People on the internet may be complaining that Hollywood is only greenlighting reboots and remakes for new media in 2023, but thankfully, the same can’t be said for indie music. Sure, this year has brought the return of indie staples like The National’s lauded First Two Pages Of Frankenstein and Gorillaz’s hit-packed Cracker Island, but leaves plenty of room for newcomers like Wednesday and Blondshell to make a sizeable splash.
Experimentation is a welcome aspect of the indie genre, and artists have more than delivered thus far in 2023 thanks to releases by 100 Gecs, Yaeji, and Yves Tumor. Whether you’re looking to escape into another world, headbang to some new releases, or simply throw on a laid-back album to barbecue to, the indie genre has it all. It can be hard to keep up with many indie albums that have already dropped this year, but Uproxx has you covered. Here are our picks for the best indie albums of 2023, so far.
100 Gecs — 10,000 Gecs
100 Gecs could have so easily had their moment in the meme sun with their 2019 debut album 1000 Gecs and then faded away forever. The songs were both catchy and off-the-wall weird, a delicate balance that’s not easy to pull off on a single album, let alone two. They did it again, though, on 10000 Gecs. How? Songwriting. Throughout the album are compositions that reach out through their alternative, kooky grime and smack you in the face with catchy hooks and memorable lyrics. The inevitable 100,000 Gecs can’t come soon enough. – Derrick Rossignol
Arlo Parks — My Soft Machine
After first making a name for herself with her poetic lyrics and touching confessions on mental health and queerness, UK artist Arlo Parks returned with her sophomore album My Soft Machine. Living up to the accolades that came along with her debut (which included two Grammy nominations and the Mercury Prize for Album Of The Year) Parks doubles down on her revelations about the realities of relationships and struggling with depression, this time adding synths into the mix. Lush indie earworms like “Purple Phase” and the Phoebe Bridgers-featuring “Pegasus,” Parks’ My Soft Machine continues to prove she’s one of the best indie songwriters of her generation. – Carolyn Droke
Blondshell — Blondshell
LA-based songwriter Blondshell was the latest buzzy indie songwriter to arrive on the scene in 2023. Her self-titled debut offers a realistic snapshot of navigating your early 20s, relationship woes, and a heaping pile of self-doubt included. Blondshell opens with a song titled “Veronica Mars,” referencing the early aughts hit TV show. But that’s not the only ’00s reference you’ll find sprinkled throughout the album. The blown-out guitars and tangible angst call back to early alt-rock, along with singer Sabrina Teitelbaum’s earnest yet at-times guttural vocal delivery. Her lyrics pack an emotional gut-punch, my personal favorite being, “My kink is when you tell me that you think I’m pretty” on “Kiss City.” – C.D.
Boygenius — The Record
When Boygenius — the supergroup comprised of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers — first appeared with their 2018 self-titled EP, its members were known indie quantities but not quite the stars that they are in 2023. Their steady rise makes their debut LP, The Record, all the more of an event, and has found them on the cover of Rolling Stone, headlining festivals, and even appearing on the massive Taylor Swift stadium tour. But what might get lost in the hype and the friendship-focused narrative is that Boygenius also finds three magnificent songwriters working in their prime, tapping both new and unfamiliar territory in equal measure, and discovering parts of themselves that can only be illuminated through the artistry of others. – Philip Cosores
Gorillaz — Cracker Island
From Snoop Dogg to Kali Uchis, Gorillaz have always positioned themselves as expert collaborators. And their latest album Cracker Island is no exception. Throughout the 10-track release, their first since 2020’s project Song Machine, Gorillaz whisk up a collection of lush and attention-grabbing songs that prove they’re still innovators after over 20 years as a band. The project spotlights artists from Bad Bunny with “Tormenta” to Tame Impala with “New Gold” (and even includes a collab with Stevie Nicks!), showing that the band is at their best when they work with other artists. The end might be nigh for the current iteration of Gorillaz — according to Damon Albarn — but with Cracker Island, the band has primed itself to continue pushing the boundaries of indie music, no matter who’s at its helm. – C.D.
Hot Mulligan — Why Would I Watch
The singles for the new Hot Mulligan album Why Would I Watch consisted of “Shhhh! Golf Is On” and “Gans Media Retro Games,” both of which are some of their best material to date. Their pop-punk earworms explode with unabating riffs and fervent shouts; every melody has the stickiness of a song you’d hear on the radio. The Blink-182 influence is directly confronted on the ridiculously catchy and inconsolably depressing track “It’s A Family Movie She Hates Her Dad”: “Sit me down and give me the confessional / Stay together for the kid / Isn’t that original?” – Danielle Chelosky
Indigo De Souza — All Of This Will End
Indigo De Souza is a master of imbuing sad songs with a contagious aura of hope. Though “Time Back,” the opener of her new album All Of This Will End, dwells on loss, it bursts with lively synthesizers and ends on an optimistic note: “When I come home / I will begin again.” This is also true of the confessional yet jubilant “Smog,” as well as the anxious “Parking Lot.” The images of pain are all outlined in a revelatory glow that forces her to recognize the significance of feeling anything at all. – D.C.
The National — First Two Pages Of Frankenstein
This is the most National-like that The National has sounded in years. While there are plenty of high-profile guest stars — Taylor Swift! Phoebe Bridgers! Sufjan Stevens! — First Two Pages Of Frankenstein at its best when they re-focus on their most essential attribute, which comes when these lifelong friends and brothers plug in, stand in a circle, block out the outside world, and sound like a great band. – Steven Hyden
Wednesday — Rat Saw God
On the previous Wednesday LP, 2021’s Twin Plagues, singer-songwriter Karly Hartzman wrote evocative story songs set in what I like to call the Gummo South, a partly real and partly made-up region in which dead dogs and burned-down Dairy Queens dot the landscape like Starbucks crowd street corners in big cities. But on Rat Saw God, her songwriting exhibits a level of detail that is practically physical. The title alone of the opening track, “Hot Rotten Grass Smell,” filled my nostrils with the aroma of a humid late July day. – S.H.
Yaeji — With A Hammer
Yaeji simmered relatively under the radar as a beloved figure in the electronic scene for years before impressing with her debut 2020 mixtape What We Drew. Now, it’s debut album time. With A Hammer came out in April and it too is a critical hit. She clearly hasn’t let early success coerce her into taming down her experimental ways in pursuit of a more commercial sound. Singles like “For Granted” and “Passed Me By” are as adventurous as ever while also maintaining an undeniable charm, which can also be said for the rest of one of the year’s most interesting projects. – D.R.
Yves Tumor — Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
It’s not quite radical enough to qualify as “experimental” and not quite catchy enough to work as a full-on pop move. But sonically this is one of the best-sounding indie albums of 2023’s first half. With the assistance of Noah Goldstein, an engineer who worked on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and Alan Moulder, who’s one of the great architects of ’90s alt-rock, Praise A Lord invites you to get lost in its grooves. It’s a very good headphone record. The instrumental tones are on-point. – S.H.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.