Albums of the year: best music of 2023
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Pop
Jessie Ware's "That! Feels Good!" is a revival of "the glory days of disco", said Pitchfork. Ware, 39, nearly gave up music before the success of her lockdown album "What's Your Pleasure?" The south Londoner has now returned with this fantastic record – a celebration of "bright, bustling hedonism". "This is pop music made by people who really know what they're doing," said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. "The songs have bulletproof melodies and killer choruses, and snappy lyrics abound."
"Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd" is "classic" Lana Del Rey, said GQ: the American singer-songwriter "wraps you up softly" in her doomy, cinematic world. In this album, Del Rey enters new sonic territory, said NME. Soulful tunes and "old Hollywood starlet" vocals merge with "trap beats, speaker-wobbling bass and spoken word tracks edited with a sense of Warholian spirit".
"Loud, angry, melodic, giddily girly," Olivia Rodrigo's second album, "Guts", is a statement of punky "bravado", said The Guardian. A worthy follow-up to her smash hit debut "Sour", it featured one of the biggest singles of the year, "Vampire". This is "a snapshot of adolescence on a precipice", said GQ – with "all the confusion, elation and overstimulation that comes with it".
Corinne Bailey Rae has "pressed her own refresh button" hard on the "extraordinary" "Black Rainbows", said David Smyth in the Evening Standard. The first album from the Leeds-born singer since 2016, it mixes rock, jazz electronica and Afrofuturism, while taking inspiration from black history, said Damien Morris in The Observer. It's her "best work yet".
Ed Sheeran's "fierce commercial drive" means that "quality and meaning" are often sacrificed, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times. But on "Subtract", the Suffolk superstar channelled a series of painful experiences to create something more satisfying. It is "easily his best album" yet, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian.
SZA's "SOS" is a "wonderfully experimental" break-up record, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph – with "all the candour listeners expect from this masterful songwriter". SZA, aka Solána Imani Rowe, slides seamlessly from rap and R&B to electronica to Radiohead-style laments. "SOS" is "a long, ambitious, luxurious" work, said Pitchfork, that "solidifies her position as a generational talent" who turns "innermost feelings into indelible moments".
Rap, R&B and jazz
Ezra Collective have long been the "London jazz scene's de facto party band", said Kate Hutchinson in The Observer. But their second album, "Where I'm Meant To Be" – the winner of the Mercury Prize – is a "step up", mixing in "Afrobeat, dub and the young sounds of London". The Collective make it "impossible not to feel good", said Joe Taysom on Far Out.
The Ghanaian-American singer Amaarae is a pioneer of "altépop" – a genre combining Afrobeat, dancehall, reggae, hip hop and R&B, said Christine Yemi on NME. On "Fountain Baby", her "electric anthems" rise to "new, glorious highs". One of the "most dazzling" records of the year, said GQ.
Raye has a "voice as soulful as Amy Winehouse's and an attitude as bold as Beyoncé's", said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. In "My 21st Century Blues", the 26-year-old Londoner has produced a "powerhouse" debut, refracting "vintage R&B through the poppy prism of digital hip hop". She has an ear for a hook, and "her vocals soar", said Ammar Kalia in The Observer.
After a six-year hiatus, the Ethiopian-American artist Kelela has returned with "Raven", said Cat Woods in The Daily Telegraph – a "sexy, sultry masterclass in R&B" in the same league as Beyoncé's "Renaissance". These 15 tracks bubble with irresistible "rhythmic energy", said Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in the FT.
Dance and electro
SG Lewis, who produces for the likes of Dua Lipa, is "one of the most influential British musicians of his generation", said Kathleen Johnston in The Daily Telegraph. As his "AudioLust & HigherLove" shows, Lewis is a "pied piper" of the dancefloor, with his "slick retro-tinged future-disco".
The Chemical Brothers' "For That Beautiful Feeling" reaffirms the duo's "greatest strength" – making largely instrumental house and techno "somehow sound like pop music", said Damien Morris in The Observer. The tracks on this album have "moments that will claw into your lizard brain and refuse to leave".
Classical
Alas, the Emerson String Quartet are splitting up, after 47 years of "impassioned music-making", said Geoff Brown in The Times. But with "Infinite Voyage", featuring "warm, lustrous and generous" performances of Schoenberg and Berg, they leave us with a "wonderful parting gift".
This year was the 400th anniversary of William Byrd's death, said Richard Fairman in the FT. Among releases marking the event, "Byrd: The Golden Renaissance", from the ensemble Stile Antico stands out as an introduction to this great composer.
The Icelandic pianist Víkingur ólafsson's recording of "The Goldberg Variations" is "scintillating" and "uplifting", said Jessica Duchen in The Times. "A journey to the centre of the soul."
Rock, indie and folk
Supergroups often don't create great music, said Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone. But Boygenius, featuring the united talents of late-twenty-something US indie-rock stars Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus are a "world-beatingly great band". Their long-awaited debut album "The Record" doesn't disappoint, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times. With its "crafted, old-fashioned songwriting" and "a cappella harmonising", it establishes them as "the Crosby, Stills & Nash of modern times".
The Irish rock musician Hozier draws on roots music and blues – yet on "Unreal Unearth", his third album, he also "sounds utterly contemporary, a 33-year-old raised on post-rock and hip hop", said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. Hozier "leavens indie-rock songwriting with sensual funk and soul", said C.T. Jones in Rolling Stone. The lyrics "couple beautifully" with his sound.
Mitski is a "master storyteller", said Rolling Stone, who makes "music with a cinematic scope and novelist's eye for detail". The Japanese-American singer-songwriter has long had a cult following, but "The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We" represents "another evolution" in her career. It's a wonderful "collection of songs to cry to on the night bus home", said GQ.
"Javelin" by Sufjan Stevens is "gorgeous", said NME. Departing from recent "experimental sonics", he returns to the "lyricism and lush indie-folk" of his best work. His arrangements move between "delicate fingerpicking and orchestral heft", said The Guardian; Stevens "socks you again and again with bolts of pure feeling".
The Rolling Stones released their first proper new album since 2005. And "Hackney Diamonds" is jam-packed with "Jagger swagger", full of tight rhythms, catchy melodies, snappy lyrics and "dirty energy", said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. If it's their last album, it will be a great way to remember them.
Metallica are also known for going "full speed or nothing", said Kory Grow in Rolling Stone. And on "72 Seasons", their 11th studio album, they play with as much ambition as in their thrash-metal heyday.
Another veteran group that had a great album out this year was Blur, said The Guardian. On "The Ballad of Darren", Damon Albarn "sings in his lower register like a washed-up lounge act, deep and simple and full of gorgeous regret".
