2023 Power Rankings

Albums

Ranked albums of 2023 as rated by the committee of one.

RANK	ARTIST	ALBUM	GENRE	POWER INDEX	RATING
1	Leith Ross	To Learn	Indie Chamber Rock	82. 0
2	Janelle Monáe	The Age Of Pleasure	Pop	81. 4
3	The Paper Kites	At The Roadhouse	Folk Singer	79. 0
4	Bombay Bicycle Club	My Big Day	Indie Pop/Rock	78. 6
5	CMAT	Crazymad, For Me	Indie Poptimism	78. 3
6	Blondshell	Blondshell	Bedroom Pop	78. 2
7	KAMAUU	LACUNA In The House Of Mirrors	Hip-Hop	78. 0
8	bdrmm	I Don't Know	Art Rock	77. 9
9	Khamari	A Brief Nirvana	R&B	77. 8
10	Olivia Rodrigo	GUTS	Pop	75. 7
T11	Chiiild	Better Luck In The Next Life	Alternative R&B	75. 2
T11	Miya Folick	ROACH	Indie Poptimism	75. 2
T13	Fall Out Boy	So Much (For) Stardust	Emo-Pop	74. 7
T13	Nightly	wear your heart out	Indie Anthem Power Pop	74. 7
T15	Julie Byrne	The Greater Wings	Indie Folk	73. 8
T15	The Maine	The Maine	Indie Anthem Power Pop	73. 8
17	The Tallest Man On Earth	Henry St.	Folk Singer	73. 6
18	Lanterns On The Lake	Versions Of Us	Dream Pop	73. 3
19	The Japanese House	In The End It Always Does	Indie Pop	72. 3
T20	City And Colour	The Love Still Held Me Near	Mellow Alternative	72. 2
T20	Caroline Polachek	Desire, I Want To Turn Into You	Indie Poptimism	72. 2
T20	Temples	Exotico	Neo-Psychedelic	72. 2
23	Shallou	In Touch	Chillbeat	72. 0
24	Indigo De Souza	All Of This Will End	Alternative	71. 3
25	Hozier	Unreal Unearth	Singer/Songwriter	71. 0
T26	Maple Glider	I Get Into Trouble	Indie Folk	70. 8
T26	Jessie Ware	That! Feels Good!	Pop	70. 8
T28	Daughter	Stereo Mind Game	Dream Pop	70. 6
T28	A Beacon School	yoyo	Lo-Fi Indie	70. 6
T28	Troye Sivan	Something To Give Each Other	Pop	70. 6
T31	Billie Marten	Drop Cherries	Indie Chamber Rock	70. 3
T31	Daniel Caesar	NEVER ENOUGH	Alternative R&B	70. 3
T33	Black Belt Eagle Scout	The Land, The Water, The Sky	Indie Rock	69. 8
T33	TWO LANES	Duality	Electronic	69. 8
T33	Wye Oak	Every Day Like The Last: Collected Singles 2019-2023	Indie Chamber Rock	69. 8
T33	ANOHNI And The Johnsons	My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross	Alternative	69. 8
T33	Aluna	MYCELiUM	Dance	69. 8
38	Cleo Sol	Heaven	Neo-Soul	69. 7
39	Arlo Parks	My Soft Machine	Neo-Soul	69. 6
40	Cannons	Heartbeat Highway	Shimmer Pop	69. 5
41	Sampha	Lahai	Electro-R&B	69. 4
T42	Boy & Bear	Boy & Bear	Indie Pop/Rock	68. 8
T42	Runnner	Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out	Ambient Folk	68. 8
T42	The National	First Two Pages Of Frankenstein	Indie Chamber Rock	68. 8
T42	Art School Girlfriend	Soft Landing	Metropop	68. 8
T46	Unknown Mortal Orchestra	V	Alternative	68. 7
T46	Killer Mike	MICHAEL	Rap	68. 7
T48	Nothing But Thieves	Dead Club City	Post-Rock	68. 5
T48	EMBRZ	In Our Own Way	Dance	68. 5
T50	Bleach Lab	Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness	Indie Rock	67. 8
T50	Margo Price	Strays	Country	67. 8
T50	Squirrel Flower	Tomorrow's Fire	Indie Rock	67. 8
T50	SYML	The Day My Father Died	Alternative	67. 8
T50	Victoria Monét	JAGUAR II	Urban	67. 8
T50	Wild Nothing	Hold	Indie Pop	67. 8
56	Youth Lagoon	Heaven Is A Junkyard	Alternative	67. 5
57	A R I Z O N A	A R I Z O N A	Pop	67. 4
58	Jungle	Volcano	Alternative Dance	67. 3
T59	Gaz Coombes	Turn The Car Around	Alternative	66. 7
T59	Kylie Minogue	Tension	Pop	66. 7
T59	Local Natives	Time Will Wait For No One	Indie Pop/Rock	66. 7
T59	Romy	Mid Air	Pop	66. 7
T59	S. Carey & John Raymond	Shadowlands	Ambient Folk	66. 7
T59	Sufjan Stevens	Javelin	Alternative	66. 7
T65	boygenius	the record	Indie Chamber Rock	66. 3
T65	Noah Gundersen	If This Is The End	Mellow Alternative	66. 3
T65	Shana Cleveland	Manzanita	Indie Folk	66. 3
68	Jorja Smith	falling or flying	Contemporary R&B	66. 1
69	PVRIS	EVERGREEN	Post-Rock	65. 9
70	Laufey	Bewitched	Alternative	65. 6
71	Stephen Sanchez	Angel Face	Pop/Rock	65. 4
72	Travis Scott	UTOPIA	Trap Rap	65. 2
T73	Thomas Azier	The Inventory Of Our Desire	Art Pop	65. 0
T73	JOSEPH	The Sun	Folk-Rock	65. 0
T75	Complete Mountain Almanac	Complete Mountain Almanac	Baroque Folk	64. 9
T75	Dreamville & SiR	Creed III: The Soundtrack	Rap	64. 9
T75	The Kite String Tangle	Lustre	Dance	64. 9
