Best Albums of 2023

At this point, it would be weird if I posted my best of life before the year was over like everyone else. While some may find the need to post theirs before Thanksgiving dinner has been consumed, we rather post our list when it feels right. And I guess it just hasn’t felt right for a while.

2023 was a year that started quite poorly for me but it was a year that bounced back pretty well considering it also featured plenty of less-than-stellar moments. But throughout these moments, there was a constant onslaught of new releases.

Truthfully, I’ve felt simply overwhelmed and bogged down by the sheer number of new music that is out there. Not quite what you expect or want to hear from a person writing about music, but it feels good to get that out there. Music has never felt this exhausting.

Yet at the same time, it’s impossible to ignore the quality of releases we have at our literal fingertips. From steady legends of their respective genres to hungry musicians that sadly got mostly overlooked by the masses, there were plenty of releases that will live on in our hearts in the years that follow.

Enough rambling. Here are my favorite albums of 2023:

Honorable Mentions:

billy woods / Kenny Segal – Maps, Water From Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed, Youth Lagoon – Heaven Is a Junkyard, Now – And Blue Space Is Burning Noon, The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein, boygenius – the record, Thee Oh Sees – Intercepted Message, Be Your Own Pet – Mommy, Being Dead – When Horses Would Run, HELENA DELAND – Goodnight Summerland, Nation Of Language – Strange Disciple