A conservative estimate places the number of full-length albums released in the past calendar year at roughly 13,000. This means, at the very least, that the idea of a definitive list of the year’s best music, as if anyone could ever meaningfully listen to a significant fraction of such a huge and unruly accumulation of records, much less attempt to confine it within even the loosest narrative, is pure folly.
And yet, to borrow a phrase from an artist who appears nowhere on this list, look what you made us do!
What is the current state of music? SUPERABUNDANT. And though there is no longer a mass audience to receive and share it, there are many, many small audience-lets that operate like isolated nation-states of community, many of which have never heard of one another. (This reflects our geopolitical and interpersonal reality as well, and yes, it’s the internet’s fault, and no, let’s not talk about it.)