Since 2020, I’ve been ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

Welcome to 2002. The year the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan government signed a cease-fire agreement, ending 19 years of civil war, East Timor became a new nation, President Bush did his ‘axis of evil’ speech, Russia and the US agreed to reduce their nuclear weapons, and North Korea admitted they had some, in defiance of the treaty.

Musically, here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rate as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
#2 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
#3 Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
#4 Various Artists - The Fire This Time
#5 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

And here’s a bunch of others I’m getting from further down the list.

#7 Sigur Rós - ()
#10 The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
#11 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.
#16 The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas!
#19 Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
#22 Boris - Heavy Rocks

Finally, one from NPR readers’ best albums of all time by women list:

Tori Amos - Scarlet’s Walk

Off we go…

12. American IV: Man Comes Around

Johhny Cash

“American IV: The Man Comes Around is the sixty-seventh studio album by American country musician Johnny Cash, the last to be released during his lifetime. It is the fourth entry in Cash's American series of albums, considered by some critics to be his finest work towards the end of his life. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.” - Wikipedia

There’s a stark beauty to the stripped-down production here, allowing Johnny Cash’s weathered, magnetic presence to take centre-stage. His renditions breathe new life into the material—none more so than on “Hurt,” a haunting, visceral performance that’s rightfully iconic. That said, it’s hard not to see it as ground zero for the wave of brooding acoustic covers that would saturate movie and game trailers for years to come. Fortunately, that trend seems to have run its course, and it’s tough to fault Cash for the imitators. While this collection of mostly covers doesn’t quite hit with the force of his finest work, it’s still a compelling listen—resonant, reflective, and unmistakably him.

7/10

“Heavy Rocks is the fourth studio album by Japanese band Boris, released in 2002. It is the first of three Boris albums titled Heavy Rocks, with the others released in 2011 and 2022; all feature the band exploring hard rock and heavy metal sounds.” - Wikipedia

Boris’s Heavy Rocks lives up to its title—a thunderous barrage of tidal riffs that surge with unstoppable momentum. The band melds sludgy textures with swaggering grooves, but it’s the lead guitarist’s wailing, expressive solos that truly set them apart, slicing through the chaos with electrifying precision. The vocals, delivered in Japanese, would likely be a lot more interesting if I understood them, and that’s what, unfairly, holds the album back for me. They just don’t quite do enough to pierce the language barrier for me.

7.5/10

10. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Flaming Lips

“Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the tenth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips. The album saw the band pursue a more electronic direction than previous efforts, incorporating acoustic guitars and rhythms influenced by hip hop and top 40 music. The album was well-received critically and commercially, helping the band break into popularity, and was adapted into a musical in 2012.” - Wikipedia

A warm, woozy pop record that drifts through themes of mortality and technology with a gentle smile. Yoshimi trades the emotional volatility of The Soft Bulletin for a more subdued, psychedelic sweetness. It’s full of lovely sounds and comforting melodies—though a little too smooth to truly astonish. A hug in album form, if occasionally a bit predictable.

8/10

9. Yanqui U.X.O.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

“Yanqui U.X.O. is the third studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago in late 2001, and was the band's first album released after their slight name change (moving the exclamation mark from the "emperor" to the "you"). Shortly after its release, the group announced an indefinite hiatus so band members could pursue differing musical interests; it was their last album for a decade until the release of 2012's 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!.” - Wikipedia

More Godspeed You! Black Emperor, more epically sprawling post-rock—but Yanqui U.X.O. brings with it a colder, more sinister undertone. The grandeur is still there: surging crescendos, mournful strings, complexities buried in the mix. But there’s a sharper edge this time, a sense of dread hanging over everything. The melodies feel like they’re decaying as they unfold, and even the quiet moments are tense, like something is about to collapse. It’s less cinematic triumph, more slow-motion ruin. Another brilliant record from the band—just one that feels more haunted than hopeful.

8/10

8. Songs for the Deaf

Queens of the Stoneage

“Songs for the Deaf is the third studio album by the American rock band Queens of the Stone Age. It features guest musicians including Dave Grohl on drums, and was the last Queens of the Stone Age album to feature Nick Oliveri on bass. Songs for the Deaf is a loose concept album, taking the listener on a drive through the California desert from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree, tuning into radio stations from towns along the way such as Banning and Chino Hills. Songs for the Deaf received critical acclaim and earned Queens of the Stone Age their first gold certification in the United States.” - Wikipedia

I was first introduced to this album by a school friend who played in my band at the time, and while I liked it then, I’ve grown to appreciate it even more over the years. Josh Homme’s riffs have always had a singular presence—rugged, hypnotic, and dusted with the sun-baked grit he carried over from his Kyuss days. Grohl’s drumming, dry and tightly wound, doesn’t pack the raw punch of his In Utero performances, but that’s not the point. Here, his playing is like a frantic, mechanical heartbeat—urgent, precise, and perfectly offsetting Homme’s lurching guitar lines.

