The 60 best albums of 2023

We said: “as frank as it is about isolation, the record finds plenty of joy in space and silence. ‘Skylight’, the album’s opener, paints a sunshiny picture of life in the British countryside. Folk-pop track ‘I Wish I Didn’t Press Send’ is the twinkliest, cosiest song about drunken regrets you’ll ever hear; blunt and earnest about what happens when your only source of entertainment is getting wine drunk on your sofa. Aplin has produced a rare thing: a lockdown record that holds up.” Read more…

We said: “Bouncing off the ironies of singing coming-of-age songs when you’re old enough to have “kids and dystopia”, Late Developers veers wonderfully from the dancefloor to the smoking area to the last bus home and back again. Sometimes lost in the beat (‘So In The Moment’), often intimate (‘Will I Tell You a Secret’) the harpsichords and synths mingle in the middle like rival gangs at a school dance.” Read more…

We said: “Sift through the sizeable string of singles released by Biig Piig over the last few years and you’ll open doors into rooms of many vibes. Jazzy, lo-fi hip hop. Smooth and summery groove and breezy disco. Drum ‘n’ bass influenced post-punk. Maybe it’s this eclecticism that lead Jessica Smyth to lean towards the more open-ended concept of a mixtape with the release of Bubblegum, just about her longest release yet.” Read more…

We said: “‘Asking For A Ride’ suggests that one or two things the band picked up from their 2021 cover of Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’ have stuck around. White Reaper have never sounded this heavy and they wear it well. The song so perfectly encapsulates thrash metal’s blurred lines with punk, it may as well come raging out of the speakers in a pair of white high-tops and a biker jacker. Eddie Munson would have loved it.” Read more…

We said: “You wait years for a post-punk band and then 634 of them come along at once. In a world where anyone with an art degree and a trench coat is speak-singing over jittery, angular guitars, it’s harder than ever to stand out. Thank the heavens, then, for The Tubs, a band that makes post-punk so invigorating and engaging that it deserves better than to be called post-punk.” Read more…

We said: “At this point, Shame don’t need to impress anyone. From unofficial house band of South London’s best small venue to cult heroes to the rapturous love of music critics, the quartet have always played like their lives depended on it. There’s been a sense the whole way along that they weren’t satisfied unless everyone in the room was a part of the same, sweaty, messy entity. If you’re not on board by now, that’s probably on you.” Read more…

We said: “As hard to pigeonhole as they are to say, PIGSx7 hit a niche somewhere between the sub-genres of psychedelia, stoner metal, noise rock, doom and sludge – carving out their own circle pit with room-sized riffs and experimental stomp. As ever, Land Of The Sleeper is the sound of a storm endlessly breaking – an album that builds itself up and attacks in waves – but here the swell hits harder than we’re used to.” Read more…

We said: “Polachek doesn’t just want to do what she loves and only what she loves – she wants to be overtaken by her passions, to entirely become them. On ‘Sunset’, she doesn’t just want to end up with the person she loves, but to run off with them into an orange sky like the end of a movie. The album’s lead single, ‘Bunny Is A Rider’, shows Polachek as she wants to be – elusive, always on the move, impossible to pin down. She rides off to the tune of cheerful whistling melody and disappears round corners.” Read more…

We said: “The mind recoils at 25-minute ‘Wow, we got kinda lost in that’ jam bands. Yet Yo La Tengo’s technique has captured so many spontaneous rehearsal room moments that usually vanish into the ether. It all feels intimate, immediate and magical, although you don’t envy them the hours of tape they must have waded through. This Stupid World may lack the indie pop anthems that YLT regularly dole out, but it replaces them with moments of unexpected beauty.” Read more…

We said: “Shania doesn’t waste time letting us know that she’s excited to throw herself back into country. “I left my heart at a watering hole somewhere in small town Ohio”, she sings in the opening verse of ‘Giddy Up!’, over a beat even the most un-American listener instinctively wants to line dance to. The album’s opener is practically a call to arms for country fans; an unapologetic embrace of everything fun about the genre, with a chorus that sounds like the Nashville equivalent of scatting.” Read more…

