The 50 best albums of 2023

The death of Foo Fighters' much-beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022 was nothing short of a tragedy. Having just turned 50, Hawkins, this Dennis Wilson acolyte and total goofball was an essential part of the Foos' chemistry, and although the epic tribute concerts arranged in his honor following his passing made it clear how much he influenced the world, frontman Dave Grohl still had a hard time reconciling what happened. "But Here We Are" is an album that could have easily wallowed in its grief but instead turns into a defiant celebration. The record's first half recalls the brief, even bratty pop-rock sounds of the Foo's first three LPs before settling into a more reflective backend, culminating with the heartbreaking "Rest". Even if Grohl relies on a few lyrical clichés at times, his earnest inflection stops them from being rote, giving us tracks like "The Glass", which may be the best ode to the loving bond of friendship we've heard this millennium.

It's been over a decade since Killer Mike dropped his instantly-legendary solo record "R.A.P. Music", which was essentially the patient zero for what would become Run The Jewels, his zeitgeist-capturing collaboration with producer/rapper El-P. He's waded into politics and become no stranger to handling controversy, but Killer Mike remains an MC at heart, and "Michael" flips the script by leaving braggadocio behind in favor of earnest biography. While not his most lyrically dexterous album, his heart is laid bare behind every story and every take. He talks about young love, losing some of his closest family members, and searching for his place in times that have only become more chaotic since he started spitting. It is emotionally wrought while remaining musically propulsive, no doubt buoyed by his gargantuan guest list, which boasts features ranging from Young Thug to André 3000 to (of course) El-P. When Mike raps, "The devil sent the storm to break me, but I didn't bow or bend," his conviction shines through, making "Michael" a highlight in a discography that's already full of them.

Four studio albums into their career, and Canada's extreme metal stalwarts Tomb Mold seem to only get better with each release. What makes this quartet stand out from their growling contemporaries is the way they marry pummeling styles so effortlessly. A track like opener "The Perfect Memory (Phantasm of Aura)" could easily rely on nothing but its chugging death metal riffs, but the shifts to parallel guitar layers, alternative-rock chorus swells, and thrash-speed interplay showcases a compositional ability that far exceeds most bands they'd share a touring bill with. By the time you get to the elaborate, winding 11-minute closer "The Enduring Spirit of Calamity", you may find yourself physically exhausted, as keeping up with a band this complex, nuanced, and mature is an exercise all itself. This album alone has allowed multiple chiropractors to buy new vacation homes due to all the people they have to treat for headbanging.

Ryan Olcott's long-standing indie-rock outfit 12 Rods was one of the first victims of internet hype, as their early records received such high critical notices from the then-burgeoning "blogosphere" of music journalism that it was a hop, skip, and a guitar smash to major label deals and getting an album produced by Todd Rundgren. Yet all that hype led to a lot of backlash and even dismissal, and having seen the writing on the venue bathroom wall, Olcott cut his losses and ended the Minneapolis-based group in 2004. Yet following an energizing reunion in 2015, the group formally reunited in 2021, leading to "If We Stayed Alive", their long-overdue new record. Featuring bright guitar tones and crisply recorded drums, Olcott's tales of love-almost-won and suburban ennui feel simultaneously like the product of a bygone era and also something that seems highly relevant to now. Guitar squalls pepper the ends of songs like "Private Spies" while emotionally dissonant closer "Twice" shows that all these decades later, Olcott still has a knack for a great turn of phrase. Forget the hype: 12 Rods have beaten the odds to come back stronger than ever.

Have you ever wanted to meet your lover on an astral plane? Similarly, have you ever wanted to hear a trio of talented singers unite their voices in three-part harmony over lo-fi disco beats? You're in luck, reader, as Say She She has blessed us with their sophomore album "Silver", and it's a treat. Retro in mindset but modern approach, it's amazing what can happen when Piya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham, and Nya Gazelle Brown can do when mapping out their parts and figuring out who sings what. With dated keyboards and a retro-soul vibe dominating their record, each new track off "Silver" proves even more hooky and memorable than the last, all while avoiding repeating themselves thematically or texturally. There's genuine power behind their performances, but none of it would work if the songs weren't as fun, as wry, or as sometimes downright goofy as they get. It may be called "Silver", but we'll gladly give this album the gold.

Brandee Younger has never been shy about tracing her muses back to their source. Specifically, as one of the most dynamic harpists working in both jazz and R&B circles today, she finds inspiration in the incredible work of Dorothy Ashby, a jazz harpist who rose to prominence in the late '50s and early '60s. Younger incorporates three Ashby compositions into her latest record, "Brand New Life", but infuses them with her fresh contemporary perspective. Even with deep respect for her musical lineage, she knows what year she's recording in, and Younger smartly mixes her harp work with outside collaborators like hip-hop producer Pete Rock and a more-than-game Meshell N'degeocello, who incidentally also put out a pretty stellar jazz-leaning record this year. Younger's harp sings, glides, and sometimes even approaches levels of mania like on the cascading instrumental climax during "Dust", the N'degeocello duet. By the time she covers Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic" as a closer, it feels as if she's fully communicating with the idols she had growing up, and, in turn, they're giving their blessing to one of the most exciting musicians working today. A stellar record.

What happens when, despite all the acclaim you've racked up over the past decade, you feel too confined by the "alt-country" box that publications and venue bookers keep putting you in? Why you rock out, of course. This isn't to say that Ohio's treasure Lydia Loveless hasn't speckled more rock-leaning numbers into her discography, but "Nothing's Gonna Stand in My Way" could almost be mistaken for a full-bore pop-rock record if you squint hard enough. Actually, tracks like "Sex and Money" feel more like modern Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers numbers than they do Whiskeytown, strutting and strumming at the same time. Rounded out by a tight band that includes pedal steel master Jay Glasper and Drive-By Truckers' keyboardist Jay Gonzalez, there's a lot of muscle behind Loveless' words. "Can't spend my life sitting around and filling up an ashtray / Cuz nothing's ever gonna change / Now I gotta toothachе," she sings, and she belts it like she means it. No matter what genre she pivots to, truly, nothing will stand in her way to even greater success.

