We made it. One year of Trump 2.0 in the books and it feels like it's been a decade. The less said about it the better. But this was also the year that I turned 50 which was marked with a host of trips meant to put some sort of meaning around this milestone. First was a brutal 3 day hike up Mt. Shasta to prove that my 50 year old legs can still do it. The last trip of the year was with my wife and some friends in Turkey that was strictly about celebration (and plenty of amazing food and booze). In between was a road trip to Montreal with the three friends that I've known the longest (since high school). That trip was all about reminiscing and included all four of us making our "50 year playlist" - essentially a play list with one song from each of our 50 years that was particularly memorable for that year (for instance, 2006 for me was the year of When You Were Young). My 50 year playlist might well be a future post but it was a lot easier to put together than you would think. I've been pulling this annual list together for 24 years now and it always somehow reflects the larger state of my world for that year. Some years are angrier (a lot of years), some years are more experimental, some years are disgustingly romantic. This year for me was a lot more reflective.
And I think what that reflective mood means for this list is going back to the type of music that I always go back to. I always tend to cast a wide net and that breadth is still reflected in this year's list but, by and large, I found myself listening to loud, fast, not very complicated rock - pop punk, post punk, indie. There's always room for some exceptional records in other genres and you'll see many of those in the list - but 2025 was essentially a Duke Jeopardy roots year.
Missing the list and looking forward
Honestly, this was an easier list to put together than most years. My top 10 was a pretty clear tier above those that missed the cut. Matt Berninger put out a nice solo album that is essentially a National album. Hamilton Leithauser put out a nice solo album that is essentially a Walkmen album. There was a sophomore album from Wet Leg that had some good singles but was kind of a letdown. There was a sophomore album from The Last Dinner Party that had some good singles but was kind of a letdown. The Belair Lip Bombs showed that girls know how to do indie pop. Die Spitz showed that girls know how to do punk. Neko Case came out of a long layoff to remind us all how awesome she is. Pulp came out of a really long layoff to remind us all how really awesome they are. And Ohio punk legends Whatever... came out an even longer layoff to remind us all how even more awesome they are.
There were really only two albums that were tough calls to leave off and they're both in a bizarrely very specific niche genre but from different ends of that genre. If you're a fan of spoken word lyrics, these albums are for you. First up was La Dispute's No One Was Driving the Car - brainy poetry about dread and existentialism delivered in an almost scream over angry guitars. It's awesome, I just didn't feel like I listened to it enough this year. The album that was really hard to leave off was Destroyer's Dan's Boogie. Dan Bejar kind of talks and kind of sings over jazz rock instrumentation with a lot of feedback. It's all very cool and I would confidently put it in at a strong number 11.
I don't have as much on my list for next year as I've had in past years. There is some interesting stuff coming though. First up in early January will be indie rock heroes Dry Cleaning. They're consistently good. On the potentially good, potentially really strange side of things, Flea (yes, that Flea) is releasing his first solo album. His first single is almost 8 minutes long with some great instrumentation and plenty of weird lyrics. Who knows where this one is going. Gorillaz has kind of turned into a band that only does collabs and their next album seems like it's all collabs. That said, the first single that they've released is with Sparks and is as good as you would think it is.
The Top 10 Albums of 2025
10. Witch Post - Beast
It's technically an EP, but it's a long EP at 8 songs and 30-ish minutes. It's pushing the boundaries of full album enough for me to include it. In a year where the most famous guy and girl garage rock duo got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it feels poetic to include Jack and Meg's spiritual descendants. A lot more melodic than the White Stripes and a lot more dependent on the varied vocal styles of the duo - Alaska Reid and Dylan Fraser. Witch Post is a lot more indie pop than garage rock but there's plenty of rock to go around on the entire album particularly on Dreamingand The Wolf.
9. Lord Huron - The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
I was a real late-comer to Lord Huron not hearing what would become one of my top 10 songs of all time until years after it was released. They have a definite sound - these are melancholy songs for lonely hearts with a tinge of cowboy. They're like a southwestern version of the National. They've been honing that sound for a decade and this album is like their dissertation. There's one track that features a voice over from Kristen Stewart that is pretty lame, but every other song on here is solid. Check out, in particular, Bag of Bones and Looking Back.
