The 2023 End of Year music lists thread

table otm across the board. i harbor no ill will for sufjan.

(and if we're being transparent here: i remember really enjoying seven swans for a while one summer about a decade ago. haven't played it since, but my memories of it are that it's a really nice album and anyone who made it should be proud.)

For me, Seven Swans and Age of Adz are streets ahead of the rest of his stuff.

even I like AOA!

will get around to the new one eventually

the opening track of the new one is very adz-y and there's lots of little adz-y touches throughout the whole album too, but it's nowhere near as full-on except for the opener

Anyway, Sufjan is Greek

You can be Greek and white.

Ik I was just being a dillhole

i have to just assume that illinois being kinda twee made austin incandescent with rage 18 years ago and he still hasn't recovered or heard anything else by sufjan since then

― ufo, Friday, 1 December 2023 18:35 (yesterday) link

Michigan actually but guilty, pretty much. Well, I heard the two songs in Call me by your name but every time I replay the tearful ending scene in my head, I replace the “visions of Gideon/is it a video?” one with ‘Janitor’ by Suburban Lawns.

lol not even close for me... 18 years ago i was living, eating, and breathing the field mice so if anything, he wasn't twee enough for my bitchass.

there are different varieties of twee, tho.

popbuzz Best Albums of 2023

https://www.popbuzz.com/music/features/best-albums-2023/

Maura Johnston approved Chappell Roan takes Album of the Year

1. Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

riyl 80s pop Madonna, Cyndi Lauper.

xxp but you're right that it isn't tweeness exactly that put me off him, more what i perceived as a kind of piety. it's also quite a drafty record (his voice is very breathy, he's good at notating gusts and flurries) and that can be grating as much as it can be alluring.. idk

like the danielson family were pious in a more overtly religious sense than sufjan, whose piety seemed mainly filial... and that's where his "milquetoast whiteness" becomes a problem for me, i think. because hearing a raving lunatic like deliver this kind of stuff comes across very differently to a boy-next-door

the only things there that are really consistent across sufjan's career are that his voice is breathy and he's religious, quite often more overtly than on michigan, but also often weirder about it

Love this Chappell Roan album! My favorite find from the year-end lists so far.

Dan Nigro's been a busy guy this year huh.

Sputnikmusic - Best Albums of 2023
https://www.sputnikmusic.com/topalbums.php

sputnikmusic is a user music ratings database similar to RYM, with a strong focus on Metal and Rock.

Top 200 Albums are ranked for 2023, currently Panopticon are number 1 with the album, The Rime of Memory.

Bandcamp

Panopticon - The Rime of Memory
https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/album/the-rime-of-memory

atmospheric black metal

Quietus Albums Of The Year 2023
https://thequietus.com/articles/33662-the-quietus-top-100-albums-of-2023-norman-records