We said: “Musically, My 21^st Century Blues is adventurous; spanning pop, hip hop, R&B, EDM and jazz. Ambitious and occasionally wonderfully chaotic production reminds us that RAYE is no new upstart, but an artist grinding away at her craft for seven years before a bid for independence allowed her to release a debut album. When she sits down on the album’s final track to play a piano ballad called ‘Buss It Down’, she somehow gets away with it.” Read more…

We said: “Sonorous and splendidly Scottish, the voice of Hamish Hawk is one that commands attention, one that gives his storytelling nowhere to hide. Luckily for him, as his 2021 breakthrough album, Heavy Elevator, proved, he has quite a knack for it, unfurling lines of vivid vignettes with space for laughter and intrigue.” Read more…

We said: “Harnessing the power of collaboration whilst continuing an evolution into a new, heavier form, VOID ETERNAL is a game-changing record. A celebration of the scene that made him, the bands that inspired him, and the legacy that he’s now weaving – through vulnerability, connection and expression – nothing,nowhere is carrying the torch for alternative music.” Read more…

We said: “The three songwriting talents join forces to dazzling effect, their individuality not diminished by the thematic cohesiveness of the album. Spirited indie rock fuses with melancholy ballads, the overarching feeling one of vulnerability, doubt and self-exploration. It’s best summed up in this lyric from the short but impactful ‘Leonard Cohen’: “I might like you less now that you know me so well.” Read more…

We said: “It’s a journey of self-discovery that ends us back in the middle of her discography, in candy necklaces and illicit affairs, and a nickname that sounds suspiciously like ‘Lolita’. Del Rey wants us to see the whole of her, but she also wants us to know that this is what she has always been, this girl in a white dress waiting to be kissed. It may be a stylised self-portrait, but she was always the one holding the pen.” Read more…

We said: “So Much (For) Stardust doesn’t have the cocksure swagger of the records that made Fall Out Boy global superstars, nor does it have the stadium-filling choruses, but it is the most complete record they’ve made in a long, long time. More importantly, it sounds like a record made by a band in love with what they’ve done before and what they might do in the future.” Read more…

We said: “Irish trad has a particular power. It’s a kind of direct connection to your emotional core, built on ballads and stories that ache with tragedy, loss and regret. Lankum may distort the form somewhat into altered shapes, but none of the impact is dulled by their experimentation. In fact, False Lankum often feels all the more potent for the band’s sonic storytelling. At times, unbearably so.” Read more…

We said: “No longer constrained by trying to soundtrack imaginary 80s movies, M83 is free to make every track sound like its own Labyrinth. Less focused but more powerful, here the layers build and swell more organically – nods to Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros, Dead Can Dance, New Order and Tangerine Dream weaving around each other on the same tracks, washing the whole album in tidal waves of sound.” Read more…

We said: “Sometime in 1968, Keith Richards met Gram Parsons. Kindred spirits in multiple ways, the two struck up a friendship that wound up contributing a whole load of twang to the Stones’ sound, carrying way more authenticity than a bunch of West Londoners had any right to. Since then, many bands have followed the swaggering, stomping, spacey, bluesy country road they paved, but it’s hard to think of any that have done it better than The Nude Party.” Read more…

We said: “This is a pop star who knows how to win in her genre. Her lyricism is sharp and incredibly deliberate, packing her songs full of lines that her audience can scream with their friends at pre-drinks and easily echo back to her at live shows. She strikes a careful balance between the personal and relatable, revealing just enough to keep the song from sounding generic whilst at the same time holding enough back that she doesn’t push the listener out of the story.” Read more…

We said: “Maybe it’s just the memory of divvying up a record collection at the end of a relationship. Maybe it’s just Matt Berninger leaving clues that don’t go anywhere. Whatever it is, the reinvention of The National is written large all over First Two Pages Of Frankenstein – a journey back to self-confidence in some of the most emotionally direct songs the band have ever given us.” Read more…

