Top Albums of 2023 so Far (aka The Back in Business Newsletter)
I'm back on the grind and have plenty of albums to drop on your digital doorstep
Originally this was supposed to be the first letter of 2023, but then I got a concert invite as you all saw, so it’s the second.
My plan, should I end up following one at all, is to keep this going on an at least monthly basis. Ideally, I’ll be doing these monthly lists plus some concert reviews.
This very long newsletter encompasses everything I’ve loved in 2023. For my own convenience, the cutoff point on this list is May 31st. If it came out after that date, it’s not in this letter.
I’m trying to listen to less music this year, which caused this long delay. My brain can only absorb so much and I’m still operating past that limit, but I do it for the love of the game. Still, “less music” means I’ve listened to about 400 albums and am on pace for about 1000 this year. I’ve also found a more effective targeted listening approach, so basically I’m listening to just as much good stuff and a lot less forgettable stuff.
Well, that’s enough from me. Thanks to anyone who is sticking around to read this. Remember to view the post in your browser to see the full deal.
Time to dig into some nasty music.
METAL ALBUMS
Oozing Wound - We Cater to Cowards
Starting off an album with a song titled “Bank Account Anxiety” will win me over. Including the lyrics “Bank account anxiety | Here let me count the ways | That I’m fucked” guarantees my presence in your corner. Fun/painful lyrics aside, Oozing Wound toes the line between modernity and nostalgia. The vocal performances remind me of Steve Albini classic noise rock with some hardcore punk gravel added. The instruments fluctuate between that same noise rock tempo and occasionally nod toward thrash metal and classic punk, which keeps the album from veering too far into the already well-trod sludge metal/noise-rock crossover space (I love that space, but you’re gonna have to do something remarkable to stand out there). This close grip on what makes the music great keeps it approachable without sacrificing any edge.
Sadness & Oculi Melancholiarum - springgarden
I mean no disrespect to Oculi Melancholiarum, the artist who created the material on the back half of this split, but wow Sadness has knocked it out of the park again. After beginning their career a few years back as a solo black metal artist, Sadness has pushed their sound into all manner of places. Though they’ve largely retained their shrieking black metal sound, they’ve made convincing forays into other fuzzy genres like shoegaze and atmoblack. While this path wasn’t necessarily unpredictable, the quality of the releases has been extraordinary. Most American black metal artists that push into the realm of shoegaze follow the well-trod path of Deafheaven. Not so with Sadness. On this record, Sadness takes the sounds of shoegaze and blends them with the cracked-out metronome drumming of black metal and then pulls in a bit of twee-pop and emo to round things out. Even by the ever-shifting standards of Sadness, springgarden steps boldly forward into a place that few metal artists would brave.
Bell Witch - Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
Damn, that’s a big ass spider on the cover of that album. Didn’t notice that until I blew it up to size for this article and wow I hate it. Anyways, I hate the spider, but I LOVE this album. Consisting of a single 83 minute and 15 second track, Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate will push the boundaries of your patience. I promise it rewards those who wait. Much like their previous work, the equally long Mirror Reaper, this album moves slowly and dreadfully. It assaults with lengthy organ notes and seismically-paced riffs. Despite being slow, or rather because of it, it remains interesting. Changes that would have been hardly noticed in a tech-death record become earthquakes that define eras and sink islands. It will not be for everyone, but for those who fit on its wavelength, it’s a serious contender for the best album this year.
Ox En Mayo Alto - Vulpes: del fuego, quebrador del Hielo 9
This album does not sound like metal, but the past output of the group compels me to place it here. Ox En Mayo Alto’s Vulpes: del fuego, quebrador del Hielo 9 (thank you paste command) continues the band’s trajectory toward a sort of emo-tinged, post-math-rock final outcome. This album displays the breadth of the group’s interests in exciting new ways. Neon Genesis Evangelion provides vocal samples, the opening track is a quote from a Salinger story, and yet another track explores H.P. Lovecraft’s work. Though it may sound like an overload, especially on a 14 minute album, it flows like a gentle river.
Predatory Void - Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being
Despite writing several primers on what different subgenres sound like, I find myself googling “[insert band name here] genre” pretty often. When I did that for Predatory Void and it returned “blackened sludge/doom metal” I knew that this band was custom built to appeal to me. Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being spends most of its time unloading heavy riffs directly onto your skull, then follows up with delightfully comprehensible (but still harsh) vocals and battering drums. What most appeals to me on this record is, oddly enough, the approachable song structures. They generously utilize the breakdown, and keep songs at a manageable length that guarantees its status as a replayable album for 2023.