On average, dexterous New York rapper Billy Woods has averaged an LP a year, and most of them tend to be album-length collaborations. He already dropped a record with L.A.-based producer Keeny Segal back in 2019, but their new collaboration, "Maps", feels like they've tapped into something different. Designed as a travelogue as Woods traveled the world as Covid restrictions started lifting, there's a surprising sense of emptiness floating in the core of Woods' lyrics, as loneliness and lost connections comprise a great deal of his thoughts, buoyed by Segal's colorful but emotive productions. "I will not be at soundchеck," he declares on "Soundcheck", adding that he "Might watch the sunset over your city from a parapet or a park bench / Headlamps splash squatter tents on my way to the venue, they wave me in." He captures sad but poignant details with casual precision, and when one of his stellar superstar guests joins in (like Danny Brown and Aesop Rock, each responsible for their own great new albums this year), it feels like a group commiseration. "Maps" is a document of a very specific time in Wood's life, but its sentiments feel universal.

It's rare for an artist to debut out the gate with a sound all their own, but Kali Uchis' strength is that she isn't trying to be anyone but herself. Releasing bilingual hits on a regular basis, Uchis' sonic plays with many flavors of contemporary R&B, and with "Red Moon in Venus", she doesn't aim to release an album so much as a straight-up vibe. Slow, sultry, and confident in its coyness, the tracks in the shadow of this "Red Moon" seamlessly bleed together, with waves of keyboards flowing over each other like bedsheets rippling in a light breeze. Uchis makes detours for an '80s synth workout ("Endlessly") and an unexpected bedroom pop collab (the sparse "Deserve Me" with Summer Walker), but "Red Moon in Venus" is designed for intimacy, for celebration, for smokeouts, for passionate exploration. She may have started out the gate with a distinct musical personality, but this "Red Moon" confirms what we've known for a minute now: Kali Uchis is utterly inimitable.

There may have never been an album so aptly named. For a few years in the late 2000s/early 2010s, Stern garnered a following for her guitar-playing pyrotechnics, bringing her agile fingers to sparkling, quirky compositions that packed hair metal guitar solos into tight indie-pop packages. After 2013's beautifully named "The Chronicles of Marnia", she landed a steady paycheck serving as the guitarist in the house band for Seth Meyers's late-night talk show. Thus, "The Comeback Kid" feels like the correct title for a record that finds Stern stepping away from late-night talk shows and reclaiming her weirdness. Her vocal tics have become even more prominent, even as the thundering drumming and non-stop riffing swirls around her like a technicolor tornado. Even better? Only three of this album's dozen tracks clock in at over three minutes, meaning that "The Comeback Kid" never overstays its welcome, practically begging you to put it on the second it is over. Which is what we did and what we'll gladly continue to do.

It's hard to believe boygenius' debut EP came out in 2018. Back then, a trio of established solo stars coming together to record a one-off project wasn't unheard of (in 2004, "The Bens" was a one-off project featuring three Bens with surnames like Folds, Lee, and Kweller), but boygenius felt like something different. While Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus had a lot in common artistically, they still had unique sounds and perspectives that they were able to weave together to create some frighteningly effective rock confections (to say nothing about those stacked vocal harmonies). Long threatened after years of rumors and speculation, boygenius' debut full-length, "The Record", picks up where that debut EP left off and drops one thundering classic after another. At times hushed and acoustic, and at others sounding like something not far removed from modern rock radio, the trio proves just as deft lyrically as they are musically. "You say you're a winter b---- / But summer's in your blood / You can't help but become the sun" are the kind of lines that stay with you, but "True Blue" is just one of the album's many highlights. Fans and critics felt like it was one of the rare supergroups that actually worked, and plum gigs like guesting on "Saturday Night Live" followed, along with seven Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. Let "The Record" show that there's a lot to love about "The Record".

When Montreal's Canadian Americana superstar Allison Russell dropped her debut solo album "Outside Child" in 2021, she used her biography as an inflection point for smart, emotional music that felt like a distinct pivot away from her work in roots groups like Our Native Daughters and Po' Girl. Yet with "The Returner", Russell finds a new source of light in songcraft, giving her sounds a warmer touch, and, in the case of "Stay Right Here", surprising everyone by lightly flirting with elements of disco. Yet as her lyrics track the comings and goings of romantic and personal entanglements, her layers of stacked vocal harmonies sound bolder and stronger than ever, creating a record that exists somewhere between pop, songbook balladry, and folk, never belonging to one pure genre because it's happy to exist in its own lane. We already see ourselves returning to "The Returner" often.

Never underestimate Glen Hansard. While many may still best know him as the Irish busker from the 2007 movie "Once", his solo career has been worth keeping an ear on. While he had been recording in bands The Frames and The Swell Season prior to "Once", in 2012, he started putting out records simply as Glen Hansard, and they have all been beautifully composed, smartly executed, and filled with memorable songs. Each album has been a new type of sonic experiment for him, and the excellently-titled "All That's East is West of Me Now" further explores the gritty indie-rock mood he started diving into on 2019's "The Wild Willing". When Mumford & Sons when full rockstar, they still never wrote a song as thundering as Hansard's "Down On Our Knees", and on the emotive closer "Short Life", Hansard ponders, "I know this goodwill don't mean anything / I know we're judged only on the light that we bring." Thankfully with this new record, he brings a lot of light to the table.

To this day, there are some people who only know U.K. R&B artist Corinne Bailey Rae for her 2006 smash "Put Your Records On". Yet the second anyone blindly hears "New York Transit Queen", the lead single from her first album of new material in seven years, they'd be shocked to discover it was the work of that same incredible songbird. Rae is shouting and screaming through a fuzzed-out rock guitar squall, proving that her new record, "Black Rainbows", is the mark of a different era. The track that follows is a flute-adorned acoustic strummer called "He Will Follow You With His Eyes", and while it does evoke the more mature sounds Rae was exploring in the records following her big crossover debut, the whole of "Black Rainbow" feels different. 

