Top 100 Music Albums of 2023
by 
Arthurknight 
I initially wasn’t super impressed with this year but there’s a few key standouts. The problem was you really have to dig for them this year as the major publications have found all new lows to reach for (demonstrated all the more by their abysmal EOY lists). Rock made a bit of a comeback this year and despite its turbulence independent artists continue to breakthrough on bandcamp, enough so that I even saw spotify recommending me fringe (and actually good) artists and labels who’re mainly releasing via the platform.
It was also a year of otherwise great artists and bands releasing some true duds (see below). Nobody asked for that redux Roger…
Top 100 Songs:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pRznf1CunPZaCqGYb5Sue?si=e00ed77a3f7b45de
Top 10 EPs:
1. Building a New Town – Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan
2. Conditions – Chalk
3. Knocknarea - Maruja
4. If I Don’t See You in the Future, I’ll See You in the Pasture - Cole Pulice
5. Give me a moment - Dean Blunt
6. Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760 - Aphex Twin
7. Personal Protocol - 8485
8. Today I Laid Down – bl4ck m4rket c4rt
9. Everything Perfect – James Ivy
10 INSAINT - Haru Nemuri 春ねむり
Other Reviewed Albums:
(Julius Eastman Vol 3 If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?) Wild Up - 6.5/10
OZmotic (Fennesz) – 6.5/10
The Music That I Make (Leah Senior) – 6.5/10
Calm Ya Farm (The Murlocs) – 6.5/10
Voir Dire (Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist) – 6.5/10
Prize (Rozi Plain) – 6.5/10
Weathervanes (Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit – 6.5/10
3D Country (Geese) – 6.5/10
I Am Not There Anymore (The Clientele) – 6.5/10
New Blue Sun (Andre 3000) – 6.5/10
Census Designated (Jane Remover) – 6.5/10
Heaven Knows (PinkPantheress) – 6/10
Destiny (DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ) – 6/10
Heavy Heavy (Young Fathers) – 6/10
Desire, I Want To Turn Into You (Caroline Polachek) – 6/10
Sadness || Abriction (Sadness & Abriction) – 6/10
Cousin (Wilco) – 6/10
This Is Why (Paramore) – 6/10
Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Lana Del Rey) – 6/10
Everything is Alive (Slowdive) – 6/10
PetroDragonic Apocalypse; Or Dawn Of Eternal Night An Annihilation Of Planet Earth And The Beginning Of Merciless Damnation (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard) – 6/10
12 (Ryuichi Sakamoto) – 6/10
Sundial (Noname) – 6/10
Memento Mori (Depeche Mode) – 6/10
Isn't It Now? (Animal Collective) – 6/10
If We Stayed Alive (12 Rods) – 6/10
All Of This Will End (Indigo De Souza) – 6/10
In Times New Roman (Queens Of The Stone Age) – 6/10
Paranoia, Angels, True Love (Christine And The Queens) – 6/10
Get Up Sequences Part Two (The Go! Team) – 6/10
Unbecoming (Vyva Melinkoyla) – 6/10
Lahai (Sampha) – 6/10
Hellmode (Jeff Rosenstock) – 6/10
Ugly (Slowthai) – 6/10 (See my full review)
I've Seen A Way (Mandy, Indiana) – 6/10
Raven (Kelela) – 6/10
The Ballad Of Darren (Blur) – 6/10
Let's Start Here (Lil Yachty) – 6/10
The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We (Mitski) – 6/10
The Candle And The Flame (Robert Forster) – 6/10
How To Replace It (dEUS) – 6/10
Rat Saw God (Wednesday) – 6/10
Space Heavy (King Krule) – 6/10
Late Developers (Belle and Sebastian) – 6/10
Fuse (Everything But The Girl) – 6/10
Struggler (Genesis Owusu) – 6/10
Softscars (Yeule) – 6/10
Hackney Diamonds (The Rolling Stones) – 5.5/10
But Here We Are (Foo Fighters) – 5.5/10
I Don't Know (bdrmm) – 5.5/10
Bless This Mess (U.S. Girls) – 5.5/10
WON'T HE DO IT (Conway the Machine) – 5/10
10,000 Gecs (100 Gecs) – 5/10
Love + Pop (Current Joys) – 5/10
The Record (Boygenius) – 4.5/10
Red Moon In Venus (Kali Uchis) – 4.5/10
The Age of Pleasure (Janelle Monáe) – 4.5/10
Mercy (John Cale) – 4/10
Mirror to the Sky (Yes) – 4/10
A Reckoning (Kimbra) – 4/10
72 Seasons (Metallica) – 4/10
Guts (Olivia Rodrigo) – 4/10
Secret Life (Fred again.. & Brian Eno) – 4/10
Bless This Mess (U.S. Girls) – 4/10
Chris Black Changed My Life (Portugal. The Man) - 4/10
End of World (Public Image Ltd.) - 4/10
Disposable Everything (AJJ) – 4/10 [This album is aptly named]
Utopia (Travis Scott) – 3.5/10
Nothing Lasts Forever (Teenage Fanclub) – 3.5/10
One More Time (Blink-182) – 3.5/10
Every Loser (Iggy Pop) – 3.5/10
Fantasy (M83) – 3/10
First Two Pages Of Frankenstein United States (The National) – 3/10
Grapes Upon the Vine (TV Girl) – 3/10
Cracker Island (Gorrilaz) – 3/10
The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light (The Streets) – 2.5/10
Blanket (Kevin Abstract) – 2/10
Songs of Surrender (U2) – 2/10
Quest For Fire (Skrillex) – 2/10
ATUM (The Smashing Pumpkins) – 1/10
Rush! (Måneskin) – 1/10
The Dark Side of the Moon Redux (Roger Waters) - 1/10
Robed in Rareness (Shabazz Palaces) – 0.5/10
For All The Dogs (Drake) 0/10
- Chart updated: 11/08/2024 08:45
- (Created: 01/30/2023 04:03).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 5 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 has an average rating of 90 out of 100 (from 6 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
View the complete list of 57,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.
