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howdytherepardner · 1 year ago

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end of 2023 music round-up

read this in docs | most listened 2023 | the Mountain Goats Digest

Order of contents:

Artists with major releases not from this year that I've really been enjoying

Albums worth noting

An extended aside on Sufjan Stevens' artistic output this year

Favorite Songs

Favorite EPs

Favorite Albums

It should be noted that entries in each category are not listed in order per se, but typically the things that show up later are the things I felt stronger about. Also, there is basically no overlap between categories (fav songs are not on fav albums, e.g.) for the sake of keeping discussion about a given project contained to one section. I tease more about my feelings on songs in Albums, albums in Songs where I have something to say about them in depth.

Also: there's so much good stuff from this year I haven't listened to. So sorry about that.

Artists Without Huge 2023 Releases, Nonetheless Apart of My Year

Ken Pomeroy

After watching the penultimate episode of Reservation Dogs, I was furiously googling what song was playing during the credits, and only realized a few weeks later that the artist had posted noting that "Cicadas" was not yet released. When it does come out, it stands to be my favorite song of that year, but in the mean time, 2021's Christmas Lights in April is a truly beautiful work. Whatever folk-acoustic-country genre you want to put on it, it's a phenomenal display of songwriting and performance that really shows that Pomeroy is worth watching and supporting. This year, she released the single "Pareidolia" (also featured on Rez Dogs) which I liked.

Louis Cole

It might be a bit of a boring take to say that a Grammy-nominated album (this year) and song (last year) are good, but that description clouds the experience of 2022's Quality Over Opinion. Cole is not concerned with a particular consistency across the 20 tracks other than quality - with the tender acoustics of "Not Needed Anymore" to the harsh spoken word of the introduction, the straight forward dance-jam of "I'm Tight" to the searing shreds of "Bitches." Indeed, the only vision for the record is Quality, and I think Cole exceeds that standard. I might always have a soft spot to put tracks from Time ahead, hitting me when I had maybe a tad more neuroplasticity. But my first time hearing "Let it Happen" blew me to absolute pieces - I can't recommend enough.

Emmy The Great

Emma-Lee Moss retired the project earlier this year, in her words "a costume [she] put on at the age of 21." (x) It's hard to really describe the way this makes me feel, especially as a late-comer to the party, but good God, it evokes something strong. I listened to April senior year of college and it has remained uniquely attuned to my experiences navigating newly "real" adult life, especially in the cities I've lived. The sound of Virtue takes me back to the aesthetics of naughts, and the lyrics bring me to the worries of lives that I have yet to live. And Second Love, well, it just really crystallizes the wanting that I seem to place myself within, "Constantly."

So I feel conflicted about its end. Were it more popular, were streaming services not stripping income from artists, would there be greater reason for it to persist? Perhaps, but I do suppose nothing can go on forever. Moss seems focused on moving forward, and I'm excited to see where she goes. In the meantime (ie my 20s), I will be spending a lot of time with all that she's shared over the years as Emmy.

Albums Honorably Mentioned

Radial Gate - Sluice

I didn't know anything about Justin Morris's project until I saw them as an opening act back in May. Even with a chattering crowd between the stage and me in the back of the venue, their songs still reached my mind and hit in a strange and beautiful way. Radial Gate resonates, in my experience, with the long moments that come in contemporary young life in rural places. A pinch of emo gives just enough edge to the folk foundations of the project to bring a lot of intrigue.

Aperture - Hannah Jadagu

Jadagu is synced with the beating heart of 'bedroom pop,' but to extend the metaphor she is really working as lungs for the genre - taking in fresh air to give new life, and exhaling strong gales of intention in each track. Even if the album as a whole didn't resonate with me too deeply, I don't think it misses a beat, and on the whole is a really nice listen.

The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess - Chappell Roan

This album is great. Bop after bop, with a couple of real tearjerkers in there for good measure. I don't think it resonated with me super deeply, but I think the project does have real staying power and I think it brings pop to all the right fringes, with different characters (especially apt in the vein of the drag styling) displaying attitudes on shared struggles. If you like pop and people doing interesting things with it, you will (and likely already do) love this album.

Sit Down for Dinner - Blonde Redhead

I get trapped in the soundscape of this one - how a welcoming ambience also carries with it this great unease.