Vocals are shared between Homme, bassist Nick Oliveri, and the late Mark Lanegan, creating a dynamic push and pull that keeps things fresh while maintaining a surprising cohesion. It also reins in some of Homme’s more theatrical tendencies, adding grit and variety without ever losing the thread.

At its core, this is a hard rock record that leans into accessibility without sacrificing edge—call it pop hard rock, and I mean that in the best way. It’s sharp, weird, and catchy as hell.

8.5/10

“Turn On the Bright Lights is the debut studio album by American rock band Interpol. Upon release, the record peaked at number 101 on the UK Albums Chart. It reached number 158 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, as well as spending 73 weeks on the Billboard Independent Albums chart, peaking at number five.” - Wikipedia

If Is This It was New York’s cool, leather-jacketed reintroduction to the world, Turn on the Bright Lights is its sleepless, overthinking cousin. Interpol’s debut trades swagger for tension, cloaking its post-punk revival in shadowy poetics and a glacial sense of drama.

The lyrics often flirt with nonsense (“The subway is a porno”) but somehow land with conviction. They’re less about clarity and more about mood, vaguely remembered impressions. Paul Banks’ monotone drawl only deepens the mystique. Meanwhile, the drumming is far more forward than you might expect from anything of this ilk—crisp, commanding, propelling the band’s mid-tempo dirges as they slowly build into something almost grandiose. Guitars shimmer, loop, and echo into the void, subtly driving the songs while less subtly thickening the atmosphere. It’s like watching city lights blur through rain-streaked windows—steady, detached, and hauntingly beautiful.

8.5/10

“Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Wilco. The album showcased a more atmospheric and experimental sound than the band's previous work, and has been described as art rock and indie rock by music critics. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot received widespread acclaim from music critics at release, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 2000s and of all time.” - Wikipedia

On the surface, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is just an album of simple, enjoyable songs, but the more you listen you realise it’s an album of simple, enjoyable, perfect songs. The production stays understated, never showy, but it’s laced with just enough experimental flair to keep things feeling fresh and quietly adventurous. Somehow, the album manages to echo countless influences while still sounding wholly its own—familiar yet distinct, and ultimately, timeless.

Song Picks: Jesus etc, Kamera, Pot Kettle Black

9/10

“Scarlet's Walk is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter and pianist Tori Amos. The 18-track concept album (described by Amos as a "sonic novel about a road trip") details the cross-country travels of Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos, and was greatly inspired by the changes in American society and politics post-September 11, 2001.

The album was a commercial success, reaching number seven in the US and becoming Amos's fourth top 10 album. Considered one of her best and most conceptually elaborate works, it received positive reviews. “ - Wikipedia

At 75 minutes, Scarlet’s Walk should feel too long for a pop album, but it doesn’t. Tori Amos somehow keeps things engaging from start to finish without ever resorting to shock tactics or dramatic reinventions. She isn’t particularly edgy here, but she doesn’t need to be.

There are plenty of catchy choruses and familiar pop structures, but they’re wrapped in a kind of mystique that’s hard to define. It’s accessible and melodic, yet it moves with the pacing and depth of something more progressive. Maybe that’s the secret — Scarlet’s Walk feels like a pop album filtered through a sprawling, introspective lens. The result is something quietly compelling, even hypnotic.

9/10

“The Fire This Time is an audio documentary on the history and consequences of the Gulf War and following economic sanctions against Iraq. Produced by filmmaker Grant Wakefield, the 2-CD set featured music from electronic artists including Michael Stearns, Pan Sonic, and Aphex Twin.” - Wikipedia

The Fire This Time isn’t interested in subtlety, nuance, or even musical cohesion—and that’s part of what makes it so gripping. A sprawling, furious protest record released in the aftermath of 9/11, it fuses spoken word, dub, electronica, and sampled media into something more like an activist transmission than a traditional album.

The scattered production—sometimes sparse, sometimes dense—mirrors the global confusion and anger it’s responding to. That said, this is not a balanced or carefully moderated work. At times it feels like one of those very one-sided documentaries, hammering its points home with little room for interpretation. For some listeners, that might be off-putting—but the clarity of vision is also its power. It wants to persuade, unsettle, provoke. And for me, it did.

