Ranking 2023 Albums rev'd by me
Well, it's been a busy year for writing, 25 reviews of new albums, many of which I've at least somewhat changed my thoughts on since I've written about them. So here, I present a ranking of those albums I've written about this year, mostly material that might otherwise have fallen through the cracks, but much of which I think is at least worth your attention. Some brilliant stuff as well, albums that it's been nothing but a privilege to write about. Here's to another year of discovering, writing and reading. |
| 25 |  | Anne-Marie
Unhealthy
Rating then: 2.0
Rating now: 2.5
I may have been too harsh on this, but only slightly. The general sput-consensus is that this wasn’t quite as bad as I made it out to be, and recent listening has me slightly thawing on this mid-ass piece of sleazy generic dance-pop. It’s a’ight. But just barely. Fuck the poptimists (but love ya guys). |
| 24 |  | Earth
Even Hell Has Its Heroes (OST)
Rating Then: 2.5
Rating Now: 2.5
This is still exactly what it was at the beginning of the year: One of metal’s most iconic acts stumbling around like a poleaxed ox, trying to remember how to be heavy. Glimpses of glory notwithstanding, it’s an empty slog throughout that still has a hint of the spirit of past glories. |
| 23 |  | '68
Yes, and...
Rating Then: 3.0
Rating Now: 2.5
In a year of 3 reviews, this is probably the most disappointing. Brushing this band’s glory days, while never really reaching them and slogging through mealymouthed rehash after mealymouthed rehash. Scogin has never sounded this lifeless, added to the frequently lukewarm instrumentation and flat production, and you have the biggest whiffed shot of the year. You know what, it probably earns a bump down, if only because we all know how much more Scogin is capable of. |
| 22 |  | Iggy Pop
Every Loser
Rating Then: 3.0
Rating Now: 3.0
Not much to say about this one, the highs are still high, the lows (especially the lyrics, good god) are abysmal, and all-in-all this pays fitting tribute but never quite recaptures any of the janky genius of early-mid career Iggy. |
| 21 |  | Bizarrekult
Den Tapte Krigen
Rating Then: 3.0
Rating Now: 3.0
Hearing this again had me on the fence about giving it a bump to 3.5. There’s a lot that’s charming here and the band does a great job maintaining it throughout, I just can’t get onboard with this middle of the road post-black-metal insipidity. And I almost hate that fact because it’s a fine album in its own right. But it’s pine-tree wrist tattoo BM and that I just cannot get behind. |
| 20 |  | Young Fathers
Heavy Heavy
Rating Then: 4.0
Rating Now: 3.0
This fell off crazy hard for me with time, only reason I still have it is that my kids like it. With that essentially goes my hope that they can make the album I always thought they could. Somehow this band ends up for me as a semi-interesting take on a mix of styles that never says anything that really means anything. |
| 19 |  | Merzbow
CATalysis 猫媒
Rating Then: 3.0
Rating Now: 3.0
THis was kind of the year where I gave Merz more of a chance, brushing aside a lot of the disdain that both the seasoned noise-heads and the genre tourists have for his music. And I’ve found a lot of worthy material in there, some of which I’d put near the very top of my list of favorite noise albums. But this, like much of Merzbow, wasn’t quite up to snuff. Merzbow’s still a king of texture in the noise scene, but there just isn’t enough here to justify itself. |
| 18 |  | Dropkick Murphys
Okemah Rising
Rating Then: 3.5
Rating Now: 3.0
Ok, I still have a lot of nostalgia for this band and this album is better than anything they’ve done in a while, but I did kind of get too hyped up on that fact alone. There’s still hints of the glory days and it’s overall solid, but it really doesn’t measure up to anything they were doing in their first couple decades. The fact that it’s all propped up by the incomparably better songwriting of Guthrie only sort of helps matters. |
| 17 |  | Takacs Quartet
Hough, Dutilleux & Ravel: String Quartets
Rating Then: 3.5
Rating Now: 3.0
Coming back to this was quite the disappointment.The Hough quartet is somehow more insipid than I remember and the other quartets have way better recordings elsewhere. A fun idea from one of the most talented string quartets working that just doesn’t quite get off the ground. |
| 16 |  | Unknown Mortal Orchestra
V
Rating Then: 3.0
Rating Now: 3.0
Again, like, like the vibe of this thing, like it as background music, but it’s just such a surface level vibe and a hard falloff from their earlier work, which I only moderately appreciate. It’s nice, nice, very nice, but just not much more than that, and I really don’t see that changing any time soon. |
| 15 |  | Colter Wall
Little Songs
Rating Then: 3.0
Rating Now: 3.0
I thought about bumping this up a .5 on a relisten, I really did. This does a lot of what I like about country really well, and if I were to listen to this album in a total vacuum, I’d probably like it quite a bit more. As it is, every criticism from my review still holds true. |
| 14 |  | Sightless Pit
Lockstep Bloodwar
Rating Then 3.5
Rating Now: 3.0