Genevieve Artadi - Forever Forever

It goes beyond just what might be summarized as jazz-informed resplendentness. My first listen to this one was a nice long wander through a city I had yet to live in. Even if I can't call it a favorite, I still delight in giving this album a spin. There is some overlapping aura between all the songs, but each one is so distinct in ways that is sometimes hard to come by. It's so alive, and meditating on what it means to be that, and I love trying to find some new footing in each track as I listen to it.

Sampha - Lahai

By some set of standards, this is probably the best sounding album of the year. Sampha is no stranger to pushing boundaries and bringing a really evocative, percussive feel to his work, and Lahai is no exception. Anyone unfamiliar should absolutely give this album a spin. My first listen of "Dancing Circles" was mindblowing. It falls short of my favorite in part because I think it is interested in trying a lot of different stuff, more than it comes together as a cohesive experience. I love love love his debut, and it sets a high bar, with the many distinct ways it moves the listener over its runtime. Based on the reception Lahai has received, I'm sure that people are feeling it a lot stronger than me, and I'm okay with that. It's a great work and even if it feels a little busy, I still really enjoy the listen and look forward to seeing how it might grow on me in the future.

Now, an extended aside about Sufjan Stevens's output this year and my experiences with it.

Reflections

Starting off straightforward enough, I enjoyed this release. I'm not a big cultivator of classical or specifically piano in my regular music rotation, but I found the songs here to bring a good bit of intrigue. Timo Andres and Connor Hanick's performance do well to inflect the strongest points of Stevens's composition. Of all the tracks, I think "Reflexions" creates the most memorable, haunting aura that serves as a space for a listener to, indeed, reflect. Worth a spin for that one alone in my book, but the people seem to enjoy "And I Shall Come To You Like A Stormtrooper In Drag Serving Imperial Realness." Naturally so.

Javelin

I need to start this section by saying that for many months this year, I would put on Carrie and Lowell about every other night to fall asleep. Conceptually this is a somewhat surreal, if one is to accept the album as just its go-to description - a meditation on grief for his mother's death and their troubled relationship - as something that reliably puts me gently to rest. This image is certainly understandable, as "Death With Dignity," "Fourth of July," and "The Only Thing" cementing this as the key thread of the record. This is something I was locked into for a while, and for some sense of reverence, I think I really tried to hold off from listening to the album all that much.

But this year I kept coming back and back, in a way that I've done with his other albums before, finding new grounds to stand on in each track, and really asking what the album does beyond its summary. It's crafted to have such a solidly consistent soundscape, but just how differently each track can function is really intimidating - and breaking through the blanket impression of what the album "is" has been really rewarding, especially with how resonant I find so many lines I feel able to place in each track. Finding this new personal significance has been one of the most important music experiences for me this year, in a time where I haven't felt the resonance with a lot of new music.

With that thought expressed, the figurative blankets over Javelin has been thick and convoluted. I have generally tried to keep up with news about Stevens and his projects, and this year it meant being aware of Evans Richardson IV's passing and rumors of their relationship months before the album was announced, thus months longer before he publicly shared the news about both. With this general shroud of information, it was a lot to see 1) rumors back in May from Sufjan fans about an album releasing 2) people speculate on relationship troubles in his life after "So You Are Tired" dropped 3) it being billed as a follow-up to Carrie and Lowell 4) critical praise immediately before the announcement 5) praise after the announcement, and a lot of content being centered on the album just "being sad" 6) Sufjan fans specifically focusing in on the vinyl release cycle and speculating about the exact ways his relationship informed the record 7) people asking if Stevens will ever tour again.

This is not to say that any of these sentiments were widespread, nor am I trying to avow that there is only one particular way that one can or should experience the album or Stevens's work. But the flippancy between different assumptions about his life or what this work implies about it that I have seen has done enough to fuck with my mental. That cloud is keeping me from engaging with the album to a deeper extent; I enjoy the songs, and I do think it is beautiful - but I think there's so much more behind it that I need time to reach. And in that light, and with all that has informed the album, I can't place Javelin or its tracks against any other music. Attempts to rank it would fall short of the devastating miracle that Stevens released an album this year at all.

Does that make sense? Maybe not. Sorry. Anyway, I think the art book on the physical release is a really interesting accompaniment, especially the 10 essays. And I'm still rooting for it in all the other year end lists out there.

Let's move on to the music which stood above the rest for me.

