Are these the 50 best rock albums of 2023?
The album is having a rough time of late. Streaming is turning many people away from listening to whole albums and directing them to playlists filled with individual songs. But the album is still the thing that creates structure for much of the recorded music industry as well as millions of artists.
in all honesty, though, I’ll bet that I’ve bought/saved/listened to less than 30 full albums all this year and that definitely makes me a bad person. I need to up my game and get back to the way I used to listen to these carefully created and curated works of art. That’s why I’m grateful to magazines like Classic Rock who put out lists like this. So many managed to slip past me.
Here are their picks for the top 50 rock albums of 2023. I have heard about a third of these all the way through. Now I know what I’m doing over the Christmas break. (I’ve put my favourite in bold.)
50. Paul Rodgers – Midnight Ride
49. Green Lung – This Heathen Land
48. The Defiants – Drive
47. Brothers Osborne – Brothers Osbourne
46. Ann Wilson & Tripsitter – Another Door
45. DeWolff – Love, Death & In Between
44. Black Spiders – Can’t Die, Won’t Die
43. Royal Thunder – Rebuilding The Mountain
42. Yes – Mirror In The Sky
41. Jethro Tull – Rockflote
40. Vega – Battlelines
39. Grace Potter – Mother Road
38. Starbender – Take Back The Night
37. Peter Gabriel – i/o
36. The Inspectotr Cluzo – Horizon
35. The Cold Stares – Voices
34. Maneskin – Rush
33. Black Stone Cherry – Screamin’ At The Sky
32. The Hives – The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons
31. Def Leppard – Drastic Symphonies
30. The Answer – Sundowners
29. Alice Cooper – Road
28. Geese – 3D Country
27. Uriah Heep – Chaos & Colour
26. Joe Bonamassa – Blues Deluxe Vol 2
25. Creeper – Sanguivore
24. Extreme – Six
23. Duff McKagan – Lighthouse
22. Sparks – The Girl Is Crying For Her Latte
21. Avenged Sevenfold – Life Is But A Dream
20. Wytch Hazel – IV: Sacrament
19. The Damned – Darkadelic
18. Those Damn Crows – Inhale/Exhale
17. Danko Jones – Electric Sounds (Canadian!)
16. Ayron Jones – Chronicles Of The Kid
15. The Cadillac Three – The Years Go Fast
14. Great Van Fleet – Starcatcher
13. Rival Sons – Darkfighter
12. Crowne Lands – Fearless (Canadian!)
11. Iggy Pop – Every Loser
10. The Pretenders – Relentless
9. Skindred – Smile
8. Mammoth WVH – Mammoth II
7. Queens Of The Stone Age – In Times New Roman
6. The Struts – Pretty Vicious
5. Steven Wilson – The Harmony Codex
4. Ian Hunter – Defiance Part I
3. Foo Fighers – But Here We Are
2. Metallica – 72 Seasons
1. The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds
Awesome list – a few I’ve never heard of, some artists I know that I didn’t realize had put out a new album. Have my listening cut out for me – thanks Alan and team!
Of the top 10 I would have easily guessed 1,2,3,6,7 (not necessarily in that order) followed by 11,12,32… and then a few not on this list.