I did a lot of baking in 2023, and here are some of this year’s most special muffins and tarts.
25. The Tubs – Dead Meat
These Welsh Londoners crafted something sublime out of codependent self-hatred. Do we need another guitar bass drums rock band? Yes please if they deliver heavenly pained harmonies and titles like “Sniveller,” “Duped” and “Wretched Lie.”
24. Róisín Murphy – Hit Parade
She survived a cancellation attempt and (with anarchic production wizardry from DJ Koze) deconstructed and reconstructed 50 years of disco and R&B into a smeared and sprawling opus. Her live shows were/are the gayest events in human history.
23. Ben Gregory – episode
A deep dive into extreme psychological states informed by Gregory‘s personal breakdown in the aftermath of the breakup of his band, episode broke open a rock foundation to liberate something gargantuan, intimate, majestic, hard-won and oh so satisfying.
22. Goat – Medicine
The masked Swedes stormed back into slowgraffitti’s stony heart after already conquering it last year with Oh Death, unfurling effects pedals, flutes, dirty feet, dirty acid and free love. They changed my name to Sweet Potato. I have found inner peace, I think.
21. Gee Tee – Goodnight Neanderthal
Nobody brought me more three-chord joy in 2023 than Australia’s Gee Tee (although I gotta give Snõõper a special mention). A great companion piece to re-reading Dame Edna Everage‘s autobiography. They wore ski masks, gave few fucks, and delivered their sweet racket in doses of two minutes or less.
20. Free Range – Practice
Sofia Jensen, an 18-year-old prodigy with an uncanny ear for the perfect chord change, breathed new life into the folk-rock idiom, conjuring messy relationship poetry on a wise, bittersweet, introspective debut.
19. Sam Wilkes – Driving
In which our Sam found a bit of structure amidst all the (perfectly valid) jazzy faffing about with his buddies; he got down and got folky and knocked out plenty of bruised and radiant storytelling.
18. Terry – Call Me Terry
Hailing from a land down under, Terry delivered more than a whiff of the classic Flying Nun sound – indie rock earworms aplenty and the feel of a youth subculture house party with clever thrift store fashions and a brainy disdain for the grown up world.
17. Freak Heat Waves – Mondo Tempo
The opening sax squall of “The Time Has Come,” followed by Steven Lind‘s sadistic purr, marked the triumphant return of the sexiest Canadians in rock, or not rock exactly, more like funky lounge music. A soundtrack for doing bad things that feel good.
16. Bonnacons of Doom – Signs
I don’t know what a Bonnacon is, but these particular Bonnacons rerouted the sound of Liverpool in the direction of delicious, metal-adjacent terror. Oh wait, here’s a helpful definition from the Internet: “a mythical beast from the Middle Ages which defended itself from pursuers by spraying caustic faeces out of its furry anus.”
15. Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter – Saved
Hayter packed up her Lingua Ignota project and channeled the fire of harsh and unforgiving old-time religion, applying violent stressors to herself and to the recordings to produce one of 2023’s most unique and harrowing experiences.
14. Pretty V
The dreamy textures of “Aqrxvst (29)” were an early introduction to the most anarchic figure in slowgraffitti’s 2023. A kind of spiritual heir to Dean Blunt, Pretty V played against every banal career move, shrouding his shifting identity in a ridiculous quantity of crudely recorded, highly inspired work (24 albums this year as of this writing!) that obliterated genre distinctions — from the trippy experimental collage of “Sinking Again” to the tight and catchy hip hop of “Pour Me a Lager” and a thousand points of light in between.
13. Lewsberg – Out and About
They were Velvetsy in the best way possible: with a Dutch accent. But that was just their baseline. Lewsberg‘s fourth album overflowed with sick tunes and funny little story vignettes that left slowgraffitti in a state of dreamy delight.
12. Roosevelt – Embrace
Meanwhile just across the border, Marius Lauber put out a fourth album of his own that had me ascending balearic into something parallel to the easy, dancey, melancholy, banging 70s pop I loved as a sad teenager.
11. Norm – Andy Shauf
A truly perverse album that wraps lush and lovely easy listening arrangements and Johnny Mathish vocals around disturbing fantasies (one hopes they’re fantasies) about romantic obsession, stalking and kidnapping.
10. Puma Blue – Holy Waters
Jacob Allen is the heroin of longing personified, and on Holy Waters he delivered Jeff Buckley-esque intensity, lounging in smoky blue light and the syrup of misery.
