For the first time since . . . well, maybe ever, I have nearly enough new music from the year that is about to end to thinking about doing a “best of the year” list. Or, maybe, an “everything I bought that was released this year” list. They’re gonna be about the same.
After the initial flush of radio-related music fandom back in the ‘70s, it really stopped being important to me whether music was “new” or not. With the exception of a few artists, I’ve never been one to excitedly wait for the latest album. In college, we got deeply into music from 15-20 years before, and I’ve never stopped filling in new discoveries that were released years (or decades) earlier. So for most of my records and CDs, the likelihood that I bought it the year it came out isn’t particularly high. And so the idea of doing a year-end review, which matters little to me anyway, has never made a lot of sense.
A couple of years ago I started getting meticulous with recording my new purchases, so I can report that, with a few days left to go in 2023, I gained 80 vinyl albums (plus one 12” single and four EPs) this year, plus a handful of CDs. Of those, 12 records and one CD were released for the first time this very year – but, four of the albums are compilations of songs from the past. They’re still among my favorites, so it would be unfair to exclude them from a “best of” list that is in fact an “all of” list.
I’m going to take these in absolutely no order.. So here’s what I acquired from 2023, that was released in 2023:
New in 2023
April March – April March Meets Staplin
I developed a minor obsession with April March last year over her wonderfully atmospheric “In Cinerama.” I knew absolutely zero about the French duo Staplin, but I knew I was excited for this April Record Store Day release, and I wasn’t wrong. It fits perfectly into a small collection of more atmospheric, ethereal and French-tinged pop that I’ve been developing for the past couple of years.
Bully – Lucky For You
I had no idea of Bully whatsoever until Shawn at Forever Changes was playing her (for it’s really a solo project by Alicia Bognanno), and I was really into it. It is a sorta hard, sorta soft post-punk sorta thing? I think so. There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of strength, a lot of anger. I really like it, so much so that I went back and got their 2020 release, Sugaregg, and have no regrets about that, either.
Flashcubes – Pop Masters
Flashcubes are absolute legends in the Syracuse music scene and the power pop scene, a touchstone for anyone who was around in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, and a band that in various forms has lived on for decades. It’s been absolutely delightful to see them not only continue to gain the respect and recognition they should have gotten way back when, but to hear them put out fun new material. In this case they’ve done an album of power pop covers – almost none of which I knew before – and it’s absolutely splendid.
On a side note, we recently held our 40th anniversary party, and one of my joys was getting to play with my kid, and sing with my college roommate, a song that The Flashcubes frequently performed – they said it was a Beatles cover, but it was obscure even by bootleg Beatles standards – “Soldier of Love.”
Florence & The Machine – Dance Fever Live At Madison Square Garden
I may love this live version better than the original “Dance Fever,” which is saying something. In addition to songs from “Dance Fever,” there are several classic Florence songs. The live recording is absolutely impeccable.
Jenny Lewis – Joy Y’all
I missed this one when I first posted this – but not because I haven’t played it all year long. Had no idea of Jenny Lewis until I discovered her through my kid, who discovered her through a friend. It shouldn’t really be my jam, but I find it quite nice to listen to. She manages to write some infectious hooks in some very subtle songwriting
Louise Post – Sleepwalker
I came a little late to the Veruca Salt party – I was aware of them in their heyday, but really became enamored of them quite a bit later, say in the 2008 or 9 period. Then, when they got back together and released an absolutely brilliant album in 2015, “Ghost Notes.” Well, this year, Louise Post suddenly announced a solo project (as well as being in another band, Veyls), but promised that Veruca Salt hadn’t broken up again. I could hardly pre-order this one fast enough – I don’t know, her songs just hit me right in the right spot, and I knew it would be good. And it is. If I were really doing a top albums of the year list, this would be in the Top 3. I’ve listened to it over and over and over. And in a year when I’ve bought in the neighborhood of 80 new albums, that’s saying something.
