What a year for the site and for music. Within the genres I listen to, I wouldn’t say there was anything significant that happened.
In the world of metal… Floor had another baby. Mike Portnoy rejoined Dream Theater. What else? Musically speaking, it seems like the metal genre (and its sub-genres) are content to keep things status quo for now. I’m not sure what needs to happen for that to change, and I’m sure there are some ground breaking bands out there, but I didn’t hear them. We can chalk that up to age and apathy, I’m assuming.
Industrial is pretty much a dead genre with nothing truly significant being released — and Skinny Puppy did their final tour before calling it quits.
As for indie pop… I don’t really track that genre, I just stumble across albums I enjoy from time to time, so NSTR.
As for the website, we’ve gone ahead and stuck some more duct tape over another hole in an attempt to keep it functional. So, pay no attention to the corpse behind the curtain.
As always, these were my favorite albums of the year regardless of originality, impact on any genre, or any other superfluous qualifier. The only thing that mattered was how much I personally enjoyed it.
“The General” is, in every conceivable way, a disaster of epic proportions. Yet, if there’s one thing this relic is exceptional at, it’s brazenly highlighting everything wrong with Guns N’ Roses in 2023. For those who forgot, didn’t know, or are simply caught up in the moment while the years pass them by, Slash and Duff rejoined Guns N’ Roses way back in 2016. At the time, for any long-serving Guns N’ Roses fan, I can imagine the reunion being a joyous occasion for them – having daydreams of the band writing new music together and playing solid shows with a formidable greatest hits setlist – but in the seven years gone by, the band have only managed to produce a “reworked” version of “Shadow of Your Love” (a B-side from 1987, made into a single to promote the 2018 Appetite for Destruction boxset), and four Chinese Democracy-era archive tracks, all of which feel as though they hit the cutting room floor for a reason. On top of the poor creative output – or lack thereof – the band’s live shows have suffered immeasurably in recent years, with a gasping, overweight Axl Rose now sounding like Mickey Mouse on his death bed. Nevertheless, to drive the point home, by going back to the meagre amount of recorded slop served thus far from this current line-up, while “Hard Skool” and “Absurd” retain subtle aspects of the classic GNR sound – albeit not enough to make the tracks any…
Young Fathers have never shied away from jubilation — see “Nest”, “Only God Knows”, and even Tape Two‘s cover art — but it’s never been as transparent as it is on Heavy Heavy. This album is joyful, heartfelt, affirming, powerful, and overwhelmingly sincere, miles past the conversation of irony at this point. It’s the sound of your second wind as you near the end of the longest hike you’ve ever been on, a mix of accomplishment, vigor and encouragement. Like their previous work, it incorporates a variety of genres and styles, a sort of psychedelic, noisy, and spiritual pop. It seems this may be a pivotal moment in their artistic evolution, as the bleeding and passionate heart of their music is no longer just being used to create a beautifully contrasting emotional dichotomy, but has taken over entirely, spinning all their previously identifiable influences into an even more unclassifiable tornado of percussion, keyboards, and particularly the human voice. Even their hooks have gotten stronger, with each song demonstrating masterful pop instincts, filled with rhythms that you’ll wish were stuck in your head for even longer.
