10 Best Albums of 2023
It’s my fifth year of ranking albums annually on this site. It feels like the weakest year to date. The top of the list is weaker than usual. The top-rated album is more a subtle pleasure than a blockbuster. On…
Category 10 Best Albums of the Year
My opinionated lists of the ten best albums of each year. I’ve only covered a handful of recent years so far, but I plan to cover every year from the mid-1960s eventually.
10 Best Albums of 2022
Even in 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic still looms large over popular music. Many of these albums were affected by events – forcing delays or changes in personnel. As always, there was a wealth of excellent music recorded in 2022 –…
10 Best Albums of 2021
I think it’s cheating to publish a best albums list during the year in question – like, what if the best album ever is released on the 15th of December? That wasn’t the case this year, but a lot of…
10 Best Albums of 2020
I know it’s obligatory to insert a comment here about how terrible the year 2020 was. Down in New Zealand, however, we were well insulated from the coronavirus pandemic and life was relatively normal. From the list below, I’d only…
10 Best Albums of 2019
I didn’t enjoy any single album from 2019 as much as I liked Mitski‘s Be The Cowboy in 2018. Nevertheless, 2019 was a strong year – albums that I enjoyed by established favourites like The New Pornographers and Taylor Swift…