The instrumental second disc, while interesting, feels more like a bonus than an integral part of the experience. Without the political content, it loses much of the urgency and cohesion that makes the first disc so compelling.

Still, The Fire This Time completely sucked me in. It’s not easy listening, nor is it trying to be. But it captures a historical moment with fire and fury, and in doing so, becomes something more than just a compilation—it becomes a document, a statement, and a challenge.

9/10

“Geogaddi is the second studio album by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. The album was intended to be—and has been described as—darker in tone than their debut studio album Music Has the Right to Children, released in 1998. Geogaddi received critical acclaim upon release, in addition to being acclaimed by several publications as one of the year's best albums. It was listed by music website Pitchfork as one of the best intelligent dance music albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

Less optimistic than their debut, Geogaddi feels like a walk beside a 10-foot wall you’ve never been allowed to climb. You’ve been told what’s on your side is better—but you can’t shake the sense that you're being lied to. Tunneling synths and a subby, almost heartbeat-like kick drum lay the foundation, while disjointed field recordings and warped space-age flourishes flicker across the surface. It’s music that decorates decay, like ivy growing over an abandoned broadcast tower. Seductive, paranoid, and slightly unhinged.

9/10

“( ) (also referred to as Svigaplatan, which translates to The Bracket Album) is the third studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. It comprises eight untitled tracks, divided into two parts: the first four tracks are lighter and more optimistic, while the latter four are bleaker and more melancholic. Lead singer Jón Þór Birgisson ("Jónsi") sang the album's lyrics entirely in "Hopelandic", a made-up language consisting of gibberish words.” - Wikipedia

Brackets is another post-rock masterpiece from arguably the genre’s finest band. Jónsi sings in a made-up language, using his voice less as a conveyor of meaning and more as an instrument of pure emotion. Compared to its predecessor, the album feels slightly more modern—its synth textures more prominent, its drums more compressed. It may meander more, but the journey is so unwaveringly beautiful that it hardly matters. Post-rock can sometimes lapse into formula, with predictable crescendos and valleys, but here Sigur Rós once again make every note feel intentional and deeply felt.

9.5

1. All Hail West Texas

The Mountain Goats

“All Hail West Texas is the sixth studio album by the Mountain Goats. After the slight increase in production values on The Coroner's Gambit album of 2000, All Hail West Texas was the last Mountain Goats album recorded entirely on John Darnielle's trademark Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox until 2020's Songs for Pierre Chuvin. Similarly, it marked the end of an era for the band, as it was the last album by the Mountain Goats to feature only John Darnielle until 2020.” - Wikipedia

Captured on a Panasonic boombox that sounds like it’s breathing its final, wheezing breath, this record is as lo-fi as they come. Long presumed dead, the tape recorder Darnielle had used for countless previous recordings was exhumed from a closet and miraculously sputtered back to life, just long enough to catch one more dispatch from the margins. What emerged is a set of raw, urgent acoustic sketches—melodic, immediate, and devastating in their intimacy—written in the solitude of a home suddenly too quiet, with his wife away and only the ghosts of ideas to keep him company.

There are no tricks here, no overdubs, no studio sheen—just Darnielle, a guitar, and the soft mechanical churn of the boombox as it spins tape into a kind of lo-fi transcendence. The fidelity may be primitive, but the emotional clarity is crystalline. These songs feel like they were written moments before the red light flicked on, catching Darnielle in the act of discovery. It’s a document of artistic impulse in its rawest, most unfiltered form - thus the core brilliance of the songwriting hits all the harder.

Song Picks: Jenny, The Mess Inside

9.5/10

So, as I try to keep up with the present while writing about my favourite albums of every year from 1960, here’s my two pence worth on the albums from 2023. I’ve listened to all of Pitchfork’s ‘Best New Music’, the top 10-15 or so of rateyourmusic.com and albumoftheyear.org’s (aggregate) lists and some other stuff that has tickled my fancy. Below are all the ones I enjoyed enough to give my thoughts on.

I usually give a bit of a summary about the years I’m talking about news-wise before launching into the best music, but I think we could all do without being reminded about 2023 on the news front.

As is customary with my contemporary reviews, they’re a lot shorter. I’ve got a child now and would like to get back to the past (1996 to be precise) and finish this challenge sometime before global warming kills us all.

To save your data plans and such, I’m only going to do the pretty album cover style for the top 20, rather than for all 40+ here.

50. Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit

I can get on board with pretty much anything in music, but roaring is still something that eludes me. Shouting and screaming I’m game with, hell I do a lot of that myself, but roaring has always just sounded like I’m listening to some minotaur front a band, rather than a human. The music here is impressive, with angular riffs and beats performed with surgical precision, and if I could just get past the indecipherable roaring I’d love it, but alas, I can’t. I know it’s a personal thing.

6/10

49. Kelela - Raven

Much like the cover, Kelela’s second album feels like treading water in a lovely fluid soundscape, but in the end I got a little tired and felt like it hadn’t really gone anywhere.

48. Yaeji - With a Hammer

Yaeji’s debut is decent, varied pop that just hasn’t quite jumped out and grabbed me, though I very much admire its understated artistry.

6/10

47. Julia Byrne - Greater Wings

Byrne supported the Tallest Man on Earth on a gig I went to a few years ago. They seemed a little mis-matched, Byrne being perhaps the least energetic solo performer I’ve seen, while TTMOE is more energetic than most bands, never mind solo performers. Much like that Byrne performance, Greater Wings is lush, full of lovely, breathy vocals, but just not all that exciting.

Song Picks: The Greater Wings, Hope’s Return

6/10

46. Hotline TNT - Cartwheel

A fuzzy shoegaze factory. Enjoyable but not standing out.

Song Picks: Protocol

6/10

45. Pangea - Changing Channels

Big fish - little fish - cardboard box. Dubstep artist Pangea’s second album is more trance than dubstep, and though I very much enjoy listening to it’s energising beats and sandy synth lines, it’s not one I’m finding all that memorable.

Song Picks: Hole Away

6.5/10

44. Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun

Lovely spacey flutey stuff. A bit of a ‘let’s stick some lovely mood music on’ album, rather than one I’ve got as much out of with active listening. I’m not sure if anyone expected this of Mr 3000, the first song title suggests otherwise. A pleasant curveball.

6.5/10

43. Liv.e - Girl in the Half Pearl

Sumptuous beats and melodies, and a real joy to listen to, but a bit too wishy-washy to have left a solid imprint.

Song Picks: Clowns, NoNewNews!

6.5

42. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge

Vocals are full of feeling and wholesome mixes. There Wasn’t Enough is probably a masterpiece.

Song Pick: There Wasn't Enough

41. Blue Lake - Sun Arcs

If I retreated to a Swedish cabin with nothing but a dog for company for an extended period of time, I’d either leave and head back to society, or be driven to suicide. Jason Dungan however was a lot more productive, and came out with a beautifully optimistic piece of instrumental music ‘driven’ by his own custom-made zither. I put ‘driven’ in inverted comma because it’s more of a meander than anything with a concrete purpose or destination. The journey on Sun Arcs twinkles and rings like the dawn of a new day of nothing, but in a hopeful way, not the way shrouded in ennui that I’d be prone to write about.

Song Picks: Bloom, Dallas, Writing

40. Lankum - False Lankum

Very trad-folky at its core, but more dissonant and dark than that. A kind of dark, foggy day on the Moors at dusk rather than your folky walk through a forest full of elves. Get me?

Song Picks: Go Dig My Grave

7/10

39. Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard

It's no Wondrous Bughouse, but it is an album of nice melodies drowned in reverb, and sometimes that’s just what the doctor ordered.

Song Picks: Rabbit, Trapeze Artist, Mercury

7.1/10

38. JPEGMAFIA / Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes

JPEGMAFIA produces so it’s the hyperactive, skipping affair you’d expect. Danny Brown’s idiosyncratic vocals fit like a glove. It’s a chaotic, continuously entertaining, but I can't fully wrap my head around it.

Song Picks: God Loves You, Scaring Hoes

7/10

37. PJ Harvey - Inside the Old Year Dying

PJ Harvey’s tenth album is an opaque folk album that opens up only if you study the lyrics, when it’ll swallow you whole, even if you come out the other end none the wiser as to what you’ve just experienced.

Song Picks: Prayer at the Gate, Lwonsome Tonight,

7.5/10

36. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation

I think we’ve all lost count of just how many albums King Gizzard... have unleashed on the world before now, I mean it looks like they put out three in one year in 2023. Never standing still, and constantly trying new concepts, PetroDragonic… is a thrash metal album, and having just got past Slayer in my album challenge, it’s nice to hear a modern version. I can take or leave the lyrics, they’re the kind of dragon, wizard, lizard stuff you’d expect from the band’s name and the cover (which I rather like), but the riffs are consistently roaring and the whole thing is just a lot of fun. PetroDragonic doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite the impressive instrumental skill going on, and you get the feeling that every riff is winking at you.