Nightmarer - Deformity Adrift
I accept that I am in the bag for tech death. Something about a person roaring their heads off while a bunch of guys next to them play stupidly complex guitar parts and the drummer acid blasts through seven different cosmic planes inherently appeals to me. If you suffer from the same sickness that I do, then Deformity Adrift will make you far more ill. It delivers everything I just rattled off, plus that juicy, clanky bass sound that tech death bands (and I) love so very much. In short and appropriate caveman speak. It loud, it fast, I like.
TEETH - A Biblical Worship of Violence
Take everything I said about Bell Witch then flip it on its head. Now you know what TEETH sounds like. This album runs at a full tilt for 120% of its runtime. It makes groups like Knocked Loose look mellow. The only things that come to mind to compare this to are vein.fm and Frontierer, at least in terms of pure violence. This is turning out to be a terrible sales pitch, but if you want to hear what it sounds like to throw a time bomb into a blender full of nails, then give A Biblical Worship of Violence a spin.
Victory Over the Sun - Dance You Monster to My Soft Song
This is everything I wanted from Victory Over the Sun. After showing a ton of promise with Nowherer, Victory Over the Sun has returned louder, bolder and jazzier. The album itself boasts three songs that exceed 10 minutes, but you wouldn’t know that if you listened to it blind. Each of the long tracks contains enough movements and changes that they feel like three or four songs jammed into one. More importantly, each song is fantastic. The guitar tone has all the subtlety of a backhoe, and spends most of its time burying the listener in a mound of feedback. The drumming mostly serves the guitar and vocals, but has moments of flash that keep the tracks flowing. What really stands out is the implementation of brass, strings and woodwinds. Specifically, the album features violin, accordion, trumpet, bass clarinet, and a tenor saxophone. These instruments are masterfully deployed on the third and fifth tracks to utterly unbalance you and remove you from any notion of safe footing. As with all great heavy music, the part where you’re at the mercy of the record is the best part.
Honorable Mentions:
Fire-toolz - I am upset because I see something that is not there
Genocide Organ, Prurient - Carte Blanche (Noise, not metal)
Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - Obsession Destruction (name your price on bandcamp)
NON-METAL ALBUMS
Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall
I have a policy of ignoring live albums because I only review new material. Live at Bush Hall gets a free pass as it collects the new songs that Black Country, New Road has created since the departure of their former lead singer Isaac. Live at Bush Hall compellingly wrestles with that departure. There are three different people taking over singing duties, and each performs admirably though May Kershaw serves as the standout on “Turbines/Pigs.” The record, despite the strange circumstances surrounding its creation, pushes the band forward while keeping the door open for fans of the band’s early work.
Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy
Young Fathers have been around for a minute now (I believe their first record was something I checked out in college) and this album finally capitalized on all the promise of their earlier work. It’s funky, danceable and carefree in a way that compels you to move. At times it evokes psych rock and at others drum music and even dream pop. It leaps all over the place while remaining sonically cohesive and joyous.
Gorgonn - Six Paths
The type of music Gorgonn makes is rarely present on this list. You could probably toss them into the IDM camp, though I’m sure a real subgenre expert could tell me otherwise. Sonically, it’s rhythm heavy, bassy dance music that would be at home in a dusty warehouse. What drew me to the album was the rougher edges. The production isn’t muddy but it has a rattliness to the bass and a bit of a rumble that exists even when you listen to it on underpowered IEM headphones. Six Paths splits the line between engaging and experimental, and lands exactly where I like to play.
Pile - All Fiction
Pile has mastered the art of a song that stays quiet and slow but has such menace it becomes heavy. With it being ever so slightly off putting, of course I like it. Some of my favorite tracks like “Forgetting” and “Link Arms” are both long, slow, dread-inducing songs that keep you looking over your shoulder while you wait for the song to explode. They never really do, but at times you can hear the bomb ticking somewhere in the walls, and that’s always scarier than the detonation.