None of this means that they have lost their edge. Just because this is the Young Fathers project you could probably play in front of your parents with the least complaints doesn’t mean the music isn’t fighting for something. What it means…
Looking back on this year’s biggest highlights, it’s apparent to me the folk genre has resonated the loudest with a handful of truly exemplary albums — all disparate in approach, but equal in their excellence. And so, with 2023 putting a spotlight on just how incredible this genre is, it seems only fitting that the Finnish legends should return and put their two-cents in on the matter. Serendipitously, I started listening to Tenhi in the same year the band decided to break their twelve-year recorded silence, affording me just enough time to get familiar with their incredible discography. To my surprise, given the length of time the band have been away from recording new music, Valkama effortlessly slots into the canon with minimal disruptions. This is because Valkama isn’t here to ruffle the status quo, but rather astutely refine the band’s modus operandi. Ultimately, it’s a tight discussion on whether this is better than Maaaet, but regardless of the hair-splitting, a band couldn’t hope to come back with a better-sounding album. Valkama‘s lush instrumentation, poignant atmosphere and gripping arrangements make it a stellar piece of work, but add Tenhi’s inimitable personality into the equation and you’ve got a very unique offering indeed. Valkama does have a couple of conditions in order to get the most from it — being that it’s seventy minutes long, and has to be heard in its…
At the start of this decade, The National went through a rough patch, struggling with the new material they were working on. Perhaps those difficult times led to the placidness of First Two Pages of Frankenstein, but in hindsight, it was a necessary step in order to shake things off. As a result, Laugh Track, whose songs were mostly finished and recorded on tour at a much faster pace, ended up more diverse and energetic. The album doesn’t carry the heavy load its predecessor got almost crushed under. It’s the most alive The National have felt in years, and it feels like the members are excited again to work together on new music. –insomniac15
Frenetic tremolo picking, shotgun-sounding snare alongside cataclysmic blast beats, and guttural malevolence are ubiquitous throughout Fossilization’s premier LP. A logical progression from the Brazilian duo’s first EP and subsequent split release with Ritual Necromancy, those favoring the ‘death doom’ side of the spectrum will enjoy “Once Was God”‘s hostile opening deluge and the equitable balance of melody and malice found in “Oracle of Reversion” and Leprous Daylight‘s title track. Meanwhile, listeners preferring a ‘doom death’ alignment will appreciate the sludgy dissonance heard in “Eon” and especially “Wrought in the Abyss”‘ closing moments. An…
Coming off the back of SowingSeason’s excellent ‘Let’s Get Physical’ series, I thought I’d commandeer it for a little bit and add a few additions of my own to the Sput collection – largely because collecting physical media is something I’m very passionate about, but also because I want to highlight to people who aren’t all that familiar with CDs, vinyl and other forms of great merchandise, just how creative and interesting they can be. I come from an ancient era where you had to walk around to your local retailer and pay £10-£20 for the album you desired most. As you can imagine, after meeting the archaic prerequisites, you’re compelled to wear the hell out of the CD you just bought, simply because of the effort and funds that went into attaining the record. As Sowing has touched upon in previous segments; consumption of music in 2023 is done so with relative indifference, as music enthusiasts are afforded the luxury of gorging on dozens of new albums a week for free, or for a small fee a month. And while I am as guilty as the next person for doing this, I make a concerted effort to support the artists I like by buying a CD, record, T-shirt or whatever it may be – partly because it helps the artist/band out, but also because there is no greater feeling than owning the physical release. Holding the artwork and putting on the album is a wonderful experience in itself, but…
Welcome back the site’s most cold-blooded annual honour call of congratulatory fluff!
Intro!
The year is about to end: it is time for new JAWs. I don’t know what JAW stands for. It is a new and deeply prestigious award – so much so that 2022 saw just one (!) JAW awarded, for best debut This was because I was too busy screaming into a paper bag last year about how many quality records had come out to pull up my gloves and choose which ones to reward (unless they were from fresh meat). It was a great year!
2023 is an altogether different story: an abundance of chaff and my own arbitrarily higher motivation levels have sustained six (!) JAWs this year! Find out what these are overcompensating for on literally every other year-end list (including the one I will inevitably publish later), but for now get yourselves set for: folk record, pop record, metal record, [[hard/metal/]] grind -corerecord, banger record and EP of the year. There will be no AOTY winner drawn from a pool exclusively made up of LPs because I have just enough grey matter to recognise what a silly idea this is and has always been. There will be no AOTY winner drawn from a pool including all formats because I’ll be dropping an exhaustive year-ranking as a list later – so no redundant double-posts!…
It’s that time once again for you to have your say: voting is now open for the Top 50 LPs of 2023 community feature!