9. Ghostface600 – Angels (and 3 others)
Thuggy and vulnerable as fuck, Levi Gilmàr di Silvà Fernandez-Lynch emerged from the mean streets of drill and trap wearing his trademark white half mask, and spent 2023 spilling out his ‘ard lad feelings across four albums of tough and soulful melodic jams.
8. Ali Sethi & Nicolas Jaar – Intiha
Ali Sethi‘s reclaiming and recontextualizing of traditional Pakistani music engaged and married perfectly with Nicolas Jaar‘s hard violet electronica and they gave birth to a beautiful vinyl baby.
7. Altin Gün – Aşk
More Turkish peak experiences from the Dutch band that sounds like all your favorite flea market finds ever. They’re also ridiculously soulful. And dancey and fun. With heavy psych tendencies. Seeing them live gave me life.
6. Saroos – Turtle Roll
So hard to classify these funky Germans. Just when I identify notes of Kraftwerk or no-wave, they veer off into some unexplored electronic pasture, or wait — are they channeling Slowdive? Is this complicated pop or arty ecstasy?
5. Jungle – Volcano
No one did better at capturing the dizzy, zero-attitude spirit of Studio 54-era fun. Volcano was rich and dense with rollercoaster rollerskating booty imperatives, and oh my those videos.
4. H. Hawkline – Milk for Flowers
A 19th century sophisticate having 21st century experiences of quiet devastation, Huw Evans kept his chin up and his rhythm jaunty, wrapping his falsetto around this lovely and slightly wilted stereophonic bouquet.
3. Georgia – Euphoric
She hit the highest heights of pop ecstasy over and over, with extra frosting, nothing but frosting. “Just when I thought I should give up / That’s the moment I found love…”
2. Being Dead – When Horses Would Run
With dazzling wall of sound production, the Deads (who interestingly go by the names Falcon Bitch and Gumball) galloped across the American West with one stirrup in the 60s, a party in motion with hand claps and moody interludes and Beach Boys harmonies.
1. LA Priest – Fase Luna
Drifting in and out of alpha state on bendy guitar strings, Sam Eastgate‘s new one materialized just as I was experiencing a devastating loss. “Star” in particular soundtracked my private experience of grief with a celebration of life.
The words I hear
The time I see
The light I feel inside of me
Hidden in the harmony
That’s where he was
He was high a butterfly
The soft shape they nеver make
Further nеarer everyday
I don’t have a clue
But his star is shining
And his word is lightning
And it’s almost blinding today
And a few alphabetical special mentions…
Actress – LXXXVIII
Aisha Devi – Death Is Home
Alaska Reid – Disenchanter
Beach House – Become
Bella White – Among Other Things
Bernice – Cruisin’
Blonde Redhead – Sit Down for Dinner
Bonny Doon – Let There Be Music
Cindy Wilson – Realms
Death’s Dynamic Shroud – Darklife
Dylan Moon – Song & Dance
En Attendant Ana – Principia
Flyying Colors – Goodbye to Music
Fred Again.., Brian Eno – Secret Life
G Jones – Paths
Glasser – Crux
Heinali – Kyiv Eternal
James Blake – Playing Robots into Heaven
Jane Remover – Census Designated
Jolie Holland – Haunted Mountain
Julie Byrne – The Greater Wings
Julmud – Tuqoos
King Krule – Flimsier
La Sécurité – Stay Safe
Lee Gamble – Models
Marina Herlop – Nekkuja
Martyna Basta – Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering
Me Lost Me – RPG
Mioclono – Cluster I
Miss Grit – Follow the Cyborg
Nabihah Iqbal – Dreamer
Nathan Fake – Crystal Vision
Oneohtrix Point Never – Again
Overmono – Good Lies
Pangaea – Changing Channels
Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds
Shabazz Palaces – Robed in Rareness
Simo Cell – Cuspide Des Sirènes
Sluice – Radial Gate
Snõõper – Super Snõõper
Spllit – Infinite Hatch
The Serfs – Eaten by Dogs
Tinariwen – Amatssou
Tirzah – trip9love…???
Two Shell – lil spirits
upsammy – Germ in a Population of Buildings
Vagabon – Sorry I Haven’t Called
Water From Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed
Woods – Perennial
Young Thug – BUSINESS IS BUSINESS
Yusuf / Cat Stevens – King of a Land