This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from McKinley Dixon. (Remove this filter)
Buy album 
- #Sponsored
8/10
In an out of nowhere splash Mckinley Dixon raps about home, urban life, contesting memories of childhood, lost friends and living communities.
More specifically, the whole album is a Toni Morrison reference. The title invokes the 'Beloved trilogy' of Morrison historical fiction novels Jazz, Beloved and Paradise. If you haven't, read them, and not just because they will illuminate Dixon's work. Morrison's writing is the quintessential prose of contemporary America and its tangled traumatic history.
Though Dixon speaks of history, of how we are shaped by it and cannot place finality on its tectonic movements (that we could have such hubris to say history is past us), he is principally focused with themes of development and artistic solitude – the history here is a personal one where Dixon reflects on the memories in the lead-up to success. The opening track Hanif Reads Toni follows word for word an excerpt from Jazz and I think it is relevant in light of his many references to the city to continue on that reading a couple paragraphs forward in the chapter:
"Do what you please in the City, it is there to back and frame you no matter what you do... All you have to do is heed the design--the way it's laid out for you, considerate, mindful of where you want to go and what you might need tomorrow."
Perhaps the one thing that remains cloudy to me in this work is what Dixon's reading of Morrison is. He is certainly interested in how she represented the black urban experience in Jazz, however what else beyond that remains unclear. In some sense, there's a missed opportunity to interrogate the lasting and rather subtle implications of the trilogy's projection of Dante's Divine Comedy onto modern American racism. Morrison's writing is fundamentally about the unregulated system of sin and consequence which is inflicted with indifference onto African-American people, especially black women. Moreover, the revisionist historicity of Morrison's trilogy works to insert black women into a history where they are otherwise absent. Dixon offers little in the way of any direct inspection of these themes.
Dixon has definitely read Jazz though. In Dedicated to Tar Feather (the 'tar feather' here likely more a reference to torture tactics rather than Morrison's Tar Baby) he invokes the character Joe Trace's line "Don’t ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn’t fall in love, I rose in it. I saw you and made up my mind." However, Dixon rejects the idea, using it to represent the loneliness of being an artist. The irony here, perhaps lost in the lyric, is that Trace himself is a fundamentally alone person. His mother left him without a 'trace' and his love expressed above is unrequited.
Maybe this is an over-reading of the album but I think Dixon is mostly adopting Morrison aesthetically. As Dante brought poetry to Summa Theologica, Dixon brings music to Morrison... Jazz!?
_ [First added to this chart: 07/24/2023]
In an out of nowhere splash Mckinley Dixon raps about home, urban life, contesting memories of childhood, lost friends and living communities.
More specifically, the whole album is a Toni Morrison reference. The title invokes the 'Beloved trilogy' of Morrison historical fiction novels Jazz, Beloved and Paradise. If you haven't, read them, and not just because they will illuminate Dixon's work. Morrison's writing is the quintessential prose of contemporary America and its tangled traumatic history.
Though Dixon speaks of history, of how we are shaped by it and cannot place finality on its tectonic movements (that we could have such hubris to say history is past us), he is principally focused with themes of development and artistic solitude – the history here is a personal one where Dixon reflects on the memories in the lead-up to success. The opening track Hanif Reads Toni follows word for word an excerpt from Jazz and I think it is relevant in light of his many references to the city to continue on that reading a couple paragraphs forward in the chapter:
"Do what you please in the City, it is there to back and frame you no matter what you do... All you have to do is heed the design--the way it's laid out for you, considerate, mindful of where you want to go and what you might need tomorrow."
Perhaps the one thing that remains cloudy to me in this work is what Dixon's reading of Morrison is. He is certainly interested in how she represented the black urban experience in Jazz, however what else beyond that remains unclear. In some sense, there's a missed opportunity to interrogate the lasting and rather subtle implications of the trilogy's projection of Dante's Divine Comedy onto modern American racism. Morrison's writing is fundamentally about the unregulated system of sin and consequence which is inflicted with indifference onto African-American people, especially black women. Moreover, the revisionist historicity of Morrison's trilogy works to insert black women into a history where they are otherwise absent. Dixon offers little in the way of any direct inspection of these themes.
