15 MITSKI: “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We”

“Having started out as an exemplar of “sadgirl indie”, her previous album saw Mitski embrace a slightly more commercial pop sheen. This album strips things right back to a sparse arrangement centered squarely around her voice, which allows her poetic lyrics to really shine”. Nick

“On her new album, Mitski makes a significant change from the electro pop of Laurel Hell and makes an album that evokes singer songwriter, at times verges on country, uses gospel choirs and pulls the listener into the sensitivity of her lyrics.” Mark

14 SQUID: “O Monolith”

“Squid’s early singles and debut album were fundamental parts of the rise of South London post-punk, with staccato rhythms, angular guitars and yelpy vocals. On this, their second album, they tone all that down and have made something much more thoughtful, experimental and expansive… even a bit proggy really. But still weird and playful”. Nick

13 BC CAMPLIGHT: “Last Rotation Of Earth”

“He's just really good at making sad and funny songs about being sad and funny. Utterly heartbroken across the album but arranged like someone who heard a Prefab Sprout album playing through a neighbour's wall, distractedly drove his battered car into the wall and then rebuilt it from the ground up while he multitracked Beach Boys harmonies. I hope BC Camplight keeps making albums forever.” Adam

12 CAROLINE POLACHEK: “Desire, i want to turn into you”

“Did you love this record? If you did, great and well done. Move along. If you didn't, or you didn't hear it yet, watch the video for Welcome To My Island and see if you make it through the song before grabbing a copy of this future classic. This is pop done so very well by an artist who thought she could have a crack at out-weirding her contemporaries while still selling records”. Adam

11 THIS IS THE KIT: “Careful Of Your Keepers”
“Kate Stables is a wonderful singer-songwriter, writing some of the absolute best folk, folkesque and indie-folk songs in the country. She also has a fantastic band that add flesh and dynamics to this wonderfully quirky collection of songs about scabby pigeons and sticks and molecules and things. It has regular moments of real spine-tingly beauty”. Nick

10 SLOWDIVE: “Everything Is Alive”
“In which our shoegaze heroes return with the second album of their comeback era. While RIDE came back with a more modern, less effect-laden sound, Slowdive have absolutely distilled the shoegaze/dreampop sound of the early 90s into something that sounds a bit retro, very now, but also utterly timeless.”. Nick

9 PJ HARVEY: “I Inside the Old Year Dying”
“If you look back over the last 4 PJ Harvey albums the one thing that is consistent is that she is unpredictable. Influenced by last year’s poetry release Orlam, she has taken the opportunity to create some music involving her Dorset dialect. She has combined this with some intimate minimalist sounds which are the direct descendent to some of the quieter music from recent releases. It has become clear that she has become one of a series of natural successors to the creative performers like Kate Bush. It’s a beautiful record that is easy to lose yourself in. Elements, of folk, elements of Lofi, mountains of PJ Harvey”. Mark

8 LANKUM: “False Lankum”
“This is by far my most played album of the year, following their last album being my most played album of the last 2 years. With a little help from the Mercury Music Prize and topping loads of albums of the year lists (should have been here too but the occasional Sunday boy/RSD queue co-ordinator was outvoted) Lankum are finally getting the recognition they deserve. There are hints of traditional, incredible instrumentation, swathes of drone, incredible production that takes your ears, head and heart all over the place and then topped with some incredible vocals. It is an album that challenges you but the rewards are unbelievable”. Mark

7 GRIAN CHATTEN: “Chaos For The Fly”
“Solo records can be a funny thing. Ego-driven, overweight and often a bit silly. There's nothing of the sort here, just a developed display of songwriting from one of the best frontmen around. The splintery punk edges of his band, Fontaines DC, are sanded down to show glorious natural knots in the wood. Folky, often dipped in a sheen of subtle electronica, and (whisper it) kind of Radio Two in a world where Radio Two plays brilliant adult-oriented rock made by poets”. Adam
“His voice and lyrics are so distinctive that it still sounds like Fontaines….but with acoustic guitars and violins replacing big jaggedy riffs, yet losing none of the power.” Nick

6 SHAME: “Food For Worms”
“Shame are in very real danger of claiming the chalice of BEST LIVE BAND IN THE WORLD from the likes of Foals and Idles and Fontaines right now. And on this, their third album, they begin to capture their sheer energy on record. While musically it has all the trappings of punk, it’s also fun and melodic and singalong in a shouty kind of way”. Nick

