Chosen from our weekly selections of album releases, reviews and profiles, the 50 albums we offer are not a ranking of the year's "best," but rather a reflection of our enthusiasm for all styles of music: classical, contemporary, jazz, pop, rock, so-called 'world music,' rap, electro, chanson.

Stéphanie Binet's selection

1. The Age of Pleasure, by Janelle Monáe (Wondaland Productions/Warner Music)

2. Let's Start Here, by Lil Yachty (Quality Control Music/Motown Records)

3. Michael, by Killer Mike (VLNS/Loma Vista Recordings/Concord)

4. Diamont du bled, by Zola (Truth Records/AWA/Sony Music)

5. Black Classical Music, by Yussef Dayes (YD Music Limited/Brownswood Music)

It's no easy task this year to choose five records that stand out from the crowd, given how productive French and American rap and R'n'B were once again. Highly anticipated albums such as Travis Scott's Utopia, released in August, and Drake's For All the Dogs were disappointing, each in its own way. The king of Atlanta trap wanted to be too dark, while the Canadian, by repeating himself, no longer arouses any emotion. Singer and actress Janelle Monáe, on the other hand, released a sunny, luminous album that borrows as much from reggae as from Nigerian music, with Fela Kuti's son Seun on several tracks.

Celebrating bodies, she irradiates listeners with her good humor and confident, feminist activism. Meanwhile, rapper Lil Yachty abandons his bad-boy ways and pulls off a soulful, psychedelic-rock turn with his surprising Let's Start Here, while Killer Mike shines with his autobiographical Michael, remaining true to himself: precise, relevant and terribly funky. In France, rappers like Hamza and Gazo continue to rack up the hits, but it's Zola, with his inventive and wickedly dirty rap, who is our favorite. To round off this feel-good selection, nothing beats the Black classical music of English neo-jazzman Yussef Dayes.

Franck Colombani's selection

1. Sit Down for Dinner, by Blonde Redhead (Section 1/Partisan)

2. The Ballad of Darren, by Blur (Parlophone/Warner Music)

3. Space Heavy, by King Krule (XL Recordings/Wagram)

4. the record, by boygenius (Polydor-Interscope/Universal Music)

5. Everything Harmony, by The Lemon Twigs (Captured Tracks/Modulor)

2023 was a gourmet year for music, thanks to Blonde Redhead, who invited us to her table with the tasty Sit Down for Dinner, after almost 10 years of phonographic frugality. The double winner of the year is undoubtedly the dashing 50-something Damon Albarn, both with Blur and its classy The Ballad of Darren, and with the hybrid creature Gorillaz, tamed to synthpop on the addictive Cracker Island. Meanwhile, his fellow Englishman Archy Ivan Marshall, aka King Krule, deepens his singular urban melancholy on his fifth album, Space Heavy.

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