Top Albums of the year

By: Julian Harvey

The Billboard year-end charts continued to reflect the backward-looking nature of the public’s music appetite. Taylor Swift and Drake, two artists who have been on top since the 2000s remain in firm control of the charts. Beyond that, the world all of a sudden seems very interested again in more traditional genres like country and even Corridos music. Many of the songs that were big this year weren't even from 2023! Songs like “As It Was,” “Save your Tears” and even “Heat Waves” all somehow remained in the Top 40 all year. With that said, I’ve heard some critics claim that 2023 might be one of the worst years for new music ever and with that - I disagree.. It’s no surprise that my favorite albums and songs this year didn’t show up anywhere on the Billboard year-end list (with one glaring exception) but it’s not like these are super underground projects. The next ten albums were my favorites of the year in no particular order: (quick honorable mentions go to The Record by Boy Genius, 6 by Kenny Mason, Mega Tron 2 by Baby Tron, Heaven Knows by Pink Pantheress and Michael by Killer Mike.)

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