As in years past, we will also be including EPs/Live Albums/Compilations in a separate category.
This will be the first year we’re going to try to pull this off without the forums, so thank you for your patience in learning to love Google forms (where you no longer have to follow that complicated underscore system!).
Ballots will be open for approximately two weeks (a projected cut-off date of Thursday, December 28th around 11:59PM ET).
LP Ballot Rules
If you would like to submit an LP ballot, please review the guidelines before submitting your ballot officially (it’s not a race!):
Your ballot must have exactly 10 LPs on it (please note that the ballot asks for the album name first and not the artist!)
You are allotted 100 points to divvy up across your 10 LPs
Some users liked 10 albums equally, so they’ll assign 10 points to 10 LPs
Some users choose to assign more points to their favorite LPs on the year
The maximum number of points that can be assigned to any one LP is 30
The minimum number of points that can be assigned to any one LP is 1
These are whole-number votes, so do not worry about fractions or irrational numbers
‘Sufjan Stevens is the Picasso of indie folk. He takes the soothing NPR/car commercial sounds we know and love for their warmth and familiarity and says “Nope” and farts in our faces.’ – V. Dreth
Sufjan Stevens is indeed the most ubiquitous, evasive, phlegmatic chameleon of our times (the indie ones), and represents many a thing to many a chum. To Pangea, he represents comfort and joy. To Pheromone, he represents balance and gay. To johnnyoftheWell and MarsKid, he represents being sick to death of the press circuit around which his latest effort Javelin is still running many a lap in this limpest of years. Now, KILL or KEEP has always been about pluralism (usually in the form of severe fucking death), and as a result we are going in! Into Illinois! Everyone has something to say about this one: the songs are endless, the possibilities are infinitesimal and the classic status is, yes sure okay you get it. What will our takeaways be? Will we sync or swim (in the Maynardian sense) as a team? Only Sufjan has the answers…
Rules
The team is johnnyoftheWell and MarsKid and Pangea and Pheromone.
Every song must either be KILLed or KEEPed.
There is no minimum KILL threshold.
Every time a song is KILLed, the KILLer must name a location that Sufjan Stevens should have…
Well, it’s that time of year again when I compose a needlessly elaborate blog post highlighting my favorite (and least favorite) musical happenings of the year. You and your extended family know it as Sowing’s Music Awards, and it’s been an on-and-off tradition for NINE years now, thus proving that I do not quite have the quality of life I thought I did. Take a gander at the past winners, all of whom have been enshrined in immortality:
2014 – Low Roar: 0
2015 – Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell
2016 – Yellowcard: Yellowcard
*2017 – Manchester Orchestra: A Black Mile to the Surface
2018 – mewithoutYou: [Untitled]
2019 – Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell!
*2020 – Honey Harper: Starmaker
2021 – Iosonouncane: IRA
*2022 – Domestic Terminal: All The Stories Left to Tell
*Denotes AOTYs on years when the SMAs did not formally take place.
WHO will take home the coveted AOTY trophy in 2023 and join such esteemed company? Scroll down to find out, but don’t forget to wipe as you read along, seeing as our data analysis team has determined that bathroom breaks are the best (and most symbolically congruent) time for reading…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the entire month of December 2023. These releases have been condensed into one post as, historically at least, December is a slower time for new musical releases. In the meanwhile, our staff will be working on compiling their highly anticipated “Top Albums of 2023” feature, so stay tuned to see what we anoint as the album of the year. With regards to the below releases, please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums. From our staff and userbase to you, we wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy holiday season. We’ll see you in January!