Favorite Songs

"Thousand March" - Mr. Sauceman

I haven't kept up with a lot of games since leaving high school, but becoming aware of Pizza Tower and its soundtrack was nice. What the game is doing is great, and I think it more than earns the praise it has received. The rest of the soundtrack is pretty good too, but this one transcends to me. It creates such an intense aura and makes a statement on its own, working well in thematically in the level that it comes from, but still standing alone to create an incredible narrative.

"No More Lies" - Thundercat and Tame Impala

I feel like people forgot about this one - maybe it's impact at time of release was the novelty of a now-obvious crossover? But I think the track speaks for itself and speaks strongly, with the pair playing off each other in a way that nods to their influences and is playfully self-aware respective songwriting personas. The instrumentation is very pleasing and I feel like I could throw this on any year and it'll find a place in the music landscape; way more than just the sum of its constituent artists.

"The World's Biggest Paving Slab" - English Teacher

It might be the unassuming start that gets me. It could have stayed in the vein of a bass driven head-nodder, but something about that shimmering chorus captures me and really elevates it to a sincere statement. It makes sense to me in a world of little sense.

"Love As A Weapon" - Alan Chang

The lead single from Chang's solo debut, Check Please. The algorithm gave me the music video, and I think that's one component of its charm, but hardly the whole. All the indie/jazz instrumentation is an instant hook for me and great to dance around in, but the vocal performance is the earnest thread worth following throughout.

"Playing Dead" - Glenna Jane

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think there's a precise kind of fullness from the 00s/10s emo that gets captured in this track that's somewhat absent from a lot of other recent work informed by that scene. Certainly, it makes sense that people who were young during that era are trying to honor those sounds. But where others might play more ambiguously, allowing for more broad appeal, Glenna is cutting straight to the bone about her own experiences. It puts one on edge, the verses being a bit tough to stomach in casual listening, but it really gives the chorus such a strong and impactful weight. "Have you left yet? Are you playing dead?" Though I'll miss the intimate singer-songwriting she used so well in Vestige, I'm excited to see where this path leads.

"Fingertips" - Lana Del Rey

Let it be said, "A&W" is a great song and worthy of all the year-end recognition its getting, pushing a particular envelope and tickling ears in all the right ways. But this one just gets to me. Del Rey writes such a stark landscape and slowly, desperately dances within it, with the track structured in a way to barely allow a moment's reprieve. It's sincerely moving and really worth savoring. I couldn't tell you quite why, but specifically "I gave myself two seconds to cry/ It's a shame that we die" brings me to my knees.

"black mirror" - Noname

I struggle a bit with Sundial. Certainly, a lot of great art requires effortful engagement to really be rewarded by what lies within, but in many respects, I feel that much of the songs of the album are saying the same things on the same themes. Even ignoring the notorious feature (which I don't think completely soils any artistic merit, but does create a lot more for a listener to reckon with) I think the album fails to live up to what this song, its introduction sets up. Immaculately produced, her lyricism and rhythm are the most compelling and engaging at this point - addressing the myriad takes that people have about her impact and politics by pronouncing fully her humanity. In an effort that takes the discussion to a level (in my opinion) past the rest of the album, she displays her imperfections without surrendering the sincere beliefs that motivate her to strive for a better world.

"Crash The Car" - KNOWER

I think I needed to explain Cole and Artadi before we got to here, the last track on their collab's latest album, KNOWER FOREVER. I could do more to explain my feelings on KNOWER, and explain how I find myself leaning more towards the songs which sound very separate from their solo work. ("Do Hot Girls Like Chords?" e.g.) But this song... really feels like a true fusion of both. Artadi's tendency for abstract but strongly sentimental lyrics, a tight jazz outfit braided with orchestral flair more common in Cole's newer works. It is both grandiose and contained, a testament and tribute to all the work they've done together, emphasized strongly by the message it sends out. What a journey, what a fucking chorus. Rejoice, and crash the car.

runner up: "Same as Cash" - the Mountain Goats

Not all the time, but some of the time, I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats. And this one kind of snuck up on me, as I was saving Jenny from Thebes until after I finished all prior tMG albums - which put a lot of very immediate weight on the record. But this song cut through all of that, my own expectations. John Darnielle is as attuned to writing the grimes of Americana as always, similarly true for the rest of the record. But something about how the scene is painted within majestic strings and strums (to my ear, almost straight out of an RPG soundtrack) sets this song above the rest. It lends a certain kind of romantic optimism to a moment of anxious, stressed despair - not in a way that makes that optimism dishonest, but enough for one to believe that there is indeed some future after this struggle to persist. One where one can ride their motorcycle under blue Texas skies, to bask in a life free from fear.