This is partially because she spent quite some time at Chicago's Stony Island Arts Bank, learning about the ways Black art thrived in the city's South Side, which in turn made her want to create music that didn't need to meet any commercial expectations. Released on her own record label after years of being signed to a major, there's a twisting, psychedelic internal logic to "Black Rainbows" that intrigues, excites, and surprises. It's a record so loose and confident that not only is it instantly one of the best R&B records of the year, but it sounds like the studied work of a whole new artist. It might be her fourth studio record altogether, but in many ways, it feels like the first time we're meeting the real Corinne Bailey Rae.

We've talked about Angel Marcloid's truly indescribable albums under her Fire-Toolz moniker before, but her new full-length "I am upset..." might be her most accessible full-length to date (long title aside). Of course, "accessible" and "Fire-Toolz" are terms that seem at odds with each other, given that the opening track "It Is Happening Again" mixes jazz-fusion keypads with fiery rock guitar solos, screamed vocals, and hyper synth breakdowns, but therein lies the appeal. Marcloid follows her muses to the very limits of what we know about genre, and her music can be ambient at one moment, headbanging the next, and then turn full psychedelic on a hairpin turn. The joy of any Fire-Toolz record is the sense of discovery one feels as your ears get sling-shotted around between so many different styles while trying to depict Marcloid's beyond-her-years lyrics, but with "I am upset..." she's given her fans the kind of album that might be the perfect entry point for enticing newcomers to her sonic world. If you've never heard a Fire-Toolz album before, then strap in because your life isn't going to be the same afterward.

For the release of 2014's much-derided "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", composer Hans Zimmer stated he wanted to create the sound of the radio that Peter Parker would be listening to, and needless to say, he didn't meet his goal (as well-intentioned as the Hans Zimmer/Alicia Keys/Kendrick/Pharrell collab was). With the first "Spider-Verse" film from 2018, the soundtrack and the massive Post Malone/Swae Lee single "Sunshine" were expertly woven into Miles Morales' world, so with the sequel, the reigns of the soundtrack are handed over to unquestioned hitmaker Metro Boomin. He pulls it off with expert precision, giving listeners a huge variety of unashamedly contemporary moods. While big names like Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, 21 Savage, and Future all show up, it's the surprising pop move of James Blake and the single best-recorded performance of Coi Leray that make us want to keep listening to all the sounds across this "Spider-Verse". (However, we'd still love for someone to explain how the great Dominic Fike track "Mona Lisa" was pulled from the album post-release.)

When not leading the art-damaged psychedelic rock outfit Wand, Southern California's native son Cory Hanson is indulging any number of musical curiosities, and with his third solo album, he somehow managed to discover the nexus point between country music and prog rock. All of these songs have a very clear twang to them, but you've never heard twang come out of roaring, cascading fuzz guitars quite like this. The stunning, chugging "House Fly" perfectly encapsulates the record's death-oriented lyrical themes and full-bore six-string histrionics, sounding both familiar and new at the same time. When the ten-minute "Driving Through Heaven" transitions into its umpteenth movement, each new one more exciting and curious than the last, it is clear that Hanson has unlocked a secret formula that has made his songs and performances come to life in thundering fashion. His other solo records are also great, but this album is so clearly his masterpiece it's hard to process what wild directions he's going to travel to next.

At this point in his career, it's universally accepted that you can't go wrong with a new Jason Isbell album. The former Drive-By Truckers member has carved out a stunning solo discography full of country-soul numbers drenched in character studies filled with the kind of details only a novelist could conceive of. "Weathervanes", his ninth studio album to his name (aided once again by his great band The 400 Unit), continues his winning streak, offering up 13 great new offerings. Isbell is a great guitarist and an ever-reliable vocalist, but his lyrics always stick with you, such as on "King of Oklahoma" where he opines that "She used to make me feel like the king of Oklahoma / But nothing makes me feel like much of nothing anymore." His characters are still out looking for love, but there isn't a line as breaking as the chorus of "If You Insist", where he croons, "We're running out of options / It's time to close the tab / If you insist on being lonely / Let me put you in a cab," a perfect study of trying to find your soulmate in a city that doesn't much care about your journey. These "Weathervanes" are always pointing in the right direction.

There is no downside to being a Carly Rae Jepsen fan. While normies may mock and say, "Wasn't she just the 'Call Me Maybe' girl?" true fans know that she's been amassing one of most impressive pop music songbooks of the modern era. Not only are most of her albums varying flavors of perfection, but she tends to accompany each new album release with a "B-sides" album the year after release, containing even more songs she wrote and recorded during her sessions for the main record. In 2023, Jepsen followed up 2022's more exploratory "The Loneliest Time" with an album she claims isn't full of B-sides but instead is a true and proper sequel: "The Loveliest Time". As per tradition, it's filled with bulletproof mid-tempo dance tracks and nary a ballad to be found. Yet, as is the curse of being a Carly Rae Jepsen fan, every new album features at least a few songs that make you wonder, "Why isn't she the most successful diva on the planet?" Specifically, tracks like the fluttering "Kamikaze" and straight-up Daft Punk cosplay of "Psychedelic Switch" are so good it's likely they've already gone multi-platinum in another corner of the multiverse. While Carly always deserves better, listening to this latest confection will ensure that you too have "The Loveliest Time".

One of the more controversial albums to come out in 2023, its still hard to shake one's enthusiasm for Noname returning to music after threatening to retire so many times. Since her acclaimed album "Room 25", the outspoken Chicago rapper has ended up responding to a beef instigated by J. Cole, canceled a planned album release, and even with her new record "Sundial", had to defend the inclusion of a highly-criticized verse by Jay Electronica on the song "Balloons". Ignoring Elecronica's contribution, the song "Balloons" features some of Noname's most cutting lines, clearly still wrestling with the fact that her critical acclaim has garnered her a large white fanbase, addressing her criticisms succinctly: "Analyze the gumption, monopolize the landscape / She's just another artist selling trauma to her fanbase." Even with the record's lively jazz-hop production, her sardonic view of the world and her own celebrity make for a deeply compelling listen. On "Namesake", she touches on our universal inability to cope with the traumas of the day ("Same day the airstrikes strike down Iran / I ran into the house with a blunt in my hand"), and her own culpability in participating in the entertainment industrial complex ("Go, Noname, go! / Coachella stage got sanitized / I said I wouldn't perform for them / And somehow I still fell in line"). It's challenging, thought-provoking, and compelling, even in the face of some harsh critiques.

