The years top releases surveyed disorder, sought companionship, and offered glitzy escapism.
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The best albums of 2023 devised a wealth of helpful solutions and coping mechanisms for our everyday problems.
Pop offered glitzy escapism, and jazz and dance music luxuriated in the ever-unfurling present.
Punk and metal surveyed disorder, while R&B, musica urbana, and Afrobeats sought companionship.
For every ending, there was a new beginning waiting to happen.
10.James Holden,Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
10.
The hourlong album arrives at its thrills on its own terms.
Years of electro-acoustic experiments paid off: Holdens machines feel alive.
9.Fires in the Distance,Air Not Meant for Us
9.
The result is a rumination on hopelessness and dread that really lives and breathes in it.
That tension is exhilarating.
8.boygenius,the record
8.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview ofthe record.
7.Kelela,Raven
7.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview ofRavenand Tirhakah Lovesinterview with Kelela.
As new and old friends mingle, so do sounds and ideas.
Read Craig Jenkinssinterview with billy woods.
5.Noname,Sundial
5.
Rapper and sometime librarian Nonames records are celebrated for their resistance to the horrors of the world.
If faith is a mustard seed, as Gospel?
insinuates,Sundialis a poignant reminder that fostering growth requires deep time and commitment, ample air and sunlight.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview ofSundial.
That juxtaposition of style and decay, that dirtying of pretty things, is key to grasping Tumors music.
Parody peers into the private life of a pop star dedicated to performance but also awful attention-seeking behavior.
Everyone is trying to find something to plug a nagging hollowness haunting their interior world.
3.Sufjan Stevens,Javelin
3.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview ofJavelin.
2.Iris DeMent,Workin on a World
2.
1.Sampha,Lahai
1.
Read Craig Jenkinssinterview with Sampha.
Many of those selections appear above in our top ten.
Below, the rest of the albums that stood out this year, presented in order of release date.
The purview is bleak: The future is here / And theres no way out, Dont Try warns.
The euphoric build-ups and jarring twists in Tell Me and Loading feel like a homecoming.
He can do Mellencamp; he can do Whiskeytown; he can do Bright Eyes.
He sounds cozy in a Lumineers duet.
Zachs playing the country career game his way, singing about Klonopin and cussing at cops.
The 909s (?)
The band seems to lift his spirits.
ReadCraig Jenkinss review ofThe Age of Pleasure.
Life can be good,Weathervanessupposes, if you commit to working for it.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview ofFuse.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview of72 Seasons.
Read E. Alex Jungsprofile of Yaeji.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview ofDid You Know That Theres a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
Read Craig Jenkinssinterview with Liv.e.
His creative wanderlust was as inspiring as his most memorable hooks were sampleable.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the year SufjansConvocationswas released.
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