best song of 2023: "The Water" - Indigo de Souza

Speaking of riding a bike. I'd like to say that the best parts of my year were spent riding around, with little other aim than to explore a little and get home... eventually. It is true of New York and all the ways in which her rivers express themselves. But good God, there are miracles to be found in Lake Michigan. And I imagine it's at least partially a miracle that in the face of all kinds of incentives to develop property right along the third coast, most of Chicago's eastern edge is just for the public to use and experience. Maybe there's room to improve, but it was everything that I needed. Just to ride, or to run, or to sit. To look on forever, irrespective of it being a smaller forever than oceans. To be lost in thoughts. To be alone. But not alone, because it is always there.

I've loved all of de Souza's albums so far, and even if I couldn't call All Of This Will End my favorite of the bunch, it is still an incredible set of incredible songs. It is by no fault of the rest that "The Water" transcended, jumping ship and ingraining itself into the past year and my memory of it. All the secret little alcoves I've found and placed in my heart. The moments of serenity, and belief in good things.

Poetic if true. But maybe it's just the simplest answer:

I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love I really love the water. the water. the water.

the water.

Favorite Extended Plays

going...going...GONE! - hemlocke springs

I don't think there's too much to be said for this, other than it being just a really high quality set of pop bops. There are a bunch of instrumental and vocal quirks that really push it to go beyond its 80s-synth influences (Psychedelic Furs, Duran Duran, et al.) and overall it works hard to set itself apart as a strong effort to make something that feels completely fresh but still lingers as hauntingly familiar.

runner up: Sandhills - Toro y Moi

With his virtuosic tenor for the spacy, the funky, the synth-y, I think a country folk project is probably the last thing I would have expected from Chaz Bear. But his efforts here remind one of how fruitless setting a particular field of expectations on an artist, in a way that is largely unassuming. I can't say that MAHAL blew me away, but how plainly it wore some of its production was a natural precursor to this release, where he is about as plain as you could expect: some guitars and talking about home. The way he plays with twangy notes shows a cautious, but passionate interest in how archetypical country sounds might fit within his songwriting chops. That kind of exploration is so wonderfully apt for an EP, and even more magic that it is so well done in under 14 minutes. For anytime I might also be thinking of that weird rural part of my soul, I'm happy to let Bear take me for a resonant spin.

best EP of 2023: Circle of Signs - Mariee Siou

I would love to shout from the rooftops about this release, because it is a project to mark the century so far. The past couple of years, I've been obsessing over her past releases as some of my favorite folk albums ever. But here, she is on a whole new level. While as firmly invested in the natural world and the legacies people inherit, a sense of urgency in heightened on this record, with Siou holding a focus on the climate crisis, and specifically its impacts on her home region as well as how it manifests on a personal level.

She meets urgency not solely through masterful lyricism and careful vocal performance, but by escalating the depth of instrumentation from a more acoustic focus in her earlier entries to something approaching rock ballads and orchestral pieces. But these pieces do not lose any of Siou's delicate precision. They are so complex and rich, but with 4 songs lasting about 25 minutes, she gives listeners a chance to sit more fully in meditation with each track, and really absorb the method, message, and feeling of her work. I could pick any song as song of the year with confidence, and I have no doubt that Circle of Signs will remain a sincere point of reflection for decades to come.

Favorite Albums

Water Made Us - Jamila Woods

I don't know where to start in a way that would not be summarizing what has already been said, or is self-evident from the album itself. What I want to say is that after previous records more focused on life's intersections with the political, Woods is diving pretty headstrong into the personal. What I want to say is that it shows an abstract, but intense arc on the growth and decline of a romance, and that Woods is so intently combing through moments in search of truth. What I want to say is that Woods is a legend of the craft, and I think that even in all its subtler moments, she has created an incredible experience from start to finish. But I don't know if that enunciates enough how exactly I feel about it.

KARPEH - Cautious Clay

Like I imagine many, I was only acquainted with Joshua Karpeh's project from the song "Cold War," which takes themes of trying find footing after a falling out over an incredibly produced track. The trickiness of that negotiation is common for songs about individual relationships, but on this album, Karpeh takes the lens to his family overall. In an almost ethnographic effort, it is a tender and honest approach, trying to acknowledge fraught histories and how they have shaped himself and his loved ones. But it lends a compassion that allows one to more fully process these relationships, and reflect on the stages of his life with full consideration of the world yet to come. Impassioned jazz performances with apt collaborations make this a meditative landscape (I love "Glass Face" and "Blue Lips") like a sauna. There are moments of scorching heat and clouded visions, but a place in which one is present with purpose: to understand and release tension. Really beautiful.

Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? - McKinley Dixon

It's a sublime composition for an inspired musical concept. How Dixon has brought together collaborators for such a phenomenal sound is not completely unprecedented, yet it is so uniquely interested in not only synthesizing sounds from across genres and generations, but also finding the best in each and making them sing together. It is a symphony and sincere triumph in honoring all that came before, and plants seeds for the world yet to come. The title track is probably one of the most wonderful, celebratory closings to an album ever. So fucking good.

Lucha - Y La Bamba

To start, it should be said that I neither speak nor understand Spanish at present, which hinders me from engaging in a significant share of the album on a lyrical front. With that said, this album blows past any barriers I might have. What a phenomenal fucking sound they've cultivated here. Just dripping with intention in each hit of the percussion, in the voices behind the words. Every effect to bring the guitars towards a new psychedelic edge, the layers making the horns a separate but whole aspect of each song. I don't know how to put everything into words, specifically why this lands so much for me personally.

Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? - Kara Jackson

When re-listening on a short flight in a small plane during the holidays, forgoing a book for this leg, I was blown away by how subtly unrelenting the album is. I think it is the darling indie debut of this year, and rightly deserving of that recognition, but I feel that it is vital to experience first hand. Jackson's voice is the driving force of the entire record, and her performance and lyricism does not on the surface seem grandiose, but how steadily she paces her words to (un/re)ravel stories of former lovers is just so slowly devastating: rhymes lead into exactly what you expect, and you are powerless to change that. How intentionally the accompanying instrumentals are layered with this, ranging from crisp orchestrals to plunks from an old stereo, really gives a texture to each step in the album. Every song comes together to give real weight to the question of the album's title - on what cause has the earth conspired for us to know our lives and loves? Is the pain that these things bring also natural?

runner up: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We - Mitski

You already know. When it came out in mid September, I think it was prescient of how the rest of the year would unfold I think. I can't tell you why, but I could tell you that it progresses in this strange way, like it's crawling up the back of me, scratching up legs and getting blood next to stretch marks. It's clear when it's at the nape of the neck, but right as that first strum comes from "My Love Mine All Mine," it jumps right for the jugular and ruins the rest of my face and mind. The rest is kinda just lying and watching the sky blow by, clouds drifting alongside my remaining thoughts. Again, you already know. Mitski is a veteran but hardly jaded (perhaps, only a pinch in a way that really deepens this album), and I am very grateful for the work that she continues to share.

finally, my album of the year.

To start, I need to start later in the 2023 with a project release almost a decade earlier - the self-titled Black Belt Eagle Scout EP. I think I stumbled on this way earlier, but only got around to listening to it in the end of the fall. It's a very collected, steady, and beautiful rumination (lasting 43 minutes, which the EP designation might not have you assume). Different but not totally distinct from the heavier rock elements that have defined KP's most known work in the project, playing a lot more in spacious and lo-fi soundscapes. Though, it really stands out to me as something so grounded at the same inter/personal foundation that really prevails in At The Party With My Brown Friends. It was a welcome discovery for days that began to get colder, and the onset of a winter of discontent, for the sitting in my apartment and all the thinking that comes with that.

Cut to 9 months earlier from then, or about 9 years later in the catalogue. It is February, and I am walking through a park in Chicago and listening to The Land, The Water, The Sky, and I am pretty sure that it is my album of the year. It comes in waves at first, crashing against shores with "My Blood Runs Through This Land," later slowly ebbing tides in "Salmon Stinta." "Nobody" is the wind in my hair, "Fancy Dance" the sweat on my back. "Sčičudᶻ (a narrow place)" is a cold spot on the earth that I can feel with my face. So many moments lush with the grit feeling of being alive, with still the tenderness of living. Any of those songs, for the record, could also easily be my song of the year.

I don't know how to convey it. It really feels like a light at the end of the tunnel. I keep coming back to it. It is the only thing that makes sense to me. How KP reckons with this life and the world so directly, speaking the truth as they feel and know it. Lush guitar riffs (that I've had the pleasure of dancing to live) that just light up the soul. There is an urge to scream it loud, as it is shared in the record's final moments: The Land, The Water, The Sky (best album of 2023)

thanks. see ya later.

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