North Carolina's Wednesday has been dropping raucous records full of heavy shoegaze-adjacent bangers that occasionally flirt with country-rock affectations, but it wasn't until 2023 when Karly Hartzman's project went supernova. With "Rat Saw God", the furious five-piece has honed into a sound that is rocking and wallowing in equal measure. The album's lead single was the eight-minute "Bull Believer", which opens in a beautiful sludge of feedback and ends with Hartzman manically wailing about finishing a round of "Mortal Kombat". Throughout many of their songs, guitars whir and distort in the backround, like a squall of noise is about to attack at any unexpected moment, keeping the listener on edge for most of its runtime. Yet as good as they are at rocking with the amps turned up to impossible levels, Wednesday's pivot into country-via-Pavement rollicking ("Quarry"), almost straight-up pop-rock ("TV in the Gas Pump"), and even lo-fi post-rock balladry (if that's what you can call the Radiohead-esque "What's So Funny") are what keeps "Rat Saw God" so compelling. For a band called Wednesday, we'll probably play this record every day in a given week.

Sometimes, before hearing even a note of music from an artist's new cord, you can tell what the vibe of their new era is solely based on the brand partnerships they score. For country music's Margo Price, it was "Mom Grass" —  her collaboration with smokable hemp company Dad Grass, giving us a new Price-approved CBG product — that tells you everything you need to know about "Strays". While her songwriting and clear reverence for genre has been lauded on records like "Midwest Farmer's Daughter" and the '70s rock-referencing "That's How Rumors Get Started", its "Strays" that finds her flirting with psychedelia only to find it flirting right back. The keyboard-driven "Been to the Mountain" might throw some casual fans off, but her "Rumors" record showed her range as an artist stretched well beyond the lowly definition of just country or even Americana-adjacent. The fact that the Sharon Van Etten feature "Radio" slyly calls back to an old hit from Joni Mitchell tells most people what they need to know: that Price's foray into wilder, more colorful rock-adjacent sounds only proves just how great of a songwriter she is. Added bonus? Her excellent "Strays II" album came out later this year and tilted its way back into country-rock just a bit more, making everyone a winner.

Great songs should stand by themselves, but context and narratives are what help define stars and icons in music. Knowing Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" is about the passing of his child or that Bon Iver's debut was recorded in the woods following a breakup gives these recordings a certain gravity. Prior to the release of "Javelin", Sufjan Stevens' tenth studio album proper (not counting his endless litany of side-projects and one-off experiments), he revealed his diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome and how he was learning to walk again. This was then followed by a release-week album dedication to his partner Evans Richardson, a renowned Black educator who passed away earlier in the year. While Stevens has always had fans trace queer themes in his lyrics, this unexpected and devastating confirmation suddenly recontextualized his entire discography, and the struggle of being gay and God-fearing at the same time gave every lyric new light. This even applied to the new record, as the major-chord lead single "Will Anybody Ever Love Me?" was now recast under a cloud of both sadness and wizened acceptance.

The sound of "Javelin" plays somewhat like a career overview of Stevens' work, from hushed acoustic strums to full-blown twee-adjacent whimsy-pop, but his words, as always, cut sharpest. When he closes out the album with a cover of Neil Young's "What a World", it feels as if he found a counterpoint in another artist to perfectly capture the pangs in his heart, rearranging almost all the melodies to better fit his artistry. As crushing as it is to hear of Stevens' recent struggles, he's fashioned them into an album of aching beauty. "Javelin" is another masterpiece in a discography full of them.

While Kelela's vinyls might be found in the R&B section of most indie music stores, the lane her music occupies exists far outside mere genre classification. Signed to Warp Records, home of experimental electronic acts like Aphex Twin, Hudson Mohawke, and Yves Tumor, her sonic uses electro-ambient and breakbeat styles as tools to build songs around her soulful voice. Its been six years since her last full-length, and with "Raven", only her sophomore record, she makes up for lost time. Featuring production assists by the likes of Kaytranada and LSDXOXO, "Raven" uses fractured pieces of digital subgenres to craft a record about profound heartbreak. The somewhat jazzy "Missed Call" has Kelela asking if she even wants to be in love again, while the quietly crashing soundscape of the crystalline "Divorce" finds her lyrically giving up against greater odds. The beating heart of this "Raven" is also a wounded one, but in her questioning, searching, and healing, we, the listeners, share in her journey, making for a deeply profound experience. Here's hoping we don't have to wait another six years until she drops her next classic.

The ambient-by-way-of-shoegaze duo Hammock is coming up on two decades of putting out records, having long been acolytes of Sigur Rós and wanting to create their own sound within the Icelandic group's shadow. "Love in the Void", by our count, their 13th studio album, not including soundtracks, compilations, or deluxe reissues, showcases them at the absolute peak of their powers. It is no wonder they have scored both films and video games at this point, as their mastery at finding emotive chord changes is a true marvel, like when the anthemic guitar tones crash in right before minute four of the title track. Simple acoustic strums can sometimes lead to canyons of fuzzed-out feedback, and a few vocals are scattered in but buried low enough in the mix it sometimes feels like the voices are just being used as additional instrumentation. To make your mark in the music world, you either have to be revolutionary or better than anyone else at what you do. "Love in the Void" isn't breaking any new ground in the emotive, largely instrumental post-rock landscape, but who needs to when your compositions are this consistently engaging, enthralling, and replayable?