We said: “Fuse is a soulful pop record, one that’s deeply in love with dance music, but also has a warmth and tenderness that comes from it truly being two people in a room, rather than an army of writers and producers. It doesn’t have the slick feel and Day-Glo colours of much of the dance and EDM that has flourished in the years since Everything But The Girl stopped making albums, but that’s just as well. This is a tender, delicate thing to be treasured.” Read more…

We said: “Recorded in an off-grid farmhouse using nothing but solar power, that sense of rejuvenation rings through every moment on A Kiss For The Whole World. From the trance nods of ‘Bloodshot’ to the orchestral flourishes of ‘Dead Wood’ and the spacey interludes that divide the album’s segments, each creative decision feels brilliantly self-aware, dazzling with the grandeur, exuberance and energy of a band with a new lease of life.” Read more…

We said: “There’s something undeniably cinematic in this world of young people leaning on each other and struggling to get by, pursuing toxic relationships and self-medicating. Blondshell references it in ‘Joiner’, an infectious Britpop ode to teenage dirtbag culture. “Think you watched way too much HBO growing up,” she sings. It’s no wonder Gen Z have warmed to her so quickly. The kids aren’t alright, but at least they have good songs to play.” Read more…

We said: “Wednesday specialise in wrong-footing you in the best ways. Opener ‘Hot Rotten Grass Smell’ gives you four seconds of muted guitar before setting fire to the whole thing. ‘Got Shocked’ starts like a slow country ballad but keeps speeding up for its first 15 seconds, leaving you unsure if it’s still accelerating when it’s reached its destination. It’s even more disconcerting then, when they follow it with an actual slow country ballad (‘Formula One’) that doesn’t do anything other than lay you out flat.” Read more…

We said: “Written during a period of deep personal introspection, But Here We Are marks the first time that Grohl has penned lyrics for an album before its music came together. Moving through the stages of grief, capturing each as vividly as the last, from denial, sorrow, and rage to acceptance, the album is an emotional gut punch; backed by some of the band’s most impassioned performances in years.” Read more…

We said: “The dichotomy at the heart of The Dirty Nil is what makes them so special. Fun and ferocity, hooks and heft, bubblegum and battering rams, their determination to be so many opposing things at once shouldn’t work anywhere near as well as it does. Few bands are this catchy and hit this hard but, seven years later, The Dirty Nil’s ear-splitting volume still feels like teenagers giddily plugging in for the first time and discovering just how loud this thing can go.” Read more…

We said: “First thing’s first: this album is horny. To call it sultry is too suggestive. Debauched too dismissive. This is straight up horny. The breezy groove of Kaytranada’s back catalogue has always been considered sexy, and Aminé has had a lewd sense of humour since his 2016 debut ‘Caroline‘, but together, Kaytraminé are riled up and ready to rage. In one of the album’s more PG lines: “I’m starin’ at your eyes but you starin’ at my lips/ You talkin’ ’bout your momma but you thinkin’ ’bout my”… you get the gist.” Read more…

We said: “Some things are much harder than they seem. Keepy uppies. Latte art. Monkey bars. Getting a full night’s sleep past the age of 40. But these all pale in comparison to the Perfect Three-Minute Pop Song. It’s a true artform of deceptive complexity, binding together laser-focused melodies, memorable vocal lines and engaging lyrics in a confined space. The best make it look stupidly easy, but the best are few and far between.” Read more…

We said: “The Lemon Twigs have outdone themselves. Over their three previous albums, the brothers D’Addario suggested they were inching ever closer to the greatness that inspires them, the brilliance of a Todd Rundgren or Alex Chilton. Everything Harmony is the realisation of all that promise, a record that takes the high points of Go To School, Do Hollywood and Songs For The General Public and hits them song after song for 48 wonderful minutes.” Read more…

We said: “A smooth, introspective collection of jazz and soul-influenced pop, it sees Dean exploring love, identity and self-worth in her usual to-the-point style. It’s a way of writing that pulls many of the songs out of time, with lyrics that feel as if they could be from almost any decade. “Maybe it’s the loving in your eyes/Maybe it’s the magic in the wine,” she sings on ‘Dive’… “I know it’s danger/But I want your love to be mine,” she confesses on ‘Danger.’ There isn’t a clunky line in sight.” Read more…