Song Picks: Witchcraft, Motor Spirit, Dragon

7.5/10

35. Billy Woods & Kenny Segal - Maps

Segal’s beats are consistently wholesome, Woods’ rapping the perfect accompaniment. Like a bowl of Shredded Wheat. Cleansing.

Song Picks: Baby Steps, Soft Landing, The Layover

7.5/10

34. Wednesday - Rat Saw God

The vocals are nothing new, and at times I'd go so far as to say they're uninspiring. However, musically and lyrically this is a bit of a gem. The way the lead guitar fights with the more straightforward slacker rock sound at points is great, creating a variety of interesting textures, which Karly Hartzman’s murky lyrics work well with. Rat Saw God is unafraid to be ambitious (see the spectacular Bull Believer), and the somewhat derivative vocals are its only drawback.

Song Picks: Bull Believer, Chosen to Deserve

7.5/10

33. Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

A glorious arena pop album. Polachek’ second album crawls up to you as you cower in the corner hiding from the world. Within about 3 minutes you're up dancing to the rat-a-tat-tat of the lights, hands a stuttering silhouette. The record dips a little in the second half, but finishes as strongly as it started.

Song Picks: Welcome to My Island, Bunny is a Rider, Smoke

7.5/10

32. Panopticon - The Rime of Memory

The highest ranking album that has vocals that roar, so make of that what you will. I’m told it’s about the passing milestones of life, but as I can’t understand a word Austin Lunn roars, I wouldn’t get that unless I read the lyrics. Anyway, The Rime of Memory is huge, it has moments of folk instrumentation which interchange perfectly with the black metal onslaughts that drown out Dunn’s yells like fog obscuring a roaring beacon. A clinic in atmosphere and ‘epicness’, for want of a better word. This album sounds important, it sounds serious, and I like to listen to it and think about the fact I’m going to die one day, and that that’s a bit rubbish. Anyway stop reading this and go listen to Cedar Skeletons, it’s glorious. Also note that pretty much everything is played by Mr Lunn himself, which is impressive.

Song Picks: Cedar Skeletons, Enduring the Snow Drought

7.5/10

31. Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly

Branch’s final album was completed following her death last year, according to notes she left. What remains is not a sad funeral to her death, but a joyful, final celebration in jazzy experiments and variety. I do feel like it’s not quite cohesive enough as a whole, but it has that ‘slightly over-reaching album before the masterpiece’ feel to it. As such the only real sadness to the album is that said inevitable masterpiece will remain unwritten.

7.5/10

30. Boygenius - The Record

Supergroup Boygenius achieve what so few supergroups manage: a record that pulls on all their skillsets and talents, while remaining cohesive and not sounding like songs from a bunch of different artists thrown together. There’s a clear leader on many of the tracks (Emily, I’m Sorry has Bridgers’ stamp all over it), but the others contribute in ways that pull the tracks towards sounding like boygenius songs, rather than those of the three individual artists.

Song Picks: Emily, I’m Sorry; True Blue; Letter to an Old Poet

7.5/10

29. Sampha - Lahai

Sampha’s second album is a gorgeously easy-drifting collection of lovely melodies and pitter-patter drum beats that feels like a flock of birds dancing in a blue sky. “I am lifted by your love, I am lifted from above” he sings of his newborn daughter on Suspended. Us too Sampha, us too.

Song Picks: Only, Suspended, Jonothan L. Seagull

8/10

28. NoName - Sundial

Silky smooth rhymes and luxuriously laid-back and angular beats, Sundial is another great hip-hop album and one with a protagonist that has a refreshing ability to take aim at herself just as willingly as she takes aim at Kendrick and Jay-Z.

Song Picks: holde me down, namesake, oblivion

8/10

27. yeule - Softscars

Yeule’s third album is a wonderful dip back into 90s alternative; a grainier, more industrial and less corporate Avril Lavigne & co, full of evocative and cathartic melodies you want to scream your dreams along to.

Song Picks: ghosts, software update,

8/10

26. McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?

One of the most lyrically and instrumentally interesting hip-hop albums of the year. There are obvious soul, jazz and pop influences, with a rock-solid rhythm section groove holding it together as it colourfully fires in all directions.

