It’s that time of year again. Time for me to desperately search for the perfect soundtrack to accompany our collective existential crisis – because nothing says “world falling apart” like Emo-Country-Pop. Join the musical masochism as I navigate the allegedly “best” albums of 2023, and maybe (just maybe) you’ll find a little something you like.

 
For eighteen years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2022   |   2021   |   2020   |   2019   |   2018   |   2017   |   2016   |   2015   |   2014   |   2013   |   2012   |   2011   |   2010   |   2009   |   2008   |   2007   |   2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually.

OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10. Peter Gabriel – i/o

i/o is exactly the album you’d expect Peter Gabriel to release in 2023: considered, jubilant, thoughtful, ambitious, articulate, introspective, deeply personal, global, optimistic, and filled with melodies as big as the ideas they contain.
[Louder Than War]

9. Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy

Each of the tracks fits well with the rest, but each track is surprisingly unique, so that it is a thrilling listen from front to back. A little Michael Jackson makes its way into the mix, a little bit of Kendrick Lamar, and a whole lot of what feels like indigenous sound, the most compelling part of this project for me. It’s full of great sounds and great sentiments.
[Northern Transmissions]

8. Paul Simon – Seven Psalms

Making its entrance with a softly tolling bell followed by some of the most delicate acoustic guitar since the early days of Simon & Garfunkel, this is a gentle, mystical record, a world away from the boisterousness of Paul Simon’s Graceland years.
[Record Collector]

7. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin

A deeply personal, Earth-moving masterpiece exploring relationship tensions with the gravitas of an apocalypse and the simplicity of a melody passed down through generations.
[The Line of Best Fit]

6. Zach Bryan – Zach Bryan

Across 16 songs, relationships fail and prosper and then fail again; hope deteriorates and grows, only to deteriorate again. What Zach Bryan is is a moving portrait of life’s knottiest, in-between moments.
[Paste]

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

Beyond simply toggling between different Lana eras, several songs on Did you know synthesize the personality-driven pop genius and the hyper-specific singer-songwriter, demonstrating how tight a grasp she maintains on her multi-faceted vision and how drastically she’s evolved as an artist.
[Exclaim!]

4. boygenius – the record

the record is everything fans of Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus could have asked for. Their voices blend together flawlessly, the choruses are catchy, the storytelling is vulnerable, sad and authentic, and the melodies are meticulously crafted. It will become an instant classic in the indie rock scene.
[Spill Magazine]

3. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

The sheer range of Polachek’s songcraft makes you realise you are in the presence of a commanding talent. She has drawn comparison with Kate Bush and Bjork, not because she sounds like them, but because she has a similar blend of extraordinary vocal ability, florid imagination, and genre-bending boldness.
[The Telegraph]

2. Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

Chappell Roan’s debut is thoughtful, a little unhinged and entirely contradictory, merging the alt-pop seriousness of Lana Del Rey with the untethered preppy charm of Lorde to go full throttle into messy, emotional fun.
[DIY]

1. Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS

Blending raucous guitar riffs with her signature witty prose (and some much-needed screaming), Rodrigo takes aim at the all-too-familiar beauty and chaos of youth. It takes, well, guts to create a rock record that is just as lively and daring as it is introspective and heartbreaking. Long may Rodrigo reign.
[Entertainment Weekly]

Honorable mention:
Foo Fighters – But Here We Are
Paramore – This Is Why
RAYE – My 21st Century Blues
Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!
Blur – The Ballad of Darren
Troye Sivan – Something To Give Each Other
Bully – Lucky for You
Wednesday – Rat Saw God
Gracie Abrams – Good Riddance
Jungle – Volcano

If you want to listen to all Top 20 Albums, one after the other, then this is the playlist for you:

What did I get wrong? What did I miss? What is your favorite record from 2023? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to pretend I’m a card-carrying member of the Fans of Acceptable Music tribe, apparently governed by Starbucks employees with Music degrees and people who’ve read one too many articles about Music Theory on the internet. Nobody knows what the heck we’re talking about. But we know what we like.

 
For seventeen years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2021   |   2020   |   2019   |   2018   |   2017   |   2016   |   2015   |   2014   |   2013   |   2012   |   2011   |   2010   |   2009   |   2008   |   2007   |   2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually.

OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10. The 1975 – Being Funny in a Foreign Language

The songs click almost immediately, but they’re subtler and pricklier than a first listen would imply, with unexpected twists like faint spoken-word samples and odd bits of distortion on guitar and piano. And the 1975 uses these textures more tastefully than much of the music that inspired them.
[Slant Magazine]

9. Harry Styles – Harry’s House

Styles has put together an album that’s so solid, even moments that would be cringeworthy when handled by lesser pop stars feel earned. … Harry’s House is also emotionally heavy at times, with Styles’ understated delivery adding power to his plainspoken lyrics.
[Entertainment Weekly]

8. Taylor Swift – Midnights

It’s an album of expertly crafted dark-pop confessions with flecks of glitter and aspiration — a purposefully fitful project mimicking her racing thoughts. The high-gloss pop production marks Midnights as a sullen sister to Lover, her honey-dipped 2019 effort, rather than a successor to 2020’s heartstrung Folklore and Evermore.
[Spin]

7. Wet Leg – Wet Leg

It rushes with liberating, infectious joy that makes you want to grab your own partner-in-crime and speed off on an adventure to find somewhere that’s, as ‘Angelica’s mantra suggests, is “good times all the time”. With Wet Leg as your soundtrack, it seems inevitable you’ll find that place.
[New Musical Express (NME)]

6. Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There

Ants From Up There is often beautiful, but its not an album you can listen to casually. Its relentless emotional pummelling is quite an experience, a rollercoaster ride for the soul that is likely to leave you feeling distinctly and permanently rearranged.
[Uncut]

5. The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field

The group’s third album, Expert in a Dying Field, is an exhilarating power-pop tour de force, replete with bristling guitar riffs and bright, infectious harmonies. It’s also a devastating exploration of anxiety, insecurity, and regret—a reflection of how, in life, there can be no true joy without sadness.
[Slant Magazine]

4. Rosalía – MOTOMAMI

MOTOMAMI is as provocative and risky as it is creative. It showcases Rosalía as a master, twisting together the contradictory strands of Latin and Anglo pop with traditional and vanguard forms and fresh sounds into a gloriously articulated radical approach that makes for obsessive listening.
[AllMusic]

3. Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti

Un Verano is not only a seasonal statement-piece but a testament to Benito’s singular songwriting — across genres, generations, and even languages, he works to produce enduring landmarks that trace universal joys, sorrows, and passions.
[AllMusic]

2. Lizzo – Special

The music on this album is the most unabashedly joyous, sonically diverse, and emotionally profound album put out by a major label since Beyonce’s Lemonade.
[Rolling Stone]

1. Beyoncé – Renaissance

Beyoncé’s singing here transcends any price tag. The range of her voice nears the galactic; the imagination powering it qualifies as cinema. … Its sense of adventure is off the genre’s map, yet very much aware of every coordinate. It’s an achievement of synthesis that never sounds slavish or synthetic. These songs are testing this music, celebrating how capacious it is, how pliable.
[The New York Times]

Honorable mention:
The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention
Natalia Lafourcade – De Todas las Flores
Hippo Campus – LP3
SZA – S.O.S.
Arcade Fire – WE
Jack White – Fear of The Dawn
The Weeknd – Dawn FM
Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen
Steve Lacy – Gemini Rights
Stromae – Multitude

If you want to listen to all Top 20 Albums, one after the other, then this is the playlist for you:

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time to ignore the four horsemen of the apocalypse relentlessly knocking on our door and make an ordered list of banal musical charlatans trying to churn out the next viral TikTok hit. Have I mentioned I love music with all my heart? I do.

 
For sixteen years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2020   |   2019   |   2018   |   2017   |   2016   |   2015   |   2014   |   2013   |   2012   |   2011   |   2010   |   2009   |   2008   |   2007   |   2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually.

OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:
10. The War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore

Listeners will still delight in how The War on Drugs can filter recognizable elements — the beats, the riffs, the spirit of artists like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Born in the U.S.A. Springsteen, and even Bryan Adams — into something fresh and grand.
[Consequence]

9. Arooj Aftab – Vulture Prince

The Pakistan-born, Brooklyn-based composer draws from jazz, Hindustani classical, and folk to create a heartbreaking, exquisite document of the journey from grief to acceptance.
[Pitchfork]

8. Adele – 30

Adele has never sounded more ferocious than she does on 30 — more alive to her own feelings, more virtuosic at shaping them into songs in the key of her own damn life. It’s her toughest, most powerful album yet.
[Rolling Stone]

7. Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under

Seventeen Going Under is an album rooted in 2021 that, in spirit at least, seems to look back 40-something years, to the brief early 80s period when Top of the Pops played host to the Specials and the Jam. The result is really powerful.
[The Guardian]

6. Leon Bridges – Gold-Diggers Sound

On first listen, Gold-Diggers Sound may pass you by like Bridges’ lane changing motorbike and could even be mistaken for being on the slighter side. But it’s the “quiet storm” power of keeping things hovering just above neutral that gives the album its after hours glow and silky appeal.
[Under The Radar]

5. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raise the Roof

Perhaps the most appealing part of the album is that regardless of what sound, style or location these songs came from — British folk, New Orleans soul, Bakersfield country — they sound cohesive and of a piece in the hands of Plant and Krauss. In other words, the singers make these songs sound like their own.
[Paste Magazine]

4. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime

It’s music for mending the soul and opening the eyes of skeptics to what music – what really good music – can do for us. No matter what walks of life we come from, there’s legitimate emotion attached to Mdou Moctar’s music, and it should shake any living, breathing being right to their core.
[Beats Per Minute]

3. Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever

Happier Than Ever fully establishes Billie Eilish as one of her generation’s most significant pop artists – and, better still, does so without repeating a single trick from the debut that turned her life upside down.
[New Musical Express (NME)]

2. Oliva Rodrigo – SOUR

Her debut record, SOUR, will be a contender for best pop album of the year. There are no filler tracks on SOUR. Each song represents a different side to Rodrigo’s artistry, embracing every influence that’s shaped her music, while still creating something fresh.
[The A.V. Club]

1. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

The production throughout is nothing short of exceptional. With the full backing of an orchestra, there is a richness to the sound overseen by seminal producer Inflo. Their chemistry is apparent throughout as the vocals and production coil around one another egging the other on to new heights. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that this canonises her work forever, elating her to be one of the greats.
[New Musical Express (NME)]

Honorable mention:
Halsey – If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
The Weather Station – Ignorance
Silk Sonic – An Evening with Silk Sonic
Amyl & the Sniffers – Comfort to Me
Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure
Turnstile – Glow On
Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
Low – Hey What
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Carnage
Arlo Parks – Collapsed In Sunbeams

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time to ignore the dumpster fire of a year we just (mostly) survived and make an ordered list of the talented grifters whose job it is to make pretty music so our meaningless existences sting that much less.

For fifteen years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2019   |   2018   |   2017   |   2016   |   2015   |   2014   |   2013   |   2012   |   2011   |   2010   |   2009   |   2008   |   2007   |   2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually.

OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10.

Thundercat – It Is What It Is

A spectacular followup to 2017’s critically acclaimed Drunk. It Is What It Is manifests as a beautiful ebb and flow of emotional states, philosophical musings and plain old comedy. It doesn’t drown itself in existential dread or proffer any clear-cut solutions, but just exists on its own plane.
[Exclaim]

9.

The Weeknd – After Hours

Spidery tendrils of sex-and-drugs-related dread curl around dramatic synth-pop and twinkling R&B, Yet there’s also a batch of tracks that draw from bombastic, slightly tacky ’80s pop – a warm, funny and wholly welcome diversion from the stylish but sterile bleakness that remains Tesfaye’s calling card.
[Q Magazine]

8.

Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter

Song For Our Daughter is, well, so uncannily, unreasonably and astutely beautiful that it meticulously sets aside every last one of your emotional checks and balances to wrap your core in a firm embrace.
[Record Collector]

7.

Run the Jewels – RTJ4

The complexity of Run the Jewels 4 is its strongest asset. Killer Mike and El-P, just like their listeners, are still trying to navigate nefarious ideologies while remaining steadfast in their desire to destroy them. Their latest work is a political manifesto that antagonizes a system that never had the marginalized and vulnerable in mind. Though it comes several albums into their discography, RTJ4, with its empowering proclamations, buoyant production, and ferocious soundscapes, feels like just the beginning of something even greater.
[Consequence of Sound]

6.

Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways

In keeping with other self-produced Dylan releases of recent years, the sonics of Rough And Rowdy Ways is as clear as its word sets are dense. The musicianship will not steal or detract attention from Bob himself, but rather encircle him as he performs, their fluid interplay functioning like that ideal frame which vividly illuminates a striking painting or photo. As with all the best Bob Dylan albums, poetic imagery abounds.
[Glide Magazine]

5.

HAIM – Women in Music Pt. III

They translate desolation into richly searching music, putting familiar sounds through their distinctive filter: fluttering G-funk (3am), homages to Walk on the Wild Side (Summer Girl) and Joni Mitchell at her most seething (Man from the Magazine, an acoustic riposte to a leering journalist), and Led Zep bounce (Up From a Dream).
[The Guardian]

4.

Rina Sawayama – SAWAYAMA

Combining crunchy nu-metal guitar riffs with a penchant for early-aughts R&B-pop production in the vein of Aaliyah and ‘NSync, Sawayama sounds like Britney Spears’ Blackout by way of Korn — and it inexplicably works.
[Rolling Stone]

3.

Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Fetch the Bolt Cutters is daring in a new way, scrambling and shattering the pop-song structures that once grounded her. I am floored by this record. I hear freedom, too. These songs make some breathtaking hairpin turns. It’s not just the wild craftsmanship of each song. It’s also that she’s fearless about what she’s doing: with sounds, with structures, with people’s expectations.
[The New York Times]

2.

Creeper – Sex, Death & the Infinite Void

Sex, Death & The Infinite Void resembles The Rocky Horror Picture Show if you were to watch it on a rollercoaster in the dark: it’s thrilling, coquettishly idiosyncratic, and filled to the brim with palpable pride at their lack of creative limits. If it’s one thing no critic could ever say Creeper lacks, it’s ambition, and here it really pays off.
[musicOMH.com]

1.

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

The confidence in her voice gives you no reason to doubt her. All the way through this album, the pop star is in the driving seat, both behind the scenes and in the situations she describes in the lyrics. Future Nostalgia is a bright, bold collection of pop majesty to dance away your anxieties to… if only for a little while.
[New Musical Express (NME)]

Honorable mention:
Taylor Swift – folklore
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Mac Miller – Circles
SAULT – Untitled (Black Is)
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Tame Impala – The Slow Rush
Soccer Mommy – color theory
Moses Sumney – græ
Rose City Band – Summerlong
Neil Young – Homegrown

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to show you all how hip and with-it I am by posting my take on this year’s best new albums. You see, I like music. And I like lists. This just seemed like the next logical step.

For fourteen years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2018   |   2017   |   2016   |   2015   |   2014   |   2013   |   2012   |   2011   |   2010   |   2009   |   2008   |   2007   |   2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually.

OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10. Opeth – In Cauda Venenum

Opeth’s chemistry feels as tight as it is playful, heartfelt as it is engaging, as they explore a plethora of intriguing and majestic sounds. The instrumentation and vocals, in both versions, serve to present emotion and instrumental wonder. In Cauda Venenum is among Opeth’s strongest albums when it comes to the band’s progressive sensibilities.
[Consequence of Sound]

9. Thom Yorke – Anima

It’s bleakness on a stick. But Anima is also a dystopian rhapsody that will stay with you long after the moment and rates as one of the purest expressions yet of Yorke’s devastated world view.
[The Telegraph (UK)]

8. Kate Tempest – The Book Of Traps And Lessons

She is still at her best as a performer, delivering her work verbally, lingering here and there, quavering when needed, framing questions, summoning anger, then letting the needle drop right on the beat. Emotionally, there’s a lot to unpack, but the need to feel and engage more deeply is one of her primary decrees and this powerful album is a lesson worth learning.
[AllMusic]

7. Jamila Woods – Legacy! Legacy!

Just like these artists [poet Nikki Giovanni, singer Eartha Kitt, blues legend Muddy Waters, funk rebel Betty Davis, jazz greats Miles Davis and Sun Ra, literary icons James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston and Octavia Butler, poet Sonia Sanchez, iconoclastic painter Basquiat] resisted being boxed in, so does Woods’ music. These are songs that elude genre–a blend of trip-hop, rap/spoken word, R&B, gospel.
[Chicago Tribune]

6. Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka

Kiwanuka is therapeutic for all parties involved. It’s honest, psychedelic, enlightening and recalls blackness defined by acoustic folk and the organic soul of past artists like Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Womack and Otis Redding.
[Exclaim]

5. Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains

David Berman is one of our greatest living songwriters and he’s returned in beautiful, melancholic form as Purple Mountains to speak to the lifelong nihilistic depressive in all of us.
[Consequence of Sound]

4. Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride

Vampire Weekend were late arrivals, lacking the Strokes’ switch-blade attitude and the art-punk edge of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. But Vampire Weekend now look like the smartest guys in the room, marshalling a sumptuous, emotionally complex music perfect in this pop moment.
[Rolling Stone]

3. Brittany Howard – Jaime

There’s a pop progressiveness coupled with an old-fashioned loneliness. It sounds nothing at all like Presley, but he lived in and understood those two worlds and might have appreciated the chance to bridge them in the way that Howard has here. … Her distinctive vocal timbre is the twine that keeps Jamie wrapped-up tight. Not many artists can make loops and electronic sounds feel authentic, but Howard is more than able to keep them feeling warm and natural.
[Glide Magazine]

2. Lizzo – Cuz I Love You

The record is purposefully compact, genre-blending, unifying, reaffirming, devoid of corniness, with just two well-selected features that heighten but do not overshadow her performance. If other artists are clever, they’ll take note: Lizzo has just set the standard for how to make a perfect pop record.
[Consequence of Sound]

1. Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

With all its moments of distortion and attitude, tempered by sheer loveliness, and rude and emotional songs about night terrors and daydreams, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? feels like a rock ‘n’ roll album, even if there’s virtually nothing on it that sounds like rock music.
[Variety]

Honorable mention:
Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
Stella Donnelly – Beware of the Dogs
Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
FKA Twigs – Magdalene
Solange – When I Get Home
The National – I Am Easy To Find
Angel Olsen – All Mirrors
Wilco – Ode To Joy
Deerhunter – Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?
Bon Iver – i, i
Julian Jahanpour – HiOktane

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time for me quickly listen to a bunch of albums in December and pretend like I’m totally up-to-date with the latest and greatest from the broken and antiquated machine that is today’s recording industry.

For thirteen years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2017  |  2016  |  2015  |  2014  |  2013  |  2012
2011  |  2010  |  2009  |  2008  |  2007  |  2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually. So here’s 2018!

Warning: You won’t find any Cardi B, Eminem, Nicki Minaj or BTS on this list. If that’s your idea of the best that 2018 had to offer, this list is not for you. How the heck did you find this page anyway? What, do you watch MTV or something??? OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10. Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

While a change of pace, none of these songs will sound unfamiliar to fans, or really could have been created by anyone else except a very talented parodist. Ultimately, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is just a snappy new outfit for a group that knows experimentation and diversity are keys to longevity. [Variety]

9. Jack White – Boarding House Reach

Boarding House Reach is easily one of the most layered and compelling releases of 2018, which furthers White’s legacy as one of the few remaining mavericks in music. [Clash Music]

8. Ariana Grande – Sweetener

Ms. Grande backs up her statements with song-and-dance mastery. … She’s her own choir, support group and posse. While a few guest vocalists (Mr. Williams, Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliott) provide a little grit for contrast, Ms. Grande sails above any fray, past or present. Her aplomb is her triumph. [The New York Times]

7. Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer

God’s Favorite Customer is the next chapter to Honeybear: the story of the hedonistic shroom-addled Hollywood waster who fell in love and started to grow up, even if the occasional pelvic thrust, sardonically raised eyebrow or over-dramatic fall to the floor wouldn’t go amiss. [musicOMH.com]

6. Christine and the Queens – Chris

A breathless, breathtaking achievement, Chris is a fascinating, infectious, endlessly suggestive work, an ode to 80s pop bombast that uses those splinters to build and then de-construct countless glimpses of Héloïse Letissier. Somewhere in amongst these myriad of definitions is Christine And The Queens, a shape-shifting pop entity perpetually aiming for something greater. [Clash Music]

5. Rosalía – El Mal Querer

It is one of the most exciting and passionately composed albums to appear not only in the global bass tradition but in the pop and experimental spheres this year. [Pitchfork]

4. Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth

After claiming his place in the spotlight by overwhelming force with The Epic, Kamasi Washington capitalizes on both his newfound fame and his journeyman work ethic to produce a follow-up that’s more intimate and just as daring at the same time. [Consequence of Sound]

3. Sophie – OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES

Fractured, inconsistent, broken, torn, OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES aims toward the stylistic grandness of High Pop, and in that inconsistence, it achieves it. … It’s incredible. [Tiny Mix Tapes]

2. Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour

Musgraves hits one high note after another on Golden Hour; her talent as a songwriter and melody-maker is second to none, and each song is thoughtful, well-formed, and a delightful experience on its own. Together, the tracks on Golden Hour add up to an honest, cohesive musical experience that will linger in your mind and heart long after the final notes have faded. [Consequence of Sound]

1. The Greatest Showman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Pasek and Paul have a way of not overwhelming the plot with their music, but instead mastering the balancing act of using it to tell the story effectively and proficiently. They serve up a hearty portion of gorgeous melodies and toe tapping beats that introduce and immerse the listeners to the world of P.T. Barnum and company. Their music is a perfect vehicle of expression for these performers as well. [BroadwayWorld.com]

Honorable mention:
Snail Mail – Lush
The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Khruangbin – Con Todo El Mundo
Parquet Courts – Wide Awake!
Mitski – Be the Cowboy
Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy
Mean Girls (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Jeff Tweedy – Warm
Robyn – Honey
Let’s Eat Grandma – I’m All Ears

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to attempt to winnow all the thousands of albums that are released annually down to a mere 10, in what I absolutely recognize as a difficult and, ultimately, meaningless task. But I love it.

For twelve years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2016  |  2015  |  2014  |  2013  |  2012  |  2011  |  2010  |  2009  |  2008  |  2007  |  2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually. So here’s 2017!

Warning: You won’t find any Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, or Ariana Grande on this list. If that’s your idea of the best that 2017 had to offer, this list is not for you. How the heck did you find this page anyway? What, do you watch MTV or something??? OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10. LCD Soundsystem – American Dream

Old sweetens the deal, with tracks as good as anything from previous releases. However it’s New that intrigues, confuses, saddens and ultimately tempts you back with its sheer vulnerability–this is far deeper than the cash grab landfill this reunion could’ve spawned. [Record Collector]

9. Ibeyi – Ash

At first, Ibeyi’s bright rhythms can feel deceptively stable, their harmonies uninhibited as they dip into dissonance, but they are deliberate in revealing the depth of their sadness. [Pitchfork]

8. St. Vincent – MASSEDUCATION

The extremes of emotions are covered on Masseduction: the highs and lows of love, heartbreak and just general life. It is the closest we’ve ever been to Clark, and it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get. [The Skinny]

7. Julien Baker – Turn Out The Lights

These are songs that you feel more than listen to. Everyone has encountered some sort of mental illness, addiction or crisis of faith, whether in your life or another’s. Not only does Baker prove that you’re not alone, but she finds a way to make it better. [No Ripcord]

6. Sampha – Process

He’s separated from some of his R&B peers, fellows who douse themselves with sorrow and express their angst through detached, self-centered screeds obsessed with how things should be. Sampha, meanwhile, has an uncanny ability to eloquently express the painful facts of life that we learn to internalize. … What makes Process exceptional is its delicate focus on relationships corroded and fissured by time and unintentional neglect. [Spin]

5. Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up

Their third record is their best, a meandering, wild, untamable masterpiece from a front man who refuses to stop studying and refuses to be predictable. [Pretty Much Amazing]

4. Lorde – Melodrama

There is a palpable depth of feeling and meaning in her songs, operating on both personal and universal levels, delivered with subtle dynamism and dizzying imagination. She is a breath of fresh air with the power of a hurricane. [The Telegraph (UK)]

3. Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.

