Best R&B Albums Of 2023 Recap

Although 2023 was by no means a smooth year globally, there was no shortage of soothing R&B albums to provide a dose of healing to listeners. Some new stars made their mark, while a number of prominent artists in the genre dropped projects for the first time in years.

SZA’s SOS may have dropped in late December of 2022, but its impact dictated the whole genre for the year, while Victoria Monét came back to the limelight with her breakthrough project Jaguar II, lifting her to become a leader in the genre.

Elsewhere, Brent Faiyaz capped off his banner 2022 with a follow-up project and plenty of features that cemented his place among the top players in the genre, and fans were treated to an incredible gift when Sampha ended his six-year layoff with the beautiful Lahai.

• The Best Hip Hop Albums of 2023 …(so far)
• The Best Rap Albums of 2023 …(so far)

Need some new songs to throw in the rotation but Spotify and user-created playlists are way too long? We kept it simple and added only the best of the best songs from each month to make sure you get the songs you need without a hassle. Peep the lists below.

• The Best Rap Songs of 2023 …(so far)
• The Best R&B Songs of 2023 …(so far)

Looking for some up and coming rappers and underground gems? We’ve done the work for you and highlighted the short EPs, mixtapes and projects to check out if you’re tired of the mainstream album cycle.

• The Best Mixtapes & EPs of 2023 …(so far)

Editor’s note: Albums from this list were released between January 1, 2023 – December 30, 2023.

Heaven knows – PinkPantheress

On her anticipated debut album, Heaven knows, PinkPantheress crafts her own Shakespearean tragedy, but doesn’t quite evolve from the themes or sounds of her past work. She utilizes heaps of avant garde synths, electronic dance, and percussion beats that add a sparkly gloss to lyrics which touch on heavier themes of death, love lost and unrequited, and grief. In doing so, she brings to light the darker sides of a young soul attempting to navigate heartbreak. It’s a poetic and dramatic compilation of breakup songs that will leave a listener dancing around their living room while yearning for their toxic ex. – Rosy Alvarez

Larger Than Life – Brent Faiyaz

On his fourth studio album Larger Than Life, Brent Faiyaz commissions Soulection star Dpat and other low-profile producers to create a landscape steeped in stylistic bars and 90s/early 2000s-inspired harmonies. It seems larger than life means larger connections for Brent, who not only commissions Virginia legends Timbaland and Missy Elliot for a few verses, but channels that Virginia Beach/Neptunes sound throughout the album. It’s almost as if songs like “Last One Left” and “Best Time” are the results of hours of Brent staying up gushing over Missy hits the night before recording. Brent’s always had an ear for good beats and features, but Larger Than Life showcases a specific intentionality to rep Maryland and source local. He creates a playground for the DMV’s Tommy Richman, Lil Gray, A$AP Ant and Cruddy Murda –along with hot-on-the-market artists like Babyface Ray, A$AP Rocky and Coco Jones– whose raps shine in a different light over emotive, downtempo instrumentals. The result is audacious, fun, and a turn away from the more sought out solemn guise of Brent Faiyaz. – Lauren Floyd

Lahai – Sampha

Time is one of humankind’s most common enemies. In addition to being indiscriminate, it will cut the best moments painfully short and make the worst moments drag out for what seems like eternity. Sampha understands this. He wrestled with the passing of his mother on his debut album Process and reluctantly accepted by the end that she would no longer be with him. Five years later, the U.K. singer returns with Lahai, a decidedly brighter album that puts Sampha in a more hopeful and self-accepting light. Where Process captured Sampha in the heat of his mourning, Lahai is a more rehabilitative experience. He centers the project around family, much like on his debut, though this time, the 34-year-old is penchant on his emotional recovery and finding himself in a place positive enough to be a guiding light for his young daughter.

Flying Or Falling – Jorja Smith

The first few years of Jorja Smith’s career have been a whirlwind. At just 20-years-old, off the strength of a couple of brilliant singles, the British singer found herself delivering a show-stopping performance on “Get It Together” from Drake’s More Life album. With rumors that the two briefly dated — which Drake seemingly addressed on Scorpion a year later — Smith entered a hellish news cycle that she couldn’t escape. Just before that, Smith released her debut Lost & Found, which showcased her mature songwriting and her supple vocals as she easily made her way through piercing ballads and jazzy experiments. She had found her forte, but with such little life experience and so much thrown at her all at once, it’s understandable that her follow-up album falling or flying took over five years to arrive. Half a decade can lead to a lot of changes in a person’s life, which Smith ponders on the lead single “Try Me.” Her anger combusts on the hook where she sings that “Nothing is ever enough” as she denies having ever switched up on anybody. The song fiercely allows Smith to let her emotions pour out, hinting that she’s got a lot on her chest she needs to let out. However the zeal with which she approaches the rest of the album is mostly relegated to the front half.

Jaguar II – Victoria Monet

Victoria Monét emerges from the foliage with the generationally incandescent Jaguar II. The 34-year-old former behind-the-scenes hit songwriter steps into the spotlight, putting her own spin on motherhood, femininity, and sexuality. Merging neo-soul with jazz and funk, Monét establishes herself in the genre spotlight with a record that bridges decades and genres. With appearances from dancehall giant Buju Banton and Earth, Wind & Fire legends Philip Bailey and Verdine White, Monét shows she can pay homage to the past while remaining unabashedly in the present. The elements all mesh together perfectly on the viral hit “On My Mama,” which not only captured attention with a choreographically ambitious visual but also the best hook of Monét’s already storied career. In Jaguar II, Monét doubles down on her instincts and it pays off with just the right combination of vision and throwback appreciation.