8. billy woods - Golliwog
One of the great books I read this year was Dan Charnas's Dilla Time. Part biography of hip hop producer J Dilla who died far too early at age 32 and part exploration of his invention of "Dilla Time". Basically, musical time is universally metronomic - 1, 2, 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 4. Black musicians in America introduced swing time where the last note in a meter is sped up. J Dilla invented Dilla time where the timing is chopped up and re-arranged from meter to meter. It's essentially only possible to play Dilla time with a drum machine. I bring this all up because Golliwog was the first time I listened to an album and was able to identify Dilla time. I was very proud of myself. It's not a surprise since billy woods is consistently one of the smartest, most inventive hip hop artists around. The production on this album is incredible. You've got the jazzy, Dilla timed Misery. The impossibly sad Waterproof Mascara about the domestic abuse of his mother and how his father's death didn't improve things - rapped over a production that turns a woman crying into the backing track. And, of course, on all 18 tracks you've got billy's dense, smart rhymes similar in erudition and poetic skill to Kendrick but with a completely different delivery. Born Alone might be the lyrical stand out on an album full of standouts.
7. Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe - Luminal, Lateral, Liminal
This is a three album collaboration set between UK ambient music pioneer Brian Eno and American vocalist Beatie Wolfe whose music has been described as "space cowboy". It seems like a pretty natural pairing. Underscoring Eno's genius as a composer the three albums effortlessly move between completely different genres. Luminal is pop, Lateral is ambient, Liminal is sort of in between. Luminal is clearly the least challenging listen with songs like Suddenly that could even be called radio friendly. Liminal is the most unique with vocalization incorporated into an ambient soundtrack. It features Part of Us which I think is the best track by far. Lateral is straight up ambient for all the hard core Eno fans.
6. Raveonettes - Pe'ahi II
Danish rock begins and ends with the Raveonettes as far as I'm concerned. Just like Lord Huron, the Raveonettes absolutely have their distinctive style. No one else really sounds like them. They're what the Everly Brothers would have been if they had had distortion pedals and effects boards. Sweet harmonies between the two lead vocals with a lot of fuzz. I've loved them for 20 years but the last couple of albums have been a little staid. Pe'ahi II (yes there is a Pe'ahi I) is right up there with the best of their early albums. I love their combination of noise and melody so much that any good Raveonettes album will automatically make my list. This album has a ton of throwback Raveonettes tracks like Strange and Killer.
5. Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out
Speaking of comeback albums. Clipse is brothers Pusha T and Malice with a lot of production on this album 16 years in the making coming from Pharrell. No complicated Dilla time production on this but it's a lot more radio friendly. This is the album for you if you're looking for smart rhymes and radio friendly production. There's a lot of depth here even with Pharrell's ear for radio friendly tunes. 16 years ago, Clipse was all about cocaine and guns but this album opens with The Birds Don't Sing which is about the brothers losing their mother and father in the same year. This is definitely grown up Pusha T and Malice. Most every track on here is a banger especially Chains and Whips with some serious input from Kendrick.
4. Freak Slug - I Blow Out Big Candles
Freak Slug is super weird British artist Xenya Genovese. This is one of those albums where the song Spells gets played on Sirius XMU and you're like "Who is....Freak Slug?" But then you listen to the song and it's pretty good so you call up the video and you're like "Hmm....she's as weird as I thought she'd be." But normal people don't make good music. This is a throwback to DIY music that art school kids make on their laptops by themselves. Freak Slug has one of my favorite musical devices - sweet girly voices that swear a lot. Filled with catchy hooks, early 20's angst, and clever production best summed up in the song Licorice. I love this album.
3. Geese - Getting Killed
Far and away, the buzziest indie album of the year. It kinda came out of nowhere. Geese have been around for a while so it was a pleasant surprise to see this take off like it did despite the fact that this can be a pretty challenging album. It was a slow burn kind of album for me. But they really seemed to explode after playing the song Taxes on Jimmy Kimmel. I love when a band takes the time to craft an album and makes stylistic choices that a lot of people aren't going to like get rewarded for it. This is clearly a band evolving into the best version of themselves. On Getting Killed Geese have really perfected that art of making very sophisticated songs that sound rough and unrefined. I'll hear bits and pieces of Radiohead in parts of the album but this is a band definitely evolving into its own sound.
