25) The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We – Mitski

I’m surely not the only person who has been waiting for Mitski to click with them? It finally happened this year with an album that’s steeped in country influence but smooths everything out even more to allow for some of the year’s most engaging lyricism. This record is a dream to listen to.

24) Zach Bryan – Zach Bryan

Zach Bryan’s most focused album to date is undoubtedly the most engaging music of his career. That voice remains as dynamic as always, but there’s a confidence and ease to his performance here that brings the listener even further into his world. Summertime’s Close is small and intimate but feels poignant, while I Remember Everything is surely the year’s best country hit. It’s a relatively traditional album in a genre so far removed from this sort of thing anymore. His ‘countryness’ is almost what makes him still feel like an outsider.

23) Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd – Lana Del Rey

Maybe my most controversial take of 2023 is that I don’t think the most ridiculously titled album in Lana Del Rey’s discography is up there with her best. I definitely like a lot of this album, the transcendent title track is incredible, A&W is Lana at her very best, while Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing might sound like a song I’ve just made up but it’s genuinely beautiful. This album is FAR too long though, about 35 minutes worth of meandering nothingness dulls what should so clearly be Lana’s finest work to date. The immediacy of NFR, or the consistency of Ultraviolence here is replaced by endless interludes and needlessly long ballads. Lana is on top form for so much of this album but it’s sadly the only thing on this list where I actively use the skip button.

22) Black Rainbows – Corinne Bailey Rae

An unexpected gem of an album this year. Bold, daring and engaging from start to end and manages to subvert every expectation the listener might have. At times funky, other times jazz influenced, then punk and back to soulful RnB again. There’s so many exciting moments on Black Rainbows, where Corinne manages to be everything and channel everything from all of these genres she owes a debt to. The mutual respect on display for music is what makes this album so enjoyable.

21) Honey – Samia

Honey is such a surprising album to this day. It’s subtle and understated on the surface but is stacked with small details and dynamic musical changes that I find entrancing on every listen. Songs like Amelia, Mad At Me and Honey are so different and yet Samia brings this unique touch to them that brings everything together as one cohesive sound.

20) Chaos For the Fly – Grian Chatten

I’m as surprised as anyone to see Fontaines DC front man Frian Chatten make my top 20 albums of the year. A band I once described as ‘a load of shite’. But I can’t deny the impact that Chaos For the Fly had on me, it’s so often a soothing record, but with so much emotion and anguish in every moment. Songs like I Am So Far and All of the People are so inward looking lyrically and his vocal performance subtle and inviting. It’s Fairlies that truly shines on this album though, one of my standout tracks on any of these albums it’s a masterful folksy and earthy song.

19) My 21st Century Blues – RAYE

What a year RAYE has had! It feels like all of us have been rooting for her to absolutely smash it this year and with My 21st Century Blues she absolutely does. An album that allows space for every song to breathe, not resting on the laurels of its front loaded hits like Escapism and Black Mascara, it’s tracks like The Thrill is Gone, Worth It, Oscar Winning Tears and Flip A Switch that take this album from good to great. The brutal honesty on Ice Cream Man only eclipsed by seeing RAYE perform it live this year. A fantastic debut album from someone who has been ready for so long. Pure quality.

18) That! Feels Good – Jessie Ware

Some of Jessie Ware’s all time greatest music is on this album, Freak Me Now, Free Yourself and Begin Again are the new standard for Jessie, while Hello Love and Lightning bring back some of the soulful balladry a few of us missed from the What’s Your Pleasure era. It’s a really great Jessie Ware record, which is clearly exactly what I want to be listening to. Just don’t mention the godawful Shake The Bottle to me again…

17) Higher Than Heaven – Ellie Goulding

It’s 5/5 for Ellie Goulding, potentially the most prolific artist on my Best Album of the Year lists. Higher Than Heaven is everything I love about Ellie’s music but focused on thudding bassy pop songs and soaring hooks. It’s maybe the least musically diverse or exciting album in my top 20, but song for song Higher Than Heaven is a joy to hear. Let It Die, Cure For Love, Midnight Dreams, By The End of the Night, Love Goes On, Just For You; Ellie Goulding doing what she does best over and over again.

16) Rolling Up The Welcome Mat – Kelsea Ballerini

Were this a proper full length album it would stand as Kelsea Ballerini’s greatest achievement and would definitely have made my top 10 here. As it stands these 7 songs are country influenced pop gold from an artist who has never dived this deep before. ‘Cause people that I loved are just people that I knew once, The rumours going ’round, but the truth is kinda nuanced’ on the standout Interlude speaks for itself, but it’s Penthouse that stands as maybe Kelsea’s most honest and brutal song of her career. Seeing her debut it live just days after the release of this EP was one of my live highlights of 2023.

