Favorite Albums of 2023

Looking back over my previous top ten lists, 2023 holds up well. The longer I’ve been at this, the more proficient I’ve gotten to finding good albums thanks to a mix of algorithms and sources. Also my ears get more and more attuned to the aural feel of music from Brazil: whenever I take a break from Brazil, it’s not too long before I miss the cadences of its sounds. Eventually I’ll stop doing this. (I actually put out fewer posts in 2023 than I did in any previous year.) But even when I stop doing the blog, I’m confident I’ll listen to the music I’ve discovered through it until I can’t listen to anything anymore.

But enough about me and the blog. What about 2023?

First, as always, take the “favorite” seriously. I’m long past trying for any whiff of objectivity or expertise in these things. This is just stuff I liked. You may or may not. You might be thrilled at one of those B- albums I like fine but will never actually listen to again. I’m tempted to follow Chris Monsen’s lead and not rank stuff. But I know some people like the numbers game. I guess I do, too. So the albums graded A- or higher are ranked. The B+ albums, however are alphabetical. I did put a * by a few of the ones closest to the top.

This year’s A-list has plenty of old favorites. Two Clube members land three albums, including that Fróes record that only I seemed to love. Marina Sena could well be setting herself up for a decade dominating run. Patrícia Bastos and Adriana Calcanhotto reminded what talents they can be. Jards Macalé leaned into his second collaboration with the Clube da Encruza for perhaps the best album of his career. But the A-list also includes five artists I’d never heard or heard of before this year as well as three I had merely passing knowledge of. The well of great music from Brazil doesn’t seem anywhere close to drying up, and given that culture’s love of music—perhaps only surpassed by football—there’s no reason to think it ever will.

As I said in my 2023 playlist post, music from Brazil is more varied than Anglophone marketing would have you believe, so below find 33 albums, some of which will fit exactly what you expect with that term as well many more that will expand your horizons on what Brazilian musicians do. I hope you love this stuff half as much as I do.

A-List

1. Filipe Catto, Belezas São Coisas Acesas por Dentro (A)
2. Ricardo Dias Gomes, Muito Sol (A)
3. Marina Sena, Vício Inerente (A-)
4. Patrícia Bastos, Voz da Taba (A-)
5. Romulo Fróes and Tiago Rosas, Na Goela (A-)
6. Anne Jezini, Em Fuga (A-)
7. Rodrigo Campos, Pagode Novo (A-)
8. Slipmami, Malvatrem (A-)
9. Febem, Fleezus and CESRV, Brime! (Deluxe Edition) (A-)
10. Ian Ramil, Tetein (A-)
11. Jards Macalé, Coração Bifurcado (A-)
12. Adriana Calcanhotto, Errante (A-)
13. YMA and Jadsa, Zelena (A-)
14. Cabezadenego, Mbé and Leyblack, Mimosa (A-)
15. Romulo Fróes and Rodrigo Campos, Elefante (A-)
16. Os Tincoãs, Canto Coral Afrobrasileiro (A-)
17. María Freitas & Jazz das Minas, Ayé Òrun (A-)

Honorable Mentions (B+)

• Ana Frango Elétrico, Me Chama de Gato Que Eu Sou Sua
• Bixarte, Traviarcado
• Rodrigo Brandão, Outros Estado*
• Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda da Tempo, Música do Esquecimento*
• Dossel, Badoque
• Fleezus, Off Mode
• Nei Lopes, Nei Lopes 80
• Carlos Lyra, Afeto
• Nuven, Zero
• Rodrigo Ogi, Aleatoriamente
• Ná Ozzetti, Zécarlos Ribeiro and Danilo Penteado, Ná Canta Zécarlos Ribeiro
• Sara Não Tem Nome, A Situação*
• Tasha & Tracie, Kyan and Rapper Gregory, Yin Yang
• Thrills & the Chase, Thrills After Dark*
• Tori, Descese
• Anna Vis, Como Um Bicho Vê

2023, Part Six

Patrícia Bastos, Voz da Taba – Singer from Macapá whose excellent Zulusa was a fave of 2013. Here she draws again upon the beatier traditions of Brazil’s northeast for eleven sinuous tracks that sound as rooted in central Africa as they do Brazil, especially the soukous-tinged guitar work. Of course there are 13 tracks, so skip the duds that lead and close the album to revel in a sound that’s pure up. Listen here. Grade: A-

Bixiga 70, Vapor – Hands down the best album from this estimable band mostly because they are playing for the studio rather than the show. Earlier albums showcased a band with chops, but one that didn’t seem to care about the difference between playing live and for recording. Here, for the first time, they demonstrate some solid compositional sense. These are tracks made to play at home on a sound system, not just to dance to at a party. The downside is that compositional sense includes more than a hint of ’70s jazz-fusion, and not the good Miles Davis stuff. But it’s still progress. Listen here. Grade: B-

Romulo Fróes and Rodrigo Campos, Elefante – Two old friends get together with their guitars while other friends old and new sometimes pop in to supplement the jam. Unlike their earlier albums from this year, Elefante doesn’t push their art forward. Instead it looks back to that friendship and all it’s accomplished, personally and artistically, over the past 15ish years. As two of the leaders of the Clube da Encruza collective, Campos and Fróes have more than earned the right to sit back, reflect, and bask in what they have done. But don’t think this means they are coasting. Nine tracks, most up to the highest standards of the Clube, and a few of which would force their way onto a career overview. “Quando Canto” is as beautiful as anything either man has done in half a decade. “Um Amor Cantando” lets Thiago França get funky and Anna Vis do a fine Juçara Marçal stand-in for a track that is quintessentially Clube. Elsewhere they display a mastery that ranks them among the titans of Brazilian music. Like all things, the Clube collective will eventually run its course, but that moment has yet to arrive. Listen here. Grade: A-

Alzira E and Corte, Mata Grossa – A little more gothic. A little sillier. But except for singer Alzira E getting her name on the cover, this is more of the same fun from the São Paulo veterans. Bass, drums and brass play heavy and sorta funky while Alzira squalls engagingly over the top. Lotsa texture and fun with arrangements.  Definitely play loud. Listen here. Grade: B

Marisa Monte, Portas Raras (Ao Vivo) – Another tour another tour document EP. This time, Monte includes seven songs not on Portas. Five covers and two of her own tracks. The winners are “Seo Zé”, which she first did on a duet with Carlinhos Brown on one of his records and “O Leãozinho”, one of Caetano Veloso‘s ’80s tunes whose melody thrives in a different context. The rest is fine, which is good enough from an artist of this caliber. Listen here. Grade: B-

Fabiano do Nascimento, Mundo Solo – On his third album of the year, Nascimento doesn’t forsake the awful new age of Das Nuvens, but he does figure out how to do it better. The difference is slight, but this one helps me concentrate, whereas the previous just bored. His fastidiousness works to his advantage here. Each track is full of details—smartly rendered, of  course—that give something for your brain to latch onto so that the calming sonics don’t just put you to sleep. Listen here. Grade: B-