2023 Marks the Year of Magical Musical Collaboration and Composition
Image Courtesy: HipHopDX
Remember how music sounded in 2016? Something about the music being released in the summer was addicting. The busy backgrounds, insane collaborations, and catchy lyrics are still sung loudly in the back of SUVs today. However, since then, music hasn’t felt quite the same. That is until December rolled around in 2022. There is such beauty in collaboration, and I feel as though artists are starting to realize they work way stronger in teams. Collaboration has been a common theme among albums, especially rap. Metro Boomin has been a fan favorite within the regal rapper circle. You should be familiar with his name, considering he is the creative genius behind the beats of a phenomenal, futuristic, comic-themed conceptual album, Heroes and Villains. His relationship with Future, 21 Savage, and Travis Scott, has cultivated an insane creative environment that has grown some of the best works we’ve ever seen from him and the artists he works with. I consider this album the start of the comeback of the 2016 rap era. Some of the most insane songs on the album include “Too Many Nights,” “Metro Spider,” “All the Money,” and my personal favorite “Around Me.” Metro continued his collaborative spirit by creating the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. I catch myself singing along to the most songs on this album, simply because the beats are so intricate and catchy. The tracks “Home,” featuring Don Toliver, “All the Way Live,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert and Future, and “Am I Dreaming” which features A$AP Rocky, have such unique sounds and styles. Don Toliver, a predominantly R&B-style rapper who frequently works with Metro Boomin, started 2023 out strong with an album titled Lovesick. Some of the best works on the album are “No Pole,” “Do It Right,” and “Embarrassed” which features Travis Scott.
Image Courtesy: Complex
Utopia by Travis Scott is a gem of the 2023 releases and another amazing example of stellar collaborations between talented artists. Scott works with SZA, Future, Drake, and more creative visionaries to create a unique-sounding, warbling, almost futuristic sound. The eerie backtracks are similar to songs from Frank Ocean and Tame Impala. Some of the songs on the album that stand out are “MY EYES,” “MELTDOWN,” “I KNOW?,” “TOPIA TWINS,” and“TELEKINESIS.” Production is growing more and more phenomenal as music continues to be released. Under the rap umbrella, many other incredible works have been released this year, some of which are two albums by EST Gee titled Mad and El Toro 2. Mad contains more enjoyable, upbeat songs like “HOTBOYS” and “LIE TO ME SOME MORE,” while El Toro 2 had a more fluid sound, the best song being “IT IS” featuring Rylo Rodriguez. Rylo Rodriguez is an up-and-coming artist who arguably had one of the best albums of 2023, Been One, with his one-of-a-kind style and sound-making waves in the industry. Some of the best songs on this album are “Equal Dirt,” “Free Game,” and two iconic feature works, “Taylor Port Junkie” featuring Lil Yachty, and “Real Type” featuring Lil Baby.
Image Courtesy: World Red Eye
Trippie Redd also released an album in 2023 titled A Love Letter to You 5, after a public cheating scandal on his ex-girlfriend. The best songs on that album are “Left for Dead,” “Wind,” and “Last Days.” Drake is actually rumored to release a masterpiece of an album full of exciting collaborations in 2023 on September 22nd, titled For All the Dogs. This album has gained so much press this year, mostly due to a unique and catchy single he dropped in April, “SEARCH & RESCUE,” which featured the voice of Kim Kardashian, and the long-awaited collaboration of his most recent drop, “Slime You Out” which took the internet by storm by featuring SZA. However, SZA isn’t the only artist rumored to be featured on the rest of the album; most fans presume the highly anticipated album to include a Yeat feature, due to Drake posting pictures of the artist on his Instagram the week leading up to the album drop. Yeat, another breakout performer, released an album in 2023 called AftërLyfe. These beats, mostly made and produced by BYNX, are a perfect combination of weird, satisfying, and thrilling. Some of the best songs on the album are “How it go,” “Split,” “Nun id Change,” “No More Talk,” “Rav3 P4rty,” and “Mysëlf.”
Rap isn’t the only genre being dominated by 2023, with so many new works by Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, and Miley Cyrus. Swift and Lovato both participated in re-recording some of their prior songs. Swift’s release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), was announced and released on July 7th at her concert in Kansas City, exciting her fans to their core. Some of the best songs are her previously unreleased songs, as well as her newly recorded classics, “Enchanted,” “Speak Now,” and “Never Grow Up.” Lovato took the internet by storm when she announced she would be releasing rock versions of her famous pop songs, like “Confident,” “Cool for the Summer,” and “Heart Attack.” Cyrus released an album called Endless Summer, including some of my favorite works from her of all time, some being “Jaded,” “Flowers,” and “Used to be Young.”
Image Courtesy: Billboard
There’s something so brain-scratchingly satisfying about artists re-recording their previous works with a more mature, controlled, and experienced voice. It’s like you can finally see their true style after being in the spotlight for so long and understand exactly what they stand for. I’m loving this new wave, and I could see other artists hopping on the train in 2023—maybe even Arianna Grande or Selena Gomez. In other music, Greta Van Fleet, Melanie Martinez, and Jesse Rutherford (the lead singer from The Neighborhood) released new music in 2023. Martinez took on an all-new persona, taking her looks and aesthetics straight from the art seen on her album Portals. Her tracks “Void,” “Evil,” and” Battle of the Larynx” give me the same musical vibes as her previous albums, a callback to her original style. Jesse had a similar idea, with changing his style of music in his new album &ONE. Jesse is known for having different personas for each album and he introduced a brand new one along with his latest release. “Turn Heel” is easily the best song, with “POV” and “OVERWHELMING” following closely after.
Greta Van Fleet never fails to provide their fans with transcendent, light, and ethereal music to blare on a long drive through the Midwest. Their newest album is called Starcatcher and my favorite song on it is “The Falling Sky.” Lately in country music, Zach Bryan with Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers with Rustin’ in the Rain, and Kelsea Ballerini with Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good). As someone who isn’t even typically a fan of country music, these albums are a no-skip when I’m in the mood to cry my eyes out. Last but never least, Dominic Fike and Olivia Rodrigo, the young adults the media is obsessed with at the moment, both dropped this year as well with Fike dropping Sunburn and Rodrigo with GUTS. GUTS contains enough female rage to power a forklift, with “bad idea, right?,” “get him back,” and “love is embarrassing,” while Fike created an alternative masterpiece, my favorite works being “Mamas Boy,” “Sunburn,” “Mona Lisa,” “Sick,” and “Dancing in the Courthouse.”
Image Courtesy: LA Times
The music of this year has been so explorative and inspiring. I love the artistic community coming together to create legendary art for all of us to enjoy and truly cannot wait to see what our favorite celebrities have in store for the rest of 2023. Given the skill set of the up-and-coming and pre-existing producers, songwriters, and artists, I wouldn’t be surprised if history is made before the year is even over.
Strike Out,
Writer: Payton Muscato
Editor: Isabel Wilder
Tallahassee