– List of Releases: December 1, 2023 –
Bjørkø: Heartrot
Genre: Metal/Experimental Label: Svart Records
CZARFACE: Czartificial Intelligence
Genre: Hip-Hop Label: Silver Age
Full of Hell and Nothing: When No Birds Sang
Genre: Hardcore/Shoegaze Label: Closed Casket Activities
Health: Rat Wars
Genre: Noise Rock/Electronic Label: Loma Vista
Neil Young: Before And After
Genre: Folk/Rock/Country Label: Reprise
Here’s a list of notable new releases for the week of November 24th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: November 24th, 2023 –
Burden Of Grief: Destination Dystopia Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Massacre Records
I’ve been listening to Chris Whitley for more than 20 years. At first, I was resistant to enjoying his music — how ridiculous we can be. I was in my early 20s, and I met a lanky guy who had grown up in international schools, and had a penchant for open tunings. He spoke in a soft American accent, he played guitar brilliantly, and he was outrageously cool. He leant me a record called Living with the Law and I scoffed at it. The man on the cover looked trapped in that weird, out-of-touch crossroads hangover between the ’80s and the ’90s. At the time, I was discovering indie music — and this seemed the anathema to it. I mocked it, tossed it aside, and dug my heels with immature abandon.
However, I had listened to it. And after hearing it a few times, the hooks were in. The title track truly is one of the great openers of the ’90s — grudgingly, I could not deny the pockets of beauty in the space created by those soft, chalky chord changes. The voice sounds as if it comes from a wagon trail, a passenger exiting a taxi, a shortwave radio, a factory PA, or a campfire hidden in an unending canvas of pine trees. Chris Whitley sounds of the city and the country, and of any age.
Whitley never achieved much fame beyond that album; he always…
Sufjan Stevens has long since passed the point in his career where anything he makes is inevitably going to be discussed in terms of how it relates to his previous works, and given Stevens’ status as one of the rare truly prolific artists to emerge in the last few decades, as well as one of the most lauded, that’s a hell of a lot of material for a new release to stack up to. Yet Javelin does so effortlessly, and already seems destined to reach a similar status as Stevens’ consensus classics. On first brush, both in terms of its sound and in the context of the multiple tragedies that Stevens experienced in the months leading up to its release, the album seems clearly to be a follow-up to his 2015 indie folk masterwork Carrie and Lowell. And this is true, in a way, but further analysis reveals Javelin to have its own identity, even if pretty much every idea it presents has been explored by Stevens at some point in his career. While this is, at heart, a folk album, with most songs featuring prominent acoustic lines as their primary grounding, alongside Stevens’ personal (and often heartbreaking) lyrics and vocals, the reality is more complicated. Most of these songs build gradually over the course of their runtimes, adorned by lush arrangements complemented by electronics which end up dominating significant portions of the tracks, as well as gorgeous, reflective ambient passages. Never as bombastic as much…
Here’s a list of significant new releases for the week of November 17th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: November 17th, 2023 –
Aeternus: Philosopher Genre: Death/Black Metal Label: Agonia
Celeste: Epilogue(s) Genre: Black Metal/Hardcore Label: Nuclear Blast
Ceremonial Bloodbath: Genesis Of Malignant Entropy Genre: Death/Black Metal Label: Sentient Ruin
Danny Brown: Quaranta Genre: Hip-Hop/Experimental Label: Warp
Earthside: Let The Truth Speak Genre: Progressive Rock/Metal Label: Mascot Label Group
Emeli Sandé: How Were We To Know Genre: Pop/Soul/R&B Label: Venus Records
Kurt Vile: Back to Moon Beach Genre: Folk/Americana Label:overnite kv incorporated
Iron & Wine: Who Can See Forever Soundtrack Genre: Indie-Folk/Americana Label: Sub Pop
Julie Byrne: Julie Byrne With Laugh Cry Laugh Genre: Folk/Psychedelic Label: Ghostly International
Lacey Sturm: Kenotic Metanoia Genre: Pop Rock/Hard Rock Label: Lacey Sturm
Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz: Welcome 2 ColleGrove Genre: Hip-Hop Label: Polyvinyl
MAUL: Desecration And Enchantment Genre: Death Metal/Hardcore Label: 20 Buck Spin