Countless rappers claim to have transcended the game. Kendrick Lamar actually does. There’s the sense his ambitions on DAMN. are even larger, reaching toward something more universal, fateful even spiritual in its reach to find the link tying all contradictions together. [NOW Magazine]

2. Benj Pasek / Justin Paul – Dear Evan Hansen (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Leaving a new musical with a great song or two running through your head is a rare but exciting thing. Leaving with about 10 great songs running through your head is pretty much unheard of. But that’s the power of Dear Evan Hansen. [Entertainment Weekly]

1. Father John Misty – Pure Comedy

He embraces the role, plays up to it, uses it to bend and manipulate the parameters of modern rock music and has managed to create something bitingly acerbic and cynical, yet achingly sincere. Again. [The Skinny]

Honorable mention:
The Menzingers – After The Party
The War On Drugs – A Deeper Understanding
Zac Brown Band – Welcome Home
Vulfpeck – Mr Finish Line
SZA – Ctrl
Vince Staples – Big Fish Theory
Dinosaur – Together, As One
Thundercat – Drunk
The xx – I see You
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to stress out about the meticulous order of a completely meaningless list of what I deem to be the year’s best albums for no apparent reason other than to maintain the arbitrary tradition I started more than a decade ago. Oh yeah, and because I enjoy it.

For eleven years now, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2015  |  2014  |  2013  |  2012  |  2011  |  2010  |  2009  |  2008  |  2007  |  2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually. So here’s 2016!

Warning: You won’t find any Fifth Harmony, One Direction, or Justin Bieber on this list. If that’s your idea of the best that 2016 had to offer, this list is not for you. How the heck did you find this page anyway? Do I even know you??? OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10. Childish Gambino – Awaken, My Love!

What The Life Of Pablo was trying for with gospel, “Awaken, My Love!” has succeeded at with funk and soul. It is not an antique car with a new paint job, but the redesigned Challenger, a work of modern design that’s damn proud of its heritage, and it offers a beautiful ride. [A.V. Club]

9. Jack White – Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016

Acoustic Recordings is a selective, rather than exhaustive, portrait of White as an artist, but for a guy who’s spent most of the 18 years this compilation spans dogmatically adhering to self-imposed restrictions, there’s a remarkable amount of diversity here–and not a clunker to be found. [NME]

8. Beyoncé – Lemonade

All over Lemonade, Beyoncé is describing her own personal reality, on her terms and informed by her worldview. That the album simultaneously pushes mainstream music into smarter, deeper places is simply a reminder of why she remains pop’s queen. [A.V. Club]

7. Chance The Rapper – Coloring Book

Rather than cheap ploys to cross over, the questionable collaborations are more likely calculated concessions with the intent of sneaking his evangelical message to a greater audience. After the communion cup runs empty, Chance proves himself worthy of hero worship by subtly and subversively overthrowing the commercialized horrors of his town’s violent drill movement. [HipHopDX]

6. Mark Mancina / Lin-Manuel Miranda / Opetaia Foa’i – Moana [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

The unmatchable beauty, poise, and ambition of this music reinforce my belief that “Moana” will be nothing short of inspiring to life itself. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foa’i created something that will even push those shooting for the stars to aim higher, as expressed by the incredible medium of Cravalho’s vocals. [Affinity Magazine]

5. A Tribe Called Quest – We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service

Sounding like nothing else out there, distinct even from Tribe’s previous work, We Got It From Here is political without being preachy, fun without being unintelligent and next level out while being street corner down. A superb swansong. [The Wire]

4. Solange – A Seat at the Table

A Seat at the Table is intensely rich and gracious in its candor, so much so that it’s quieter, painstakingly personal moments are every bit as robust as direct aggression. Its soulful flow is luscious and languid, and simply dazzles in the graceful, airy beauty of Cranes In the Sky, where Solange’s voice floats to stratospheric altitudes. [No Ripcord]

3. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool

A Moon Shaped Pool is the best album we could expect from a rock outfit already into its third decade of existence, and a superb work from the last important band left in the universe. [Pretty Much Amazing]

2. David Bowie – Blackstar

In coming to see David Bowie the man finally portrayed by David Bowie the artist, he not only affirms our natural human hopes and fears, but realizes his own in his final hours. The artist lowers his mask and takes a bow. And the audience applauds. [Sputnikmusic]