Song Picks: Mezzanine Tippin’; Run, Run, Run; Live! From the Kitchen Table

8/10

25. 100 Gecs - 10,000 Gecs

10,000 Gecs is the result of asking a robot to create an album that is cathartic, catchy, nostalgic, and fun, with as much efficiency as possible. The album synthesises a whole heap of genres into the skeletons that hold them together in a way so sharp that it’ll cut to the core of anyone listening to it. Your reaction to this will be one of viscerlal love or distaste.

Song Picks:

8/10

24. L’Rain - I Killed Your Dog

Whether this grabs you or not will correlate with how well you mange to get lost in it. It took me a few listens, but on the final one, I’d clearly found the right moment. I was drowned in its varied soundscapes, melodies, structurelessness and mystery, and I was sold.

Song Picks: I Killed Your Dog, 5 to 8 ours a day,

8/10

23. Model/Actriz - Dogsbody

The New York noise outfit’s debut has an elaborate phallus on the cover and concerns itself with making sex as unsexy as possible. It’s a grimey waddle into the club toilets, only for the cubicle to open into some slime covered underworld. Once you make it back out you’re left feeling a level of filthy that can’t be washed off with the next morning’s shower.

Song Picks: Donkey Show, Divers, Pure Mode, Sun In

8/10

22. Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

A twisted synth dream pumped full of personality (Kandy’s layered synth pads are a world I want to live in), the vocals either piercing through the synthetic underworld or mellowly holding its more erratic edges together for fear they might break off. Radical Romantics is an album of understated hooks, and overstated soundscapes.

Song Picks: Shiver, New Utensils, Even it Out, Kandy, Tapping Fingers

8/10

21. Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?

A majestic record where the instrumentation, whether it be Jackson’s guitar, or the more lush embellishments on many of the tracks, follows her every word and note. Jackson’s past as National Youth Poet Laureate is obvious in her free verse structures to these songs, where the melodies rarely repeat, and her messages are delivered with an extreme confidence only matched by the spontaneous but pinpoint accurate instrumentation that flows in its wake.

Song Picks: Lily, Brain, Dickhead Blues

8/10

Uchis’ third album is the musical version of that buzz of contentness you get when starting a new relationship.

Song Picks: I Wish You Roses, Moral Conscience, Moonlight

8/10

Not completely sure what the album name is all about, and every song here is essentially different shades of the same thing, but it’s done with such timeless simplicity that it burrows its way in your brain. Pretty much constantly anthemic, the album’s drums are soft and sandy, and the synths layered to create a whole wash of melodies underneath Clanton’s obvious vocal ones. I could imagine it getting old fairly quickly due to its repeated formula, but while it lasts its a glorious oral pillow to get lost in.

Song Picks: Everything I Want, Justify My Life, Punching Down,

8/10

Rodrigo’s second album takes the ‘straight-pop’ title this year. It’s full of catchy songs, delivered in a manner that doesn’t feel completely sanitised (she’ll happily throw out some ‘explicit lyrics’ if the mood dictates). Rodrigo’s vocal range effortlessly fits with the various pop-productions on offer here. It’s just a bloody good pop-album, and the adolescence-to-adulthood theme is one we can all relate to. Not necessarily pioneering, but consistently fun and entertaining, and that’s what pop is all about right?

Song Picks: All American Bitch, Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl, Logical, The Grudge

8/10

A feel good record that rocks the party like it's 1976. Jubilant brass cacophonies, groovy bass lines and melodies that worm their way into your brain like the hungry caterpillar. It's nothing new as such, and there's numerous moments that sound like hits of yesteryear, but it's refreshing to have a great disco record come out in 2023, and it's my favourite party record of the year.

Pearls, Free Yourself, Freak Me Now, Lightning

8.5/10

The Mexico duo create one of the most refreshingly idiosyncratic albums of the year. With Mabe Fratti’s cello and vocals taking centre stage, Titanic builds a world of jazz, classical and folk that seems to take influence from here, there and everywhere. It’s a spacious record, one where the wind is as important as the chimes and, like a tree grasping for the sun, it branches off many times to a common goal, light.

Song Picks: Anónima, Te evite

8.3/10

All hail the pop-punk king! Rosenstock unexpectedly hits a professional studio, but expectedly makes the studio bend to his DIY will, rather than compromising to its allure of a shiny, clean sound. Hellmode is probably the most cleanly produced album of Jeff’s I’ve heard, but it’s far from your Butch Vig style commercialised punk effort. As if making a point that he might be in the studio, but this is still the Jeff we know and love, he opens the album with the anthemic WILL U STILL U, which features vocals so grainy, they sound like they’ve been recorded through a tin can. He continues to make creative decisions that serve his music, which errs on the raw side. Hellmode is another pop-punk triumph, and one with a refreshing self-awareness.