For a good while there, Brent Cobb had a lot of his records produced by his cousin Dave. Brent had a knack for a laid-back country sound and was carving out his own lane even as he ran in close circles with bro-country figureheads like Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton. Dave, meanwhile, went on to become the country music producer du jour, manning the boards for heralded albums by the likes of Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Chris Stapleton. The two relatives always kept in close collaboration, but "Southern Star", Brent's fifth studio record, is one where he felt the need to produce everything himself, and the results are spellbinding. His songs emit a welcoming kind of warmth, wanting to draw you in but never overwhelming you with too much showiness. He captures moods with his lyrics so succinctly, like on "It's a Start", where he admits that "It feels so good being here with you / Just burnin' firewood / Reminiscing missin' old times / Wishin' wе still called them new." He even references his own familial music legacy on "When Country Came to Town", noting that "I guess now everyone knows Cousin Dave / But he's been around awhile / Proving simple truths and music / They just don't go out of style." Yet with the aptly-named "Southern Star", Brent Cobb is proving he doesn't need any help in showing why he is country music's next big thing.

There is zero downside to being a fan of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. This wild Australian collective only started putting out albums in 2012, but since then, they've managed to put out roughly two to three new studio full-lengths every year (or, in the cases of both 2017 and 2022, five). While primarily a rock band, they have pivoted to virtually every genre you could imagine, and if fans didn't love their sludge-metal record, all they had to do was wait a few months for them to put something completely different. "The Silver Cord", officially the band's 25th LP, dives full-on into the realm of psychedelic synths, and it's almost impossible for them not to find a perfect groove. In fact, they enjoyed the process of making this record so much that they put out two versions of it: one containing the seven songs they wrote for this concept and another featuring the "extended editions" of those same songs. When they say "extended," they mean it: album opener "Theia" clocks in at three-and-a-half minutes on the standard edition and is mutated into a wild 20-minute jam in its extended iteration. No matter what speed you feel comfortable with during their keyboard era, rest assured that you're in for a hell of a trip.

If you're reading this, it's already too late. Outraged by the number of anti-trans bills working their way across the West, the FADER Label decided to organize and put out a charity compilation that was only available for the month of November. "FADER & Friends: Volume 1" has all of its profits being split across trans action organizations across the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, but even if it's no longer available to purchase, that doesn't mean it didn't leave a hell of an impact. No less than 44 artists contributed cover songs to this compilation, all weird, wonderful, and absolutely wild. Sometimes it's a hot new band covering a hot new band (think Babehoven tackling Slow Pulp). Other times, it's an emerging new voice interpreting a stone-cold pop classic (DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ joyously reinterpreting Kylie Minogue's "It's No Secret"). In wild instances, its other acts on this very list (Dougie Poole, Fire-Toolz) covering legendary tracks and making them their own (Stevie Wonder's "Joy Inside My Tears" and Rush's "Tai Shan", respectively). It's a wild journey, and even if it was only available for a month, that "Volume 1" heavily implies great artists rallying behind a great cause might come around again.

South Africa's Nakhane has often used their art to explore and depths and dimensions of their queerness, having grown up in a Christian settlement only to later travel the world and discover a new type of celebration in their identity. Nakhane has acted in films, written novels, and recorded largely autobiographical records to trace the intersection of their personal story and grander concepts, leaving the question as to where their muse would take them next. The answer? The club, of course. With lively beats and a panoply of top-tier guests, "Bastārd Jargon" uses catchy grooves and slick pop melodies to sneak in concepts of sex, politics, and depression to what could be considered a quality party record to casual listeners. With recent endorsements from the likes of Elton John and Madonna, along with collaborations with the likes of Nile Rodgers and Perfume Genius, this "Bastārd Jargon" ends up speaking a universal language.

Sometimes, the most intense music can come out of the simplest of setups. Last year, Pharrell achieved massive success with his stripped-to-the-bone beat for the great Tyler, The Creator and 21 Savage-featuring track "Cash In Cash Out", but rapper/producer JPEGMAFIA wanted to take it one step further. Recorded entirely on a hardware sampler, "Scaring The Hoes", his album-length collaboration with Danny Brown, is a stunner. While yes, that's JPEG sampling Kelis' "Milkshake" on "Fentanyl Tester", it's the lyrical references to Rob Base and the duo's wild wordplay that make the track stand out the most. True to its name, "Scaring the Hoes" is at times hilariously filthy and many of the lyrics can't be reprinted here, but hearing Brown tell his haters, "You vampires / Always bitin' and suckin'" is such a great throwaway line that you almost miss it on a track that feels absolutely overstuffed with bars. With the limited functionality of the sampler, JPEG's beats are hard, quick, blown-out, and immediate, making this album's 36 minutes fly by instantly. Other rappers have plenty of reasons to be scared of this new dynamic duo.

When we were writing our list of the mid-year pop music check-in for 2023, there was an entry for "Trippiest Album of the Year", but upon fact-checking our advance promos, we realized High Pulp's superb third studio full-length "Days in the Desert" didn't quality for a midyear due to it coming out in late July. Thus, we are fulfilling our promise here, reserving a spot for an album that, of course, is trippy when you describe it as coming from "an L.A.-based psychedelic jazz collective." Much like their 2022 effort "Pursuit of Ends", electro beats collide with guided sax freakouts and a stellar guest list that includes the likes of producer Daedelus and harpist Brandee Younger. The songs pour over each other, swirling around in distinct grooves that borrow from so many disparate sources you can practically hear a new genre being manufactured right in front of you. If you picked "Days in the Desert" as your "desert island disc," everyone would understand.

While Blackpink, BTS, Twice, and Stray Kids have been dominating the West's embrace of contemporary K-Pop, it can be easy to discount how Seventeen, the 13-member "theater kids" of the genre, have been quietly amassing one of the most impressive discographies in the genre. In fact, they dropped two releases this year, and while October's "Seventeenth Heaven" was all bubbly and straightforward dance tracks that were designed to broadly appeal, April's "FML" is what stuck with us, proving to be one of the most engaging pop records of the year. Co-written as always by pint-sized powerhouse Woozi, the songs on "FML" hold a rare type of cohesion for K-pop albums due to its repeated use of short-but-impactful vocal samples. "Super", with its powerhouse verses and lively chorus, is one of the best hard dance songs the group ever did, while the rap subunit shines on the blunt "Fire". Yet tracks like "I Don't Understand But I Luv U" and "F__ My Life" eschew traditional K-balladry for vibes that are darker and more introspective. Yes, Seventeen can paint in big "Permission to Dance" colors if they feel like it, but with "FML", it feels like they have uncovered a whole new side of their sound.

