McQ's Best Of will be updating its best of 2023 album rankings throughout 2023 and 2024, and also updating which albums are in the listening pool below.
Rising star Chappelle Roan's spirited, sassy The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess leads the latest batch of additions to our rankings.
Highest Recommends
1. My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross - ANOHNI & The Johnsons
2. Guts - Olivia Rodrigo
Strong Recommends
3. Hackney Diamonds - The Rolling Stones
4. That! Feels! Good! - Jessie Ware
5. Desire, I Want To Turn Into You - Caroline Polachek
6. But Here We Are - Foo Fighters
7. False Lankum - Lankum
8. like dying stars, we're reaching out - Runner
9. Javelin - Sufjan Stevens
10. EVERY LOSER - Iggy Pop
Solid Recommends
11. The Greater Wings - Julia Byrne
12. First Two Pages Of Frankenstein - The National
13. SOS - SZA
14. the record - boygenius
15. The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess - Chappell Roan
16. Fountain Baby - Amaarae
17. Weathervanes - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
18. Radical Romantics - Fever Ray
19. Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. - Lana Del Rey
20. Bird Machine - Sparklehorse
21. Perfect Saviors - The Armed
22. 10,000 gecs - 100 gecs
23. Chaos For The Fly - Grain Chatten
24. Madres - Sofia Kourtesis
25. Laugh Track - The National
26. 3D Country - Geese
27. My 21st Century Blues - Raye
28. Blondshell - Blondshell
29. everything is alive - Slowdive
30. This Is Why - Paramore
31. Wait Til I Get Over - Durand Jones
32. Heavy Heavy - Young Fathers
33. MERCY - John Cale
34. Rat Saw God - Wednesday
35. I Inside The Old Year Dying - PJ Harvey
36. The Beggar - Swans
38. Scaring The Hoes - JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown
39. Lucky For You - Bully
40. I Am Not There Anymore - The Clientele
41. Mid Air - Romy
42. Hit Parade - Roisin Murphy & DJ Koze
43. Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love - Kara Jackson
44. Utopia - Travis Scott
45. Villagers - Califone
46. Unreal Unearth - Hozier
47. Strange Disciple - Nation Of Language
48. Desire Pathway - Screaming Females
49. Bless This Mess - US Girls
50. The Chicago Sessions - Rodney Crowell
51. In Times New Roman - Queens Of The Stone Age
52. PetroDragonic Apocalypse: or, Dawn Of Eternal Night - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
53. Michael - Killer Mike
54. Danse Macabre - Duran Duran
55. Get Up Sequences Part Two - The Go! Team
56. Volcano - Jungle
57. The Window - Ratboys
58. Seven Psalms - Paul Simon
59. ATTA - Sigur Ros
60. Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) - Jaimie Branch
Mild Recommends
61. Turn The Car Around - Gaz Coombes
62. We Buy Diabetic Test Strips - Armand Hammer
63. The Ballad Of Darren - Blur
64. Gigi's Recovery - The Murder Capital
65. Art Dealers - Low Cut Connie
66. Maps - Billy Woods & Kenny Segal
67. Everything Harmony - The Lemon Twigs
68. The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light -The Streets
69. O Monolith - Squid
70. Crazymad, For Me - CMAT
71. Milk For Flowers - H. Hawkline
72. This Stupid World - Yo La Tengo
73. Tracey Denim - Bar Italia
74. Raving Ghost - Olivia Jean
75. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We - Mitski
76. Lahai - Sampha
77. Nothing Lasts Forever - Teenage Fanclub
78. Toxic Positivity - The Used
79. 1980s Bubblegum - The Particles
80. Sea Of Mirrors - The Choral
81. Everyone's Crushed - Water From Your Eyes
82. With A Hammer - Yaeji
83. Heaven Is A Junkyard - Youth Lagoon
84. Relentless - The Pretenders
85. Cartwheel - Hotline TNT
2023 Albums In The Pool (# listens in/• strong early impressions)
12 (1•) - Ryuichi Sakamotp
A Kiss For The Whole World (1) - Enter Shakari
Angel Numbers (2) - Hamish Hawk