Song Picks: WILL U STILL U, HEAD, LIKED U BETTER, HEALMODE, LIFE ADMIN

8.5/10

Arooj Aftad - Love in Exile

Pakistani-American Arooj Aftad’s fourth album, and her first in collaboration with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily is a gorgeous, atmospheric and minimalistic journey through soundscapes that feel like they’d shatter at the slightest touch. It’s as though you’re tip-toeing through a place of prayer, not wanting to disturb anyone’s delicate threads of connection to the etheral.

Song Picks: Haseen Thi, To Remain/To Return

8.5/10

I’ve not listened to enough Yo La Tengo, as this is excellent. There’s more than a hint of the 1970s band Can here, and that is always a good thing. The meditative repetition evident on the opening Sinatra Drive Breakdown, creates a calmness by the back door, as it turns itself inside out and back again, Ira Kaplan’s distorted guitars burning like an effigy of Hendrix, and his vocals quietly contemplating over the top. Kaplan’s vocals drive the album’s hungover feel, where feelings are blurry, undefined, and never overpowering. While the guitars have a satisfying anarchy to them, Kaplan’s vocals feel like a collection of mantras. The tracks Georgia Hubley sings on have a more conventionally melodic feel, like light shining in through the album’s already pleasant machinery. This Stupid World is an acceptance of a world that could be so much better, and taking it dy by day, beat by beat, thought by thought.

Song Picks: Sinatra Drive Breakdown, Fallout, Aselestine, Miles Away

8.5/10

Putting Javelin pretty much has the same effect as putting a fire on in a room, and is much cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Thanks Sufjan, in these times of insane energy bills, this is exactly what we needed. You never disappoint.

Song Picks: My Red Little Fox, Goodbye Evergreen, Genuflecting Ghost, A Running Start,

8.5/10

**11. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We**

Mitski

Those backing vocals coming in at the start of the beautiful Bug Like an Angel are one of my favourite musical moments of the year. The dynamic volume shift took me completely aback, and is something we don’t hear enough. The Land is Inhospitable isn’t just studio trickery though, it’s an album that sounds as accomplished in terms of songwriting as it is beautifully produced. Things are stripped back, Mitski’s vocals hover delicately as a hummingbird above the gentle stream of other, mainly acoustic, instrumentation. The whole thing feels kind of timeless.

Song Picks: Bug Like an Angel, Heaven, My Love Mine All Mine

8.5

**10. Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd**

Lana Del Rey

Del Rey’s ninth album is my favourite yet. An epic 1 hour 17 minutes long, it’s only held back by the last few tracks sounding a bit out of sync with the rest, perhaps its the featured musicians? Overall though this is a gorgeous journey of stories, melodies, and atmospheres. It feels like a vivid, poetic book in musical format, and I want to bathe in it.

Song Picks: Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd; Paris, Texas; Candy Necklace

8.5/10

Danny Brown’s sixth album, coming after time in rehab to recover from drug and alcohol addiction, is also his most relaxed and personal. It’s my favourite hip-hop album of the year due to its range. We’ve got the frenetic Tantor, to the laid back Bass Line and everything in between. The production is continually intriguing, and adds to each song’s atmosphere, while never taking away from Brown’s introspective vocals. Every track pulls you in. Also he rhymes ‘celibate’ with ‘sell a bit’, which is superb.

Song Picks: Down Wit It, Tantor, Celibate,

8.5/10

27 minutes of fuzzy delight. Simultaneously lo-fi and yet clearly heavily produced, Girl With Fish is an album of gentle hooks, and constant left turns in instrumentation. Very much guitar led, but in a modern way which takes influence from more electronic ways of recording to create constantly changing, creative and deep soundscapes. Lydia Slocum’s understated and warm vocals certainly help to hold the various sections together, but it’s the production that is most impressive. Unlike the chaos of say a Guided by Voices record (many of which I adore), this somehow makes what could be chaotic sound completely unchaotic. It’s like someone’s taken a huge explosion of music, and squished it into a small cohesive ball. It’s wonderful.

Song Picks: Freak, Sweet, Pocket

8.5/10

The ‘queer antifascist black metal/doom duo’ sound like the final cries of those left on a dying planet. Those cries are broken, grainy and throat rattling, and the primal, pounding drums and apocalyptic guitar only further add to the image of the world going down. The band switch roles back and forth with each song, and it’s this subtle variety of two strong individuals working towards a common sound that makes those peaks and troughs even more dynamic and powerful. It’s dramatic, all encompassing, and bloody glorious, like the death cries of an atheist in a crumbling cathedral as he collapses to the ground with a scream of “why?”.