2. SPRINTS - All That is Over
My heart has been swelling with pride to see how Ireland has become the world's moral compass on Gaza and Ukraine. A little less importantly but still pretty great, the Irish music scene has never been better. Kneecap is officially the world's scariest band right now. That mantle used to be reserved for metal bands, but now it's a bunch of Irish guys rapping in Irish. Fontaines DC continues to put out great album after great album including last year's #2 album on my list. And now, this year, we have the latest from Dublin-based punks SPRINTS. This is just about as good as a punk album can get. There's plenty of loud, in your face missives decrying the state of things mixed in with plenty of braininess. I mean, there's an entire song named Descartes. They're clearly students of the Pixies, though, and there's enough quiet to mix with the loud to make this a great, great album.
1. Rosalia - Lux
Last year a great album from a great Irish punk band (Fontaines DC) came in just behind Cowboy Carter, an epic iconoclastic album from a huge female pop star. This year a great album from a great Irish punk behind comes in just behind what is essentially the Catalan Cowboy Carter - another epic iconoclastic album from a huge female pop star. Before you read any further, if you have not heard the first single off of Lux (Berghain), immediately watch the video below. Take all your preconceptions and expectations of Rosalia and listen to this song:
I guarantee that you didn't expect THAT because who would possibly expect that? This song sounds like nothing else. It is 100% unique. Let's break it down - you start off with the full London Symphony. Okay, plenty of songs have a symphony. Up next, though, is a classical chorus singing in German. That's different. Okay, here's Rosalia now singing.....an operatic aria in Catalan? Who knew Rosalia was a classically trained soprano? Not this guy. Back to the German chorus and now on to more of a traditional pop song sung in Spanish but with the symphony backing rising to a timpani led crescendo that gets us to.....Bjork? Bjork's interlude is sweet and mellow but then things turn dark and here's Yves Tumor terrifying everyone singing "I'll fuck you til you love me" over cacophonic strings. This song is only 2:30 long and all that happens. I have never seen a more drastic right turn from an artist that was pulled off so well.
This song is incredible and so very intricate. It's about a relationship where you feel like you're starting to lose yourself and are being absorbed into an amorphous couple. There is an intentional use of language here that I don't know has ever been utilized to this extent. When the bits are very personal, Rosalia sings in her native Catalan. Most of the album is sung in Spanish. On Berghain the chorus sings in German which feels like an intentional choice because the part they're singing ("His fear is my fear. His anger is my anger. His love is my love. His blood is my blood.") feels, for lack of a better word, very German to me. Bjork comes in to sing (in English) the line "the only thing that can save us is divine inspiration" which it seems if you need anyone to sing about magic and hope that Bjork would be that person. Finally, divine intervention isn't working, and we get to the sinister turn of "I'll fuck you til you love me" again sung in English which really does seem to be the best language for swearing. All in all Rosalia incorporates 13 different languages into this album and each language choice is intentional.
Beyond Berghain, we have songs thematically arranged around the lives of female saints to explore concepts like relationships, humanity and AI, spirituality and incorporating classical, electronic, and pop elements. It's such a detailed album that is so singularly unique while still being fabulous to listen to. Clearly, the number one album for this year.
Well, 2024 was.....something...a year that is thankfully over. A year marked by personal challenges highlighted by the passing of both my father and father-in-law. It included my wife taking over the family towing business and, of course, ended with the re-election of the worst president in history. A lot of shit to mark the last year of my first half century on the planet.
As it's always done for me, though, music finds a way to address how I'm feeling and show me that the human experience does not happen in isolation. Sharon van Etten perfectly channeled the feelings around the deaths of my father and father-in-law in the absolutely moving song Afterlife, which has the rare distinction (shared only by Fairytale of New York) of being a song that can always elicit a tear. And as the year got closer to November and it became more and more apparent that the US was going to re-elect a twice-impeached con man and convicted criminal, my music choices got angrier and angrier and reflected some of the issues (like racism, xenophobia, and misogyny) that this country doesn't seem to have any interest in solving.
