Jams from 2023

December 27, 2023

I wasn’t able to listen to quite as much music this year as I would have liked – it was more of a podcast year (Criminal, anyone?). But as always, there’s so much new music to look back on — and so much to look forward to next year.

Beyond new music, I discovered some awesome records from King Hannah (last year’s I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me and 2020’s Tell Me Your Mind And I’ll Tell You Mine are both superb) and spent a lot of time with Grace Jones’ Nightclubbing. I also fell in love with last year’s Depuis from Quebec local Lydia Képinski – it’s a fantastic record. The Cure, as usual, were very present.

But there were a lot of incredible new releases (and reissues) – here are my favorites. If you were also listening to these, or if you had fun with any others, let me know…. always looking to 💃 to more excellent music.

I was cranking Paramore this year. I never quite had my Hayley Williams moment (everyone should have one), so I let loose this spring with their new record (and plenty of old standouts of theirs… I must have played “Misguided Ghosts” dozens of times).

This Is Why retains a lot of the fun of classic Paramore records, and it’s no surprise that they’re still making great tracks – the band’s young rise to stardom means they still feel early in their careers. This Is Why is pop-punk bliss, and thanks to Hayley’s superb songwriting it’s full of heart. Go have your Paramore moment.

Altın Gün is a Turkish (but Netherlands-based) psych rock band who I was lucky enough to stumble on while out CD shopping this year. The tempo of this record is fast-paced and rhythmic and guitars and electronics abound — it’s full of tunes to make you smile. I walked around plenty jamming out on air guitar to these guys.

I love the soundscapes in this record: There’s clear Turkish traditionalism in the instrumentation, but a lot of classic psych-rock patterns too. The mix of genres is wonderful, and the crisp, clear vocals layer wonderfully over the lush instrumentation.

Hiroshi Yoshimura is one of my all-time favorites. A legend of Japanese minimal music, Green, Wet Land, and Music for Nine Postcards are perhaps the best known of his works, and Surround is the third record in the last few year to be reissued for new audiences. Yoshimura produced music for public spaces — galleries, train stations — and is notable for his environmental music and soundscapes (Nine Postcards is rich with the sounds of rain and echoes the ambiance of the outdoor around Yoshimura’s home in Japan).

Surround is another classic, originally composed to enhance the experience of prefabricated homes and intended to play as a backdrop for conversations, air conditioners, and city noise, complimenting and enhancing the sounds of everyday life. The soundscapes are etherial, peaceful, and gentle. The synths disappear as you fade into the music, or fade into another conversation, but the record rewards careful attention to its layers and design.

Gia Margaret isn’t reinventing her style with Romantic Piano: It’s an album deeply informed by her foray into minimalism with 2020’s instrumental Mia Gargaret, which was recorded without any lyrics after Margaret lost her voice while on tour. It’s wonderful to again see instrumentals take center stage in her third record, and the complete album, which learns from Mia Gargaret while also revisiting themes from her debut, is a joy to absorb.

There is only one song on the album with vocals — “City Song” — which sits in the middle of the record, recounting memories that cannot be realized, its lyrics fading into and out of the soundscapes that bookend the track. Field recordings make plenty of appearances: Crunching gravel on “Ways Of Seeing” (with its found-audio-as-instrumental, maybe an allusion to John Berger’s relevant film series on semiotics) and cicadas chirping in “Cicadas”. The eponymous piano is spectacular, with every breath and sound captured in the mix. Laden with the familiar electronics and some brief samples, it’s a gentle record, and a parallel, modern take on minimalism compared to Yoshimura’s Surround.

Kelela’s incredible Take Me Apart from 2017 was followed by a lonnnnnng hiatus (with a quick pit-stop in 2018 for Take Me Apart’s spectacular remix album). Now she’s back, and clearly it was worth the wait. The vocals are gorgeous, massive, alternating between dance melodies and modern R&B classics.