The title of Dougie Poole's new album refers to the spinning loading symbol on Apple computers when something is buffering, loading, or crashing. Poole has stated he still works a day job, which is a shame given that for a few years running, he's gained a cult following due to his incredible songwriting. While his song "Vaping on the Job" went semi-viral, his new record is far more interested in exploring the lively topic of death itself. Album highlight "High School Gym" supports an indescribable guitar tone that leans more toward slowcore indie rock than it does pedal steel guitar, but when he starts describing a dream where everyone he knows who's passed on filling up the rafter of his high school gym, it pulls directly on the heartstrings. Poole's plaintive voice belies richly detailed lyrics and choruses that feel like they've existed for decades, but we're just hearing them for the first time. Few people could write couplets as memorable as "Hit every server burning in North Carolina / Trying to find the message you wrote," but not every artist, country or otherwise, is as good a songwriter as the deftly talented Dougie Poole.

Malian desert blues outfit Tinariwen has long been credited for helping bring African blues to a larger Western audience, and the fact that their musicianship has previously brought in a list of incredible collaborators (think Red Hot Chili Peppers' Josh Klinghoffer, Kurt Vile, Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan) is a testament to how revered they are. On this year's "Amatssou", which translates to "beyond the fear," the group works extensively with banjoist/fiddler Fats Kaplin and one of the greatest music producers to ever do it: Daniel Lanois on the pedal steel guitar. The mood is not overly celebratory, but the Lanois collaborations have a very pointed depth and darkness to them that draw the listener in. When all their albums are this good, it's often worth the multi-year wait until the next one drops.

Without question one of 2023's landmark releases, Yachty builds off of the success of his fluke viral hit "Poland" to pivot his sound into something that feels slightly removed from the verses that brought him fame. Finding a strong musical co-conspirator in former Chairlift member Patrick Wimberly, Yachty succeeds where other artists like Kid Cudi fell in trying to do alt-rock pivots by backing up his musical moods with solid songs. The vibes change from track to track, but Yachty never skips out on exciting detours like lite-disco ("drive ME crazy!") and almost shoegaze-adjacent synth-psych ("paint THE sky"). It's an album that speaks on race, heartbreak, and so much more. By repurposing so many indie subgenres in a modern context, we can't think of an album that sounds better equipped for 2023 than this.

How do you even begin to describe "Gentle Confrontation", the fifth album from British electronic genius Loraine James? While known primarily for her work in the minimalist IDM space, "Gentle Confrontation" covers fascinating territory, wedged somewhere between ambient, breakbeat, and even R&B in the way she uses her fragile voice and light keys to deliver daring passages about death and acceptance. At times, her lyrics seem plaintive, even casual, as on moody "Cards with My Grandparents" ("I really cherish / Playing cards with the grandparents / My grandad has dementia / He's still very cool"), while the skittering closer "Saying Goodbye" feels fatalistic with its lines sung by collaborator Contour about growing older while positing if they can engage in the world the same way ("I wonder if my organs work outside"). James' music has always been pulsating and boundary-pushing, but with "Gentle Confrontation", it feels like she's gone beyond finding her own land and instead has established herself as a new genre. It's a stunner.

A lot of pop stars with lasting legacies have the benefit of narrative. At times, it's a somewhat relatable narrative, like how Taylor Swift re-recording her albums to free them from a bad business arrangement. Other times, the narrative turns ugly, and that's how Kesha has transitioned from fun-loving party-pop girl to a serious artist. Her multiple court proceedings with former producer Dr. Luke prevented her from releasing music for years, and even when she did (as on 2017's stunning "Rainbow"), it was still via Luke's record label. "Gag Order", thus, arrives in a tricky place. She needs to record an album to fulfill her contract with Luke, but artists have been taken to court for releasing deliberately uncommercial music. Thus, "Gag Order", co-written and produced by Kesha and Rick Rubin, is as dark and brooding as it gets. Explicitly referencing her legal troubles and traumatic few years, it's as visceral as a pop record can get, eschewing her Top 40 keyboard fluff for arrangements that are minimal, striking, and impactful. "Eat the Acid" was a devastating lead single, but tracks like the lightly funky "The Drama" show she's still able to create fun beats with deeply introspective lyrics ("A Friday night in, I'll gеt too high and / Keep checkin' my pulse, am I dead yеt? / All I need is anything / To distract me from this empty feeling"). It didn't fare well on the charts, but it may very well go down as one of the decade's most bracing and compelling pop music documents. Once she's free from Luke's label, we can only imagine what she'll be capable of.

Portland's instrumental rock kingpins Grails put out their debut full-length in 2003, and over two decades later, they haven't once lost the magic that makes their sound so distinct. While "Anches En Maat" is their first new album since 2017, their mastery of atmosphere remains unparalleled. Synths and drum hits are spare and leave lots of space for Alex Hall's guitar to stretch, bend, scream, and wither. It feels that every song on this seven-track release has had its every note carefully arranged, and when the yearning string sections enter partway through "Sisters of Bilitis", it feels like the band is on the verge of finally releasing some dark spirits. There's a giant emotional arc to this record, exploring sometimes ugly minor-chord snarls, but when that 12-minute title track kicks into high gear, with pianos, horns, rolling toms, and layers of guitar feedback all colliding with each other, it feels something akin to euphoria. While eight albums in over two decades might seem like a small output to some, the ever-increasing quality of their records means even if we have to endure seven long years for another Grails album, it'll be worth the wait.

