If Satomimagae got AOTY, Hovvdy deserved a mini-career retrospective after releasing True Love, another sweet and intimate album with an uncanny ear for simple, rapturous chord changes. They’re two guys from unsexy Dallas, they’re both married, to women no less, and they’ve released four albums of blissful slowcore guitar rock since 2017. “Around Again,” “Joy,” and “Blindsided” were this year’s favorite warm hugs from friends who feel what I feel.
Hubert Lenoir materialized from somewhere in francophone Canada to deliver a druggy, delirious mix of Marc Bolan, Michael Jackson, Chanson, and more on his PICTURA DE IPSE: Musique directe album, with “Quatre Quarts” and “Ville Marie b” providing maximum party delirium.
Then a bolt from the blue: “Spirit & Decline,” a sudden, brief appearance from the otherworldly Gem Club — a piano arpeggio, a bit of cello, and Christopher Barnes’ angelic voice painting a vision of a violent attack on — Joan of Arc maybe? “Hushed among the bells / The arrow struck your shoulder / Forced to the ground / With the shredded pulp / Of red apples.” Barnes’ crystalline delivery seemed to radiate directly from a pure, loving heart, and I found a tiny picture of him somewhere, and we stared into each others’ eyes for some time, and we were together, in love.
Nothing pisses me off more than a truly great artist getting dismissive reviews. Tricky is a fucking genius who’s been turning out gold consistently for over 25 years, and I am too through with the philistines out there being shitty about him. Lonely Guest was his latest album and incarnation: it had my man’s crazy quality control, it had Lee “Scratch” Perry on it, it had Marta’s medium rare vocals, it rocked hardest on “Move Me.”
One Saturday in late October I found myself bereft of new music to THC with, not to mention the shiratake noodles I’d been using as part of my spaghetti blend, so I took my stoned self on a walk to Mormon Mart (as my friend Chuckles calls Lassen’s) in Echo Park and tuned into my unexamined Release Radar, and mamma mia, I usually dig two or three things on that list but it was like Jesus himself had taken a look into the depths of my spirit and put together a playlist of 100 percent Sbrizzi soon to be favorites in a crazy mix of styles and genres.
Breezy love song “There Must Be a Song Like You” by Helado Negro…
Dream popping “I’ll Be Your Lightning” by Frankie Rose;
“Bad Religion,” a gorj cover by Cat Power of a Frank Ocean song (and I mean, I have never liked Frank Ocean)…
A slinky future drag queen classic by living legend Amanda Lear called “Strip-Tease”…
Nirvana doing “On a Plain” live in Tokyo…
“Odd Cat Sanctuary,” which finally cracked the code of Fire-Toolz for me…
A new one called “Générique H24” from my boo Léonie Pernet…
Pop joy from Magdalena Bay with “The Beginning”…
“Come to the Ball,” a deep cut by the Rolling Stones…
“It’s Love, Jim,” a hilarious, headbanging classic from all-time faves The Darkness…
The astonishment went on and on, including a new one from Abba…