T75	Vallis Alps	Cleave	Shimmer Pop	64. 9
T75	Gracie Abrams	Good Riddance	Singer/Songwriter	64. 9
80	Phoria	River Oblivion	Art Pop	64. 6
81	The National	Laugh Track	Indie Chamber Rock	64. 1
T82	Circa Waves	Never Going Under	Alternative Indie Rock	64. 0
T82	Explosions In the Sky	End	Atmospheric Rock	64. 0
T82	The Band CAMINO	The Dark	Pop	64. 0
T85	PinkPantheress	Heaven Knows	Indie Electronic	63. 8
T85	SG Lewis	AudioLust & HigherLove	Electronic	63. 8
T87	Jadu Heart	Derealised	Indie Pop	63. 6
T87	Helena Deland	Goodnight Summerland	Chamber Folk	63. 6
89	Say She She	Silver	Funk-Soul	63. 1
90	Logic	College Park	Rap	63. 0
91	Foam And Sand & Robot Koch	Foam And Sand	Ambient	62. 8
92	6LACK	Since I Have A Lover	Alternative R&B	62. 6
93	Kali Uchis	Red Moon In Venus	Neo-Soul	62. 1
T94	Roosevelt	Embrace	Electropop	62. 0
T94	Cleo Sol	Gold	Neo-Soul	62. 0
T94	Susanne Sundfør	Blómi	Alternative	62. 0
T94	Young Fathers	Heavy Heavy	Alternative	62. 0
T94	Cautious Clay	KARPEH	Alternative R&B	62. 0
T94	Jana Horn	The Window Is The Dream	Indie Folk	62. 0
T100	Eddie Chacon	Sundown	Alternative	61. 9
T100	Cory Hanson	Western Cum	Indie Folk	61. 9
102	Foo Fighters	But Here We Are	Rock	61. 5
103	Moon Taxi	Set Yourself Free	Indie Pop/Rock	61. 3
T104	Samia	Honey	Bedroom Pop	61. 2
T104	Róisín Murphy	Hit Parade	Experimental	61. 2
106	Mitski	The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We	Alternative	60. 7
107	RAYE	My 21st Century Blues	Pop	59. 8
T108	The Arcs	Electrophonic Chronic	Rock	59. 4
T108	The Murder Capital	Gigi's Recovery	Alternative	59. 4
T110	Carly Rae Jepsen	The Loveliest Time	Pop	59. 3
T110	Kota The Friend	Protea	Pop-Rap	59. 3
T112	Hello June	Artifacts	Folk-Rock	58. 9
T112	Yves Tumor	Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)	Alternative	58. 9
T112	Molly Burch	Daydreamer	Indie Poptimism	58. 9
115	Slowdive	everything is alive	Alternative	58. 1
116	Kelela	Raven	Alternative R&B	57. 8
117	Dave Matthews Band	Walk Around The Moon	Rock	57. 4
118	Patrick Droney	Subtitles For Feelings	Pop	57. 3
119	Joy Oladokun	Proof Of Life	Pop	57. 2
120	Kota The Friend & Statik Selektah	To See A Sunset	Rap	56. 8
121	Alberta Cross	Sinking Ships	Folk-Rock	56. 7
122	Claud	Supermodels	Alternative	56. 6
123	Caroline Rose	The Art Of Forgetting	Alternative	56. 1
124	Ruston Kelly	The Weakness	Pop	55. 9
125	Fever Ray	Radical Romantics	Alternative	55. 6
126	Noname	Sundial	Jazz Rap	55. 2
127	JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown	SCARING THE HOES	Alternative Hip-Hop	55. 1
T128	Lana Del Rey	Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd	Alternative	54. 4
T128	THEY.	Nü Moon	Urban	54. 4
T130	The Armed	Perfect Saviors	Post-Hardcore	53. 3
T130	Matt Berry	Simplicity	Original Score	53. 3
T130	Geese	3D Country	Art Rock	53. 3
133	LANY	a beautiful blur	Pop	53. 2
134	Team Me	Return To The Riverside	Indie Poptronica	53. 0
T135	Blur	The Ballad Of Darren	Alternative	52. 7
T135	Strange Ranger	Pure Music	Poptron	52. 7
137	Sigur Rós	ÁTTA	Ambient	52. 1
T138	Ryuichi Sakamoto	12	Classical	52. 0
T138	brotherkenzie	BLOODSUCKER	Alternative	52. 0
140	Colours In The Street	Let's Talk	Indie Anthem Power Pop	51. 5
141	Marc Scibilia	Mindy	Folk Singer	51. 4
142	Andy Shauf	Norm	Alternative	50. 8
143	Vacationer	Cherish	Neo-Psychedelia	50. 4
T144	Damien Jurado	Motorcycle Madness	Chamber Folk	49. 7
T144	Black Pumas	Chronicles Of A Diamond	Pop	49. 7
146	Wednesday	Rat Saw God	Rock	45. 6
147	Gabriels	Angels & Queens, Pt. 2	Alternative R&B	45. 4
148	Sofia Kourtesis	Madres	Electronic	45. 3
149	Corinne Bailey Rae	Black Rainbows	Art Pop	42. 6
150	Loscil & Lawrence English	Colours Of Air	Ambient	42. 5
151	Niia	Bobby Deerfield	Pop	42. 0
152	Laurel Halo	Atlas	Ambient	41. 9
153	James Blake	Playing Robots Into Heaven	Experimental	41. 3
154	slowthai	UGLY	Alternative	37. 2
155	Paramore	This Is Why	Rock	36. 2
156	Yaeji	With A Hammer	Experimental	34. 0
157	Jaimie Branch	Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((world war))	Experimental	30. 9
158	Smallpools	Cameras & Coastlines & Covers	Indie Anthem Power Pop	30. 5

