Hello, everyone! Welcome to the fourth of my six year-end lists, The Top 10 Worst Albums of 2023!

Just like with the worst songs list, I’m not putting a ton of effort into this post. Over the holidays I’d much rather spend time with friends and family and work on my positive year-end lists over these ‘worst’ lists … but it’s tradition for me—yes, I know it’s only the second year I’ve done this, but it feels like tradition—so here is my final ‘worst’ list for this year, and then we can move on to the good stuff!

These are just my personal least favourite albums of the year … feel free to disagree with any of it. I’m just some guy talking about my least favourite albums of the year, and the only reason I put ‘worst’ in the title is because it’s a catchier title.

And most importantly, I’m not making this post to be mean or anything. So, if you’re an artist, producer, etc. whose album appears on this list, I hope you don’t take this personally. Not that I think anyone who made these albums is actually reading this, but I should make this clear just in case. And also, if you’re a fan of these albums, that’s great! We can agree to disagree!

Alright, time for the list:

#10 – …So Unknown by Jesus Piece

I don’t really know what to say about this one other than that it’s pretty much the furthest thing from being the kind of metal music I actually like. To me it just sounds like noise, and while I’m sure there’s more to it than that, I just get pretty much nothing out of it.

I do think the album ends really well with “The Bond” which I think is pretty well mixed and has some really good guitar distortion and punchy snares, but pretty much everything up to that point is barely listenable in my opinion.

I mean, I’m not the biggest death metal fan, but even by death metal standards I feel like I’ve heard way better.

#9 – Five Easy Hot Dogs by Mac DeMarco

I decided not to listen to Mac DeMarco’s 199-song album from 2023 for obvious reasons, but if there’s an album that felt like the snooze fest of the year for me, it’s probably this one … I don’t think there’s much about it that’s unlistenable, but I just get so bored listening to it. There’s pretty much nothing here that stands out to me in a positive way at all.

#8 – For All The Dogs by Drake

At this point, I’m just really tired of talking about Drake’s music. And here we have an overly long Drake album that doesn’t feel nearly as interesting as I think it’s supposed to be … and maybe there’s more to it than I realize—I’ll be honest, I kind of half-assed my review of the album—no, I really half-assed it—but I did sit through it twice and that was enough for me to know I didn’t want to sit through it any more … so, yeah, maybe I’m being hypocritical considering how little effort I put into my review of this and how little I’m saying about it, but if I’m being honest I just couldn’t get into this album at all, and I don’t want to spend more time listening to it to try and get into it.

#7 – This Town is Death by NEUPINK

Sam Strawberry’s final two albums under the name NEUPINK were released in 2023 (although Sam has released more music since), and one of those albums—opt-in to remove myself—is a really strong album with some gorgeous moments on it!

But this album … holy shit, the difference in quality (in my opinion) between these two albums is … I don’t even know what to say.

The thing is, while I don’t find these tracks super interesting compositionally, I don’t think the compositions are all that bad—in fact, there are seeds of a good album here in my opinion.

But this might be the least I’ve liked the production on any 2023 album! I get that it was probably an artistic choice, but in my opinion, the mixing sounds awful with the way the drums are buried and the guitar distortion is super overpowering. The production sounds super blown out.

#6 – Life Is But a Dream… by Avenged Sevenfold

This album feels like it’s trying so hard to be super deep, and yet it doesn’t feel deep at all … it feels like it’s all disguised by grand instrumentation, and it doesn’t really feel interesting at all.

Actually, that’s not true … it is an interesting album, although not in a good way.

The first half of the album, while it isn’t even close to something I would go out of my way to listen to, is not awful. However, once we get into the second half of the album, it gets much more annoying, with some awful choruses and vocal effects, and the production gets worse.

And also, this album is full of nihilism to a toxic extent … and yes, I know it’s art and it’s open to interpretation, and I have nothing against the songwriters personally, but the song writing here feels really questionable. And the album is a total slog to get through in my opinion.

#5 – The Album by Jonas Brothers

Yay! More super generic pop songs with annoying choruses and terrible production! I mean, as always this is all just my opinion, but I really struggle to see the appeal of this album. There’s almost nothing about it that I like at all.

And I’m getting tired of talking about terrible albums, so for now all I’m going to say is this: if all you’ve heard from this album is “Waffle House” and you think that song is terrible, well … as someone who also doesn’t like that song at all, this album gets MUCH worse!

#4 – Grapes Upon the Vine by TV Girl

I remember reviewing this album months ago … and it wasn’t even much of a review. And that’s because it’s yet another example of an album I just didn’t feel like putting in the effort to really talk about much, and I spent more time talking around it.

And again, I’m not great at analyzing lyrics, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but it feels like this album is being disguised as really deep and meaningful, but to me it doesn’t feel like it has much to say. I mean, maybe there’s more to it than I realize, but I don’t even think it has a good musical disguise—at least Life Is But a Dream… by Avenged Sevenfold has some musical moments with a big sound to it that feels like an attempt at grandness, even though I don’t think it works at all. This album just makes me wonder, ‘How did this get released as it is?’

