SZA, “SOS” Technically, it came out at the tail end of 2022. But SZA does so many things so well on her instant classic of a second studio album.
Megan Moroney, “Lucky”
The year’s best country album laments what Moroney calls her “horrible taste in men” — a gag that gets only funnier as she keeps writing circles around them.
Olivia Rodrigo, “Guts”
The 20-year-old pop phenom is still mining the Gen Z melodrama that powered her overnight ascent. But the jokes on Rodrigo’s sophomore LP are sharper than on her debut — as are some of the hooks.
Boygenius, “The Record”
The trick of this indie-rock supergroup isn’t that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; it’s that the whole actually feels smaller — a deeply intimate mind meld with empathy in place of ego.
Lana Del Rey, “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd”
“If you want some basic bitch, go to the Beverly Center and find her,” Del Rey sings on her fourth LP in four years — one way to welcome listeners to a work of profound and haunting introspection.
Bob Dylan, “The Complete Budokan 1978”
Great year for fans of live Dylan. Cat Power re-created his so-called Royal Albert Hall gig from 1966 — the one where some dullard called him Judas for going electric — while the man himself was on the road playing unexpected covers and popping up unannounced at Farm Aid.
Kelsea Ballerini, “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat”
Another Nashville divorce album, this one from a gifted pop-country trouper high on honesty’s thrill.
Post Malone, “Austin”
On which our face-tattooed sad sack trades woozy rap beats for gleaming alt-rock guitars — then discovers that nirvana remains just out of reach.
Read the full chart list on The Los Angeles Times
