St. Louis Artists Star in New York Times' 'Best Albums' List

As they should be

Dec 5, 2023 at 6:58 am

Dylan Brady of 100 gecs. MICHAEL WORFUL

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The New York Times has published its annual "Best Albums" list, and a few of the featured artists were definitely raised on a steady diet of toasted ravioli and pork steaks.

Three artists from St. Louis — 100 gecs, SZA and Sexyy Red —received accolades from Times critics for producing work that "made an impact this year."

100 gecs, a hyperpop duo consisting of Dylan Brady and Laura Les, were the subject of a RFT cover story in April that detailed Brady and Les' success ascent from St. Louis County.

Instead of writing, "Duh, of course 100 gecs produced one of the best albums this year," pop music critic Lindsay Zoladz waxed poetic about the Kirkwood- and Webster Groves- raised duo and rated 100 gecs' 10,000 gecs as her top album of the year. "So much great pop music walks a tightrope between stupidity and brilliance," she wrote. "100 gecs see that tightrope and, in the opening moments of their kaleidoscopically anarchic second album, '10,000 gecs,' light it on fire."

As for Sexyy Red, the rapper has seen a meteoric rise in just the past year. If you spend any time on the internet at all, you've probably heard clips of her songs (notably, "SkeeYee") over and over again.

Red's single, "Pound Town," may have been her breakout song when it was released in January. But Red's 2023 album, Hood Hottest Princess, wove her into the fabric of popular culture. That'd be enough to get to any artists' head, but nothing about Red's explosive journey from St. Louis to the Billboard charts has kept her from continuing to be the same artist who made a name for herself by rapping about the color of her genitalia.

Pop music critic Jon Caramanica ranked Hood Hottest Princess his ninth best album of the year. "It's uncanny how unfinished but inevitable the songs on Sexyy Red's breakout album sound, as if the way to navigate the space between casual smack talk and rap's biggest stages wasn't a crazy leap, but a practically indifferent saunter," Caramanica wrote.

And to no surprise, SZA's latest album, SOS, the cover of which showed SZA wearing a Blues jersey, garnered much praise. Times music critic Jon Pareles wrote the artist's melodies "blur any difference between rapping and singing, in casually acrobatic phrases full of jazzy syncopations and startling leaps."

Guess you could say she's been flying high and fearless, baby.

We already knew SZA, 100 gecs and Sexyy Red were great, but these three musicians deserve all the recognition they get. Thanks for representing all that's weird and wild and wonderful about the Lou.