1. Various Artists – The Hamilton Mixtape

When it first blew up, Hamilton immediately resonated as the peak of patriotic culture in the Obama era; POTUS’ vision was so present he should’ve been listed as a co-producer. Now, after all this knucklehead Trump Twitter bullshit, it comes with a sense of embattled resilience. “Every city, every hood, we need to rise up/All my soldiers, what’s good? We need to rise up,” Busta Rhymes tells us during the Roots’ amped version of “My Shot,” the show’s signature anthem. In other words: Let freedom ring. [Rolling Stone]

Honorable mention:
Frank Ocean – Blonde
The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
D.D Dumbo – Utopia Defeated
Margo Price – Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
Common – Black America Again
Bon Iver – 22, A Million
Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial
ANOHNI – Hopelessness
Paul Simon – Stranger to Stranger
Rihanna – ANTI

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to add my contribution to the seemingly endless supply of end-of-year “Best Of” lists. Now with a fancy graphic. Boom.

For 10 consecutive years, compiling this list has been a labor of love. Here are the previous ones:

2014  |  2013  |  2012  |  2011  |  2010  |  2009  |  2008  |  2007  |  2006

It’s neat to go back and see how many of my previous “favorite” albums are still in my listening rotation. Quite a few, actually. So here’s 2015!

Warning: You won’t find any Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, or One Direction on this list. If that’s your idea of the best that 2015 had to offer, this list is not for you. How the heck did you find this page anyway? What are you, 12 or something??? OK, enough stalling. Here we go. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

10. Benjamin Clementine – At Least For Now

Clementine will no doubt be polarizing for many listeners. There is no question, however, of his raw talent, poeticism, and knack for beguiling melodies, and in this oversaturated market, the true mavericks will always rise above the din. [AllMusic]

9. Jamie xx – In Colour

Its 42 minutes are comparatively modest, sure, but there’s no question that the man behind the boards here has his finger on the pulse of what may be missing most in electronic music right now–a central reference point. In Colour is that star, the record to hold everyone else’s narratives together. [Dusted Magazine]

8. Adele – 25

Whether she’s holding notes with the strength of a suspension bridge or enjoying a rare lighthearted “whoo-hoo!” on “Sweetest Devotion,” her incredible phrasing – the way she can infuse any line with nuance and power – is more proof that she’s among the greatest interpreters of romantic lyrics. [Rolling Stone]

7. Kamasi Washington – The Epic

Holistic in breadth and deep in vision, it provides a way into this music for many, and challenges the cultural conversation about jazz without compromising or pandering. [AllMusic]

6. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear

Honeybear is rich with sarcasm, flagrant in some places and barely discernable in others. It is impossible to take seriously, but too damn compelling to be dismissed. [The 405]

5. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love

Though some of their peers may have waned on their long, drawn out returns, Sleater-Kinney have only grown stronger in their time off. Ten years away has made them more essential than ever. Nostalgia be dammed. [DIY Magazine]

4. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

Somehow, the Australian singer-guitarist has made something fresh out of everyday vignettes performed on everyday instruments (guitar-bass-drums). She sounds like she’s day-dreaming out loud instead of singing, but she’s deceptively incisive as a lyricist. Her guitar-playing, while never particularly showy, can be subtle or scalding. [Chicago Tribune]

3. PWR BTTM – Ugly Cherries

It’s fun, it’s queer and your straight friends will like it too because, ultimately, it’s about being less alone. Everyone can relate to that. And the world genuinely feels like a brighter place with PWR BTTM in it. [The 405]

2. Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color

Each passage on Sound and Color feels organic, like it pushed its way out of southern soil or floated into someone’s mind on a back porch breeze. [PopMatters]

1. Hamilton – Original Broadway Cast Recording

A vital companion to the most creative, most talked-about musical to hit Broadway this millennium… Hamilton’s stage production should be required viewing for every American citizen, but this exhilarating listen is a much more practical, and every bit as enjoyable, stand-in. [Billboard.com]

Honorable mention:
Tame Impala – Currents
Zac Brown Band – Jekyll + Hyde
Mark Ronson – Uptown Special
Grimes – Art Angels
Rhiannon Giddens – Tomorrow Is My Turn
The Weeknd – Beauty Behind The Madness
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
Joanna Newsom – Divers
Björk – Vulnicura
Destroyer – Poison Season

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed? Leave me a comment and let me know!

It looks like this blog has reluctantly become dedicated to my “Best Albums of the Year” lists.
And posts commenting on the aforementioned situation.
Like this one.
Here.