15) Mid Air – Romy

I have to be honest that it took a little while for Romy’s Mid Air to win me over. Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe I just wasn’t ready for the pure euphoria of this album. I’m glad I got over myself because Mid Air is a triumph. Loveher, Strong and Enjoy Your Life are transcendent bangers, but it’s the quiet energy of The Sea or the transition from the bass of Twice to the throbbing synth of Did I that makes this such a satisfying full length record. An album full of pure joy, from an artist who can hone emotion in her voice like nobody else can. We haven’t heard dance pop music like this since Robyn last released an album.

14) Ends & Begins – Labrinth

I feel like I’m the only person who has acknowledged Ends & Begins in 2023, a phenomenal pop record that feels like the future in its uniqueness. Songs like Everything slide in and out, held together by Labrinth’s most engaging performances yet as a vocalist. This is an album that gives more back on every listen, the subtleties of Covering or Only Way Is Up only emerging after the first few listens. I was completely caught off guard by Labrinth this year and Ends & Begins is by far the strongest music of his career. 

13) My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross – Anohni & the Johnsons

Anohni’s lengthy career is full of contradictions and contrast. Whether it’s the intimate Mercury Prize winning I Am a Bird Now, or the chaotic mechanical sound of solo record Hopelessness the one consistent is Anohni’s incredible voice. On My Back Was Bridge For You To Cross this has never been more true, the bluesy instrumentation giving her space to perform so freely. Songs like It Must Change or Can’t see her really driving with the performance, while the devastating Scapegoat is the clearest depiction of what it means to be Trans in 2023 I’ve ever heard. That song alone is so powerful and important and feels like the key centerpiece of a record full of those sort of moments. Not the album any of us expected, but I feel like this was the album we needed from Anohni.

12) falling or flying – Jorja Smith

There are a few key ‘singles’ that really elevate falling or flying, Little Things, Try Me, Go Go Go and the title track are all widely different but become cohesive on this full length record. The reason it resonated with me goes beyond those peak moments though, Jorja Smith has never captured my attention like she does on songs like Broken is the man, or Too many times. It’s an album that is still giving me more on every listen, way outpacing the genre boxes that Jorja Smith has been put in since her debut and my favourite music she’s released so far.

11) Heavy Heavy – Young Fathers

I have tried year after year to ‘get’ Young Fathers, they should be right up my street but for some reason they never connected. Heavy Heavy has broken that barrier down for me, opening me up to one of the year’s most immediately engaging albums. The layers to the music here is outstanding, full of depth and diverse sounds. The journey through I Saw into Drum to Tell Somebody is awe inspiring. Maybe the year’s strongest run of songs on any album. Always thrilling and never a dull moment.

10) The Love Invention – Alison Goldfrapp

Into the top 10 and it’s a belter. Flirty, entrancing and catchy as hell, The Love Invention is front to back a banger. Tracks like Fever, Digging Deeper Now and NeverStop are so infectious but never feel straightforward. Alison Goldfrapp is crafting music that feels alive, it’s electronic but dynamic and deeply human throughout. As changeable as a person, creative and daring. No album made me want to dance as much as this did and in 2023 I needed to dance. 

9) Guts – Olivia Rodrigo

As good, if not better than Sour. Full of everything that I adored about that debut album, but elevated to the next level in songwriting, melodies, instrumentation and confidence. It’s that confidence that comes across so strongly on killer songs like ballad of a homeschooled girl, all american bitch and bad idea right? Olivia isn’t having to force herself to be relatable at any point, does it matter that I’m not relating directly with get him back or the grudge? Absolutely not and the magic of Olivia Rodrigo’s lyricism and nonchalance in her performance is that trying to be direct misses the point entirely. making the bed is a gut wrenching song on any day of the week, while love is embarrassing pours out of her like she can’t control the words. Olivia Rodrigo is the real deal, whether or not people were ready to admit it after just one album, Guts has made it very clear that she did not come to fuck around. 

8) Is It? – Ben Howard

I feel confident that this will be the only list that includes Ben Howard’s 5th studio album in the top 10 albums of the year. I was floored by this record though and I’m still trying to figure out exactly why this glitchy rhythmic style suits Ben so much. Instead of the gloominess of Noonday Dream and Collections from the Whiteout, which I did enjoy, there’s a brightness and a spring in his step throughout Is It? Life In The Time is the best example of this, full of life and fluttering around you. Ben Howard is at his best when he’s relaxed into his guitar playing and here the melodies and song construction allows him to feel at home. Even on a slower moment like Moonraker the music always develops in ways you don’t expect. Dont sleep on this album.

7) Sundial – Noname

I didn’t engage with Hip Hop very much in 2023, not a surprise given the lack of any on these lists, but Noname really cut through for me this year. We know that her previous work on Room 25 and Telfone was phenomenal, but there’s a confidence and energy on Sundial that I think beats even those huge albums. She’s constantly contradicting herself and spitting bars that feel like she’s changing her mind as she goes. I can understand that some may have struggled dealing with such a chaotic figure at the centre of an album like this, but for me it adds to the record enhancing the technical rapping quality here in massive ways.

