20. OVERMONO, GOOD LIES 

Good Lies opens with a heavily layered, R&B-inspired take on 13th-century plainsong – imagine church doors easing open to the cyclical tide of voices, the smell of incense, only now you’re in the club, and the chant has given way to the throbbing bassline and skittering drums of track two, “Arla Fearn”. Welsh brothers Tom and Ed Russell have been fixtures of London’s electronic music scene for years, both individually and as the two halves of their joint project Overmono, with tracks and remixes co-signed by the likes of Four Tet, Thom Yorke, and Rosalía. Their debut album as a group brings much of this experience together and thrusts it into the mainstream with poppy hooks and festival-ready beats, rounded out by a stripped-back crescendo of a track, “Calling Out”. Catch samples from CASISDEAD, d’Eon, and slowthai: “I’m like the sun / I rise up, then gone.” (Thom Waite)

19. CASISDEAD, FAMOUS LAST WORDS 

CASISDEAD is one of the most enigmatic figures in UK rap, permanently masked up (in a rubber second face, as of Famous Last Words) and with long, unaccounted-for gaps in his career that inspire numerous online conspiracy theories. His latest album only plays into the mystery. Littered with intense skits from a cyberpunk future overseen by the mega-corporation DeadCorp, the record borrows from sci-fi classics for its sound, with CASISDEAD spitting lyrics about drugs, sex and Marilyn Monroe over driving synths and reverb-drenched snares. 80s icons also abound in the musical references, from Prince, to Freddie Mercury, to Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, who lends his voice to the emotional closer, “Skydive”. Here (as across the rest of the album) the lyrics seem to anticipate the rapper’s untimely death, or is it the end of humanity as a whole? (Thom Waite)

18. 100 GECS, 10,000 GECS

Anyone worried that 100 gecs would settle down on their second album – resting on their laurels, perhaps, after the success of their 2019 debut, 1000 gecs – could breathe a sigh of relief when they heard the lyrics of 10,000 gecs second single, “Doritos & Fritos”, last year. “Cheetos, Doritos and Fritos, mosquitos / I’m eating burritos with Danny Devito,” raps Dylan Brady over the track’s harmonic, hooky ska beat. “Jeez Louise, I’m weak in the knees / I’m joining the circus, I’m going berserk-us.” Of course, that was just a taste of the record that would finally arrive this year, stirring 100 gecs’ signature blown-out glitch pop into a mixing pot of genre influences: nu-metal, screamo, kidz bop bangers, you name it. 100,000 gecs when? (Thom Waite)

17. SUFJAN STEVENS, JAVELIN

Sufjan Stevens returned to “full singer-songwriter mode” for his tenth album, Javelin. As such, there’s a sense of familiarity that hangs over the record: those eager for hushed vocals and the muted bounce of acoustic guitars will be content following a number of more abstract and esoteric records. Nevertheless, as his 25-year career demonstrates, Stevens is constantly evolving. Songs that begin intimate, like the gutting “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”, unfurl with additional instrumentation and stacked vocals layers building until sparks begin to fly, often with explosive results. Take “Shit Talk”, a nearly-nine-minute dissection of an argument between a couple that ebbs and flows, campfire strumming, call-and-response backing vocals and echoing percussion escalating until it drops out, leaving only the swell of strings and stumbling woodwind. Or “Everything Rises”, which dials into the electronics of Age of Adz in the song’s glitching final act. Then there are the distorted crashes of opener “Goodbye Evergreen”, which lumber along and push the melody into a sweeter place as Stevens sings: “You know I love you.” It’s the sort of optimistic conclusion that typifies most of Javelin, Stevens seemingly suggesting that once through the weeds of one’s pain, there is peace to be found. (Alim Kheraj)

16. STRANGE RANGER, PURE MUSIC

With members hailing from New York and Philadelphia, Strange Ranger is the sort of indie-rock act that taps into the cultural zeitgeist without rooting themselves in a given timespace. This is partially down to the sheer amount of musical references that are woven into each track, felt most pointedly across this year’s Pure Music. While staying true to the band’s Pacific Northwest indie-rock roots, these guitar-led compositions slide between genres: synth-pop into rave music and the occasional spoken word. Featuring some of their sharpest songwriting to date, vocalists Issac Eiger and Fiona Woodman search for inspiration amid uncertain times, with everyday observations that capture perfectly what it’s like to be young city-dwellers trying to figure shit out. (Günseli Yalcinkaya)