5 SUFJAN STEVENS: “Javelin”
“We all love Sufjan. Of course we do. But since 2016’s astonishing “Carrie & Lowell”, he has made (if we’re honest) an extensive but not always essential body of work: ambient electronica, instrumental piano albums, experimental collaborations etc etc. But on Javelin, he is very much back at his best as one of the world’s greatest singer-songwriters specialising in sadness and heartbreak. And sadly, poor old Sufjan has had a rubbish year with illness and loss. But out of it has come a really beautiful concept-album-of sorts exploring relationships from the universal to the minutiae” Nick
“A heartbreak of an album which when you find that it soundtracks the passing of his partner and then proceeds a serious illness, the emotional impact only increases. It’s a traditional album in the Sufjan sense echoing Carrie and Lowell and Seven Swans. Goodbye Evergreen sets the stance as an opening song descending into a choir of harmonies with the album finishing with a reimagining of Neil Youngs there’s a world made distinctly ‘Sufjany’. Go listen and then hug the one you love”. Mark

4 YOUNG FATHERS: “Heavy Heavy”
“Not an ounce of fat on this record, just limber muscle that winds up like a prize fighter punch again and again. If you haven't seen them live, check out the Glasto set from this year for the kind of fervour and energy most bands only dream of. Most of all, this is a pop record. Hooks, choruses, musical crescendos, drum tracks that roll and ricket around the songs”. Adam
“The concept of fusing rap and rock is not new and is frequently, if we’re quite honest, a bit rubbish. But Young Fathers approach it very differently with their articulate mix of politicised rapping and singing over a background of swirling indie-rock rather than anything identifiably hip-hop. Devoid of any traditional genre trappings, they are very much doing their own thing” Nick

3 BOYGENIUS: “The Record”
“I started as a Julien fan, then I dug Phoebe, but I loved Lucy the most. Imagine hanging out with all three of them while they close-harmonised sermons on love and friendship and Leonard Cohen. These three incredible solo talents just WORK as a band and this warm, humble and happy album builds on the promise of their earlier EP”. Adam
“Side One of this album is the greatest side of music made in 2023. All 3 of them bring their absolute best game to deliver tears and triumph and friendship and screaming. It’s quite magnificent. $20, Not Strong Enough, Cool About It and True Blue would all be guaranteed a place on any Songs Of The Year playlist. It’s SO good though, that Side Two can’t QUITE maintain the insanely high standards. Otherwise, you’d be looking at Album Of The Year right here...” Nick
“We love the sum of all its parts, we knew from the EP that any more output was going to be great and love the album that came. It’s heartbreaking, it’s optimistic, it’s reflective and ultimately it’s beautiful”. Mark

2 BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD "Live At Bush Hall"
“After the loss of a front man and the respectable decision to start again, BCNR deliver one of the albums of the year for the third year running. It turns out at least three of them can sing, the arrangements are gloriously all over the shop (if a bit more focussed than Isaac's songwriting was - these are far more traditional song structures) and this live set works as a balloon pop of an album. Joyful, tender and everything in between. I cannot wait for what comes next”. Adam.
“Can the band survive losing its lead singer and still be interesting, challenging and fundamentally brilliant? - well yes, clearly they can!” Mark

1= THE NATIONAL: “First Two Pages Of Frankenstein” and “Laugh Track”

“I have loved The National more than any band, and I fell out of love with them a bit in the last ten years. I sometimes felt I just hadn't grown in the direction they went as a listener. This year's (surprise, in the case of Laugh Track) double release has done a lot to restore my faith. The instrumentation feels dynamic and assured, the lyrics are sharper and sadder than they have been in years and there are some of this glorious band's best songs across the two albums. They work as a pair like Kid A and Amnesiac do. The band drift from deft post-pop post-rock post-music post-ballad duets with Taylor, Phoebe and Roseanne to dirgey one-take smashers that coil around the stream of conscious of Matt's lyrics and feel like a great band stretching out on stage. Intimate, human, mystic and visceral like an iris close-up and the year's best surprise”. Adam

“While there are LOTS of distinctly middle-aged bands making really good albums who COULD have been on this list (Blur, Sigur Ros, QOTSA, Gorillaz etc etc), The National have had a REMARKABLE year where they have put out not one, but TWO albums that stand happily alongside their best work. They have found a way to fuse their comfortably melancholic music for cardigan-and-slippers-wearing sad dads with a renewal of the early rageddy abrasive sound, and also the continuing desire to collaborate with a perfectly-picked posse of our favourite musicians: Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens and Taylor Swift all crop up across this pair of albums”. Nick

“The National have been a source of many shop disagreements over recent years, fundamentally this is due to all of us having so much love for them. It’s not fair to describe these two albums as a return to form but more a return to them being happy and boy do we benefit. Eucalyptus and Space Invader are already 2 of the best National songs ever, but they fit perfectly in the midst of 2 great albums that can be listened to separately or work perfectly together akin to Kid A and Amnesiac.  The original sad dads in the band have made the sad dads of the shop very very happy”. Mark