The music is lush, advanced, and welcoming, and comes off without a trace of bloat or conceit. This is easily a top pick for best albums of 2023.

Releasing an album rooted in LBGTQ+ culture is an understated but clear sign of solidarity made all the more resonant because Art Dealers hits the heart, head, and groin with equal force.

Russell's story would be compelling enough on its own, but she also happens to be an engaging and unpredictable artist able to translate her vision effectively. The Returner is a very confident second record.

Much like Disco, Tension is a master class in pop wizardry and escapist bliss. Releasing an album this expertly crafted and stunning in her fifth decade in the business is an absolute wonder to behold.

3TEETH harness that frustration and helplessness, creating cathartic sonic therapy for anyone at their wit's end wondering if the planet will still be spinning decades from now. Thrilling and depressing, it's another wake-up call for those who aren't listening.

Lydia Loveless has matured into one of the most compelling and consistently impressive singer/songwriters America can claim, and with Nothing's Gonna Stand in My Way Again, they have matched form and content with a skill that makes it their finest album to date -- no small statement given the strength of their catalog.

Afro Futuristic Dreams sums up Ackamoor's career and leaps forward, exploring myriad traditions, styles, and harmonic and rhythmic combinations that further musical conversations to an as-yet-unseen creative horizon.

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden's collision of styles, genres, and individual and group voices are not only welcome, but essential to the process of Roberts engendering dialogue, celebrating difference, and communicating emotions, psychologies, and cultures, all testifying to the import and cultural and artistic achievement of her evolving project.

It's fitting that such a thoughtful work reveals more shades with each listen, and while grasping all facets of reality may not be achievable, Le jour et la nuit du réel expresses Colleen's truth brilliantly.

Depth and dimension rule the turbulent group improv in "Were You There" before the album closes on a tender, reverent read of "Precious Lord," wherein in each player -- save for the frenetic Taylor -- engages in harmonic blues conversation. Here, the Red Lily Quintet underscores Jackson's import as a visionary and prophet. The approach to her music combines those qualities of the historic past with the power and drama of contemporary life with all its victories and struggles.

Personal and grand at the same time, Again's mixtape of memories continues Lopatin's enduring brilliance at moving forward by looking back.

He's explicitly treating country music as a genre that evolves, one that can encompass all manners of stories by building upon what's already been laid at the foundation. With its empathetic heart and kinetic kick, Rustin' in the Rain illustrates how vibrant and vital that idea can be.

It's ambient music at its absolute best, providing a space that the listener can be enveloped in completely just as easily as they can drift away from it without noticing.

Something to Give Each Other succeeds because Sivan has been freed: to be who he wants to be and express that through his most engaging and addictive album to date.

Joni Mitchell's powers as a songwriter and creative spirit are unparalleled at every step of her journey, but her output in the '70s was on a higher plane, even for her. Archives, Vol. 3 reflects this with behind-the-scenes material just as storied and worthy as the music that Mitchell was making during one of her finest hours.

While this is far less downcast, the joy, wonderment, and fond reminiscences in the songs are complicated by worry, uncertainty, and longing.

Twenty years after the release of Keep on Your Mean Side -- a time when many acts consolidate their sound into something safe and reliable -- Mosshart and Hince are still at the top of their game.

Fleshed out by these extra tracks, 1989 [Taylor's Version] confirms the lasting strength that Swift's songwriting was achieving in this one of many blooms, and serves as a lovely reminder of when she officially stepped into her place in the pop culture continuum.

There's a marked feeling of newfound ease that flows through The Comeback Kid. The always unstable elements that make up Stern's sound are still potent and volatile, but gone is any dread or confusion that may have pushed her music forward in the past, replaced by a sense of triumph and euphoric self-acceptance.

It's not entirely the same rowdy, lascivious joyriding that made up some of his celebrated early work, but the album's fearless expression of a full emotional spectrum makes it remarkable and at times shatteringly beautiful.

What makes I/O unique, even special, is that the process of searching isn't central to the finished product. There's no restlessness here, only acceptance, a quality that gives I/O a quiet power that can't help but build over time.

On Orquídeas, Uchis remains true to herself by restlessly expanding her music's stylistic reach, embracing the past as instructor to the present. It is as aesthetically appealing as it is musically adventurous.

Hopeful in a deeply honest way, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She chronicles an evolution that brings out the best, most adventurous aspects of Wolfe's music.

Despite its thorny history, this is an exhilarating portrait of the band's shift from their no wave beginnings to the more complex and melodic style that defined their later work.

The result is indie rock, and Omni, at their 100% best and most exhilarating.

Underneath the burnished surface, the album is every bit as vital as its predecessors, examining situations fraught with private and political pitfalls.

This is Real Estate at their best, giving us the same bright and bittersweet indie perfection as always, only better with age and experience.

A revelatory experience that's somehow been hidden within her all these years, Girl with No Face is a bold reclamation of artistic self from a thrilling pop auteur.