15. DJ GIGOLA, FLUID MEDITATIONS

DJ Gigola is the perfect mascot for a generation that will happily fork out $25+ for a mega-healthy Erewhon smoothie but spend the weekend shovelling definitely un-organic powders up their nose with wild abandon. The Berlin-based DJ and producer has been making a name for herself with a unique fusion of Goan psytrance and 90s techno influences, mashed up with percussive beats, singing bowl sounds, and softly spoken guided meditations, all of which came to a head on debut album Fluid Meditations. Debuted on the dancefloor of Berghain earlier this year, the release is a mesmerising, fully-fledged trip, taking you from the pre-party, to the hypnotic peak of the high, and all the way back down to earth again in eight killer tracks. Try to experience it live in 2024 – you won’t regret it.  (Emma Davidson)

14. JIM LEGXACY, HOMELESS N*GGA POP MUSIC

Try as you might, you won’t find an artist on earth that sounds like Jim Legxacy. At just 23 years old, the Lewisham rapper, singer and producer has forged a sonic world all his own, honed to perfection on this year’s Homeless N***a Pop Music. A collection of beats started when the artist was homeless morphed into its own rich soundscape, where soul-baring bars, Miley Cyrus samples and the spirit of 2010s emo made the year’s most interesting record. Though HNPM thrives in these eccentricities, Legxacy has never been interested in gatekeeping his unconventionality, only opening the doors for freer self-expression. “Black Britain is entering its weird n***a phase,” he told Dazed earlier this year, “and I want my music to communicate that the mandem can make whatever.” (Elliot Hoste) 

13. NONAME, SUNDIAL

After five years of being left on read, the best surprise on Noname’s third studio album might be the fact that it exists at all. Following the release of her sophomore album Room 25, the Chicago rapper expressed feeling disillusioned by the fickleness of the music industry and took some time off in which she started a community book club. Great stuff, but it left us wondering, will we ever see a new album? Thankfully Sundial was released in August, a provocative interrogation of the culture encoded with pride and delivered with a whimsical flow. Definitely worth the wait. (Alyshea Warton)

12. OLIVIA RODRIGO, GUTS

With GUTS, Olivia Rodrigo established herself as an artist with real staying power. To her detractors, she’s just Avril Lavigne for the TikTok era, an industry plant peddling repackaged teeny-bopper pop punk from the early 00s. But this interpretation doesn’t do justice to the breadth of influences on display on GUTS (not to mention the fact she is a much funnier, more knowing lyricist than Lavigne ever was.) Working from a broad but cohesive palette, the album is as indebted to riot grrrl-adjacent 90’s acts like Liz Phair or The Breeders as much as it is to Paramore. It would be difficult to argue that GUTS is reinventing the wheel, but it does what it does extremely well, and feels powered by an infectious sense of enthusiasm for the artists it’s drawing from, rather than the cynicism of which Rodrigo has frequently been accused. There are plenty of stand-out moments but, for me, the chorus of “the ballad of a home-schooled girl” is about as exhilarating as pop music gets. (James Greig) 

11. SPACE AFRIKA, RAINY MILLER, A GRISAILLE WEDDING

Human emotions are complicated at the best of times and no better is this expressed than in A Grisaille Wedding. Featuring the likes of Coby Sey, Mica Levi, Richie Culver and Iceboy Violet, the joint project between North West experimentalists Rainy Miller and Space Afrika doesn’t shy away from honest truths, whether that’s learning when to fight or when to step down or picking yourself up after letting someone go. Sometimes these feelings creep up on you “like a demon” (“Summon the Spirit”), while other times you embrace the freedom in your bones even if that means you gotta keep grinding (“Sweet (I’m Free)”). It’s relatable shit and the record strikes a delicate balance, filling in the grayscale to find light in the darkness. (Günseli Yalcinkaya)

10. AMAARAE, FOUNTAIN BABY

“Fountain baby, wash her, make it wet/Diamonds hit the sweat”, sang Amaarae on “Angels in Tibet”, the opening line of her second album Fountain Baby. Little did we know then, but the lyric was setting up shop for the entire record, one where sexuality and hedonism operate as expressways to enlightenment, rather than spaces of shame or unease. Across its 14 tracks, Amaarae convenes her alt-rock, pop, and afrobeat influences, retelling various encounters of love, drugs and religion in that distinctive purr. It’s the most self-assured we’ve ever heard her sound, and who can blame her when she’s clearly having this much fun. Like its name suggests, Fountain Baby is an album of abundance – full of sweaty bodies and gorgeous pop melodies, a bold declaration of an artist stepping into her own. In 2023, Amaarae’s cup runneth over, and Fountain Baby was the spout to shower us all. (Elliot Hoste)

9. MITSKI, THE LAND IS INHOSPITABLE AND SO ARE WE

Released in September, This Land is Inhospitable and So Are We is Mitski’s seventh studio album. Featuring 11 tracks, the 33-minute project marked the first time Mitski recorded an album with a live orchestra and a 17-person choir.

