Album Year Lists

I keep lists of my favorite records each year. You can find them here.

2023

  1. Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy
  2. Arlo Parks: My Soft Machine
  3. Caroline Polachek: Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
  4. Mandy, Indiana: i’ve seen a way
  5. Water From Your Eyes: Everyone’s Crushed
  6. 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs
  7. bar italia: Tracey Denim
  8. Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We
  9. Hotline TNT: Cartwheel
  10. The Tubs: Dead Meat

Playlists with my favorite songs:

2022

  1. Jockstrap: I Love You, Jennifer B
  2. Rosalía: Motomami
  3. Muna: Muna

The rest of the top 10 in somewhat random order:

  • The Haunted Youth: Dawn of the Freak
  • Hurray for the Riff Raff: Life on Earth
  • Nilüfer Yanya: Painless
  • Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer
  • Wet Leg: Wet Leg
  • Show Me The Body: Trouble the Water
  • Makaya McCraven: In These Times

The list in Instagram stories.

2021

The list (unordered, in categories).

2020

  1. Grimes: Miss Anthropocene
  2. Taylor Swift: folklore (& evermore)
  3. A Certain Ratio: ACRLoco
  4. Caroline Rose: Superstar
  5. Sault: untitled (Black Is) & untitled (Rise)
  6. Yves Tumor: Heaven to a Tortured Mind
  7. Car Seat Headrest: Making a Door Less Open
  8. Moses Boyd: Dark Matter
  9. Working Men’s Club: Working Men’s Club
  10. HAIM: Women in Music, pt. 3
  11. Mary Lattimore: Silver Ladders
  12. Sparks: A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
  13. Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven: We’re New Again
  14. Nubya Garcia: Source
  15. Porridge Radio: Every Bad

No playlist (yet), but you can watch the list as story snippets on Instagram.

2019

  1. Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell!
  2. 100 gecs: 1000 gecs
  3. Billie Eilish: WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
  4. Ezra Collective: You Can’t Steal My Joy
  5. King Princess: Cheap Queen
  6. Snarky Puppy: Immigrance
  7. Yazz Ahmed: Polyhymnia
  8. Jai Wolf: The Cure to Loneliness
  9. Jade Bird: Jade Bird
  10. black midi: Schlagenheim

A playlist featuring one stand-out track from each album, please my five favorite songs of the year that aren’t on one of these albums, can be found on Apple Music and Spotify.

2018

  1. Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer
  2. Young Fathers: Cocoa Sugar
  3. Leon Bridges: Good Thing
  4. Tirzah: Devotion
  5. Makaya McCraven: Universal Beings
  6. Naaz: Bits of Naaz
  7. Mitsky: Be the Cowboy
  8. Let’s Eat Grandma: I’m All Ears
  9. Sons of Kemet: Your Queen is a Reptile
  10. Poppy: Am I a Girl?

2017

  1. Ronald Bruner Jr.: Triumph
  2. Lorde: Melodrama
  3. Sylvan Esso: What Now
  4. Makaya McCraven: Highly Rare
  5. Benjamin Booker: Witness
  6. Benjamin Clementine: I Tell A Fly
  7. Miles Mosely: Uprising
  8. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: The Emancipation Procrastination
  9. Cameron Graves: Planetary Prince
  10. Haim: Something to Tell You

2016

  1. Anderson .Paak: Malibu
  2. Michael Kiwanuka: Love & Hate
  3. Andra Day: Cheers to the Fall
  4. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down: A Man Alive
  5. Kate Tempest: Let Them Eat Chaos
  6. Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool
  7. Grace Kelly: Trying to Figure It Out
  8. David Bowie: Blackstar
  9. Higher Authorities: Neptune
  10. Gregory Porter: Take Me to the Alley

2015

  1. Public Broadcasting Service: The Race for Space
  2. Susanne Sundfør: Ten Love Songs
  3. Benjamin Clementine: At Least For Now
  4. Takuya Kuroda: Rising Son
  5. Carly Rae Jepsen: E·mo·tion
  6. Fresku (feat. Teemong): Nooit Meer Terug
  7. Guillaume Perret & The Electric Epic: Open Me
  8. Wolf Alice: My Love is Cool
  9. LA Priest: Inji
  10. Tobias Jesso Jr.: Goon

2014

  1. Spoon: They Want My Soul
  2. Against Me!: Transgender Dysphoria Blues
  3. The Twilight Sad: Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave
  4. Sun Kil Moon: Benji
  5. Future Islands: Singles
  6. The Hidden Cameras: AGE
  7. Lamb: Backspace Unwind
  8. Todd Terje: It’s Album Time
  9. Prawn: Kingfisher
  10. Nicholas Krgovich: On Sunset

2013

  1. I Am Kloot: Let It All In
  2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Push The Sky Away
  3. Jim James: Regions of Light and Sound of God

(This year only had a top three, accompanied by honourable mentions in several categories. It included work by a.o. The National, King Krule, Young Fathers, Zola Jesus and Lubomyr Melnyk.)

2012

  1. Menomena: Moms
  2. The Twilight Sad: No One Can Ever Know
  3. The Gaslight Anthem: Handwritten
  4. alt‑J (∆): An Awesome Wave
  5. The Walkmen: Heaven
  6. Japandroids: Celebration Rock
  7. The Mountain Goats: Transcendental Youth
  8. Blaudzun: Heavy Flowers
  9. Balthazar: Rats
  10. Bobby Womack: The Bravest Man Of The Universe

2011

  1. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong
  2. Yuck – Yuck
  3. Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise
  4. Future Islands – On the Water
  5. Spinvis – Tot Ziens, Justine Keller
  6. Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation
  7. TV On The Radio – Nine Types of Light
  8. 13 & God – Own Your Ghost
  9. Starfucker – Reptillians
  10. WU LYF – Tell Fire to the Mountains

2010

  1. Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles (II)
  2. Belle and Sebastian: Write About Love
  3. The Hundred in the Hands: s/t
  4. The National: High Violet
  5. The Gaslight Anthem: American Slang
  6. Foals: Total Life Forever
  7. Gold Panda: Lucky Shiner
  8. Olli Schulz: Es Brennt So Schön
  9. Gayngs: Relayted
  10. Sophie Hunger: 1983