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Spotify

The Fine Print

The aFIREintheattic Power Index formula is top secret… but here’s a frivolous hint since we like you: It’s sort of like a logarithmic function on the weighted mean of the committee’s song ratings, which is then standardized-ish and scaled from 0 to 100. Talk nerdy to me.
All songs on an album or EP are rated and contribute to its Power Index. As a result, releases that are cohesive and consistently good, with fewer filler tracks, will invariably score higher than those with only a handful of great songs and a bunch of throwaways. Here, a release cannot be greater than the sum of its parts. For rankings that take that phenomenon into account, look to the aFIREintheattic Awards at the end of each year.
Note that EPs can tend toward higher scores than albums because sometimes an EP is a precursor to a full album and that album will contain the songs from the EP but with the addition of filler tracks that drag the Power Index score down.
Albums with a Power Index of 80 or higher and EPs with a Power Index of 70 or higher are a solid bet for a top 10 finish. The two highest scoring albums of all-time are Radiohead’s Kid A at 100.0 and OK Computer at 99.9 and the highest scoring EPs are Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s Winter at 96.7 and James Bay’s The Dark Of The Morning at 94.7. And we’ll be forthright: they probably always will be.
If a release is in the power rankings but is not in the playlist above, it’s not available on Spotify. The playlist is made up of the most popular song from each album in order based on its current power ranking.

EPs

Ranked EPs of 2023 as rated by the committee of one.