Speedy Ortiz – Rabbit Rabbit
It’s been a few years now since I became aware of a Philly-area band called Speedy Ortiz – and as a Love and Rockets (the comic book, not the band) fan, the name always jumped out at me. Speedy Ortiz was an important character who died early on in Jaime Hernandez’s Locas epic, and it seemed the naming couldn’t be an accidental coincidence. So I’d give a listen here and there, intrigued but not quite hooked. Then came the news that a new album, “Rabbit Rabbit,” was coming out this year, and with all the publicity creative force Sadie Dupuis was getting around that, I dove back in. People write a lot about Dupuis’s intimate lyrics and how personal all this is – and when I read the lyrics sleeve, I agree. But this is really more of a soundbath, with random lyrics emerging and then sinking back down into the overall mood of the record, and the music taking odd, interesting little turns. In part, that’s why it took me a minute to get into Speedy Ortiz – it’s hard to follow what’s going on lyrically – but it’s also why once I was in, I was all in. It’s an atmosphere, it’s a mood, and I do really dig it. As soon as I had gotten through Rabbit Rabbit, I ordered a reissue of their debut LP from 2011, “The Death of Speedy Ortiz,” which very much relates to the Locas stories, and then just picked up their 2013 release “Major Arcana.”
Worriers – Warm Blanket, Trust Your Gut
We discovered Worriers entirely by accident in 2017, opening for a beloved act (John K. Samson of The Weakerthans) at World Cafe Live, and were instantly wowed. Their music (and it’s really the work of Lauren DiNitzio) was a little outside my normal sound but somehow it really clicked. If the setlist on concertarchives.org is correct, they opened with “Glutton For Distance,” which had to have immediately hooked me.
Well, this year, Worriers released not one but two new albums, both I would say a little quieter than the past efforts, a little less noise and somewhat more mature, but no less compelling. I bought them both direct and they’ve both been in constant rotation. I’ll buy the next thing they do, and the one after that, too. It’s always good.
Sue Foley – Live In Austin Vol. 1
I got this a mere four days ago, but I’m quickly recovering from a long-term mistake. I used to just buy any Sue Foley CDs I found – and then for the longest time, I didn’t buy anything new from her. My last buy had been her 1998 “Ten Days In November,” and then I think I just didn’t see her stuff anymore, wasn’t really aware of her continuing releases, or whatever it was. Then this year I rediscovered her, getting her most recent and extremely excellent records “The Ice Queen” and “Pinky’s Blues” on vinyl. So this week when I was helping my local pusherman with his blues order, I was excited to see this in the order list, and he said, “Oh, that’s already in the bins!” So he put it on the speakers and I immediately ran to the bins and clutched it for dear life lest anyone else try to get it. (Not really a problem for us blues fans.) Recorded this very year, this record is hot, rocking electric blues with Sue Foley’s fiery guitar work and a band that sounds fantastic. Also, best new blues cover in a good long time – this just looks like a rocking good time. We both lamented that we had to miss a recent chance to see her play in Philly – but in our defense, it was on Halloween night, and Philly can be extra Philly sometimes.
Old in 2023
Eccentric Northern Soul
I don’t get up to Doylestown’s Siren Records very often – partly because it’s nearly an hour away, partly because it is an excursion that requires a budget and time because there is SO MUCH there. I saw this collection somewhere in the soul bins and, based on nothing other the fantastic cover and the fact that I didn’t know a single song on it, grabbed up both this and another “Eccentric” collection from Numero Group. This quickly became one of my most-played records of 2023 – over and over and over. Every track is a gem, all by artists completely unknown to me – Northern Soul being British acts of the ’60s and ‘70s, very little of which got across the pond. Nobody here knew “Tainted Love” until Soft Cell broke it in the ‘80s. Whenever I don’t know what I want to hear, this is what I play. And then I move on to:
Eccentric Deep Soul
Another Eccentric collection from Numero Group – it’s less dancey, or maybe just more slow-dancey, deep mournful soul records that, again, I have never heard before. It’s uniformly awesome.
Light In The Attic & Friends
This is an interesting collection of covers of songs that have previously appeared on revival label Light In The Attic. I hardly know any of the original songs, and am familiar with only a few of the covering artists, but it’s a splendid assortment of styles that makes for some very pleasant listening. Some of the songs are more than a decade old; some, including a lovely song from Barbara Lynn (of “You’ll Lose A Good Thing” fame), were recorded just last year. This was one of the few Record Store Day records that I actively sought out this year.
Written In Their Soul: The Hits – The Stax Songwriter Demos
As a Stax aficionado, one of the other RSD releases I was very excited for was this one, a condensation of a previous compilation of the demo versions of some of the incredible songs from Stax Records. The previous release had 146 songs, which is just too many to take on. This single-disc summary is about what I needed, and it’s proven to be a lovely low-key addition to Sunday morning soul sessions. Obviously, the songs are getting on toward 60 years old, but the record was a 2023 release, so it counts.
Fun list, thanks for doing it. Off to explore!!
As always, thanks for reading!