Boygenius, Foo Fighters, The National among best albums of 2023 so far

With 2023 halfway through, it's worth pausing long enough to note this: It's already been a deeply satisfying year in music. Some first-half albums will fade from memory; others will only rise in estimation. But the following picks have provided me with joy and ballast the past six months.

Per usual, it's beyond anyone's capacity to name the best music of a given time period. These are my 13 favorites of 2023 so far — a personal designation to be sure — unranked and alphabetical by artist.

Blondshell, self-titled

Blondshell's Sabrina Teitelbaum makes pop culture feel personal — and the personal feel emblematic of the wider culture — on her debut set. Teitelbaum illustrates a remarkable knack for layering: irony and earnestness, distortion and sheen, '90s rock influences and up-to-the-minute sounds, all in proper proportion.

Boygenius, 'The Record'

It's almost unfair that Boygenius exists; individually, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus already feel like generationally great songwriters and we're fortunate to hear each do their own thing. The embarrassment of riches in their collaboration — fleshed out with serious emotional and musical IQ on their first full-length — allows each member to draw out fresh detail and dimension from the others and make an indie-rock sum for the ages.

Bully, 'Lucky for You'

It's not hyperbole to call Bully's Alicia Bognanno a keeper of the rock 'n' roll flame. Urgent and sensitive, impassioned and soaked through with nuance, “Lucky for You” is a dynamic study in rock's present and future tenses.

Iris DeMent, 'Workin' on a World'

DeMent's first record in eight years is the very definition of righteous. Chasing a tradition of unsparing story-songs, and soaking her phrases in a form of country gospel, she points fingers at the perpetrators of our day's ills before pointing us all back to the heart.

McKinley Dixon, 'Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?'

Creating what's easily the superlative hip-hop album of 2023's opening half, the Virginia-based artist offers something both viscerally stimulating and spiritually satisfying. Dixon and Co. create burrowing grooves, lay his lyrics on, around and through the beat like a jazz singer, then dress up each song in wonderful sonic embellishments.

Foo Fighters, 'But Here We Are'

Born of twinned losses — the deaths of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins and frontman Dave Grohl's mother, Virginia — "But Here We Are" is true to the nature of grief, chronicling both flashpoint emotions and the quieter consolations you repeat to make it through the night. Dealing in true matters of life and death, Grohl and his surviving brothers make their most vibrant, exposed record in more than a decade.

Lonnie Holley, 'Oh Me Oh My'

Dubbed a "cosmic bluesman" by Pitchfork, the 73-year-old Alabama native houses a spark and a spirit he shares with listeners in the form of gorgeous, enveloping hymns fit for people of any or no religious leaning. Guests like Michael Stipe and Bon Iver arrive to bask in, then refract Holley's wondrous light.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, 'Weathervanes'

One of our finest songwriters, Isbell sat in the producer's chair on his band's latest, refining his vision for beautiful, stinging short stories delivered with guitars. These 13 songs perfectly capture our modern anxieties and ageless dreams, kicking the legs out from under any hope that doesn't pass muster.

James Brandon Lewis, 'Eye of I'

The New York-based saxophonist burrows into the beating heart of jazz, uniting gospel-soaked melodies, hairpin turns and painterly touches with prodigious skill. Columbia listeners, know your good fortune: Lewis will be here in November as part of the Columbia Experimental Music Festival.

The National, 'First Two Pages of Frankenstein'

The quintessential band for sad dads folds in younger collaborators like Bridgers and Taylor Swift on its most fully-realized record in a decade. "First Two Pages of Frankenstein" is a relatively quiet, unobtrusive affair but the lovely adornments and emotional ambition of these songs is anything but understated.

Nickel Creek, 'Celebrants'

The first album in nine years from the progressive bluegrass power trio is both a reunion and revelation. Chris Thile and the Watkins siblings, Sara and Sean, revisit the soul of their collaboration while carrying nearly a decade's worth of musical and personal growth to the project. The result? A set marked by its musical complexity and uncommon empathy.

Arlo Parks, 'My Soft Machine'

The sophomore project from this buzzworthy 22-year-old Brit manifests a dozen deceptively textured pop and neo-R&B tracks. Parks' songs are so smooth, so immediate, that you don't sense how deep and nuanced they are until you realize you're experiencing them from the inside-out.

David Wax Museum, 'You Must Change Your Life'

Full disclosure: I wrote the bio for Rock Bridge High School graduate David Wax and his partner in everything, Suz Slezak, on this album cycle. But that also means I've heard each note of "You Must Change Your Life" dozens of times, immersing myself in the fine details on an album full of them — while still feeling refreshed and staggered by themes of transformation and forgiveness, love and lust, and chasing the best possible version of yourself.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Boygenius, Foo Fighters, The National among best albums of 2023 so far