All that said, this was a music year that sees a lot of familiar faces top my list. Even as I continue to wait for the follow-up album from the Wrens / Car Colors to actually be released - going on 20 years now - we got new releases from Sunset Rubdown, Beth Gibbons (of Portishead), Kim Gordon, and a couple others that you'll see in the list. We also got one last middle finger from Steve Albini before he passed away suddenly. Personally, the year was marked by finally getting to see the Rolling Stones live as Mick and Keith and company still put on a 3 hour long set, which is incredibly impressive for a bunch of octogenarians.
Great Singles from Albums that Missed the List
I'm paring this list back down to a top 10 from the top 20 that I did last year. But that means that there's a lot of great songs from albums that I didn't quite love as much as the rest. Tuareg rock god, Mdou Moctar, gets the distinction of the first album that just missed the cut but put out a bunch of angry hard rock directed at the long history of political mismanagement in Africa.
The next two just missing the cut are The Last Dinner Party and IDLES. The Last Dinner Party was on my bands to watch list from last year and they put out a great album. I also saw them live and they put on a great show though I felt mildly creepy / out of place being a 40+ year old man in a show that was 90% 20-something women wearing vintage clothes. They definitely suffered from overexposure as there was a clear, concerted PR campaign around this album that got a little tiring. IDLES is consistently great and put out another great album this year. It just suffered from being not as great as past IDLES albums. There's a consequence of setting the bar high.
It's also worth highlighting the absolutely mental performance that Gojira put on at the Olympics that terrified white Christian conservatives across the US. Terrifying conservative Christians has got to be the mission statement of all metal bands. Mission accomplished. Knocked Loose would go on to similarly terrify Christian conservatives later in the year on a Jimmy Kimmel appearance but nothing can match Gojira's performance, which is now part of their most recent album.
Beyond those, MJ Lenderman put out a great stoner, alt-country album that includes fabulous lyrics like "Well, I got a beach home up in Buffalo and a wristwatch that's a compass and a cellphone and a wristwatch that tells me you're all alone.". The Bug Club put out an album full of 2-minute long tongue in cheek punk bangers including a song about the footwear worn by chavs everywhere. Norah Jones put out a completely under-the-radar album on Blue Note. I'm generally not a fan of pop alternative but I do admit to liking some of the mass market fare from Glass Animals and Grandaddy. And Faye Webster put out an entire album of lo-fi, slow burn tunes that got more catchy the more I listened to it.
Two Great Albums That Don't Really Fit The List
Finally, in the category of great albums, that should make some list somewhere but don't really fit the rules of this list, we have Rome by The National. It's one of the only concert albums that I think is actually worth owning. Live albums are, almost always, straight up money grabs by the record label. The recordings usually sucks, there's way too much time spent on crowd banter, etc. Rome captures the experience of a National show. This album came out shortly after I saw the National in Napa so I feel like I can vouch for it. From the crowd singing all the lyrics to Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks to Berninger letting lose on Mr. November, this is everything I want out of a live album.
And Panda Bear has been promising new music to be released next year but continued to mine 2022's Reset. This year he released an EP of covers from that album that included a collaboration with Mariachi Cutberto Perez of the song Danger. There is a slow realization up in this part of North America, that mariachi is a modern art form and I love seeing it slowly integrated into rock, hip-hop, and electronic. This version is so much better than the original.
The Top 10 Albums of 2024
10. Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
Nashville is full of legendary songwriters that the music industry reveres but the general public has absolutely no idea who they are. Jessica Pratt is the Los Angeles version of that. She's a long-time industry veteran who's written songs for everyone, but this album is the first I'd ever heard of her. It's a modern spin on 60's folk including the broad range of influences on that generation. The album gets right to it starting with a naked drum line on Life Is evocative of something you might hear from Scott Walker and then bounces to a bossa nova groove straight from Bebel Gilberto or Sergio Mendes on Better Hate. This album also has a lot of sly post-production (like back-masking vocals) that is not in your face but definitely intentional. It's the sort of thing you might expect on a record from an industry vet.
9. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
It will come as absolutely no surprise to you that there was a period in my life where The Cure was the only band I really cared about. The Cure exists for mopey suburban kids who are really into literature. I find it so re-assuring that Robert Smith can still be a mopey suburban kid into his 60s as he sings "This is the end of every song we sing. The fire burned out to ash and the stars grown dim with tears....We toast with bitter dregs to our emptiness". Ah, yes. Uplifting it's not. But this is a real throwback that fits right alongside every Cure album I've ever loved.
8. Jack White - No Name
Back to back throwbacks here. And another album from an artist I loved back in the early 2000s. Back when standing in line for concert tickets was a thing, the White Stripes were one of those bands that I would wait in line at Rainbow Foods for hours so that I could snag a ticket that represented a large proportion of my meager grad student salary. Back then, Jack White was the king of riffs. Each song was a 2 minute thrill ride built around a single riff. Even now, you can probably pull from memory the riffs to Seven Nation Army or Fell In Love With a Girl. All of which made the last 20 years of sustained mediocrity pretty disheartening. In fairness, he has built up a great little record label in Third Man Records and dabbled in acting and a number of other projects. No Name is finally the album that brings me back to those White Stripes days. It's just stripped down riff-driven rock. That's How I'm Feeling gets all the radio plays, but the album is full of riffs the best of which is on songs like What's the Rumpus.
7. Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
2024 was a year that I finally got to see Bikini Kill live and bands like Shannon and the Clams and Amyl and the Sniffers made a lot of noise (pun intended). But, for my money, the modern Riot Grrl band to rule them all is Mannequin Pussy. Unlike those other bands, Mannequin Pussy has some range. They can scream with the best of them but they can also bring the hooks. They're particularly good at doing the Pixies thing of quiet, quiet, LOUD. Sometimes was a mild indie radio hit, but the whole album is one you listen to in the car, with the windows and volume up. Loud Bark is a particular favorite.
6. Kendrick Lamar - GNX
As the musical history of 2024 is written, spare one moment to remember Drake who thought it was a good idea to start a rap war with the greatest rapper of all time. We all knew where it was going and, sure enough, Kendrick dunked on Drake over and over and over and over again. Drake kept coming back for it and Kendrick finally dropped him with one of the most listened to songs of the year (Not Like Us) which addresses rumors of Drake's dating life with the epic diss "Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-minor". Maybe it was all coordinated, but what amazed me was how quickly Kendrick could turn out a new diss track and just pile it all on top of poor, hapless Drake. What's even more amazing is that he came out with GNX a few months later and it contained none of those songs. Nothing. All completely new material. The man is the Paul McCartney of rap. And, just like every other Kendrick record, it's good from start to finish. Barack included Squabble Up in his annual round up of best songs but there's a lot on here including wacced out murals which reminds me a lot of the very first Kendrick jam ever.
5. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Way back in 2007, the Bastard Fairies made my top 10 list with Memento Mori. On that list, I noted that they had made the bold choice to only release the album on streaming services and YouTube. Of course, it was only a few years until everybody would release albums on streaming services long before any hard media was available. But, hey, at the time it seemed pretty crazy. Fast forward to 2024 and Cindy Lee (who is the drag queen alter-ego of Canadian indie rocker, Patrick Flegel) dropped an out-of-nowhere triple album that was only available as a single 2 hour long YouTube video or as a series of .WAV files on a GeoCities (!!) website. As of this writing, that is still the only way you can listen to this album. Physical media is supposed to ship in February 2025 and I assume it will be available on the streamers after that. I really thought GeoCities was one of those archived websites that only GenX people knew about (a la Homestar Runner). I feel pretty confident predicting that the music industry is not going to follow Cindy Lee's lead on this.
What makes it really wild, though, is that this album is incredible. It's something like 30 tracks and clocks in over 2 hours. It's a lot of music. If anything, it could probably do with some editing but it feels like Cindy Lee was just in a writing zone and decided to record it all. It's all jangly, fuzzy guitar rock that owes a lot to 60s girl groups. Be sure to set aside some dedicated time to fire up YouTube and listen to the whole thing.
4. Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement
Kamasi Washington is taking jazz to places it hasn't been in 70 years. From playing arena shows this year to being name checked in Kendrick's diss track Not Like Us ("Hot key, keep a horn on me, that Kamasi"), he's gotta be the first jazz artist that non-jazz fans might actually know. And while his first two albums were sprawling double albums, Fearless Movement scales that back but takes chances in a completely different direction. This is intentionally a jazz album based in dance and electronic music. And it works. The final track, Prologue, seamlessly blends electronic rhythms, drum beats, and time signatures into what is distinctively a jazz piece. Songs like The Garden Path borrow more from R&B with a lot more focus on sung lyrics into what is still pretty distinctively a jazz dance piece. It feels like the most accessible jazz album in a long time that isn't lite jazz bullshit. I also love the Sun Ra Arkestra type ethic he's cultivating with something like 20 people on stage all in quasi-futuristic outfits.
3. Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
Their first album without Rostam is as good as it's ever been. If you like Vampire Weekend, you're going to love this. They haven't lost any of the polyphonic rhythms that has become their staple. But what seems to have been added with Rostam's departure is a lot more fuzz, a lot more distortion. It's hard to find a clunker on here and with Prep School Gangsters, Ice Cream Piano, and Gen-X Cops you have songs that will fit right in next to the best VW songs. But, for my money, Capricorn is a top 5 VW song with the new distortion element fitting seamlessly in with the melodies you've come to expect from them.
2. Fontaines D.C. - Romance
This is really more of a 1B than a 2. And it hurt my soul a little bit to not make an Irish band number one, but that's more of a testament to how good the next album on the list is. This album easily has three of my favorite songs of the year in Favourite, In the Modern World, and Starburster. This album feels so much like the journey of another Irish band that released a number of great straightforward rock albums (called things like The Joshua Tree) and then paired up with a producer that had a very different sensibility and came out with a very different album that is still one of the best of all time (Achtung Baby). I realize comparisons to Achtung Baby are pretty heady and Romance is not quite in that category but the Fontaines have put out a couple great post-punk type albums. They've even shown up on this list previously. But, this is a very different album from them. There are still some straight-forward rock songs on here but the trippy Starburster with it's rap-like lyrics is probably my song of the year and the downbeat quasi love song In the Modern World make this a real departure and show a band that is evolving. Hopefully, their next album will be every bit as good as Zooropa.
1. Beyonce - Cowboy Carter
Beyonce closed out 2024 riding into the Houston Texans stadium like a fucking boss. And she can do that on the back of an album that isn't like any other that I can think of. There was a whole stupid shit storm about this album when it came out with people calling it Beyonce's "country album" and if it was okay for her to just insinuate herself into country music. It's not a country album. Yes, she covers Jolenealthough she takes it from a song pleading with Jolene to telling Jolene to step the fuck off. And the album features collaborations with Dolly and Willie Nelson and includes songs like the country influenced Texas Hold 'Em. But the album also has numerous collaborations with rappers (i.e. Shaboozey), there's a number of straight up R&B songs like Bodyguard and Tyrant, there's a song (Ya-Ya) that's a straight Nancy Sinatra take-off. Beyonce even sings the fucking aria of Caro Mio Ben in Daughter. Yet we didn't have to hear anyone from the opera community taking Beyonce to task for that. This is an album that spans 24 tracks across almost every imaginable genre. This is an album of someone who has the talent to span genres and doesn't give a single fuck what anyone thinks about it. And the reaction just goes to prove her point that the reaction to her dipping her toes in the country music world is based in racism and provincialism. That is essentially what the whole album is about.
Best. Music. Year. Ever. It felt like we finally put the pandemic behind us even though it's, at best, endemic now. Whatever psychological corner we turned seemed to unleash a surge of albums, live music, festivals, etc. Bands that we hadn't heard from in years (Depeche Mode, Foo Fighters) released great albums. Bands that had been quiet for a while put out two albums in one year (The National). We got the first music in 20 years from noted musical genius / crank Charles Bissell formerly of the Wrens. A rap supergroup with Snoop, E-40, Cube, and Too $hort put out a record. We even got a new Beatles song! So much great music this year that I decided a top 10 wouldn't suffice. So we're turning this list up to 20 just for 2023. It was also personally an incredible live music year for me so I'm introducing a new only-in-2023 list this year with.....