Song Picks: Ruins, DTA,

9/10

Young Fathers’ fourth album is a jubilant march of chants, pounding drums, and circular instrumental parts that build and build into a cacophony of positive feeling. It’s quite remarkable how original the band continues to sound, while being so completely accessible. Their lyrics are at times hard to decipher, and when you can decipher them they’re hard to penetrate. But as this lovely Pitchfork review says, it’s all about the feeling, which in this case is nearly euphoric. I’ve been a fan of this band for a while, but to me this is their best album yet. It doesn’t feel as gridded as previous efforts, it feels more spontaneous, fun, and communal, and that suits the band just perfectly. It’s hard to listen to Heavy, Heavy attentively and not come out the other side with a rejuvenated zest for live, and in 2023, that was a welcome thing indeed. It could have been 5 minutes or so longer, but its brevity only serves to make it feel more precious; that buzz of happiness that never quite lasts long enough.

Song Picks: Rice, Drum, Tell Somebody,

9/10

Oh Me Oh My is a story, an expression, one beyond choruses and verses, one as much of silence as noise, one of decay, one written in pain, pain overcome but constantly in the rearview mirror. It's an artistic statement one can't help but admire, lifted by its two best pieces, the beautifully simple opener and None of Us Have but a Little While, and the masterfully evocative Mount Meigs, documenting Holley's time in the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and the horrific abuse that took place there, in a malaise of noise, thrashed drums, and Holley’s spoken word. It's a challenging album, an expression of a man dealing with a traumatic past that still gives him night terrors to this day, but it’s one you owe yourself to tackle.

Song Picks: Testing, Mount Meigs, None of us Have But a Little While

9/10

It’s a bit of a conincidence that I’m listening to this right after having loved Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas as part of my favourite albums of 1990, as there’s more than a few similarities here. Parannoul pushes what Cocteau Twins did yet further, so far that at times whatever recording software he is using is struggling to contain it, as bits cut in and out, struggling to not explode on themselves. After the Magic is the beautiful sound of saturated emotion.

Song Picks: Polaris, Sketchbook,

9/10

**3. Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)**

**Yves Tumor**

Yves Tumor is back with a wall of sound whirling dervish of an album. With the 80s pop sensibilities of Prince and the fuzzy guitars and bass of a much unrulier Muse he creates a world of his own. He's that guy who keeps trying to write a pop hit but can't help making it so elaborate and dense that radio airwaves would quiver at the thought of playing them. There's a whole host of hits at their core here, but they're covered by glorious amounts of intricate fuzz and distortion, not least the soaring guitar solos that snake under many of the tracks. On the glorious In Spite of War the final chorus feels like Tumor's magnum opus, as if all the stars are aligning like a murmuration of birds weaving across the night sky. It's bloody majestic.

Song Picks: Lovely Sewer, Meteora Blues, In Spite of War

9/10

One of those rare albums that sounds instantly classic. Maybe because it's so rooted in it's unembellished songwriting. There's nothing spectacular about the chord progressions here, or indeed any of the musical score, but it's precisely this that leaves the focus on Sternberg's songwriting, which is some of the most consistently great I've heard. The best melodies are often in a major key, but they walk that tightrope above a vat of cheese. I've Got Me walks the tightrope with aplomb, and never looks close to falling off. How refreshing to have an album with a positive/empathetic outlook that will never get old.

Song Picks: People are Toys to You, I've Got Me, Mountains High, Stockholm Syndrome

9/10

I’ve always preferred the bit after a party where everyone is laid around as the sun comes up to all the dancing and such beforehand. Something chilled bounces of the speaker, people talk with worn voices, the odd person gets up and asks if people want a beer bringing. It’s calm, reflective, the interactions are real, there’s a kindness to everyone’s worn glows, the world is on pause and there’s nothing more important to be doing right now. Madre encapsulates that feeling for me, it’s beats are warm and soft, it’s global influences sprinkled on tastefully, its heart on its sleeve, its ego thoroughly dimmed. Madre is all those rare early mornings happily spent just being myself, surrounded by others doing the same.

Song Picks: Madres, How Music Makes You Feel Better, Estacion Esperanza

9/10

2002 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challe

2023 - Clive's Top Albums of Every Year Challenge