The Best Albums of 2023

It’s that time of year! Once again I’ve asked Emacs which new albums I’ve listened to most this year, and the shocking truth is revealed below. And above, too!

It’s been a really strong year for new music, I think — I’ve been wildly enthusiastic about several of these albums, which makes a change from previous years where I could barely get worked up about anything. Perhaps it’s the two years off everybody had that made people get less depressed or something.

The biggest surprise of the year was, of course, the #1 album — an Orbital album! *gasp* Yes, they made an album that was as good as any of the 90s albums, and I don’t think anybody expected that…

So here’s the list of the 15 best albums, and because a computer collated the list, these are objectively the best albums. So there.

	Orbital	Optical Delusion
Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)
	Lost Girls	Selvutsletter
Timed Intervals
	Dry Cleaning	Swampy EP
Dry Cleaning - Gary Ashby [Nourished By Time Remix](Official Audio)
	Anohni and the Johnsons	My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
It Must Change
	Liis Ring	Homing
Liis Ring – Languages of Love (Official Video)
	Water From Your Eyes	Everyone’s Crushed
Water From Your Eyes- "Barley" (Official Music Video)
	Aphex Twin	Blackbox Life Recorder 21f – in a room7 F760
Blackbox Life Recorder 21f
	Arthur Russell	Picture of Bunny Rabbit
Fuzzbuster #10
	David Allred	Mandatory Book Club Vol. 1
Pyramid
	Everything But The Girl	Fuse
Everything But The Girl - Nothing Left To Lose
	GLYSK	Social Intercourse
GLYSK - Hedonist (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
	Peter Broderick & Ensemble 0	Give It to the Sky: Arthur Russell’s Tower of Meaning Expanded
Peter Broderick & Ensemble 0 - Corky I / White Jet Set Smoke Trail I
	Debby Friday	Good Luck
GOOD LUCK
	Ryuichi Sakamoto	12
20210310
	Snapped Ankles	Blurtations
Snapped Ankles - Planet You (Official Video)
	Still House Plants	Fast Edit
Pleasures

And I also bought a lot of older albums this year. Here’s the ten objectively best ones:

	Shopping	The Official Body
Shopping - The Hype [The Official Body]
	Joan as Police Woman	Damned Devotion
Damned Devotion (Official Video)
	Merope	Salos
Merope - Ei Dvipa
	Shearwater	Shearwater Plays Lodger (2016 AV Club Version)
Shearwater Plays Lodger - African Night Flight - David Bowie - The AV Club 2016
	Mourning [A] BLKstar	Garner Poems
Anti Anthem
	Movietone	Movietone
Chance Is Her Opera
	Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider	The Blue Hour
Shara Nova: The Blue Hour: No. 1, Prologue
	Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden	I get along without you very well
Johan Graden & Ellen Arkbro - Close
	Fad Gadget	Under the Flag
Fad Gadget - Love parasite
	Joan as Police Woman	Cover (Album)
Joan As Police Woman - Fire
	Marvin Pontiac	Greatest Hits
I'm a Doggy

So there you go. Objective.