6) This Is Why – Paramore

As soon as I put This Is Why into my top 10 songs of 2022, I had a slight inkling that I’d be doing the same with the full length album this year. Even my high expectations couldn’t have told me just how good this album would be. Paramore have never sounded more confident, effervescent and in control as they do on these 10 tracks, not a single moment of this short record is wasted. C’est Comme Ca is infuriatingly addictive; Liar is cutting; You First is electrifying and hypnotic; Crave is epic in scale and The News is immediate and punchy. Put simply this is a band who are so far past the point of being considered legends of the genre, they simply are and on This Is Why they are able to just focus on the most important thing, making outstanding music. Every song here is among their best.

5) PARANOIA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE – Christine and the Queens

I can’t begin to unpack an album that’s 1hr40 long, 3 separate albums brought together as one in this list. I won’t bother trying. For so many reasons PARANOIA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE shouldn’t be near my top 5, it’s the most ‘difficult’ Christine and the Queens album to listen to, songs are extremely long and sprawling and the immediacy of past records is all but gone, but I can’t use my head to explain it this time. I make it to the epic Big Eye at the end of the album and feel overwhelmed. I feel such a deep connection to this album whenever I listen, like the music seeps into me, over-analysing and thinking too hard is missing the point entirely. It’s an emotional response, it can’t be explained and as a musical journey, not as a listener, but as a person it feels vital to my year.

4) Gag Order – Kesha

Back in 2017 I chose Kesha’s Praying as my song of the year, at the time the prospect of her finally being free of the label, lawsuits and all around drama that surrounded her career felt like an unachievable goal, brought to life in the most powerful way in music. Gag Order is the most direct, personal and creative moment of Kesha’s career and within it she reclaims every last bit of her voice that she has fought so long to get. On Hate Me Harder she sings ‘There’s nothin’ left that I haven’t heard, and I can take it, so make it hurt’, while on Fine Line she says ‘This is where you fuckers pushed me, Don’t be surprised if shit gets ugly’. Musically dynamic and thrilling on The Drama, lyrically dense and captivating on Living In My Head; Gag Order is bold, unafraid and confident, by far the greatest album Kesha has released. What she does now is completely up to her, on her own terms and as a lifelong fan that makes so fucking happy. 

3) the record – boygenius

Seeing Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers perform one of their countless headline shows of 2023 and performing every single song from the record to a wall of adoring and LOUD fans was an incredible thing to witness. I went into this year as a big Pheobe fan and pretty indifferent to Lucy and Julien, more from my own lack of awareness than anything specific, but I leave 2023 feeling like I know these women more than I know some of my real life friends. It’s not an exaggeration that songs like True Blue, $20, Cool About It and We’re In Love have shaken me to the core this year. There’s something magical that these musicians bring out in each other that is impossible to pinpoint, like their entire careers were leading to releasing an album that will be imprinted on so many people’s lives. Not Strong Enough brings everything together in one singular moment, but it’s the ebb and flow of all three artists through each song that make this the year’s easiest album to love. An effortlessly easy album to love.

2) Lahai – Sampha

Lahai isn’t an album of singular moments, the records that surround it on this list are full of peaks and truly outstanding moments. Weirdly I never found myself drawn to any one single track or performance on Sampha’s long awaited second album but instead only ever want it to work as a full length piece of music. Sampha has this ability to bring you into his world so easily, his voice is so dreamy and inviting, but completely unique. Lahai envelops you like a hug, speaking of struggles with identity and relationships, but pulls you in further with each listen. Musically it’s so adventurous, a track like Jonathan L. Seagull in someone else’s hands could feel empty or one note but here is expansive and intricately detailed. I found more than any other album this year that just letting go and letting Sampha’s incredible vocals surround me was the best way to spend my time with Lahai. It’s not an album for self-doubt or second guessing, it’s pure unadulterated soul delivered in some of the year’s most luscious instrumentals. 

1) Desire, I Want to Turn Into You – Caroline Polachek

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is the 2023 album of the year. I don’t say this as an opinion like I usually do, 2023 feels different. This is an album so specifically ‘the best music of the year’ that it feels like a fact instead. There’s something when I hit play on Caroline Polachek’s masterwork that removes doubt, nuance or subjectivity from the entire concept of being the best music. This is it. Not a second of this incredible album is wasted, fueled by a nostalgic view of early 00s pop, but also futuristic in its melding of sounds and atmosphere. One moment you are in the exquisite Spanish guitar of Sunset; the next it’s the high drama of Crude Drawing of an Angel; then the infuriatingly catchy pop of Bunny is a Rider; a BAGPIPE SOLO on Blood and Butter; the gorgeous melancholy of Butterfly Net or the soaring 00s radio sound of I Believe. Plenty of artists have been playing with sounds like this on very good albums in recent years; Caroline Polachek is in command of them. Orchestrating a symphony of emotion and detailed soundscapes with a bold and unique performance as its central figure. No album came close in the slightest to how consistently brilliant Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is, the sheer joy I feel on every listen of this breathtaking record is almost impossible to explain. Desire, I Want to Turn Into You isn’t just the best album of 2023, these 12 songs WERE 2023.