Just made it before the year ended!

  

So, having got to the end of The Guardian's Top 50 albums of 2023, how have they done this year?  

Overall, I think they actually did pretty well - there were a load of decent albums on there and no absolutely dreadful ones.  I was introduced to 37 new albums (down from 41 last year), with nearly all of my previous visits coming through reviewing the weekly charts with only Everything But The Girl (one I sought out) and Lankum (from another year-end list) coming from other sources.

Best 11

I've gone for a top 11 this year - I'd listened to three of them before (the top three on my list), with four of the others being from artists I knew about and four being completely new.

#45 : Everything Is Alive - Slowdive
#40 : Sundown - Eddie Chacon
#39 : Laugh Track - The National
#30 : The Age Of Pleasure - Janelle Monae
#29 : I Inside The Old Year Dying - PJ Harvey
#25 : The Greater Wings - Julie Byrne
#18 : Madres - Sofia Kourtesis
#11 : Raw Saw God - Wednesday
#4 : That! Feels Good! - Jessie Ware
#3 : Desire, I Want To Turn Into You - Caroline Polachek
#1 : False Lankum - Lankum

The reasoning behind 11 is that I counted down the list including albums as I went along and I'd already got to 10 by the time I got to Lankum at #1.  I do think Lankum's offering is an impressive piece of work (so I've got no problems with The Guardian putting it at #1) and deserves to be included in a "best of the best" but, at the same time, I have to admit I think I'm far less likely to revisit it than any of the other ten I'd chosen.  So a top 11 it is this year.

As usual, my list is still mostly female vocalists (and women are well represented on The Guardian's list with 31 of the albums featuring a woman in a prominent role) but both men and groups have done better this year than most - I think either Jessie or Caroline would take my #1 spot because these are both very listenable and enjoyable albums.  Of the new finds, I'd probably pick one of the next three - Wednesday, Sofia Kourtesis or Julie Byrne (and it's hard to choose between three such different albums - so I haven't).  And I'm going to also give The National a shout-out for finally getting around to making another album I enjoyed and Eddie Chacon for producing an album I wish I'd found over the summer.

Worst 5

I don't think I'd describe any of the albums as bad this year although I can see that Mandy, Indiana's offering would have been too much for many people's ears (which, contrarily, gave them a few brownie points with me).  There were quite a few disappointments for me on the list though - I expected (or was at least hoping for) far better from Anohni & The Johnsons, Mitski, Kara Jackson, Sampha and Lana del Rey.

Potential Omissions

Looking at various other end of year lists, I've come up with 

i/o - Peter Gabriel (I really liked this)
Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan (some US country I've not heard)
SOS - SZA (strictly speaking this was 2022, but it arrived too late to make last year's lists)
10,000 gecs - 100 gecs (no idea about this, but it's on quite a few lists)
Hackney Diamonds - The Rolling Stones (surprisingly enjoyable)
Sick Boi - Ren (I liked this way more than I was expecting to)

There was a lot more overlap between the various lists than there usually is - there are about twenty or so albums that make it on to most of them.  If you take an average across all of them, then Caroline Polachek probably takes the top spot - yes, her nationality helps her out here but I'm perfectly happy with that result.

And with that, we come to the end - see you in another 11 months for the best of 2024!  I've got Empire's best of 2022 lists to complete and then I'll start on The Guardian's TV and film best of 2023 lists and I've also made the decision to start back on the album charts in 1977, which I'm expecting to throw up quite the variety of sounds.

Thank you to everyone for reading and for your comments - I'm always interested in other people's opinions.  Happy New Year - see you on the next list!

#1 - Impressive rather than enjoyable