And I don’t even like the production, with so many really awkward percussion choices in my opinion and mixing that doesn’t work for me at all.

#3 – It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day by Thirty Seconds to Mars

Not too long ago curiosity got the best of me and I listened to AMERICA by Thirty Seconds to Mars, their 2018 album which has received super negative reviews. And I thought it was awful on first listen, and I haven’t listened to it since … hmm, I wonder why.

Well, curiosity got the best of me once again and I decided to check out this new album, partially because, well … yes, I’ll admit I’m one of those people who will sometimes go looking for worst list material … and this is absolutely worst list material in my opinion!

I guess this is what people who don’t like Imagine Dragons hear when listening to their music? Maybe? Because this feels so overblown musically and it sounds like it’s going for this huge, epic sound and in my opinion it fails miserably. There’s pretty much nothing about this that I find even the slightest bit interesting.

And I think the production is awful, with the instrumental timbres not fitting with each other at all, and it’s the kind of combination of pop and rock elements that feels like it can’t decide what it wants to be.

So, like I expected, I found this to be among the worst albums I’ve heard all year … and believe it or not, there are 2 albums I heard from 2023 that I think are worse than this!

#2 – Maybe It’s Me… by DDG

Yes, once again we’re getting to the point where I feel like I’m out of things to say. I’m excited to move on to the ‘best’ lists, but I’m pretty much just doing these ‘worst’ lists because I want to have this tradition, and also I feel like it makes the albums/songs on the ‘best’ lists stand out more, if that makes any sense.

Late in the year, I was looking for worst list material, and I came across this album getting super negative reviews, and curiosity got the best of me … and I honestly kind of wish it didn’t, even though I found material for this list. It’s not even like this is bad in a funny way, it’s just miserable to listen to … and also very misogynistic, as far as I can tell. And yes, I know it’s art, and art is open to interpretation, but to me this just feels gross, and it makes me wonder, ‘Was this even supposed to be good?’ Especially when pretty much everything about it is awful in my opinion—the lyrics, the flows, the instrumentals … there’s pretty much nothing about it that stands out to me in a positive way, and I think the lyrics suck pretty much consistently throughout the album, and the flows and instrumentals get really annoying, too.

And even the production, while not the worst I’ve heard all year, isn’t very good, either, in my opinion, with the instruments blending together in such a strange way that it just feels like a muddy mess, and the mixing doesn’t sound very tight, either, with DDG’s rapping usually sounding too loud compared to the instrumentals. So, honestly I just recommend you stay away from this album. Even if you’re looking for worst list material like I was, I’d recommend pretty much any other album on this list except for this one … although, there might be one exception …

But before we get to that …

Dishonourable Mentions:

In no particular order …

4 (The Pink Album) by Lukas Graham: I struggle to see why this is being considered one of the absolute worst albums of the year. I get the appeal of the emotional song writing here, but I just don’t really feel gripped by it, and there are some really annoying choruses on this album.

This Is Why by Paramore: Well, I guess this is where I get cancelled … but the messy production just doesn’t work for me here at all, and I don’t find the melodies interesting.

Strangeworld by Throw the Fight: I mentioned in my mini review of this album that it reminds me of STARSET, and like with most of the STARSET music I’ve heard, I just really struggle to get into it. I find the production annoying at points, and there’s just not much about it that I like all that much … in fact, it feels bland to the point where it gets annoying.

everything is alive by Slowdive: Dream pop at its worst? I mean, I’m not much of a Slowdive fan in general, but I definitely thought I would like this more than I do. The production just feels like a mess to me, and I think it’s a total snooze fest.

Tell Me I’m Alive by All Time Low: If it weren’t for “New Religion” this would definitely have a shot at the top 10, with arguably some of the worst airy production I’ve heard all year, and the vocals often sound drowned out in the mix. And there’s no shortage of annoying hooks, either.

Good Living Is Coming For You by Sweeping Promises: This is definitely not my style of post-punk. Very little about it really gripped me, and the foggy production really holds me back from liking it more.

But now, it’s time for #1 …

#1 – Lil Pump 2 by Lil Pump

Yes, this is that Lil Pump. The Lil Pump who made everyone’s favourite song to hate, “Gucci Gang” … and while I don’t like that song at all, was it really that bad? I don’t think so. At least not compared to his new album.

I often listen to parts of the albums on my worst albums list right before posting it so I can refresh my memory a bit, but I don’t want to do that here. I don’t want to listen to this any more. If you want, you can read my review of the album, which isn’t really much of a review at all. But based on my memory, this album is full of morally problematic lyrics and awful production, with some of the worst flows I’ve heard all year. And I’d say that still, to this date, this is the worst album I’ve reviewed on my website in my opinion … let’s see if anyone can top that in 2024.

…

But what I’m more excited about than that is talking about the best music of 2023! Next up is The Top 50 Best Albums of 2023, and then The Top 100 Best Songs of 2023!

Once again, I hope no one took any of this personally. These are just my personal feelings on these albums at the end of the day.

As always, thanks for reading this post, and I’ll be back soon with the best albums of the year!