For those who focus on sound first, it’s one of the artist’s most intricate albums, with each layer of the orchestra gradually coming together for the ultimate catharsis. If you are a lyrics type of person, her poetic take on mundane but impactful moments offers an earnest reflection on life. At one point, on “I Don’t Like My Mind” (my song of the year), the orchestra builds as she quite literally screams into the mic about eating a whole cake. Wow.

No stranger to a viral sound, Mitski’s third single from the album “My Love Mine All Mine”, has made its way through TikTok with over two million videos under the sound. Actor Paul Mescal recently described it as “one of the greatest songs ever written”, best listened to in a car on a long drive where you pull over multiple times to cry. But let it be known that this is not just a sad girl album. It is a masterpiece that questions the human experience, self-indulgence, love, loss and life. It’s the type of album that feels like a sneak peek into questions someone would scribble in their journal. Where does love go when we die? Why do we work so hard? What is this all for? Mitski makes many points on this record, this land is painfully beautiful but inhospitable too. Happy existential New Year everyone! (Habi Diallo) 

8. TROYE SIVAN, SOMETHING TO GIVE EACH OTHER

Many artists struggle with a ‘difficult third album’, but not Troye Sivan. Something to Give Each Other is arguably the Australian artist’s best work to date, earning universal acclaim from critics. The album was conceived after Sivan split from his boyfriend of four years, model Jacob Bixenman, but it’s not a straightforward breakup album by any means. Sure, there’s a palpable sense of yearning on tracks like “What’s The Time Where You Are?” – but then there’s also “Rush”, a raunchy, sexy summer anthem. “‘Rush’ is the feeling of kissing a sweaty stranger on a dancefloor, a two-hour date that turned into a weekend, a crush, a winter, a summer,” Sivan said of the track. A celebration of more fleeting moments of intimacy, Something To Give Each Other is surely one of the most tender, hedonistic, and just plain fun albums of the year. (Serena Smith)

7. SZA, SOS

OK, so technically this is from 2022, but we waited so long for SZA’s follow-up to Ctrl it just missed making last year’s list. Arriving as we were losing hope, the aptly titled SOS provided a lifeline through 2023, resonating from prison cells to her packed arena tour. Clearly we are all going through it, finding catharsis in scream-singing along to “I Hate U” and the Avril Lavigne-esque “F2F”. “Nobody gets me, you do” is as much her speaking to a guy who was “balls deep, now we beefing” as it is us to SZA’s pen. In a year where delulu became the solulu, we were ripe for a fresh round of material to deify into “szalations”. Whether she’s walking us through the calm conviction of feeling like you want to kill an ex just so he won’t be with someone else (“Kill Bill”), or navigating the detached nature of dating in an increasingly online world through her sad girl link up with Phoebe Bridgers, “Ghost In The Machine” – this is SZA in her self-aware, post-therapy era. Even if the conclusion might remain the same – “I got me a therapist to tell me there are other men / I don’t want none I just want you” – she’s doing the work, setting goals (“I just wanna fuck, eat, sleep, love / happy”), and communicating her anxieties (“Let’s talk about AI, robot got more heart than I”). The first step to recovery is acknowledgement, after all. (Vanessa Hsieh)

6. CAROLINE POLACHEK, DESIRE, I WANT TO TURN INTO YOU

Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is an album that never rests in one place. Instead, it propels you through a phantasmagoria of emotions and turn-of-the-millennium pop. Half meditation on the kind of love that makes you want to invade someone else’s body, half experimentation into becoming the feeling of desire itself, Polachek loses herself in search of transcendent escapism. She does so with a deranged appetite for feelings and sounds: gobbling up lust, disassociation, grief and tension, she pairs them with Spanish guitars, bagpipes, drum and bass beats, children’s choirs, soaring melodies, the beep of a smoke alarm, and even the chopped up laughter of a baby. Keeping the chaos together is Polachek’s unwavering grip on the nuances and elegance of pop songwriting, pulling her back from the brink of incoherence. The result is an almost limitless listening experience, that invites you into a world of potentiality you’ll never want to leave. (Alim Kheraj)

5. BOYGENIUS, THE RECORD

When Boygenius’ album The Record dropped at the end of March, I was particularly indifferent to it. I wasn’t a huge fan of Phoebe Bridgers, and I knew very little about Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. I came to the album a few months later when my life seemed filled with death and sickness. The first track, “Without You, Without Them”, instantly drew me in. There is so much we don’t know about our parents, and there’s so little they know about their own parents. All we know is that we are here because of them all. The song reminds us, “Who would I be without you, without them?” 

