As I prepare to write my fourth and final year-end list, it occurs to me that I just hit the tenth anniversary of the year I started doing these lists – at least in this expanded format – on this here WordPress blog. When I first started it up in late 2013, it was a workaround since Epinions.com, the now-defunct consumer review site where I used to post all my stuff, was slow about getting new albums into their database, and I wanted full control of what I chose to write about and when. That site went defunct in 2014, and while I miss the meager residual checks from whatever clicks those reviews got, I’m much happier doing it here for fun and zero profit.
Looking back on 2023 as I re-listen to these albums, I’m tempted to describe it as the first “normal” year we’ve had in a while – not that there aren’t chaotic and difficult things going on in my personal world or in the world at large during any given year, but it felt like we’d finally left behind the “constantly looking over our shoulders for the next big threat to our health and sanity” mindset that characterized the early 2020s. Interestingly, a few of my favorite albums this year were made as a response to unspeakable loss, and they somehow came out incredibly easy to engage with and relate to. But there’s some genuinely celebratory music on this list too – and angry music that works it out in more of a “purging my negative emotions and winning back my confidence” sort of way rather than a “wallowing in my misery” sort of way. It was a year of mostly good transitions away from a period of prolonged uncertainty and despair, I think.
Anyway, let’s get on with the show! Here’s what I thought were the best albums 2023 had to offer.
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murlough23 
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