We said: “These are Militarie Gun’s catchiest songs yet, even counting ‘Pressure Cooker’. Just try listening to ‘Very High’ or ‘Never F*cked Up Once’ and getting them out of your head. Nick Cogan and William Acuña’s guitar work mixes up the assault, holding back the assault to give the hooks space to breathe. Militarie Gun aren’t the first heavy band to focus more on melody, but they do it on a level with the greats.” Read more…

We said: “It’s only natural that In Times New Roman… should reflect such a heavy period. A press statement describes the band’s eighth album as “raw, at times brutal and not for the faint of heart”. Sure, Homme does paint a world of oblivion, human sacrifice, purging, preparing for war and other images of chaos – but musically In Times New Roman… might be one of Queens Of The Stone Age’s most accessible outputs.” Read more…

We said: “In the post-One Direction world, nobody for a second is going to question Harry’s dominance. But the sparkle, scale and spectacle of Mr Styles isn’t Niall Horan… Horan has given himself time to find his feet as a solo artist, but he’s done it with a panache and verve that has generally escaped Irish ex-boyband members. Heartbreak Weather overwhelmingly proved that the Mullingar man is in nobody’s shadow, but The Show is unquestionably the moment he finds his groove.” Read more…

We said: “Pretty much every track is a reminder – to herself, to the listener – to swig this Champagne Sh*t down, to repeat that you’re phenomenal, to look into the mirror and say yes I’m sexy and leave a lipstick mark on your way out. “This is our oasis made with love”, the singer wrote in a statement, “rooted in self-acceptance, throbbing in self-discovery, and signed with cherry red kisses from me to you”. Throughout The Age Of Pleasure, Monáe contorts the pitch and timbre of her versatile vocal range to reflect this metamorphosis.” Read more…

We said: “Long enough and complex enough to be frequently self-referential, it builds on much of the sound introduced in Redcar and expands out the otherworld we caught a glimpse of, turning it into a bridge between the physical and metaphysical. Chris speculates on the form of an angel, lets a spiritual longing bleed into physical desire, falls in love and accepts heartbreak, speaks directly to some form of A.I. God, and misses his mum. When you lay it all out, to do it in 20 tracks seems almost restrained.” Read more…

We said: “With an acoustic at his side throughout, the musical world around him is lush and orchestral, blurry-edged and pleasingly layered. The experience is best enjoyed as a 45-minute whole, though the singles also speak for themselves. It’s a world away from the arena sized experiments of Who Built The Moon?, but down on Earth, down on the streets of Moss Side, Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds invite you to get lost in a dream.” Read more…

We said: “Nothing about this album is straightforward, whether that’s in production, structure or format. It’s a whopping 19 tracks long, with five of them not marking the 90-second mark, and one done in under 30 seconds. Sonically, it shifts between a kind of trippy, Magical Mystery Tour era Beatles sensibility, The Shins when they’re at their wackiest and spooky Hammer Horror style strings, with touches of The Flaming Lips and The Kinks thrown in for good measure.” Read more…

We said: “Country pop and rock ‘n’ roll mean very different things in 2023 than they did in 1958. By current standards, to call Cut Worms the best marriage of those genres in the longest time would probably lead you to all the wrong conclusions. However, if you pine for more contemporary acts to reference the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison, then pull up a seat. We’ve a lot to talk about.” Read more…

We said: “A celestial odyssey that solidifies Greta Van Fleet’s position as a formidable force in contemporary rock, Starcatcher proves the band’s ability to reach higher. Embracing their roots whilst constantly seeking out fresh challenges, it’s an invitation to embark on a cosmic journey. If rock ‘n’ roll is the spaceship, Greta Van Fleet are firmly in the pilot seat.” Read more…

We said: “Wembley felt like such an emotional night for Blur because, well, it was Wembley, but also because the band have finally made their peace with who they are. Blur aren’t something to be left in the 90s and swapped for Gorillaz or The Waeve or film scores or cheesemaking – Blur are heartfelt, life-affirming, art-school indie rock. Newness and nostalgia wrapped up together in something electric. Stadium-sized sentiment and slightly ironic mosh pits. Everything The Ballad Of Darren does so beautifully.” Read more…

