Using a highly scientific formula (read: spreadsheet) concocted back in 2010, the Scene has once again tabulated ballots from our ace music writers to compile our picks for the 10 best local albums of the year. With another top crop of releases, many excellent albums landed just outside the Top 10, including ones from Brian Brown, The Shindellas, Margo Price, boygenius (since Julien Baker lives here, we’ll stake a partial claim on ’em as Nashvillians) and Jenny Lewis. Without further ado, the Top 10.
10. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Weathervanes (Southeastern)
Decades into his career, Jason Isbell continues to explore the weary, dejected South that he calls home with poignancy and grace. In a solemn and almost reverent voice, he illuminates characters who are addicts, misfits and drunks, as he’s done often. He continues to transcend songwriting tropes by showing us how their stories are woven into broader social themes like the opioid crisis, debates over abortion and school shootings. Weathervanes marks the first time in 12 years that Isbell has produced his own album, and the rocking sound highlights the group’s talent and serves as a foil to the lyrics — reading less like a eulogy of the South and more like a hopeful outlook on its future. BEN ARTHUR
9. Becca Mancari, Left Hand (Captured Tracks)
Becca Mancari’s 2020 LP The Greatest Part is about surviving as a queer person in a world where being yourself means opening yourself up to threats. Their follow-up is about living the fullest, richest life in that world. Left Hand expands on the progressive post-disco pop sound of The Greatest Part in a way that feels luxurious, never languid; quietly considering something important is still work, after all. STEPHEN TRAGESER
8. Paramore, This Is Why (Atlantic)
Leave it to Paramore, a band that helped define the sound of Aughts angst, to expertly wrestle with the overwhelming feeling of being alive in the 2020s. February’s This Is Why, which deals with societal unrest (“The News”), social anxiety (“Running Out of Time”), and yes, some wistfulness despite all (“Crave”), builds on the groove established in 2017’s After Laughter. However, there’s a dark, jagged knife of ’90s post-punk and alternative music slicing right through the new record’s danceability. And as if there was any doubt, the songs work exceptionally well in a live context: Just ask any of the thousands of festivalgoers who headbanged away to “This Is Why” at Bonnaroo. COLE VILLENA
7. Country Westerns, Forgive the City (Fat Possum)
Drawing on their experiences in and around the often unkind and frequently strange music business, singer-guitarist Joseph Plunket and drummer Brian Kotzur have developed a big batch of driving, anthemic songs with a Southern accent that orbit the idea of centering yourself in a fucked-up universe. With bassist Jessica Lee (Jordan Jones holds down the low notes on the road) and producer Matt Sweeney, they concocted a sound on their second record like an old jean jacket with a few functional patches. They wear the mantle of rock ’n’ roll lifers well, to the point that the line, “Stick around if you wanna know how / To tell a short story wrong,” is about the only thing that doesn’t quite ring true. STEPHEN TRAGESER
6. Peter One, Come Back to Me (Verve)
Ivory Coast native and longtime Nashvillian Peter One had one of the year’s best debuts — a master class in songcraft and melodic exploration decades in the making. Peter One and his collaborator Jess Sah Bi became folk-and-country stars in West Africa in the 1980s, but they were displaced by political turmoil. The 2018 reissue of their hit album Our Garden Needs Its Flowers helped rekindle Peter One’s dormant recording career. Come Back to Me is a seamless interplay of folk and pop, with arrangements that pull from a wide world of traditions and songs about living on a badly bruised planet that feel as intimate as if they were drifting off your neighbor’s porch. SEAN L. MALONEY
5. Allison Russell, The Returner (Birds of Chicago/Fantasy)
In a recent New Yorker article about AI and art, Jay Caspian Kang remarked, “The reason we read books and listen to songs and look at paintings is to see the self in another self, or even to just see what other people are capable of creating.” Allison Russell’s second solo LP The Returner is one of those precious albums with which we get to inhabit another person’s self, unabashed and uninhibited, with all the pain and joy therein. Outside her music, Russell puts her money where her mouth is as an activist and ally for marginalized people; she does the same on her records. Musically, the album flits between funk, pop, disco, folk and other traditions — an unabashed celebration of Black culture and the women and nonbinary people who have helped it to flourish. It’s not about just surviving trauma but examining how to live with it and make it your friend, so you can continue to enjoy the beautiful act of living. RACHEL CHOLST
4. Joy Oladokun, Proof of Life (Amigo/Verve Forecast/Republic)
It was not surprising to see in my streaming year in review that I had listened to Joy Oladokun’s Proof of Life at least once, all the way through, every week since it came out in April. In the Scene’s Best of Nashville issue, I wrote about how she’s been everywhere in 2023; that includes on my stereo and in my head, singing me through this year. The album was co-produced by Oladokun, Mike Elizondo, Ian Fitchuk, Dan Wilson and Alysa Vanderheym and also features Noah Kahan, Chris Stapleton, The McCrary Sisters and others. There’s a palette of genres, from the subtly electronic Manchester Orchestra collab “You at the Table” to more rock, folk and pop tunes — all packed full of the kind of depth and emotion that rewards repeat listens. AMANDA HAGGARD
3. Snooper, Super Snooper (Third Man)
The strength of Snooper’s debut 12-inch comes from how pristinely dialed-in the band’s frenetic guitars and choppy beats sound. Sometimes that can be a detriment in the world of punk, a kind of sanitization, but not here. While Super Snooper has the anxious energy of guzzling a whole pot of coffee on an empty stomach, the band maintains razor-sharp technique throughout the 14 ultra-catchy tracks. Four of the songs were previously recorded for their 2020 debut EP Music for Spies, and another is a manic cover of L.A. cult New Wavers Suburban Lawns’ “Unable.” The result is 24 minutes of the most high-octane music the Nashville underground has ever given the world. P.J. KINZER
2. Be Your Own Pet, Mommy (Third Man)
When punk rock wunderkinds Be Your Own Pet disbanded in 2008, most Music City rock ’n’ roll aficionados probably didn’t expect them to return a decade-and-a-half later with a record featuring the lyric, “I got two kids and a mortgage, what the fuck?” After reuniting last year for a number of live gigs, BYOP — who formed 20 years ago while students at Nashville School of the Arts — returned to the studio with producer and longtime collaborator Jeremy Ferguson to track Mommy. The record is frontwoman Jemina Pearl & Co.’s most mature record to date (I mean, duh), but it also happens to be their best. From 10-megaton opening salvo “Worship the Whip” to the nervy “Rubberist” and “Last Kiss”-esque album closer “Teenage Heaven,” Mommy is a fully realized effort that captures the band’s electric live energy. It’s good to see them back. D. PATRICK RODGERS
1. Bully, Lucky for You (Sub Pop)
The fourth Bully album overall and the second with Alicia Bognanno operating as a solo project, Lucky for You brings in spades the punishing ’90s alt-rock hooks that set her apart a decade ago. Bognanno delivers her best work yet as a lyricist, vulnerably grieving the death of her beloved dog Mezzi (“Days Move Slow,” “A Wonderful Life”) and righteously railing against our worsening sociopolitical plight (“Ms. America,” “All This Noise”). One of the catchiest Bully songs yet, “Lose You” features Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison on harmony vocals and delivers a philosophically bleak opening line for the ages: “Time’s just a useless measurement of pain.” ADDIE MOORE
Talking with Bully’s rock ’n’ roll polymath Alicia Bognanno, counting down the year’s top local albums and more