Angels & Queens (2•) - Gabriels
Atlas - Laurel Halo
Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? - McKinley Dixon
Black Classical Music (2•) - Yussef Dayes
Black Rainbows (2) - Corrine Bailey Rae
Blomi (2) - Susanne Sunder
Breaking The Balls Of History (1) - QUASI
Cousin (1) - Wilco
Erotic Probiotic 2 (1•) - Nourished By Time
Euphoric Recall (2•) - Braids
For That Beautiful Feeling (2•) - The Chemical Brothers
Formal Growth In The Desert (2) - Protomartyr
Fuse (2) - Everything But The Girl
God Games (1) - The Kills
HELLMODE (2•) - Jeff Rosenstock
i/o (1) - Peter Gabriel
I Killed Your Dog (1) - L'Rain
Integrated Tech Solutions (1) - Aesop Rock
Intercepted Message (1) - Osees
i've seen a way (1) - Mandy, Indiana
Jaguar II (1) - Victoria Monet
Jenny From Thebes (1) - The Mountain Goats
Let's Start Here (2) - Lil' Yachty
Life Under The Gun (2) - Militaire Gun
Medicine (2) - Goat
Memento Mori (1) - Depeche Mode
My Big Day (2•) - Bombay Bicycle Club
New York City (2•) - The Men
Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again (2•) - Lydia Loveless
One Day (2) - Fucked Up
Raven (2•) - Kelela
Red Moon In Venus (1•) - Kali Uchis
Sanguivore (1) - Creeper
Shadow Kingdom (2•) - Bob Dylan
Shook (2•) - Algiers
Social Lubrication (2•) - Dream Wife
Something To Give Each Other (1) - Troye Sivan
Sticks And Stones - Lukas Nelson And Promise Of The Real
Strays (2•) - Margo Price
Struggler (2) - Genesis Owesu
Sundail (2•) - Noname
Sus Dog (2•) - Clark
Take Me Back To Eden (1) - Sleep Token
Tension (1) - Kylie Minogue
The Age Of Pleasure (2) - Janelle Monae
The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons (2•) - The Hives
The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (2) - Sparks
The Hypnogogue (2) - The Church
Time Will Wait For No One (2•) - Local Natives
Valley Of Heart's Delight (2•)
Zach Bryan (2)
Other Good 2023 Releases Listened To In Part But Not Explored In Depth
Afternoon X - Vanishing Twin
Ain't Giving Up - Chris Duarte
Beware Of The Clown - The Damned
Blues Deluxe Volume 2 - Joe Bonamassa
Brothers & Sisters - Steve Mason
Bunny - Beach Fossils
Cracker Island - Gorillaz
Council Skies - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Death Wish Blues - Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton
Fantasy - M83
Get Up Ep 2 - Newjeans
Girl In The Half Pearl - Liv.e
Food For Worms - Shame
Furling - Meg Baird
Heaven Knows - Pink Pantheress
Henry St. - The Tallest Man On Earth
History Books - The Gaslight Anthem
Honey - Samia
I Came From Love - Dave Okumu
I Des - King Creosote
I Thought I Was Better Than You - Baxter Dury
Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities - James Holden
Is U - Good Lies
I've Got Me - Joanna Sternberg
Joy'All - Jenny Lewis
Late Developers - Belle and Sebastian
LaVette! - Betty LaVette
Live In London - Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
Love In Exile - Arooj Aftab • Vijay Iyer • Shahzad Ismaily
Manana Sere Bonito - Karol G
Melusine - Cecile McLaurin Salvant
Multitudes - Fiest
My Soft Machine - Arlo Parks
Nails - Benefits
New Blue Sun - Andre 3000
No Thank You - Little Simz
Norm - Andy Shauf
Orpheus Descending - John Mellencamp
Perfect Saviors - The Armed
Phantomine - Ghost
Pure Music - Stranger Ranger
Quaranta - Danny Brown
Ridin' - Eric Bibb
Sit Down For Dinner - Blonde Redhead
Smalltown Stardust - King Tuff
Softscars - Yeule
Some Of It Was True - The Menzingers
Space Heavy - King Krule
Stereo Mind Game - Daughter
The Candle And The Flame - Robert Forster
The Deep and The Dirty - Eric Johanson
The Great White Sea Eagle - James Yorkston
The Harmony Codex - Steven Wilson
The Price Of Progress - The Hold Steady
Tomorrow Never Comes - Rancid
Triplove... ??? - Tizrah
UK Grim - Sleaford Mods
Writing On The Wall - Coco Montoya
Last Updated 05.22.24
