It was a year of avant-rap, sex-positive R&B, polyrhythmic jazz and hyper-punk pop – plus Lana Del Rey’s glossy meditations on death and loss
Read the Observer critics’ review of 2023 in full
1. Billy Woods and Kenny Segal: Maps
Backwoodz Studioz; May
Leftfield New York rapper Billy Woods released a pair of superb collaborative albums this year: Maps, with producer Kenny Segal, and We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, as half of Armand Hammer. Of two very different records, both anchored by this caustic sophisticate’s free associating, Maps edges it for its sly, deadpan take on a dissociative life in motion.
2. CMAT: Crazymad, for Me
AWAL; October