Cambridge Audio's Albums of the Year

After 24 years Ben and Tracey are back like they never left. Although so different to Missing and the Todd Terry mix I loooove, this has a great quality I am enjoying immensely.

I’m a huge Sufjan Stevens fan, so I might be a little biased, but I feel confident in saying this is his masterpiece. A heartbreaking, meaningful work that is the culmination of Sufjan’s entire discography. A mix of electronic and acoustic sounds make for an album that sounds like no other. Truly one of the greatest albums to be released in my lifetime. 

The whole album has so much power and rhythm that you immediately get in a good mood! Every track is bursting with creativity and there are still new lyrics to discover even after the tenth play.

It's probably a very German thing, I remember Adriano Celentano from my childhood, my mum used to listen to him all the time, you'd never expect to hear his voice on a Peter Fox album.

The hybrid style of bouzouki and vocoder vocals is just splendid!

Goes from Gunship's established sublime synthwave to bonkers trance, with geek references galore and some outstanding collaborations. And lyrics like "I can't be killed with conventional weaponry". Unlike anything else I've heard this year.

What would happen if Vangelis produced a grime album? The answer is CASISDEAD's dystopian epic, 'Famous Last Words'. It's like stepping into a time machine and returning to the '80s with big influences from Bladerunner, David Bowie, Kate Bush, The Terminator, Tangerine Deam, Mtume and Miami Vice, all laced with CASISDEAD's raw and uncompromising storytelling. It's easily one of the most creative albums to come out of the UK this year, with XL Recordings stamp of approval.

What may sound like a brutal sonic panic attack for me is my album of the year. Having never really been into techno before this year, I went into the deep end and found Brutalismus 3000's quite frankly crazy Boiler Room set. Victoria Vassiliki Dalda's punk-like German/Slovak vocals mixed with breakbeat and techno-influenced instruments from Theo Zeitner have opened a new door for my music tastes.

This album was written, performed & produced by one young guy - independently.
An amazing musician, troubadour and storyteller. The album went to number one in the album charts recently and contains more than one masterpiece.

I was lucky enough to see Hozier playing at the Piece Hall in Halifax earlier this year. Easily one of the best gigs I've ever been to - it was threatening to rain (the venue is outside) but when Hozier came on stage, the clouds parted and lit up the space in golden evening sunshine. This album always brings me straight back there.

Superb dancefloor bangers with Italian house piano and super-funky basslines. Put simply, this is pure disco heaven and anyone who doesn't like disco has no soul. I have spoken.

Brilliant soulful groove, back to a 70s sound with 3 strong female vocals that perfectly compliment each other.

Hit me out of nowhere in a search for an album I connected with for 2023. In a year of in my opinion, brash experimental music or lackluster pop. Hot Mulligan stood out as a shining beacon, with a great combination of Pop/Punk vibes, strong production, with a sprinkling of 2000s Emo.

For a band known for their bleak lyricism, it's ironic that the title of their most hopeful album yet is called 'No Joy', especially when frontman Dylan Slocum's painstakingly honest lyrics are now tempered with the glimmer of a silver lining that has been absent in previous albums.
 

It's a world-weary call to arms about perseverance, it's joy as an act of resistance, it's punk rock for those who can't hang out at the dive bar all night anymore because there are bills to pay and they're just trying to keep their head above water, and it's imperfectly perfect.

This album commands attention! Background, wallpaper music, it is not. She absolutely shreds on guitar, and everything about it is lightning fast, with a high-octane voice to match. I love this record because listening to it is a similar feeling to when I do a cold plunge in the 10-degree Celsius waters of Puget Sound!

"Freedom Legacy" is a big sigh of relief after the coronavirus restrictions. The album wants to be shouted out. It's banging, eloquent, penetrating, free of moulds, full of gratitude and joie de vivre.

Individually, I was already a fan of Lucy Dacus (I picked Home Video as my AOTY in 2021), Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers - and with Boygenius, the trio became more than the sum of their total parts. The lyricism is an introspective delight, with emotion and intimacy that invites you on the journey with them.

It topped my Apple Music Replay as my most-played album (pipping the Barbie OST to the post) - and I still can't get enough of it