ LOUISE
5. Rancid – Tomorrow Never Comes
It has been six years since Rancid’s last album, and almost thirty since the seminal punk of ...And Out Come the Wolves. They didn’t crank out the best punk album of the year by reinventing anything. They just leaned into their strengths – 16 tracks in just 30 minutes, full of tight songwriting, crunching guitars, and the perfect blending of three imperfect voices. No band since the long-departed Minutemen has combined snotty irreverence with political insight, righteous anger with outlandish humor in two minutes as effectively as the boys from Albany, CA.
BEST TRACK: NEW AMERICAN
4. Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway – City of Gold
Fifty years from now, when some scholar is reviewing American pop music in the first half of the twenty-first century, Molly Tuttle is going to get an entire chapter. Barely thirty, she is already as good a bluegrass guitar player as there is. She has assembled a killer band to back her up. She is a first-rate vocalist. And she is developing into one of the best songwriters we have.
City of Gold isn’t a perfect album – Tuttle still struggles on some of her slower ballads which sacrifice song for ambient sound. But when she is good – and she usually is – she is brilliant. This is a rollicking album with at least three outright glorification of the joys of marijuana. It also offers love songs, heartbreak songs, and banjos and fiddles galore. Its leadoff cut – “El Dorado” – is an epic history of the American West (and by extension of the American psyche writ large), which scores bonus points for reminding listeners of Bob Dylan’s much-maligned “Self-Portrait,” which served as an inspiration. Everyone should hear this album – especially the Tennessee state legislature.
BEST SONG – EL DORADO
3. Billy Woods and Kenny Segal – Maps
I don’t know if billy woods (stylized) is a fan of Chris Marker but I can’t help but think the two are spiritual brothers. Marker, the French documentarian from the mid-20th century, made travelogues unlike any other filmmaker before or since. It’s not as if woods is the first musician to draw universal truths from his life on the road. It’s just that none of the others sound like this. Part of this is due to woods’ remarkable ability to observe and document the landscapes through which he journeys (“Soundcheck,” “Baby Steps”).
Part of it is his extraordinary collaboration with Kenny Segal, who embellishes his slow roll bass and drums with sounds that seem to come from the dawn of time (“Hangman”). There were plenty of articles celebrating hip hop’s 50th anniversary this year, and I admit that I am finding it harder and harder to identify new sounds that engage both ear and brain. woods is the only hip-hop artist in my top twelve this year. Fortunately, he is enough all by himself.
BEST TRACK: YEAR ZERO (FEATURING DANNY BROWN)
2. Olivia Rodrigo – Guts
The best young playwright I know of today is Selina Fillinger. A recent production of her play “POTUS” at Arena Stage in Washington opens with the blast of Rodrigo’s clarion call “brutal” from 2021’s SOUR. It is just one further sign of how this 20-year-old has seeped into the cultural bloodstream.
One of her dynamic tracks from GUTS – “get him back” – is advertising the newest iPhone. GUTS is older and wiser than SOUR. It is more nuanced. It can be angrier, but also more self-reflective. If it is not perfect – and it’s true that some of the quieter, piano-driven ballads are a little soft around the edges – it has so much good songwriting and production that it doesn’t matter. Besides, those “soft” songs are actually pretty damn good. They just aren’t “all-american bitch” - “bad idea, right?” – “ballad of a home-schooled girl” – “get him back,” which are four of the best songs of the year. And they aren’t as good as “vampire,” which is in fact the best song of the year.
BEST TRACK – VAMPIRE
1. Linda Lindas – Growing Up
The Linda Lindas debut – Growing Up – was released in 2022, and it was sensational. I am doing something I don’t ever do here, which is repeating an album on consecutive lists. I always stick to the year of the initial release when making year-based lists. But I found a loophole.
Last May, the quartet released a “Bonus” edition of Growing Up. It only featured one additional song, but it is so good that it made this new edition my favorite album of the year. It is the exuberant, anthemic “Linda Lindas.” It follows the equally anthemic hardcore punk screed “Racist Sexist Boy” on the tracklist.
That’s the beauty of the LLs. Whether it’s Emma Salazar’s perfectly calibrated pop or Eloise Wong’s punk shrieking, the Lindas just rock. Lucia de la Garza, who at 19 is the oldest member of the band, bridges the gap between that pop and punk pendulum. Her sister, drummer Mila, is the youngest Linda. She’s 13.
The combined age of the four musicians is barely older than I am. Yet I listened to this album more than any other in 2023. A couple of killer singles released later in the year (including a kickass take on the Music Explosions’ “Little Bit O’ Soul”) prove they aren’t going anywhere. The Linda Lindas can play their instruments, but otherwise, it is “We Are the Best!” coming to life.
BEST TRACK – LINDA LINDAS (the only additional song)