These Are the Best Albums of 2023

It's that time of year when the "best of" lists emerge, and Jon Pareles, the longtime chief pop-music critic for the New York Times, offers up his own for best albums of 2023. "It was a year when many of the best songs came from looking inward: at tricky relationships, at memories, at individual hopes and fears," he writes. At the top of Pareles' list: SOS by SZA, who he says "makes her insights sound as natural as if she'd just thought of them on the spot." Others that make his top 10:

1. SOS, SZA
2. Manana Sera Bonito, Karol G
3. The Record, boygenius
4. Seven Psalms, Paul Simon
5. Guts, Olivia Rodrigo
6. Multitudes, Feist
7. Fuse, Everything but the Girl
8. Quaranta, Danny Brown
9. Rabbit Rabbit, Speedy Ortiz
10. Love in Exile, Vijay Iyer, Arooj Aftab, and Shahzad Ismaily

See more recommended albums from other Times writers here.