If nothing else, the season of list-making is a good gut-check: After another breakneck year during which tens of thousands of new albums dropped, which ones are still capturing our imaginations, moving us to tears or giving us life?
When we put the question to NPR's listeners, respondents in our online poll picked a clear favorite for 2023: the debut album from boygenius called, simply, the record. No shade of course to all the other favorites, but the trio featuring Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus brought in more than twice the number of votes as the next closest contender, Sufjan Stevens' Javelin.
Below you'll see a list of the top 50, most-selected albums in our poll, ranked by number of votes. Our thanks to everyone who participated. Be sure to also check out NPR Music's favorite 50 albums of 2023, along with our best songs list and all the other coverage in our year-end package, including the Top 10 classical albums, our critics' roundtable deep-dive into the year's most notable albums and more.
2023 Listeners Poll results
1. boygenius: the record
2. Sufjan Stevens: Javelin
3. Caroline Polachek: Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
4. The National: Laugh Track
5. Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
6. Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS
7. Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
8. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Weathervanes
9. Hozier: Unreal Unearth
10. SZA: SOS
11. Janelle Monae: The Age of Pleasure
12. 100 gecs: 10,000 gecs
13. Bully: Lucky for You
14. Agust D: D-DAY
15. Wednesday: Rat Saw God
16. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown: SCARING THE HOES
17. Feist: Multitudes
18. Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good!
19. billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps
20. Paramore: This Is Why
21. Lankum: False Lankum
22. Joy Oladokun: Proof Of Life
23. Peter Gabriel: i/o
24. Sampha: Lahai
25. Troye Sivan: Something to Give Each Other
26. Zach Bryan: Zach Bryan
27. Blondshell: Blondshell
28. Noname: Sundial
29. Nickel Creek: Celebrants
30. Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
31. Youth Lagoon: Heaven Is a Junkyard
32. Foo Fighters: But Here We Are
33. Arlo Parks: My Soft Machine
34. Palehound: Eye On The Bat
35. Margo Price: Strays
36. Ratboys: The Window
37. Indigo De Souza: All of This Will End
38. Gorillaz: Cracker Island
39. Jess Williamson: Time Ain't Accidental
40. Miya Folick: Roach
41. Gia Margaret: Romantic Piano
42. Jeff Rosenstock: HELLMODE
43. Samia: Honey
44. Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark
45. Blur: The Ballad of Darren
46. Queens of the Stone Age: In Times New Roman...
47. Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers
48. Jenny Lewis: Joy'All
49. Laufey: Bewitched
50. Travis Scott: UTOPIA
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