His first, Your Hero Is Not Dead (2020), is sublime, too. It’s been my favourite new album (alongside Rudy De Anda’s Tender Epoch) of the last few years. It’s title track apparently written in response to the news Mark Hollis had died.
Of the two Westerman LPs, this is my absolute favourite.
Two more to add to favourite albums this year:
Lana del Rey, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
Summer Walker, Clear 2: Soft Life
There are no doubt more, which highlights the futulity of any “best of” poll.
Guess I better get my top 10 in early next week… just working on that final list, but for sure Green Lung : This Heathen Land will be on it. Its a stormer of an album, one of todays Bandcamp downloads
Aye, now it’s at least December I’ll give it some consideration also.
Golden Dregs - On Grace & Dignity
Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy
Black Country New Road - Live at Bush Hall
Boygenius - The Record
The Smile - Europe: Live Recordings
Ezra Collective - Where I’m meant to be
Squid - O Monolith
Public Service Broadcasting - This New Noise
Richard Hawley - Now Then
Sleaford Mods - UK Grim
B C Camplight - The Last Rotation of Earth
James Yorkston - The Great White Sea Eagle
Favourite? Richard Hawley, obvs.
The real joy of this forum for me is finding older albums/artists that I have not come across before, such a depth of knowledge on here. That said, I have enjoyed:
Hackney Diamonds - Rolling Stones
Hit Parade - Roisin Murphy
Keep Your Courage - Natalie Merchant
Love & Life - Chip Wickham (ok, it’s an EP)
Ridin’ - Eric Bibb
An Ever Changing View - Matthew Halsall
As to best album overall, to quote Sean Connery, “there can only be one”:
Surely that’s quoting the Kurgan… 
Appears that 2023 was mostly a year of new ‘old’ music for me when I went through the list. If I have to choose a contender it would be Memento Mori by Depeche Mode.
That’s “there can be only one”.
Stonking year for reissues but plenty of new stuff too. My faves
Dhafer Youssef - Street of Minarets
Chris Potter - Keys to the Kingdom
London Brew -London Brew
Irreversible Entanglements - Protect Your Light
Idris Ackamoor - Afro Futuristic Dreams
Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die³
But top of the tree is an absolute blast of Scandi Big Band jazz with a smidge of humour
Fire! Orchestra - Echoes
Big up for Jaimie B, Irreversible and Fire! Orch. 
I’ll have to give London Brew another listen and catch up on the latest Idris…
Ok. Here are my top 10 faves released this year. To make the list I either bought the vinyl or a FLAC download so neither Hawkwind or the Ozrics made it as I just have way too much of both of them to buy another one (on vinyl anyway). One or two of these should be familiar to some but as I don’t see a lot of metal on here I guess a few will be unknown. In alphabetical order
If I had to pick just one. Green Lung : This Heathen Land. A brilliant album with a british folklore theme.
All told I thought 2023 was a great year for metal, stoner, prog rock and prog metal but nothing really grabbed me from a blues rock or an americana/country rock perspective (Jason Isbells Weathervanes was decent).
I realize “metal” isn’t everyone cup of tea but the curious might find the odd one here that hits a chord (so to speak).
G
Love that you wrote that. I’m not a metal head but I’ve a keen dislike of people who dismiss entire genres and miss out on so much unexpectedly great stuff in consequence. Have added all those to Qobuz faves and that’s the next week sorted. Absolutely don’t expect to like all of them. Possibly not any of them but like much other stuff posted here it’s so easy nowadays to go listen so why not.
You are welcome, and I’ll be honest, I have tried a lot of stuff folks post on the “what are you listening to and why” thread, some I like, some I really like and try and track down (I can’t remember who posted Jon Latham but I would never have come across those albums and ended up buying both from Bandcamp) and there are some that I can barely get halfway through one song, but its all good.
Hopefully something on there might appeal, even if it is just enough to get a second Qobuz spin
I’ve got your choice #1 Fire Down Below marked for playing later today. Cheers. 
GraemeBC
Thanks. This thread’s purpose is to help others find new music, the ‘what are you listening…’ one just doesn’t do that for me. I love an occasional noisy session; Deafheaven did that for me a year or so ago, maybe I will find something in your list this year.
I also love the delineation of all these sub-genre now, especially in metal etc. I seem to have listened to a fair bit of post-rock, or post-punk this year. I wonder what comes next? 
Bruce
Whoops! Never was much of a detail freak.
Another submission:- “Summer Moon” by There Will be Fireworks. Scottish indie guitar rock.