After an absolute disaster of a review in which I mixed up who was in the Body and who was in Full of Hell, as well as praising Kristin Hayter’s role in this when she doesn’t even make an appearance, I really didn’t touch this again for the rest of the year. And coming back, yeah it’s good and fun and very nicely self-aware in its edginess, but at the end of the day, it just doesn’t have a lot to it that feels like a piece of music worth taking seriously. |
| 13 |  | Hyunhye Seo
Eel
Rating Then: 3.5
Rating Now: 3.0
If I were going by the first track alone this would be an easy 4. As it is, that second track just does so little compared to the dynamism and atmosphere of the first that it drags the album down by a lot. It’s not a terrible track by any means, it just doesn’t do much of anything that isn’t done as well by dozens of bedroom ambient artists. Check that first track though. |
| 12 |  | Iris DeMent
Workin' on a World
Rating Then: 4.0
Rating Now: 3.0
Another steep drop for me, I was so impressed with how much Iris still had it, and she still does, but damn is this thing self-righteous to the point of being obnoxious sometimes. And this barely dropped to a 3, she’s still got that unique voice, and her band is still as strong as ever, but jeez Iris, nobody’s coming to shoot you because you’re a middle-of-the-road liberal. |
| 11 |  | Hollie Kenniff
We All Have Places That We Miss
Rating Then: 3.5
Rating Now: 3.5
I’m still a sucker for lovely, hazy, female-led ambient music and this more than fits the bill even if this isn’t the best example of that this year. This still sits comfortably up there though, and if my review was perhaps a bit harshly worded, I still feel as though for a pure, soothing sensory experience, few albums this year do it this good. |
| 10 |  | Joe Chambers
Dance Kobina
Rating Then: 3.5
Rating Now: 3.5
It’s damn good. It’s Blue Note at its most Blue Note. It’s Joe Chambers a little more staid, a little less hungry, but no less of a talent. Good takes of old material and a few very solid entries into his discography makes this a nice little treat for the ears. |
| 9 |  | Anna B Savage
in|FLUX
Rating Then: 4.0
Rating Now: 3.5
Alright this didn’t hold up quite as well as I hoped on repeated listens. There’s still a whole lot here to love, and few pop artists are willing to be this bold and this original. Check it if you haven’t. |
| 8 |  | Yaeji
With A Hammer
Rating Then: 3.5
Rating Now: 3.5
I really didn’t remember much about this album, something that I thought was going to be a knock against it when I revisited, but once again, I was struck by how fun this album was while still remaining a coherent statement. It’s not the great artistic work of the year or anything but it rules and it’s capital-f Fun! |
| 7 |  | Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
Rating Then: 3.5
Rating Now: 3.5
This album really touches some emotional places for me, and gets dark in that way unique to Will Oldham. Is it up there with I See A Darkness? No. But Will seems to know exactly what he’s shooting for on this, and for the most part, he hits it. Not among his best works, sure, but a worthy addition to the catalogue. |
| 6 |  | Khanate
To Be Cruel
Rating Then: 4.0
Rating Now: 4.0
Still evil, still depraved, still agonizing, still doing exactly what Khanate does best, more collapsed in, more stretched out and more excruciating. Folks didn’t seem to appreciate this one as much as me but, I don’t think those who appreciate their early material can find much to complain about here. |
| 5 |  | pizzamachine
HELLISH DEVICES
Rating Then: 4.0
Rating Now: 4.0
Pizzamachine is now a world-famous global phenomenon in the crunkcore scene, rivaled only by brokeNCYDE and Taylor Swift for international popularity and artistic impact, but initially his music was a spiky little psychotic break in the form of noise, grind and synth-pop experiments that were as gleeful as they were low-budget. Easily my favorite pizzamachine release so far. |
| 4 |  | Molly Tuttle
City of Gold
Rating Then: 4.0
Rating Now: 4.0
Utterly charming, technically impeccable, branches out just enough to stand out from the pack while maintaining the spirit of the genre, yep this is the bluegrass album of the year hands down and it isn’t even close. |
| 3 |  | Sprain
The Lamb As Effigy
Rating Then: 4.5
Rating Now: 4.25
Glorious crown princes of cringe aren't [i]quite[/i] as indelible as they first appeared when this monster album came out, and it does teeter a little too heavily under its own weight, but damn if this thing doesn't hit harder than 99% of anything when it's on, and it is frequently and violently on. |
| 2 |  | Lankum
False Lankum
Rating Then: 4.5
Rating Now: 4.5
My love for this thing hasn’t grown so much in proportion, but has rather solidified itself into that warm, comfortable feeling of a familiar relationship. This album deserves a spot on almost any year-end list, it does what it does incredibly well, and I really can’t wait for what this group comes up with in the future. Definitely check OXN if you were into this. |
| 1 |  | Ryuichi Sakamoto
12
Rating Then: 5
Rating Now: 5
Means as much now as it did in January. RIP. |
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