The whole album has this same emotional intensity from start to finish: “Revolution 0” sings hard truths: “I don’t wanna die. That’s a lie. But I’m afraid to get sick. I don’t know what that is.” It’s like they literally peeked into my brain, and wrote all my thoughts into one album. And for that, I am grateful. A truly special and intimate album. (Halima Jibril)

4. YAEJI, WITH A HAMMER

It’s hard to believe that With A Hammer is Yaeji’s first official full-length studio album. Concentrating the artist’s usually “spontaneous and messy” way of producing into a singular project exploring the ways “music [is] alchemy”, the “raingurl” hitmaker forges a complex record grappling with the layers of her identity, introspection, and finding a healthy release for years of repressed rage. Embracing sonically communicating what can’t be expressed through words, Yaeji excavates these emotional worlds through the avatars of anthropomorphic hammers, wizard dogs, and magical anime tropes while continuing to bend the limits of electronic music. From the flutes that immerse us into the album on “Submerge FM” to the uplifting spiralling repetition of her wish to “break the cycles” and “mend the cycles” of “how we learn to / Pass down what we didn’t want to do,” on “Done (Let’s Get It)”, With A Hammer provides catharsis over a cinematic expansion of Yaeji’s sound to demonstrate “how,” she described to Dazed earlier this year, “even though we don’t share the same mother tongue, we can carry this space for each other, we can remember things for each other and create a reality together.” (Vanessa Hsieh)

3. YEULE, SOFT SCARS

With softscars, yeule (the project of Singaporean songwriter Nat Ćmie) has created one of the most exciting albums of 2023. Combining electronic and Asian pop influences with emo, shoe-gaze and nu-metal, yeule’s sound has always been singular, and this diversity is very much on display in sidescars. Every track on the album is about a different scar from their past, and what draws it all together – from wistful, laconic lead single “sulky baby” to the gorgeously melancholic post-pop of tracks like “inferno” and “bloodbunny” – is a real sense of pathos, loss and yearning, which elevates it above being just an exercise in sonic experimentation. (James Grieg)

2. KELELA, RAVEN

“A BITCH IS BACK… but first: how is your heart?”

When Kelela announced her return last September following a five-year hiatus, it wasn’t with the sultry club ‘bangers’ we might have expected. Instead, the New York artist dropped “Washed Away”, an “ambient heart-check” so hypnotic it felt more like a binaural beats meditation. The track was both the opener and first single from her new album Raven, and it set the tone for the 14 tracks that would follow. The bangers were still there, obviously, but bubbling beneath them all was a more profound tale of psychic excavation. This was a record about healing, both on the individual level (the songs chart the rise and fall of a lustful, shadowy romance) and the collective (Kelela herself dedicated the album to “marginalised Black folks, finding renewal in a world that makes us feel inadequate”). 

Water, an element associated with both the feminine and subconscious, is a recurring theme: feelings “sink in”, “get washed away” and “rain down” against a backdrop of crashing waves and muffled, aquatic beats. She plunges in (“Washed Away”), finds her salvation (“Holier”), and emerges by the final track reborn (“Far Away”). The title, Raven, is another emblem: a bird maligned for its darkness, and feared for its Plutonian powers of transformation. If your heart is tired or in need of some tenderness, this album – played in its entirety, from start to finish – could actually save it. (Dominique Sisley) 

1. LANA DEL REY, DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE’S A TUNNEL UNDER OCEAN BLVD 

Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is Lana’s most varied album, and something like a synthesis of her entire career, combining the classic American songwriting of her later albums with the sultry, trip-hop-infused pop of Born to Die. With piano ballads like “Paris, Texas” and “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep sea fishing”, Lana is at her most achingly beautiful, while the use of gospel singers in “The Grants” and the title track bring a new element to her sonic palette. “A&W” has been widely celebrated as the stand-out track, which is well-deserved. Starting as an eerie, hypnotic piano ballad before segueing into a fascinatingly strange hip-hop coda, it is one of Lana’s most bracing, vital and haunting songs yet – and it sits on one of the greatest albums of her career so far. (James Greig)