Top 5 Shows of 2023
5. B-52s at the Venetian
Even though they pulled the common trick of calling this their last show ever (until a new show in April 2024 was announced) and even though it was in the auditorium of a casino, they're still the best punk rock party band. And it was the first (and last time) to see them. Kate Pierson is somehow 80 years old and still pulls off Planet Claire.
4. Smashing Pumpkins at Jam Cellars Ballroom
This was a band that ruled my high school and college years. I didn't have any money back then so never got a chance to see them. Of course, now, they're only playing festivals and big venues. So the chance to see them at a tiny club in Napa was too hard to pass up. And they played everything I wanted to hear....except Disarm. You can watch the whole thing here.
3. Postal Service at the Greek Theatre
And this was a band that defined my mid twenties. I forgot just how good their one and only album is. That album was the soundtrack to my dating life throughout my twenties. This concert was even better with Death Cab playing the Transatlanticism album as the opener.
2. Sunset Rubdown at the Crocodile
Sunset Rubdown has been on this list at least three times with Shut Up I Am Dreamingin 2006and Dragonslayer in 2009. It's just that this period coincided with me living in Ireland and they never swung by my neck of the woods. They had disbanded by the time I moved back to the US. So I had to jump when their mini reunion tour took them through Seattle. They don't have a huge following but that meant that the show was intimate with just the true hard-core fans there.
1. The Walkmen at Webster Hall
Officially the band I've seen the most often. From Minneapolis to Boston to Paris to London to Dublin to San Francisco. They've provided a lot of the soundtrack to the last 20 years of my life. From breaking up with girlfriends to business school to being a married mid-forties dude. No other band can match pure technical ability with good old fashioned screaming. They took a pause about 8 years ago to do other things and this series of shows in New York was their first since then. Another small show with just the real, real, real fans there. It was spiritual.
Top 20 Albums of 2023
I already touched on some of the themes that I found throughout my list. Just a ton of good stuff this year (why I've got a top 20 instead of a top 10), we're living in a Golden Age of angsty 20-something women telling their shitty boyfriends to fuck off (T Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, etc.), and a lot of new music from bands we thought were dead (The Beatles and the Stones had new music this year). Lots to get to but first, as usual, I'd like to highlight some music that hasn't officially been released on an album this year but that you really have to check out.
First off, a real deep cut. We went to see opening show from the San Francisco Ballet this year. The SF Ballet is pretty avant garde and can do some pretty weird shit. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I love that they try. This particular show included a new ballet about circus clowns from hell (I'm not joking) that was actually incredible. Part of the experience was that the music for this ballet was incredible. It turns out it was scored by a Swedish composer / rock and roller named Par Hagstrom who also happened to put out this single this year. If you've read these lists from me in the past, you know how I feel about Swedish rock and pop. Hoping this makes it to an album in 2024.
One of my absolute favorite tracks of the year comes from Mantra of the Cosmos, which is a supergroup of sorts composed of "the other guys" from Oasis, The Happy Mondays, and Ride. They only released a handful of tracks this year which hopefully means an album in 2024, but it's all party music that's a throwback to 90's Madchester. Gorilla Guerilla will get stuck in your head.
Next up is the Last Dinner Party. If you happen to listen to indie rock radio, you did not escape this London-based art school girl group. It's a little annoying but their debut album has had a sustained PR push with singles dribbled out and videos released with a ton of production. Their record label clearly expects them to be the next big thing. That said, the early singles are all pretty awesome.
Finally, what might be my favorite single of all of 2024 comes from Car Colors. It's a terrible name for a band, but it's basically the moniker of Charles Bissell who is the creative genius behind the Wrens. If you know me, you know that the Wrens 2004 album The Meadowlands is my favorite album of the last 30 years and that I have been waiting for the follow-up for the last 20 years. Charles Bissell is a genius but, like most geniuses, he's also a bit of a crank. He tinkered on this album so meticulously and for so long that the rest of the band dropped him in exasperation and released the singles that they had written as the band Aeon Station which promptly topped this list in 2021. And now, two years AFTER THAT, we finally got three singles from Charles Bissell's part of that album. And they are so, so good. They are supposed to be the guts of an album coming out in 2024 but I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, enjoy the handful of songs we got this year.
