Bandcamp - The Best Experimental Music of 2023https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-experimental-music-of-2023
By Marc Masters
― djmartian, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 17:47 (nine months ago) link
Bandcamp - The Best Metal Albums of 2023https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-metal-albums-of-2023
― djmartian, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 17:51 (nine months ago) link
Stereogum’s 50 Favorite Songs Of 2023https://www.stereogum.com/2245293/best-songs-of-2023/lists/year-in-review/2023-in-review/
10 selections each by 5 writers
― djmartian, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 17:54 (nine months ago) link
Mapped By What Surrounded Them - 2023 Favorite Albumshttps://mappedbywhatsurroundedthem.blogspot.com/2023/12/2023-favorite-albums.html?spref=tw
50 albums ranked
1. Model/Actriz - Dogsbody
― djmartian, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 18:36 (nine months ago) link
Australian radio station, Double J
Double J - The 50 best albums of 2023https://www.abc.net.au/listen/doublej/music-reads/features/50-best-albums-of-2023/103191268
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/2181-double-js-50-best-albums-of-2023/
1. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
― djmartian, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 18:43 (nine months ago) link
EOY lists are really overwhelming aren't they. Usually I would check the ones that are somehow aligned with my taste in search of discoveries, but the next year I can't remember which they were, and then it seems everyone and their grandmother have a list, or even two or three: overall list, reader's lists, individual lists, genre lists, lists with a theme, radio lists, song lists, and I can't know if it is a good or bad sign when an album appears on several. Not that I depended on them, it was always rather the pleasure of looking for confirmation bias, but this lack of authority / authoritativeness is deeply disturbing.
― Nabozo, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 18:47 (nine months ago) link
It's wild to think there was a time in like 2000 where SPIN would drop a list of 20 album and I would go "Man, I gotta check out that Quasimoto album" and now there's like 20 billion sites all doing Top 100 lists and nobody cares about any of it
― The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 12 December 2023 19:40 (nine months ago) link
One thing that's really fascinating to me is how these sites def are trying to court younger audiences by contending with, say, K-pop and drill and Latin trap and 100 Gecs but really refuse to deviate from the Boomer brain of "media outlets," the Gen X brain of "internet articles" and the Millennial brain of "listicles."
― The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 12 December 2023 19:45 (nine months ago) link
The Vice lists of years past always blew my mind because I’d never heard of anyone on them, even in passing.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 12 December 2023 19:49 (nine months ago) link
Stereogum’s 50 Favorite Songs Of 2023
FYI I have been writing one of Stereogum's most popular monthly columns for seven years now and have never been asked to vote in their album or song polls. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Tuesday, 12 December 2023 20:49 (nine months ago) link
idk digging through eoy lists is great, i always find some gems i hadn't heard previously
― ufo, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 22:02 (nine months ago) link
NPR songs (123)
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/12/1215355752/best-songs-2023
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 12 December 2023 22:18 (nine months ago) link
As always, just as list fatigue starts setting in, Raven Sings the Blues shows how it's done right.
https://www.ravensingstheblues.com/2023-favorites/
― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 05:45 (nine months ago) link
Reissues
https://www.ravensingstheblues.com/2023-favorite-reissues/
― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 05:52 (nine months ago) link
the Financial Times best pop albums of the year (unranked)
The Chemical Brothers: For That Beautiful FeelingLana Del Rey: Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean BlvdJonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa: Jarak QaribakKelela: RavenLankum: False LankumNation of Language: Strange DiscipleRyuichi Sakamoto: 12Sampha: LahaiPaul Simon: Seven PsalmsKali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus
https://www.ft.com/content/56529cee-c132-4da7-9501-5fcdaa6fad99
― soref, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 09:11 (nine months ago) link
lol, pvmic
since when did the ft start doing unranked indexes
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Wednesday, 13 December 2023 09:21 (nine months ago) link
aquarium drunkard, RA and NPR lists are ususally good listens
will check out the p4k rap list too
but yeah, it is pretty overwhelming
safe to say more music is released and written abt every year?
― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 11:34 (nine months ago) link
idk digging through eoy lists is great, i always find some gems i hadn't heard previously― ufo, Tuesday, December 12, 2023 11:02 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
That would mean opening and working through the lists and it sounds like that would take a lot of time and create some sort of Stockholm syndrome
― Nabozo, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 12:42 (nine months ago) link
DJ Mag’s top albums of 2023https://djmag.com/features/dj-mags-top-albums-2023
In 2023, electronic music artists around the world used long-form works to showcase both range and specialism. DJs and producers best known for club-ready works explored personal themes through dream-pop, jazz and ambient, while others returned to the dancefloor with renewed vitality. Among fusions of hip-hop, amapiano, dub, dancehall and R&B we had dialled-in demonstrations of jungle, techno and deep house at their purest. Here, DJ Mag contributors select their personal favourite albums of the year, offering an unranked overview of the sounds that made the past 12 months so memorable for electronic music in all its forms
― djmartian, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 12:43 (nine months ago) link
I think this is where the ILM EOY playlists are helpful.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 13 December 2023 12:50 (nine months ago) link
The Best Pop Music of 2023https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-pop-music-2023/
Opulent disco-pop, R&B hook-up jams, raging hot-mess anthems: These are the songs and albums that defined the year in pop music
TAGSBEST OF 2023100 GECSAMAARAEASAKEOLAMIDEAVALON EMERSONCARLY RAE JEPSENCAROLINE POLACHEKCHAPPELL ROANCHARLI XCXCHRISTINE AND THE QUEENSEASYFUNFEVER RAYJESSIE WAREKALI UCHISKELELAKYLIE MINOGUELANA DEL REYLIV.EMARÍA JOSÉ LLERGOMURA MASAELECTRONICPOP/R&BEXPERIMENTAL
― djmartian, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 13:26 (nine months ago) link
DAZED The 20 best tracks of 2023https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/61561/1/the-20-best-tracks-of-2023-pinkpanthress-icespice-eartheater
Spotify playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/4r7smCV42VU8KABfz5tzJh
recommended listening:
totally blissed out brilliance riyl insides, laika, one dove
14. JAMES K & HOODIE, “SCORPIO”
There’s something very special about “Scorpio” that I can’t really pinpoint. The track, a collaboration between New York artist James K and Hoodie, is a sleepy trip-hop ballad that stays with you in a way that cradles you at your core. In a dream but still wide awake, drifting into digital fragments and buried deep in a memory somewhere. James K’s ethereal vocals are otherworldly and puts me in the kind of wistful mood that you find yourself in when travelling to distant places, led by the beautiful refrain: “So let it go, don’t be a cell to yourself.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX6QWmGxCiE
― djmartian, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 13:40 (nine months ago) link
Listening to new music does indeed take time. While many here are up to the task, I can understand that some don't want to spend the time populating a playlist, looking at the artist's Bandcamp and RYM pages, circling back to reviews, etc. Of all my network of personal friends who are lifelong music geeks, I only know of a couple who bother. I do it so they don't have to, and in my year-end summary I include separate lists with clusters of subgenres to help those looking for certain sounds and styles.
Currently I'm working through the RSTB, as nearly half are new to me. The last two are both Chicago based projects on Drag City that I slept on, the experimental ambient folk of BCMC (Cooper Crain and Bill MacKay) and Axis: Sova. This blurb had my attention: "The fuzz that surrounded the band in the past is burned away with an acid splash of neon glow and chrome glare. Sova brought a vision of Devo, Wire, and Toni Visconti to Segall’s studio door, but the band have also burrowed deep into the android heart of Tubeway Army’s sound, scratching deep into their cauterized soul. Further into the caustic creep of the album, the band slides a few slices of Magazine, Soft Boys, Twinkeyz, and Simply Saucer into the synapses as well."
― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 13:54 (nine months ago) link
Abysmal Hymns - the Top 10 Hardcore Albums of 2023http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-top-10-hardcore-albums-of-2023.html
highly recommended
3- Svalbard - "The Weight of the Mask"
track from the album
SVALBARD - How To Swim Down (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd5hh2BfsMM
expansive euphoric ethereal
― djmartian, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 14:02 (nine months ago) link
James K song was also on Crack’s list. Great song very trip hop revival.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 13 December 2023 14:49 (nine months ago) link
happy to see the sam goku record on a list (dj mag) (i discovered it from tim f's list)
― ivy., Wednesday, 13 December 2023 15:30 (nine months ago) link
― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, December 13, 2023 7:54 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
I'm guessing a lot of us here play this role in our social circles
― Indexed, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 15:58 (nine months ago) link
I do but most of my friends are the “only 12 records in my collection” sort of folk. The ones who are more curious have wildly differing taste from my own so it’s fun when we do find an album or artist that we both love but it’s becoming more uncommon as we grow older.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 13 December 2023 16:03 (nine months ago) link
Marissa Moss and Natalie Weiner's top country songs and albums of the year:
https://dontrocktheinbox.substack.com/p/issue-35-our-favorite-songs-and-albumshttps://www.stereogum.com/2244742/the-10-best-country-albums-of-2023/lists/year-in-review/2023-in-review/
― Indexed, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 17:05 (nine months ago) link
That Doc Watson Tribute album that Weiner put at number 1 is excellent. https://iamapilgrim.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-a-pilgrim-doc-watson-at-100
― Indexed, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 17:07 (nine months ago) link
Best Jazz of 2023 (Stereogum)
I wrote this, and also got 18 artists to contribute their favorite albums of the year. Surprised by how many other jazz players loved Meshell Ndegeocello's album (which I admit I didn't even listen to).
― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Wednesday, 13 December 2023 17:54 (nine months ago) link
Love the format. Didn't know about that Hargrove record, and now I'm checking out the Koma Saxo since I didn't know anything about it. It can be hard to find the right line once you start overtly chopping and editing live takes like this but so far it's done really well.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Wednesday, 13 December 2023 18:08 (nine months ago) link
The 50 best metal albums of 2023 - as voted by the readers of Metal Hammerhttps://www.loudersound.com/features/fan-voted-best-metal-albums-of-2023
― djmartian, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 18:14 (nine months ago) link
That Doc Watson Tribute album that Weiner put at number 1 is excellent.https://iamapilgrim.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-a-pilgrim-doc-watson-at-100
― Indexed, Wednesday, December 13, 2023 11:07 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Should have mentioned that this features a number of ILM favorites: Jeff Parker, Yasmin Williams, Rosanne Cash, Dolly Parton, Steve Earle, Bill Frisell...
― Indexed, Wednesday, 13 December 2023 18:58 (nine months ago) link
...yeah, that Koma Saxo is so good...
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Wednesday, 13 December 2023 23:31 (nine months ago) link
The Wire's Releases of the Year 2023https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/the-wire-s-releases-of-the-year-2023
― irerisered, Thursday, 14 December 2023 06:02 (nine months ago) link
had missed the new Fire! Orchestra album
listening now, sounds great
they are a thrill live
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 14 December 2023 08:07 (nine months ago) link
Clash - Albums Of The Year 2023https://www.clashmusic.com/features/albums-of-the-year-2023/
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/2192-clashs-albums-of-the-year-2023/
1. Sampha – Lahai
― djmartian, Thursday, 14 December 2023 14:51 (nine months ago) link
I listened to that Doc Watson tribute a ton early in the year.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Thursday, 14 December 2023 15:12 (nine months ago) link
Resident Advisor Top Albums 2023
https://ra.co/features/4293
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 14 December 2023 15:26 (nine months ago) link
speaking of country ... Bandcamp's best country (and "country-ish") of 2023:
https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-country-music-of-2023
― alpine static, Thursday, 14 December 2023 17:04 (nine months ago) link
the fader's songs of the year: https://www.thefader.com/2023/12/14/100-best-songs-2023
― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili), Thursday, 14 December 2023 17:40 (nine months ago) link
Raven Sings the Blues - albums
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 15 December 2023 14:33 (nine months ago) link
part 3 from Cardiff based, GIITTV
GIITTV: Albums of the Year for 2023, 25-1https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2023/12/15/giittv-albums-of-the-year-for-2023-25-1/
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/2203-god-is-in-the-tvs-albums-of-2023/
1. Corrine Bailey Rae – Black Rainbows
― djmartian, Friday, 15 December 2023 17:29 (nine months ago) link
MAGNET, is this magazine/ music website still going, trad indie rock incoming...
MAGNET's Top 25 Albums of 2023https://magnetmagazine.com/2023/12/14/magnets-top-25-albums-of-2023/https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/2200-magnets-top-25-albums-of-2023/
1. Guided by Voices - Nowhere to Go But Up
― djmartian, Friday, 15 December 2023 17:34 (nine months ago) link
Not to be too pedantic, but technically Magnet listed all three 2023 GBV albums as their #1.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 15 December 2023 17:36 (nine months ago) link
Bandcamp - The Best Electronic Music of 2023By Joe Muggs·https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-electronic-music-of-2023
― djmartian, Friday, 15 December 2023 17:42 (nine months ago) link
Complex - The Best Albums Of 2023From smooth R&B projects to hard-hitting rap albums and an unexpected project that made its way to the top—these are Complex’s picks for the best albums of 2023.https://www.complex.com/music/a/j-mckinney/best-albums-2023
1. Gunna, A Gift & A Curse
― djmartian, Friday, 15 December 2023 17:45 (nine months ago) link
Wow, Magnet has Blondshell at #2, that's cool
― This field is required (morrisp), Friday, 15 December 2023 17:48 (nine months ago) link
Guardian : best vinyl album covershttps://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2023/nov/29/the-best-vinyl-album-covers-of-2023
Exclaim! : worst album covershttps://exclaim.ca/music/article/exclaim_worst_album_covers_of_2023
Find it funny that there are albums that appear on both lists. That said Guardian’s list is pretty bad.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 15 December 2023 19:06 (nine months ago) link