RANK	ARTIST	EP	GENRE	POWER INDEX	RATING
1	Jaylon Ashaun	Epilogue	Urban	88. 4
2	Wesley Joseph	GLOW	Alternative Rap	84. 2
3	Utah	What A Memory	Chillbeat	79. 0
4	Forest Claudette	Everything Was Green	Alternative R&B	78. 6
5	Emmit Fenn	How To Fly On The Ground	Neo Mellow	73. 8
6	Biig Piig	Bubblegum	Alternative	71. 4
7	Dustin Tebbutt	Changeophelia	Ambient Folk	70. 8
8	Beach House	Become	Dream Pop	70. 2
9	Gia Margaret	Romantic Piano	Classical	69. 7
10	Julie Byrne & Laugh Cry Laugh	Julie Byrne With Laugh Cry Laugh	Shimmer Folk	69. 0
T11	Jaylon Ashaun	Nomad	Urban	67. 8
T11	Ólafur Arnalds	the world is finally quiet	Classical	67. 8
T13	Michigander	It Will Never Be The Same	Indie Rock	66. 7
T13	Wild Party	Get Up	Indie Pop/Rock	66. 7
T13	Celeste	Lately	Neo-Soul	66. 7
T13	Charli Adams	Nothing To Be Scared Of	Bedroom Pop	66. 7
T13	The Japanese House	ITEIAD Sessions	Indie Pop	66. 7
T18	Barrie	5K	Indie Pop	65. 3
T18	Hælos	Alarms	Poptron	65. 3
T18	Glades	Summer's For Lovers	Pop	65. 3
T18	The Antlers	Need Nothing	Dream Pop	65. 3
22	Ólafur Arnalds	trying to think of nothing	Classical	64. 0
T23	Austin Millz & Estelle	Breathwork	Pop	62. 2
T23	Bad Suns	Infinite Joy	Alternative Indie Rock	62. 2
25	Kota The Friend	Lyrics To GO, Vol. 4	Rap	62. 0
26	Tinashe	BB/ANG3L	Alternative R&B	60. 3
27	BLÜ EYES	The Last Songs I'll Write About You	Pop	59. 9
28	Liang Lawrence	letters to myself	Bedroom Pop	57. 4
T29	Astrid S	Felt Cute Might Delete Later	Pop	56. 6
T29	Bear's Den	White Magnolias	Folk-Rock	56. 6
T29	Rhye	Passing	Indie R&B	56. 6
32	Tep No	I Will Hold You	Tropical House	55. 5
T33	Damien Jurado	Sometimes You Hurt The Ones You Hate	Chamber Folk	54. 6
T33	Emotional Oranges	STILL EMO	Urban	54. 6
T33	HEARTAVI	Redstarr01	Indie Electronic	54. 6
36	Transviolet	Body	Pop	54. 1
37	Hippo Campus	Wasteland	Indie Pop	54. 0
38	Bear's Den	First Loves	Folk-Rock	49. 0
T39	Angel Olsen	Forever Means	Alternative	40. 8
T39	boygenius	the rest	Indie Chamber Rock	40. 8
T41	Kae Tempest	Nice Idea	Alternative Rap	40. 7
T41	Geese	4D Country	Art Rock	40. 7
43	Hand Habits	Sugar The Bruise	Indie Chamber Rock	35. 2
44	Kidnap	Tech Me Away	Tech House	0. 1

SCROLL →

Spotify

The Fine Print

The aFIREintheattic Power Index formula is top secret… but here’s a frivolous hint since we like you: It’s sort of like a logarithmic function on the weighted mean of the committee’s song ratings, which is then standardized-ish and scaled from 0 to 100. Talk nerdy to me.
All songs on an album or EP are rated and contribute to its Power Index. As a result, releases that are cohesive and consistently good, with fewer filler tracks, will invariably score higher than those with only a handful of great songs and a bunch of throwaways. Here, a release cannot be greater than the sum of its parts. For rankings that take that phenomenon into account, look to the aFIREintheattic Awards at the end of each year.
Note that EPs can tend toward higher scores than albums because sometimes an EP is a precursor to a full album and that album will contain the songs from the EP but with the addition of filler tracks that drag the Power Index score down.
Albums with a Power Index of 80 or higher and EPs with a Power Index of 70 or higher are a solid bet for a top 10 finish. The two highest scoring albums of all-time are Radiohead’s Kid A at 100.0 and OK Computer at 99.9 and the highest scoring EPs are Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s Winter at 96.7 and James Bay’s The Dark Of The Morning at 94.7. And we’ll be forthright: they probably always will be.
If a release is in the power rankings but is not in the playlist above, it’s not available on Spotify. The playlist is made up of the most popular song from each album in order based on its current power ranking.