Fountain Baby – Amaarae

Fountain Baby feels like the culmination of her musical odyssey and desire to play with the tropes of genres that hadn’t fully grown yet. Much like how Hip Hop and R&B have been pushed and mangled into a bevy of sounds that make the genres bleed into all forms of music, Amaarae bends Afrobeats to her will, morphing the music of her heritage and the distinction of what it means to be a Ghanaian female artist. She’s unafraid of uncharted territory and willing to step outside the conventional box Americans place on Afrobeats, all while broadening the umbrella of dance music. Whether she’s experimenting with rock ensembles (“Come Home to God”) or staying true to Shekeres and goblet drums (“Big Steppa”) that are the backbone of Afro sounds, each song expounds on the next to bring a warm, organic feeling back into mainstream modern dance music.

The Age Of Pleasure – Janelle Monae

Those paying attention to Janelle Monáe’s career trajectory shouldn’t have been surprised when she announced the direction of her new album The Age of Pleasure. Yes, Monáe rarely showed skin at the beginning of her career, but she began to explore her sexuality once Dirty Computer came around. As she began to accept herself through a more traditionally feminine lens, she maintained her interest in exploring different forms of freedom across several aesthetic backdrops. Both The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady followed a time-traveling android sent to an era where a secret society actively suppressed freedom and love. With those albums setting the foundation for a larger exploration of Monáe’s sexual liberation, The Age of Pleasure sees her fully embracing it. In just 30 minutes, Monáe spends her time drinking too much champagne, musing over herself, and setting her sights on a potential long-term partner. Much of the subject matter ditches the depth that permeated her past efforts in exchange for lighter, more sensual material aimed at self-acceptance and personal freedom.

Never Enough – Daniel Caesar

Never Enough functions as a break-up album, but it also marks a redemption arc for a flawed man with equally flawed views to make a case at proving he’s matured. He apologized for the YesJulz comments and took the time to come to terms with hurting people both in his fandom and in his personal life. The growth shows, especially on “Buyer’s Remorse” and “Pain Is Inevitable,” though a lengthy runtime and inconsistent themes can sometimes feel like Caesar had two different visions but combined them into one sprawling project covering four years of absence.

On Top Of The Covers – T-Pain

A few years ago, T-Pain, the godfather of autotune, found himself in a deep depression. One of the best R&B vocalists in history, Usher – and someone he considered a friend – told him quite seriously: “You kind of fucked up music.” Arguably the bedrock of the rapper, producer, and singer-songwriter’s hugely successful career had reduced him in stature in the eyes of his contemporaries. The next several years he struggled with depression and anxiety. Four years removed from his last studio effort, the 16-bit-infused 1UP, the lasting impacts of that conversation are felt heavily on On Top of the Covers. On an unvarnished and full-throated collection of cover songs, T-Pain flexes his vocal prowess completely without autotune. And the results speak for themselves.

Raven – Kelela

Brimming with synth undercurrents, translucid melodies, and delightfully jarring production shifts, Raven is a transfixing ode to human connection, interpersonal communication, and Black femininity. This sophomore effort finds the L.A.-based, Ethiopian American singer is at a different place mentally than she was when crafting 2017 debut LP Tear Me Apart. Musically it’s the same atmospheric electronica grinding against progressive R&B – in other words dance music that’s as appropriate for the bedroom, alone or with company, as it is over speakers in the club. At its root, Raven is a response to anyone who made the mistake of thinking that Kelela’s hiatus was an ill-omen with regard to her career. Looking for a symbol of rebirth, she came across the raven. Some consider it forbidding – a symbol of loss – but it’s also the talking bird and a connection between spirit realms. Few storytellers can land that kind of nuance, and Kelela is one of them.

Girl In The Half Pearl – Liv.E

On Girl In The Half Pearl, Liv.e clashes drum & bass with stacked harmonies, goes full techno to a fuck-haters rant, and fills bottomless voids with reverb’d screams to compile a montage of frequencies. “I’m finally in a place to talk my shit with a new mindset of being able to say what’s on my heart,” she told Matthew Ritchie for Rolling Stone. It’s not like the 25-year old L.A. native hasn’t opened her diary to the world before. But unlike on prior projects, she’s not interested in moseying around in romance…she’s tired of discussing the subject. Girl In The Half Pearl is more brash than her previous entries, exploring the dark, hidden parts of her heart to examine her inner turmoil.

SOS – SZA

It’s been five years since her debut album CTRL, and though she hasn’t gone completely missing in action since then – she’s appeared on Summer Walker, DJ Khaled, and Doja Cat projects – it’s the first time we get to hear her perspective on her absence and everything that’s been going on in her world, not through Twitter interpretations, or he said/she said drama, direct from the source. Throughout her career SZA has operated in the space of experimental R&B, foregoing traditional song structures, power vocals, and one dimensional writing for other techniques. Though SOS finds itself experimenting with new sounds, there’s a clear shift to a more pop focused sound. In her decade-long career SZA has proven that her strength as an artist lies in her sharp writing and the blending of genres to build her own unique sound world. This mingled with the stream of conscious flow many of her songs emote shapes much of SOS into a deeply personal – sometimes too much so – testament of work.

What I Didn’t Tell You – Coco Jones

With her powerful vocals, smooth beats, and introspective lyrics, Coco Jones’ What I Didn’t Tell You (Deluxe) showcases Coco’s versatility and musical range. From soulful ballads to upbeat pop tracks, the album offers something for everyone and highlights Coco’s growth and evolution as an artist. If you’re looking for a powerful and impactful listen, What I Didn’t Tell You is definitely worth checking out.