We’re halfway through the year and sharing our favorite albums of 2023 thus far! Here’s Gus’ list of current favs.
Water From Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed
Indigo De Souza – All of This Will End
Black Belt Eagle Scout – The Land, The Water, The Sky
Genesis Owusu – Struggler
Tinariwen – Amatssou
Tim Hecker – No Highs
Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760
Yaeji – With a Hammer
George Clanton – Ooh Rap I Ya
Flume – Arrived Anxious, Left Bored
We’re halfway through the year and sharing our favorite albums of 2023 thus far! Here’s Lukas’ list of current favs.
Flatbush Zombies – BetterOffDEAD (10th anniversary, first time on DSPs and physical)
Zombie Juice – Love Without Conditions
JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown – Scaring the Hoes + DLC Pack EP
$uicideboy$ – Yin Yang Tapes
AKTHESAVIOR – Tracing Patterns (Deluxe)
We’re halfway through the year and sharing our favorite albums of 2023 thus far! Here’s John O‘s list of current favs, plus a few words about each pick.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the past, as people my age are wont to do, listening for specific instances of past feelings, and evocations of past times brought on by the music. For our job here in music retail, we are compelled to concentrate on the latest and greatest things coming out today. It’s a challenge to balance, especially when the new stuff is a direct reimagining (rehash?) of what came before. Frankly, THIS is nothing new. Sounds, words, music have been imitated, mutilated, revised, rearranged, re-everything, for as long as humans have been getting together to jam. Of course, recorded music has changed the game, and a century and a half of time is a mere blip on the scale, but the only thing you have is today, and how you want to spend it. Nothing is forever, not even you.
Sleaford Mods – UK Grim
If having an English man harangue you over loops and sounds is your thing, the Mods are the thing. It’s certainly my thing. They are a real band, and have gotten up the noses of people who have a very defined version of what a band should be. The onslaught of outraged punters complaining about their recent Wembley Stadium set, opening for Blur, inspired great amusement amongst the fanbase, and the band as well. Jason Williamson’s lyrics and tunes (yes, they are tunes), combined with the simple, yet confoundingly complex musical backings of Andrew Fearn are endlessly inventive, and always surprising. They have a sensibility that states: This is who we are, this is what we do, and we will do it as long as we are interested. It’s not for everyone. Nothing is for everyone.
Billy Nomates – Cacti
This record also redefines what being a performer means these days. Nomates is a great singer, a huge voice applied to personal concerns, like what it means to connect. Electronic backings and songscapes compel forward motion that hearkens back to the dance club and the bedroom. “Blue bones (death wish)” is my favorite song of the year, up there with the best work of Annie Lennox and Heaven 17.
SDH (Semiotics Department Of Heteronyms) – Fake Is Real
Forward propulsion, synths, whispered not screamed, SDH charts a course between the club and the darkness outside, trying to find meaning and discovering that it doesn’t matter at all. For all intents and purposes, fake is real, and modern life is a continuum of distractions. The music, again, reminds me of the disco club music I listened to when I was young enough to be admitted to the clubs, to find connection, and to lose myself. This is their second album, preceded by a few EPs and endless remixes. As is the norm for this genre, whatever it is.
I’m sure there are precedents for each of the artists I’ve listed. I don’t think I care. I know that there are people doing similar things, that did it first, that you may or may not like better. It doesn’t matter. What matters is: Does it reach you? Does it sound good to you? Does it add light (or darkness) to your life? As the well worn trope says: Good artists borrow, great artists steal.
Dirt Russell – Outside Dogs
Hondo and Angela also take the idea of what a band is and smash it on the ground. They fold, spindle and mutilate the heavy sound into something that is all their own. An incredible record from start to finish. Very compelling live band, who sound like a multitude on stage.
Amber Arcades – Barefoot On Diamond Road
Dreamy pop with electronics and orchestra, textures and longing. It also is deferential to the past, and yet not precious about it. It sounds like real people, singing about real things, and is flat out gorgeous to listen to with the lights out.
There is more. There is always more. The new Youth Lagoon is Trevor’s best work, a solo album that contains the joy of rediscovery, of purpose, and reconnecting with your past and coming to a reckoning with your future. Hannah Jadagu is an artist with a viewpoint, and is already great, and will become greater as she proceeds, learning and progressing. Aperture is a great pop confection, guitar and vocal driven. “Say It Now” is a great song. The DEBBY FRIDAY record, GOOD LUCK, mixes harsh electronics with laid back beats and forward motion, depending on the track. Really solid from beginning to end. Treefort 2023 brought several people into my musical orbit: Hannah Jadagu, Causeway, Sun Atoms, Bike. Oh my god, BIKE! Their new album would definitely be on my list if we had any to sell. Regardless, it’s out there. Listen to Arte Bruta. It’s streaming everywhere. Motorik filtered through a Brazilian worldview. No comparisons do them justice. Go see them. Go see Oruã, also from Brazil. They are in a constant state of reinvention. Thank you to Doug for bringing them into our orbit. And I keep hearing things from 2022 that I missed. Confidence Man, Sofie Royer, Ari Lennox, Grace Ives. Got to keep the ears open. Although I hear things from the past that I missed ALL THE TIME!! Does that make it new again? Hey, I’m just asking questions!