The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2023

summary

1: Lankum – False Lankum
2: PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying
3: Teeth Of The Sea ­– Hive
4: La Nòvia – La Baracande
5: John Francis Flynn – Look Over The Wall, See The Sky
6: Musta Huone – Valosaasteen sekaan
7: Khanate – To Be Cruel
8: Abstract Concrete – Abstract Concrete
9: Danny Brown – Quaranta
10: Mariam Rezaei – BOWN
11: Shit And Shine – 2222 And Airport
12: The Inward Circles – Before We Lie Down In Darknesse
13: Brìghde Chaimbuel – Carry Them With Us
14: Slauson Malone 1 – Excelsior
15: Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective – *1
16: PoiL Ueda – PoiL Ueda
17: Bill Orcutt – The Anxiety Of Symmetry
18: La Tène – Ecorcha / Taillée
19: Surgeon – Crash Recoil
20: Babybaby_explores – Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow
21: Philip Jeck & Chris Watson – Oxmardyke
22: L'Rain – I Killed Your Dog
23: Shirley Collins – Archangel Hill
24: Lost Girls – Selvutsletter
25: Annelies Monseré – Mares
26: Gazelle Twin – Black Dog
27: Moundabout – An Cnor Mór
28: Apostille – Prisoners Of Love And Hate
29: MC Yallah – Yallah Beibe
30: James Ellis Ford – The Hum
31: Lunch Money Life – The God Phone
32: Nabihah Iqbal – Dreamer
33: Lisa O'Neill – All Of This Is Chance
34: UKAEA – Birds Catching Fire In The Sky
35: Hey Colossus – In Blood
36: Alexander Tucker & Keith Collins – Fifth Continent
37: Yaeji – With A Hammer
38: Aho Ssan – Rhizomes
39: Benefits – Nails
40: Nuovo Testamento – Love Lines
41: Kelela – Raven
42: Babau – Flatland Explorations Vol. 2
43: EP/64-63 – EP/64-63
44: ØXN – CYRM
45: Sleaford Mods – UK GRIM
46: JAAW – Supercluster
47: Skull Practitioners – Negative Stars
48: Raphael Rogiński – Tálan
49: Polobi & The Gwo Ka Masters – Abri Cyclonique
50: Enola Gay – Casement
51: Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden
52: Bell Witch – Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
53: Algiers – Shook
54: O Yama O – Galo
55: Ruth Anderson & Annea Lockwood – Tête-à-tête
56: KMRU – Dissolution Grip
57: Mendoza Hoff Revels – Echolocation
58: Fever Ray – Radical Romantics
59: James Holden – Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities
60: Billy Woods & Kenny Segal – Maps
61: Noname – Sundial
62: a.P.A.t.T. – We
63: Natalia Beylis – Mermaids
64: Cassandra Miller – Traveller Song / Thanksong
65: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Land Of Sleeper
66: Sourdurent – L'Herbe De Détourne
67: Flesh & The Dream – Choose Mortality
68: TORPOR – Abscission
69: Årabrot – Of Darkness And Light
70: Sparks – The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte
71: Yfory – Yfory
72: Mozart Estate – Pop-Up! Kerching! And The Possibilities Of Modern Shopping
73: Synthfreq – Vol. 1
74: Nihiloxica – Source Of Denial
75: House Of All – House Of All
76: One More Grain – Modern Music
77: Colin Stetson – When We Were That What Wept For The Sea
78: Nicky Wire – Intimism
79: Jellyskin – In Brine
80: Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter – SAVED!
81: Kevin Richard Martin – Black
82: Yossari Baby – Inferiority Complex
83: Zhao Cong – 55355
84: Stephen O'Malley & Anthony Pateras – Sept duos pour guitare acoustique & piano préparé
85: Spirit Possession – Of The Sign…
86: KASAI – J/P/N
87: Godflesh – Purge
88: Anjimile – The King
89: Moussa Tchingou – Tamiditine
90: DeVon Russell Gray / Nathan Hanson / Davu Seru – We Sick
91: MXLX – Saint
92: Maxo – Even God Has A Sense Of Humor
93: Dodo Resurrection II – A Treatise On Ceremonial Magic
94: The Stargazer's Assistant – Fire Worshipper
95: Rezzett – Meant Like This
96: John Zorn – Homenaje A Remedios Varo
97: ANOHNI And The Johnsons – My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
98: Oozing Wound – We Cater To Cowards
99: Niecy Blues – Exit Simulation
100: Call Super – Eulo Cramps

an unusually normal top 2 for the quietus!

There's some good stuff on that list that won't be on any other list. There's also a whole load of standard Quietus rubbish. But focusing on the positives, it's good to see Anjimile, Kristin Hayter, James Holden, Algiers and above all MXLX (who won't be on any lists save this one and my own) get props

The Quietus are absolute fiends for promoting their house favourites come what may. Maybe that's a nice thing. If I was in Teeth Of The Sea, Arabrot or Shit And Shine I'd certainly think so lol

Must be some mistake though as I can't see 'Gnod' in there. They must have somehow not released anything this year

Also, that House Of All is fucking rancid. Okay enough out of you lad

oh there's plenty of stuff i've never heard of as usual, at least a little of which should be worthwhile. just surprised at the top 2 being critical favourites for once

the Lankum album is almost precision-designed to win the Quietus AOTY tbf, and PJ Harvey is a sort of looming everpresence behind a lot of UK music (which I have to admit even as a non-fan)

if you want an insight into the parlous, awful state of UK art-rock and experimental atm though, surfing through this will give you some idea. we are dying out here