We said: “The singer’s third album is a sparkly, string-filled affair packed with detailed love stories and some truly excellent country pop choruses – but it’s also a frank portrait of a young woman between the ages of 18 and 20, growing into adulthood but not entirely ready to leave her teenage years behind. What makes Speak Now special is that Swift, weary of accusations that she wasn’t the mind behind her material, opted not to work with any collaborators and wrote every track on her own.” Read more…

We said: “Most people become musicians to escape the grind. It’s the romantic myth that drives so much of the lifestyle’s allure. So, it’s something of an anomaly for an artist to find himself back in the repetition of the daily commute and to then use the experience to inspire something as beautiful and expressive as The Last Remaining Light.” Read more…

We said: “’Who’s inneath The Ooser-Rod?/ Horny devil? Goaty God?/ What is God in ethly guise?/ One or mampus giant eyes?’ Harvey chants on ‘A Child’s Question, July’ – speaking lyrics that come with their own glossary in the liner notes. Wrapping stanzas about solitude and nature and a Christ/Elvis/ghost-demon-lover around ambient field recordings of the Dorset woodland, playing I Inside The Old Year Dying out loud feels like it might summon something nasty out of the soil. This is music to burn a wicker man to.” Read more…

We said: “From song to song, everything is alive plays with a sense of space, finding comfort in both distance and proximity. ‘shanty’ opens with synths like underwater heartbeats, jagged guitars and Halstead and Rachel Goswell’s voices swimming out of the darkness. The gorgeous instrumental ‘a prayer remembered’ withdraws from those immense depths, feeling womb-like in its gentle, enveloping thrum.” Read more…

We said: “Ratboys break with their own traditions in defiant style on the sprawling ‘Black Earth, WI’. Where their usual method is taut and direct, this is a rare exception where they seem to be following the song, letting it lead them off into long digressions and back. The loose, improvisational feel suits the band well and if any song on The Window deserves to be over eight minutes long, it’s this one. You can only imagine how great it’ll sound live.” Read more…

“Ever had your heart broken and thought, “This is hell?” So has Hozier. But unlike most of us, he’s gone on to write a sweeping, ambitious 16-track record about the experience, inspired by Dante’s Inferno, and laced with mythological references, a reverence for nature and a stubborn hope. This is what the Irish singer-songwriter does – repackage the universal into the magically untouchable. And his third studio album is the best yet.” Read more…

We said: “Picking up pretty much exactly where they left off, this isn’t The Hives getting old and slow – and it’s not them dabbling with new sounds and different moods – this is all the teen energy of ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ played better and louder and stronger. It’s The Stooges and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins dragged along sticky floors to make the kind of music that gets kids wanting to pick up a guitar and break all the strings.” Read more…

We said: “There’s always been a cheerful nihilism to the Front Bottoms’ best work – a kind of shrugging, smiling, ‘it is what it is’ response to the messiness both around and within them. Equally, the duo’s songwriting is often painfully vulnerable. These are the facts of the situation. This is how they feel about them. None of it can be helped, and that’s not necessarily depressing. It’s just the way it is.” Read more…

We said: “Mitski has fallen in love. And she’s fallen out of it. She’s been given it, and she’s had it torn away, and she’s mourned it, and she’s celebrated it. On The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We, the singer-songwriter explores all of these states of being, and posits that both in the act and in its absence, love is chaos.” Read more…

We said: “As it plays out, the Irish singer’s sixth solo album is a procession of low-key gems that still shine – at times at her brightest – despite only a few moments of what might be considered chart-ready hits. One of these is the single ‘Fader’, which recalls Texas’ ‘You Can Say What You Want’ with its gentle breakbeat, late 90s dreaminess and strong female lead vocal. Another is the breezy disco number, ‘Free Will’, complete with ‘pew pew’ lazer drops.” Read more…

We said: “Much like a Studio Ghibli film, there’s something distinctive, ethereal, and transformative about Sampha’s work. Lahai encapsulates just that – equal parts a nod to his past and a giant leap into his future, the album delicately guides listeners through sonic experimentation, stories of grief, his family and heritage (the album title is both his grandfather’s name and his own middle name), and so much more. As he says on the album’s lead single ‘Spirit 2.0’, “…dreaming with these open eyes”, and that’s exactly what the sensory experience is for listeners of Lahai.” 