The kids that work for us play things in the store that I at least find interesting, even if I don’t buy all of it. It’s inspiring to peek at their journey, and I try not to be all “been there, done that” with them because, even though I’m here now, and standing right next to them, they have different circumstances that they have come from. My only function is to stand as a cautionary tale about how to get to now. Which is all I’ve ever been interested in. It’s all we have.
Thank you to all the people who have shared things with me, however unwittingly. The customers, my coworkers, the hosts of my favorite radio programs, the bloggers and my friends. I am indebted to you all.
P.S. There is more out there for you than you think. Be open.
We’re halfway through the year and sharing our favorite albums of 2023 thus far! Here’s Jade‘s list of current favs.
Rebecca Black – Let Her Burn
Yves Tumor – Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
Temples – Exotico
Mac DeMarco – Five Easy Hot Dogs
Shinee – HARD
We’re halfway through the year and sharing our favorite albums of 2023 thus far! Here’s Chad‘s list of current favs, plus a few words about each pick.
Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World
I’ve been a fan dating back to the late ’90s, and This Stupid World is easily my favorite Yo La Tengo album since 2003’s Summer Sun. That’s the subjective listener in me talking, but even the objective listener wouldn’t hesitate to say it’s also their best album of the past 20 years. Opener “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” is YLT in indie rock jamband mode, riding a mid-tempo Krautrock groove for 7 1/2 minutes and overlaying it with colorful guitar squall. The autumnal jingle-jangle of “Fallout” recalls fan favorites from Electr-O-Pura and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. The country-folk ballad “Aselestine” is a gorgeous slice of cosmic American music and a showcase for the understated beauty of Georgia Hubley’s Gilberto-esque vocals. If you have a chance to see them on tour, don’t pass it up. They’re celebrating 40 years as a band in 2023, and their shows masterfully blend the past and present while allowing space for whimsy, humor and at least one epic display of Ira Kaplan’s guitar heroics.
Constant Smiles – Kenneth Anger
I’ve gravitated toward synth-pop in my 30s and 40s far more than I did in my younger days, in particular emotional synth-pop laced with post-punk or goth influences. Kenneth Anger hits me in the same indiscernible melancholic way that Nation of Language’s A Way Forward did following their incredible 2022 Treefort set. It’s a yearning album built for soundtracking private moments of desolation or the dance floor of your mind – and sometimes both.
Winter – What Kind of Blue Are You?
Released digitally in October 2022, What Kind of Blue Are You? hit The Record Exchange shelves in January on vinyl and CD. Samira Winter describes her sound as “star-projecting music,” a much better term than “dream-pop,” “shoegaze” or any other well-worn signifier applied to her first two albums. That said, signifiers are useful entryways for discovery, and Winter herself has cited influences ranging from My Bloody Valentine to The Sundays. In addition to Winter’s touchpoints, there are echoes of Juliana Hatfield, Belly and early Smashing Pumpkins throughout this shimmering beauty of an album, which should resonate deeply with fans of ’90s underground guitar rock. I’m even more bummed I missed her 2023 Treefort set after immersing myself in this album over the summer. Hopefully Boise will host her again soon.
Everything But the Girl – Fuse
In 2017, Slowdive released their first album since 1995’s Pygamalion, and fans and critics alike were stunned by how well it complemented the first three records – they picked up right where they left off after 22 years, a bona fide miracle in a world of fossilized (and failed) comeback attempts. The most remarkable thing about the self-titled album was it sounded like vintage Slowdive yet effortlessly contemporary, and lo and behold, there’s a follow-up record coming in September. All of which is to say, Everything But the Girl’s Fuse, released 24 years after their last album (1999’s Temperamental), is an equal triumph. From 1994 to 1999, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn redefined electronic pop music with a stunning string of albums infused with house music, trip-hop and drum ‘n’ bass textures, then they put EBTG on extended hiatus to explore other projects. It seems especially difficult in the electronic realm to stay true to a sound while staying current, but on Fuse, Everything But the Girl contemporize without compromise, and Thorn’s voice, further colored by the passage of time, is even more arresting than it was on all those ’90s club hits. And of course the Fuse remixes, particularly those of lead single “Nothing Left to Lose,” are incredible.
Marshall Watson – Foothills
This five-track EP from one-half of Boise synthwave pop duo Causeway (Italians Do It Better) occupies a different corner of the electronic music universe, exploring (mostly) instrumental terrain that fans of metaphysical downtempo from the likes of Tycho and Bonobo will savor. True to the EP’s title, this short-but-sweet release evokes a polychromatic summer sunset descending behind the sage-scented hills. The limited vinyl pressing, released through Spanish label NuNorthern Soul, is nearly sold out everywhere, but we still have a couple left (for now).