“On the Run” is a standout, with bouncing bass and fantastic backing vocals – prod. by Kaytra (can you spot his synths?). Interestingly, there are several tracks with lyrics by Janiva Ellis, better known as a figurative painter: The collaborations work wonderfully. While the album is full of traditional R&B rhythms and lyrics, it deeply infused with a Kelela’s standout take on the genre, playful with instrumentation that calls out to dancehall and breakbeat. It plays well in any context, and rewards plenty of repeat listens to pick out all of its secrets.

Devendra Banhart has been making sublime freak folk since the early 2000s, though with more traditional (read: less freaky) output for his recent records. Flying Wig sees Banhart pair with Cate Le Bon (who also produced Wilco’s Cousin this year) for a melodic, synth-heavy album. He’s still the showman he’s always been, with lush guitars and a great stage presence, and the lyricism is always fun. The lead single, “Twin”, is a banger, with a hearty chorus, and the record provides a consistent look back at the music of Banhart we’ve seen over the last decade, albeit with some groovy instrumental twists.

Lana Del Rey made clear with “A&W” that she was not playing around with this year’s Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard. The 7-minute song opens with pianos, before transitioning into a pervasive bass-led melody (with some crazy hi-hats), while Lana tears through set pieces and devastation her lyrics.

I’m a sucker for “Paris, Texas”, where Del Rey uses the mythology of unknown small towns relative to their namesakes as a metaphor for fading stardom. Given her obsession with David Lynch, it’s only fitting that Del Rey strays into the path of Wim Wenders. Her fans on YouTube definitely picked up on it quickly.

And luckily there were still more gifts to give this year — this fall, Lana released a cover of “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, again taking an anthem and grounding it with her distinctive vocals, reminiscent of her cover of Sublime’s “Doin Time” for NFR, and of course her classic take on “Blue Velvet”.

Charlotte Cardin is a spectacular and quickly rising pop star from (check it!) Montréal (though she’s now primarily based in Paris). 2021’s Phoenix, which took home the Juno for Album of the Year, was an incredible full-length debut, and 99 Nights doesn’t hold back either. It leans heavily into pop sensibilities. Standout “Confetti” has an awesome bounce: It’s a proper pop single, although it juxtaposes its musical tone with lyrics about the claustrophobia of partying. Switching dynamically between English and French in her songwriting, Cardin describes 99 Nights as a “musical diary”, more intimate than similar strains of pop.

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Here are all of my favs:

Valaire - Jazz Futon; GAYANCE - Mascarade; Eddie Chacon - Sundown; Sufjan Stevens - Javelin; Sofia Kourtesis - Madres; Arooj Aftab - Love In Exile; Anohni - My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross

Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loveliest Time; Paramore - This Is Why; DJ Koze, Sophia Kennedy - Wespennest; Kelela - Raven; Laurel Halo - Atlas; Charlotte Cardin - 99 Nights; Devendra Banhart - Flying Wig

Jessy Lanza - Love Hallucination; Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd; Loraine James - 2013-2015; Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!; Liturgy - 93696; Tim Hecker - No Highs; Yaeji - With a Hammer

Kara Jackson - Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?; Ciel - Orlando; Boygenius - The Record; Altin Gün - Aşk; Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You; Janelle Monáe - The Age of Pleasure; Julie Byrne - The Greater Wings

Lana Del Rey - Take Me Home, Country Roads - Single; NoName - sUndIAl; Cleo Sol - Heaven; amaarae - Fountain Baby; Jlin - Perspective; VANYFOX - Sonho Azul; Yves Tumor - Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)

Gia Margaret - Romantic Piano; Wilco - Cousin; Hiroshi Yoshimura - SURROUND; Laraaji - Segue to Infinity; Ciel - Homesick; shana cleveland - Manzanita; L’Rain - I Killed Your Dog

Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS; Helena Deland - Goodnight Summerland; Fucked Up - One Day; U.S. Girls - Bless This Mess; Daniel Caesar - NEVER ENOUGH; Dominique Fils-Aimé - Our Roots Run Deep; Planet Giza - Ready When You Are