Algiers - Shook
Just look at that list of features on the album cover. So many of those names have already appeared on these lists, so it was a foregone conclusion that Shook would land here. Truthfully, I don’t think Algiers needed the help. After hearing The Underside of Power I knew that this band would be one of the driving forces in the critical appreciation of rock music going forward, and I have been correct. Shook mixes more musical influences than they ever have before, and just about every song comes out clean, interesting and engaging.
Danny Brown & JPEGMAFIA - SCARING THE HOES
Part of me loves this album and then a smaller part of me thinks it’s unlistenable. The part of me that likes it thinks the elements that make it unlistenable are the best parts of it. That part of me is correct. If you love production that sounds like 600 ringtones going off in the background along with a heap of blown out bass, then this will hit for you. If you don’t like that, have found Danny Brown’s voice unpleasant, or dislike JPEGMAFIA’s subject matter, then there’s nothing on this album for you. Still, it wears its heart on its sleeve (just look at that album title and cover) and I respect that it goes for it then still hits the bullseye.
HMLTD - The Worm
The Worm is simultaneously less weird and much weirder than HMLTD’s debut album West of Eden (which was my favorite album of 2020). The weirder part first; the album is about worms, but not about worms, but definitely very much about worms. In short, every song mentions a worm in some way or another and the album connects tracks in strange and unexpected ways that redefine your perception of the worm in question. Now for the less weird portion; they approach the music in a much more digestible way than their debut did. The overly post-punk voice is tamed and made into something more approachable (not that I minded the voice). You can best hear it on “Saddest Worm Ever” which has a first half that you could dance to and a back half that would be strange coming from almost any band. What The Worm does to deserve placement on this list is combine a dozen musically compelling ideas and a dozen more thematically compelling ideas about power, fear, control and duty into a neat, appropriately long package that should earn them new fans while giving older fans something to enjoy.
Wednesday - Rat Saw God
Wednesday is foundational to the new rash of emo-country-tinged bands like Big Thief, and may have mastered the form with this record. We get plenty of country guitar twang and plenty of reverb. Even the lyrics split the difference by being sad, wistful, autobiographical and banal, which are hallmarks of both genres. If you’re going to listen to one song on this record, take the eight and a half minutes needed to get through “Bull Believer” which starts out as emo-country and manically devolves into a screaming fit crescendo. I bet you can guess which half of the song I like most.
Grave Pleasures - Plagueboys
I described this record to a friend as “a group of vampires listen to Bauhaus and 80s goth rock and make an album.” This description is extremely accurate. If you do not like goth rock, or sweaty people wearing too much black in a warehouse, then you will probably not like this album. I, personally, vibe with all those things, so I love this album. It boasts violent subject matter that teeters into the goofiness of an Evil Dead film. And much like the films of Sam Raimi, the gooey, self-referential love of this album is so sincere that it becomes a joyous feature rather than a clumsy bug.
Hot Mulligan - Why Would I Watch
Hot Mulligan’s screamy pop-punk emo never fails to delight me. So Why Would I Watch, predictably, delighted me. It may not reach the heights of you’ll be fine, (there’s something slightly lacking in terms of pop appeal that the other album had in droves) but its darkened and more aggressive approach comes with its own charms. The instruments have a renewed intensity and the vocals operate in a yelling space more than they don’t, and the math rock elements really pop to the forefront during the softer sections. The quality gap between these two albums exists in micrometers, so if you dug you’ll be fine you’ll dig Why Would I Watch.
Blawan - Dismantled into Juice
Much credit to my buddy Jack for putting me onto this album. I had never been very interested in dance or electronic music beyond the harsh experimental space and whatever Pitchfork said was good between 2012 and 2015. Seeing as I lack the vocabulary to really describe this style of music, my best attempt is this: Blawan masterfully jams together off-kilter organic sounds with heavily synthetic elements and enticing rhythms in a way that invites both physical movement and close listening. The sounds Blawan chooses aren’t like much I’ve heard before, which could speak to his unique nature or my own lack of knowledge in the genre, but I like it nonetheless. If this is one of the first stepping stones in my journey toward enjoying dance and electronic, then I’m stoked to take my next step.
Honorable Mentions:
Young Fathers and Algiers absolutely slap. I'll be adding TEETH and Victory Over the Sun to my queue immediately. Love Bell Witch but I haven't carved out enough time to really sit with the new one yet.
Fantastic write up! Really appreciate all the work that went into this.