Good to see Oozing Wound on there. Everybody listen to Oozing Wound.

will give 'em a spin! as i say, i'll try a few not-heard-ofs out from that list just in case.

it always occurs to me that i'd probably be a fair candidate for a quietus contributor if i wasn't always so keen to torch all my bridges with them. DORAN. DORAN I WILL WRITE ABOUT CARDIACS WANNABE BANDS FOR YOU AND YOUR SILLY ZINE

Oozing Wound album is good. Thymme from Cheer-accident features on a few tracks!

the James Holden album was… not very interesting! Best records on there are the Surgeon, Gray/Hanson/Seru, and the Stetson.

The Jellyskin is sounding quite promising 2 tracks in

Upgrade that to 'awesome', bloody hell

At first John Francis Flynn's closing track, a cover of "Dirty Old Town" sounded hapless and made me laugh. Then Shane died and it pretty much represented what I felt.

Benefits - Nails includes a couple members of The Chapman Family, who's Burn Your Town (2011) I liked. But man, more of that shouty Sleaford Mods stuff is rough going. I guess some people find catharsis having someone on too much cocaine/alcohol ranting at their face, spittle flying. I prefer death metal. Or old Chicago faves Oozing Wound!

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-songs-2023/

delighted we are now at the point where "super shy" is top ten. definitely the wrong olivia rodrigo single in the top ten. still don't get what everyone hears in the second half of "a&w". finally another list with jim legxacy! how did they go for "needs" and not any of tinashe's absolutely brilliant tracks this year

NME TOP 50 songs

https://www.nme.com/features/music-features/best-songs-of-2023-3551141

Every eoy best songs lists so far looking very homogenic at the top and the interesting stuff at the low end.

Guardian, pitchfork, nme and rolling stone have almost the exact same songs in the top 20.

"A&W" deserving of the year's top spot, imo

MXLX (who won't be on any lists save this one and my own)

I actually haven't heard the new one yet, but as the one person who has repeatedly voted for Matt's work over the years, this reads verrrrry snobby to me. "Only I, imago, am visionary enough to understand this." Okay, well, just ignore me then!

Yeah like “A&W” but I’m suspicious of liking it now haha

Would love to see any lists that don’t look like they were paid off by the same 100 PR groups. Where do all the amateur music critics of the 00s homegrown blogs broadcast their taste these days?

Here.

I actually haven't heard the new one yet, but as the one person who has repeatedly voted for Matt's work over the years, this reads verrrrry snobby to me. "Only I, imago, am visionary enough to understand this." Okay, well, just ignore me then!

― emil.y, Monday, 4 December 2023 15:43 (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh I know you've been a fan! Just, this album had a totally botched and stupid release and I just assumed basically nobody had heard it because of this, it has 3 RYM ratings total! You should absolutely grab hold of it!

I did ramble on about it quite a lot a month ago to crickets :p

I mean the number of people I've tried to get to listen to his Won't album (about 20) rather exceeds the number who actually have (0), he's a hard sell!

There still some 00s blogs with great eoy selections:

Said the Gramophone, gorilla vs bear, raven sings the blues, aquarium drunkard…

Looking forward to the Boomkat lists

Really enjoying the a.P.A.t.T. album from the Quietus list. It's only taken them 20 years but they've made something that doesn't have me rolling my eyes (much). Full of great tunes even!

Love this Chappell Roan album! My favorite find from the year-end lists so far.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, December 3, 2023 12:35 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Dan Nigro's been a busy guy this year huh.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, December 3, 2023 12:40 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

seconded

this album had a totally botched and stupid release and I just assumed basically nobody had heard it because of this, it has 3 RYM ratings total! You should absolutely grab hold of it!

Aye, okay, that makes a lot more sense. Think I'm being massively oversensitive as well, so fair dos. I will seek it out.

The big question for me is whether all of ilx will hate me if I nominate five+ songs from this year's Eurovision for the EoY poll. It was a good year!

all good xp!

always up for eurovision nominations, think i even voted for one once without knowing it was eurovision (go_a)