We said: “Being an angsty teenager is hard, Rodrigo reminded us on Sour. On Guts, she returns two years wiser to remind us of a second truth – it’s also pretty funny. Rodrigo’s sophomore album isn’t much happier in theme, but it’s joyous in sound, as the young songwriter swaps out some of her ballads and bubblegrunge for riot girl pop and sardonic spoken verse. Those who fell for tracks like ‘Driver’s License’ will find plenty to love here, with lead single ‘Vampire’ essentially a more polished, more biting (sorry) version of her breakout hit. But Rodrigo has plenty more to offer, if her audience have the stomach for it.” 

We said: “The group play sad clowns across the record. The lines between real and imagined are blurred, seven-minute epics like ‘Space Invader’ made uncomfortably visceral by Matt Berninger’s obsessive whispers beneath the track’s steady crescendo of sound. Whilst First Two Pages…made some reaches towards radio singles, Laugh Track only wants to make the listener understand. Sonically, the songs take the space they need, whilst lyrically, Berninger always shoots from the hip.” Read more…

We said: “For a band already famed within heavy music circles for their constant evolution, Kvelertak are at their most confident and creative form to date on Endling. The six-piece’s skill for universal storytelling bleeds into every note they play, further proving themselves as a collective of some of the most talented musicians in their scene. Endling ushers in a new era of rock ‘n’ roll escapism.” Read more…

We said: “Humberstone’s debut has been a long time coming. She’s more pop girl than she ever has been, but even in its shiniest moments the album is morose and obsessive, leaning into an “I would die for you” type of teenage love that Humberstone is careful to never satirise. There are no winks to camera here, no implication that one day she will be older and wiser. She is painting and climbing her bedroom walls, and we would do well to take her entirely seriously.”

We said: “Having played the piano from age nine, Barry Can’t Swim really shines on melodic tracks like ‘How It Feels’, ‘Sonder’ and ‘Woman’. But there are many layers to this 11-track project, as it steadily builds in both emotion and sound. Transcending the realms of traditional house music albums, When Will We Land knows exactly when to go deep and when to just cut loose and have a good time. ‘Sunsleeper’ is ecstasy captured in sonic form. Dance music and spiritual awakenings often go hand in hand, and by the time we get to final track ‘Define Dancing’, Barry Can’t Swim has transported me somewhere very high.”

We said: “As the resident evangelist for R&B on the team, there was no way I could wrap the year up without mentioning Victoria Monét. What a year she has had, with the Grammy-nominated sequel to her 2020 album, Jaguar, Monét’s Jaguar II boasts collaborations with Kaytranada, Buju Banton, and Earth, Wind & Fire. From silky traditional R&B songs ‘Good Bye’ and ‘Hollywood’ to the HCBU band-approved hit ‘On My Mama’, Jaguar II is Monét in her stride, showcasing her fuller, deeper vocals across riffs, runs and Brandy-level vocal stacking. Cohesive and a treat for the ears.”

We said: “It’s all in the title. Supershy, Tom Misch’s electronic alter-ego, presents the delightful 11-track album, Happy Music, and it delivers exactly what it promises. Packed full with disco grooves, vintage synthesisers, soulful samples, and uplifting house, Happy Music is an undeniable and infectiously joyful experience that has had me coming back time and time again. With a run time of 40 minutes, I consider Happy Music a meditative experience. It’s made me dance. It’s made me cry. I’m calling it, it’s my album of the year.”

We said: “On 1989, Swift’s main message is this: she’s a pop star now, and pop stars aren’t sad. Instead of sitting at home nursing broken hearts, pop stars go dancing with their friends. They do the heart breaking, and when one love ends, they jump straight into the arms of the next. And they do all of it in the public eye. Where Swift’s pop-star persona shifts from sincere to satire isn’t always clear, which seems to be how she wants it.” Read more…