When California's Local Natives debuted with their album "Gorilla Manor" back in 2010, they were heralded for their unique songs, incredible layered vocal interplay, and fresh musical perspective in an indie-rock landscape that had become overstuffed. While the band got big, "Gorilla Manor" was the fuel that kept fans' hopes up, even if the albums after that led to somewhat diminishing artistic returns. Four years since their last release, "Time Will Wait for No One" is the sound of a group who have fully rediscovered themselves, not making an explicit sequel to "Gorilla Manor" so much as re-engaging with what made them great from the onset. The second the quintet's voices join together on the brief opening title track, it's clear that the group is just happy to be making music together. "Desert Snow" sounds like it was teleported straight out of a music critic's 2010 best singles list, except we're hearing it in 2023 and it somehow sounds fresh and nostalgic at the same time. While the rockers don't rock as hard as they used to (single "NYE" gladly marches by its own rhythm guitar pace), Local Natives are giving fans everything they've asked for, and we couldn't be happier about it. Time will wait for no one, but we're glad we waited around for the group to come back to their former glory.

Despite working in jazz circles for over a decade and a half, Matthew Halsall's trumpet-driven pieces have been referred to as "spiritual" and "experimental" and, at times, even "ambient." For his umpteenth album, "An Ever Changing View", he uses all the instruments at his disposal — saxophone, thumb piano, Rhodes, harp — to create a lush, glowing sound. His compositions glide and pulse but never overwhelm, instead drawing the listener in. "Mountains, Trees, and Seas" could very well be called an ambient number were it not for the lithe standup bass work, evocative key playing, and inviting production. It might be easy for some to try and dismiss an album so quiet, hushed, and casual, but the sonic details show the mountains of effort that went into creating something so gorgeously rendered. In a year of truly excellent jazz releases, Halsall's strength is in finding the emotion inside comfort and turning the heat up to where any listener can drift comfortably in his grooves. The most calming album of the year.

British dance duo Jungle have quickly established their retro-soul credentials with their looping, hooky, fascinating music, but their singles have always been accompanied by one-shot music videos featuring the same troupe of dancers. Sometimes, the visuals highlight the power of the music, two artforms working in tandem with each other, and when "Back on 74", the single from fourth full-length "Volcano", went viral for its memorable/easily imitable choreography, Jungle ended up having their biggest chart hit to date. Good thing, too, because that means that many more people were able to hear an eclectic mix of soul, disco, dance, funk, and R&B. The visuals for every track help draw the distinction, but even without them, it's easy to zero in on the enthusiastic joy bop that is the Erick the Architect-featuring "Candle Flame" or fall in love with the dripping slow jam that is "Good at Breaking Hearts". For those who discovered them through social media trends, here's a viral term that applies to this expertly crafted selection of dance music: "no skips."

The German instrumental dance label Toy Tronics has been around since 2012, gradually building up a respectable catalog with its numerous white label releases. Kosmo Kint is a singer who was raised in New York but moved to Berlin to explore his dance music dreams, showing up on a split EP with Fényan in 2021. Yet nothing could've prepared anyone for "Groove Religion", a colorful, enthusiastic, and wildly catchy record that only gets more delightful with each spin. From the opening title track, Kint asks you to join in his "Groove Religion", and quite frankly, we're hooked from the first 30 seconds. The production is immaculate, layering keys, beats, and Kint's immaculate vocal stylings all into one of the slickest packages of the year. "Too Big" rides a slinky smooth dance beat to encourage you to "Turn off Instagram / And appreciate what we have," and that kind of earnest positivity that embraces the good parts of life feels almost foreign to our 2023 ears. Whether you're starting a party in a club or the comfort of your bedroom, this "Groove Religion" can be practiced anywhere.

Johnathon Ford's instrumental rock outfit Unwed Sailor has been finding immaculate grooves for over two and a half decades now, and the best news of all is that he is showing zero signs of slowing down. After reaching a glorious high with their pandemic release "Truth & Consequences" in 2021, their ninth studio full-length "Mute the Charm" finds them oscillating between their tired-and-true rock-groove formula as well as testing out some grand new experiments. Tracks like the shimmering "Let Me Be Away" and the '90s throwback "Sugar Sand" recall pop-rock structures of radio's lost years, but the thrilling Led Zeppelin cosplay of "Western Dime" shows that Ford is still following his gut instincts and testing out new tools and tricks in the Unwed Sailor work room. The band has long ago found its cult audience and could've easily fallen into a glorious holding pattern, but even working within conventional rock structures, Ford has carved out a lane for himself that hasn't let us down even after all these years. His charms are far from muted.

The best thing to happen to Disclosure was to stop making pop music. After their first two albums helped bring U.K. house music to the masses and helped launch the careers of Sam Smith and AlunaGeorge, the brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence started to strip their sound back, releasing a very different kind of electronic record with 2020's "Energy" and then disappearing for a few years. No longer signed to a major label, the Lawrence boys challenged themselves with "Alchemy", creating an album with no special guest singers, no samples, and just the two of them handling all music, production, and singing duties. The result, quite amazingly, is one of their best records full-stop. Polishing their straightforward style to a sheen, it's exhilarating to hear Disclosure find nuances to their sound that were only previously hinted at. They had never made a pulsing beat as sick as "Simply Won't Do", and "A Little Bit" teleports the listener back to raw early-2000s trace-lite stylings. Even fans of their early records will be taken by tracks like "Go the Distance", which sounds like a clever modern revision of their breakthrough hit "When a Fire Starts to Burn". Full on ravers? Acoustic guitar interludes? Every possible texture of glistening keyboard tone you could imagine? It feels like Disclosure has rediscovered why they love making dance music, and the result is one of the most charming, unexpected treats of the year.

When NewJeans debuted in 2022, they were a breath of fresh air in the world of K-pop. Under the master guidance of industry pro Min Hee-jin on a new label that she runs, the girl group eschewed traditional K-pop beats (drum-n-bass!) and promotional arcs (multiple preview singles!) to stand out in an oversaturated market. Their rise to success was near-instantaneous, and their follow-up EP, "Get Up", continues one of the most incredible winning streaks in recent memory. At only five tracks long (and one interlude) and clocking in at just over 12 minutes, this is the epitome of "leave them wanting more" pop music. The massive hits "Super Shy" and "ETA" are some of the catchiest songs of the year, the production sly and, at times, even silly. Mid-tempo stunner "Cool With You" shows that this dynamic five-piece can do more than just straight-up dance bangers, but on their official releases, they have yet to release a single weak track (they save the bad ones for promotional tie-ins with "League of Legends"). While Blackpink may be selling out stadiums, NewJeans are winning the hearts of both K-pop superfans and casual Western audiences alike. Even with a 12-minute EP, they still managed to debut at the top of the U.S. album charts. Nothing "Shy" about it.