Dixon has definitely read Jazz though. In Dedicated to Tar Feather (the 'tar feather' here likely more a reference to torture tactics rather than Morrison's Tar Baby) he invokes the character Joe Trace's line "Don’t ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn’t fall in love, I rose in it. I saw you and made up my mind." However, Dixon rejects the idea, using it to represent the loneliness of being an artist. The irony here, perhaps lost in the lyric, is that Trace himself is a fundamentally alone person. His mother left him without a 'trace' and his love expressed above is unrequited.
Maybe this is an over-reading of the album but I think Dixon is mostly adopting Morrison aesthetically. As Dante brought poetry to Summa Theologica, Dixon brings music to Morrison... Jazz!?
_ [First added to this chart: 07/24/2023]
Total albums: 1. Page 1 of 1
Don't agree with this chart? Create your own from the My Charts page!
Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 composition
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| 파란노을 [Parannoul] | 2 | 2% | |
| Guided By Voices | 2 | 2% | |
| Tim Hecker | 1 | 1% | |
| Deerhoof | 1 | 1% | |
| Prizes Roses Rosa | 1 | 1% | |
| Armand Hammer | 1 | 1% | |
| Blonde Redhead | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| |
40 | 40% | |
 |
20 | 20% | |
 |
7 | 7% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
| |
3 | 3% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 chart changes
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 4 from 22nd to 26th Tracey Denim by Bar Italia |
| Down 1 from 26th to 27th La Baracande by La Nòvia |
| Down 1 from 27th to 28th Um Tijolo Com Seu Nome by Lupe De Lupe |
| New entries |
|---|
| The Head Hurts But The Heart Knows The Truth by Headache |
Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 similarity to your chart(s)
Not a member? Registering is quick, easy and FREE!
Why register?
- Join a passionate community of over 50,000 music fans.
- Create & share your own charts.
- Have your say in the overall rankings.
- Post comments in the forums and vote on polls.
- Comment on or rate any album, artist, track or chart.
- Discover new music & improve your music collection.
- Customise the overall chart using a variety of different filters & metrics.
- Create a wishlist of albums.
- Help maintain the BEA database.
- Earn member points and gain access to increasing levels of functionality!
- ... And lots more!
Register now - it only takes a moment!
Other year charts by Arthurknight
(from the 2020s)| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 100 Music Albums of 2025 | Arthurknight | 2025 year chart | 2025 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of 2024 | Arthurknight | 2024 year chart | 2024 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 | Arthurknight | 2023 year chart | 2024 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of 2022 | Arthurknight | 2022 year chart | 2024 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of 2021 | Arthurknight | 2021 year chart | 2023 | |
Arthurknight has created 71 other 2023 year charts - click here to explore them all.
Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
N.B. The average rating for this chart will not be reliable as it has been rated very few times.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 6 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 01/24/2025 00:56 | ThuramThugood | 106 | 90/100 |
| ! | 12/21/2023 10:34 |  ForegroundNoise | 472 | 87/100 |
| ! | 12/13/2023 05:48 | Exist-en-ciel | 125 | 99/100 |
| ! | 12/10/2023 18:09 |  LedZep | 1,104 | 84/100 |
| ! | 12/08/2023 15:58 |  Repo | 556 | 100/100 |
Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 favourites
Showing all 5 members who have added this chart as a favourite
Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 comments
Showing all 5 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Maximum Rated First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
From 
cestuneblague 03/26/2024 14:29 | #302690
cestuneblague 03/26/2024 14:29 | #302690
Lots to discover here, mercurial and eclectic mix in the best way.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From ForegroundNoise 12/21/2023 10:35 | #300572
ForegroundNoise 12/21/2023 10:35 | #300572
Stellar chart as ever. No idea how you find the time to listen to all this, but can always rely on you for a fresh take on the year in music!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Exist-en-ciel 12/13/2023 05:59 | #300455
After a break from music of almost a year, I decided to make my 2023 list at the very end of the year. I've only listened to 50% of the albums it contains, but your list, like all the ones you make, is very interesting and relevant. Good work!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From LedZep 12/10/2023 18:11 | #300393
LedZep 12/10/2023 18:11 | #300393
Thanks for the comment! Excellent chart and even better descriptions, a lot of the interesting albums I've skipped for one reason or another (Lankum, George Clanton...)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Repo 12/08/2023 15:59 | #300366
Repo 12/08/2023 15:59 | #300366
Fantastic chart and notes! Excited to check a bunch of your recs out!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Your feedback for Top 100 Music Albums of 2023
Let us know what you think of this chart by adding a comment or assigning a rating below!
If you enjoy our site, please consider supporting us by sparing a few seconds to disable your ad blocker.
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.
