Kylie, Jen Cloher, Troye Sivan and others: the 17 best Australian albums of 2023
From queer ecstasy to award-winning post-punk, here are our critics’ favourite releases of the year
The 10 best global albums of 2023
Dragonchild delivered a genre-hopping debut, Thandi Ntuli collaborated with Carlos Niño on a stripped back, joyous record and Titanic conjured visionary free-improv chamber pop
The 50 best albums of 2023
Lankum’s roaring reworking of Irish folk stunned, there was unprecedented invention from Young Fathers and Caroline Polachek offered an oblique angle on pop in our critics picks of the year
The 50 best albums of 2023, No 7 – Yaeji: With a Hammer
The Korean-American producer renovated the club sounds that made her name into a powerful, fierce record of pandemic identity reckoning
‘We’re on TikTok? What’s TikTok?’ The forgotten bands going supersonic thanks to gen Z
Ageing acts that can’t even get radio time are going viral – and finding themselves playing arenas or even soundtracking Ukrainian resistance. But how do you follow up a hit no one can explain?
‘Like brushing my teeth’: how Michiru Aoyama writes, records and releases an album every day
For two years, the Kyoto musician has risen at five, watched football, then made an eight-track album of super-deep ambient music – while fitting in a two-hour walk. And 200,000 fans are listening
The 20 best songs of 2023
Voted on by over 30 Guardian music writers, we celebrate the year’s best tracks from Boygenius to Blur and beyond
‘Euphoric’, ‘opalescent’, ‘perfect pop confection’: Australia’s best new music for December
Each month our critics pick 20 new songs for our Spotify playlist. Read about 10 of our favourites here, including Thelma Plum, The Native Cats and Holiday Sidewinder
Love Minus Zero: L’Ecstasy review – Tiga and Hudson Mohawke unite on a high
The Canadian and Scottish producers’ on-off partnership comes to fruition on this aptly titled, category-defying clubland set
Harp: Albion review – former Midlake frontman traipses through twilight
Tim Smith’s first album with Kathi Zung takes inspiration from William Blake and the Cure to create a landscape of 80s reverb and ghostly vocals
‘Mick Jagger was surprisingly hard-working’: the all-star life of synth whiz Wally Badarou
His reputation for futurist pop got him work with everyone from Grace Jones and Talking Heads to Foreigner – now the French keyboardist is reissuing a soundtrack for a yoga DVD that became a Balearic classic
One to watch: Montañera
The London-based Colombian singer-songwriter and composer travels through space, time and genres with her trusty Korg synthesiser
Vince Clarke: Songs of Silence review – Covid anxiety fills synthpop star’s debut solo album
Stuck in his studio during lockdown, Clarke recorded this portentous album of wordless, minimalist intrumentals – a soundtrack of dread
Celia Hollander: 2nd Draft review – turns a piano into a new sound world
Hollander’s works sound simple but are incredibly detailed and multi-layered, her treated piano solos evoking wind, rain and air
‘If it doesn’t smell like funk, something’s wrong with your recipe’: Brazilian baile funk goes global, again
Four decades after it originated in the favelas of Rio, a new wave of the electronic music genre is exploding on TikTok, and inspiring the likes of Cardi B and Travis Scott