The 2021 documentary "Kid Candidate" details a young man named Hayden Pedigo running for city council in Amarillo, Texas. What started out as a joke to fight back against the more well-funded Texas political machines soon turned into a serious candidacy, with his idealism shining through despite his age and lack of experience. Even before his political moment, that earnestness was shining through in his music: solo acoustic instrumental guitar albums that felt like they came straight from the Bill Callahan/Mark Kozelek school of fingerpicking. While there is the minor synth swell here and there, "The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored", Pedigo's fifth studio full-length, might be his best work yet. Album opener "Looking at Fish" evokes dusty Texas desert landscapes, while the patiently-strummed "Nearer, Nearer" could soundtrack a quiet drive in the rain or a night wrapped around a fireplace. His songs are emotive, expertly rendered, and infinitely replayable. This is a record that refuses to be "Ignored."

Fatoumata Diawara always felt destined for stardom. Initially making it as a film actress after moving to France from Mali, it was her music that ultimately helped cement her place in pop culture. While her early self-penned albums traded in Wassoulou and Mali blues idioms, she ended up becoming an in-demand vocalist for electronic acts, appearing on albums by Disclosure and Gorillaz within just a few years of each other. Seeing the potential of her incredible voice and songwriting, "London Ko", her third studio album proper, features a heavy assist from Gorillaz/Blur mastermind Damon Albarn, who co-produces half of the tracks here. While Albarn does push Diawara's music into some slightly more Western directions at times, the album doesn't feel like an overly commercial bid: it just feels like the next step for one of the most talented West African musicians working today. Tracks like "Mogokan" don't feel too far removed from peak-era Amadou & Miriam records, but hearing an epic dance collaboration with -M- on "Massa Den" feels like the marking of something new. "London Ko" brings in a range of new guests to Diawara's world (soul legend Angie Stone, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus), but when you hear Diawara emote over the quick-paced jazz piano on "Blues", it's clear that no matter who shows up to assist, it is and always has been the Fatoumata Diawara show, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Jessie Ware's musical journey started with her collaborating with hard electronic artists like SBTRKT and Disclosure, but when she started putting out solo albums, she took on a mature torch song approach, singing epic ballads with contemporary production to wondrous effect. Then, somewhat suddenly, she decided to have fun. 2020's "What's Your Pleasure?" is one of the best pop albums of the past ten years, and "That! Feels Good!" follows that line of disco-licious dance-pop, going bigger, campier, and sexier. Nary a ballad to be seen, even the Jessie Ware of five years ago couldn't have been seen doing a track as beautifully funky-naughty as "Freak Me Now" or lushly goofy as "These Lips". Pull up a video from any of her tour dates from this album, and you can see her having the absolute time of her life as a dance diva, feeding off of enthusiastic crowd response. Her songwriting has become bolder, funnier, and somehow even catchier than before. She may still be courting a cult following, but we cannot think of anyone more deserving of sustained success than Jessie Ware going full dancefloor muse. It's fitting, it's perfect, it feels so good.

The best part about being a music fan in the modern age is that every possible type of record you could ever want to listen to is at your fingertips. The only downside? How do you possibly sort through the literal thousands of new releases that hit streaming services every week? It's for this reason that some people rely on algorithms to highlight new and related tracks, but we all know that the ones that stick out with us most are the ones that sound like nothing else out there. Swedish-based DJ Prins Emanuel has never had a difficult time carving out a unique space for himself in the world, as his albums blend jazz, ambient, and electronic genres together in a way that feels hypnotic, cinematic, and ultimately cathartic. A direct sequel to his 2018 record of the same name, "Diagonal Musik II" finds seemingly simple compositions and loops get spun off into wild new directions, like with "Naiades Pt. 1" where a simple acoustic guitar riff is joined by mournful woodwinds and then some distant desert tablas. The simple thumb pianos of "Parnassos" soon give way to indie-rock guitars that are shaking off teardrops with every pluck. "Diagonal Musik II" is soundtracking an epic movie of romance and sadness that has yet to be made, existing only in the head of you, the listener, and it's remarkable that we still get a chance to witness it.

Sam Wilkes was not afraid of getting weird. The Los Angeles-based bassist has quickly established himself in the alternative jazz scene, and his collaborations with like-minded saxophonist Sam Gendel on Leaving Records are some of the most hypnotic, memorable records of any genre to come out in the past decade. While Wilkes often guested on records for many of his friends, he surprised many by announcing out of nowhere that he was starting a new imprint for himself and pivoting his sound to indie rock. "Driving" certainly uses many tools from his experimental jazz releases but repurposes them for the purposes of grinding, grooving, and vibing. Fans of Alex G and Mac DeMarco will immediately be clued in on to what "Driving" is aiming for, but these beautifully unusual songs are working by their own rulebooks, zigging when you expect them to zag and surprising at every turn. 

"Ag" uses fingerpicked acoustics and warped vocals to establish a groovy mood that's soon joined in by electric piano plucks and sawing string sections. "Hannah Song" could've been a Pitchfork-approved campfire instrumental during the height of twee-folk appreciation, while "And Again" oscillates perfectly between waves of crashing instrument noise and something resembling rock song structures. Yet best of all is the closing title track, where Wilkes pours out a tale of pure unrequited love over waves of lush guitars, his voice warbling and waving as he wallows in his feeble attempts at courtship. "Driving" is a record that breathes, that feels alive and curious about its own sonic contours and possibilities. It's an unassuming album whose hold on us is nothing short of mesmerizing. It's not just a fantastic pivot for Sam Wilkes: it's our pick for Album of the Year.