Top 20 Albums of 2023
20. Debby Friday - Good Luck
Sub Pop is the record label equivalent of the Moneyball Oakland A's. They don't have the money to spend on the top talent but they find the talent that everyone else overlooks. You have to really pay attention when they put out an album that isn't in their core grunge / indie rock demographic. That was true when they put out Orville Peck's debut country album and goes here for Debby Friday's R&B / rap / downbeat soul album. I don't know how to characterize it, but it's good, and that's what Sub Pop specializes in.
19. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
Sufjan is kind of the male counterpart to Lana del Rey (more from her later). His albums are meals. These aren't driving or working out albums. A lot of feels throughout both with some dense lyrics. This particular album is dedicated to his late partner so don't expect bouncy tracks. But what is here is typical Sufjan: amazing, heartfelt songwriting.
18. The Rolling Stones - Hackney Diamonds
This album got a lot of negative press for no other reason that I can tell beyond that there's nothing new here compared to the other however many records the Stones have. To which I say that these guys are OCTOGENARIANS. Why are you expecting anything new? And, yes, there is nothing new here and some of the songs are a little lame. But it very well might be the last Stones record we ever get and a fine Rolling Stones album is still better than almost anything else out there.
17. Depeche Mode - Memento Mori
Back to back old timers here. I really didn't think Depeche Mode was even still active any more. And, sadly, the band really is just Dave Gahan and Martin Gore now. But, this album ends up one spot higher than the Stones because it feels a lot more fresh and a lot more modern.
16. Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun
I think it's safe to say that no ambient / modern jazz flute album has ever garnered as much press as this album has. There are other ambient albums that are more accessible (and probably better) like Brian Eno's Music for Installations and you definitely have to be in the mood for meandering 13 minute long free jazz tracks but, here's the thing, Andre 3000 really pulls it off. I absolutely love the fact that this guy that wrote arguably the best ever pop song could have gone in any direction and THIS is what he decided to do. It's the most punk rock thing ever.
15. Earl Sweatshirt - Voir Dire
My hip hop tastes always skew a little more edgy but not too far away from the comfortable middle. Busdriver is my sweet spot and obviously Kendrick topped this list last year and is the best rapper of all time. Earl Sweatshirt is one of those guys who has just always been a little too out there for me. This is the first album of his that I feel is a little less experimental and a little more mainstream. He's one of the great indie rappers and I've always tried to get into his stuff but I feel like this is the first album that's more in my wheelhouse.
14. Paris Texas - Mid Air
Now, my real hip hop sweetspot is when you start mixing in live bands with a punk ethos. Think of the Roots. Paris Texas is more punk while the Roots are straight up hip hop. No other album climbed up this list faster than these guys over the last month. They also get extra points for breaking out the Jamiroquai moving floor in the Everybody's Safe Until video.
13. Ratboys - The Window
While everyone really seemed to love albums from Caroline Polachek and boygenius, I've got a different slate of girl rock bands on my list kicked off by Ratboys. Country rock indie kids that have toiled for a decade but seemed to put it all together for this album. Nothing ground breaking here, but fun Midwestern country rock with shades of Veruca Salt thrown in.
12. The National - Cherry Tree Vol. 5
I'm breaking all kinds of rules this year. In addition to expanding the list to 20, I'm also tabbing the National's annual fan club record here. The National put out two records this year, First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track. Both, individually, have some great tracks. For my money, Frankenstein is the better album with classic National tracks like Eucalyptus and Tropic Morning News. Laugh Track is notable for the collaborations including Weird Goodbyes with Bon Iver which was released as a single last year. But the collective whole of both albums is a little unsatisfying. That's where Cherry Tree Vol. 5 comes in. It takes the best of both albums released this year as well as a couple of throwback live performances into one super album.
11. Bully - Lucky For You
The write-up for the Ratboys album mentioned how I just didn't really care for the boygenius album. Generally speaking, I haven't gotten into much of Phoebe Bridgers' stuff with the exception of her collabs. This year I found that all the Phoebe Bridgers songs I liked seemed to include Bully. Bully has the "quiet - quiet - ROCK" sound that reminds me a lot of Tracy Bonham at her best. The ROCK part seems to be what's always missing (to me) on the boygenius stuff. This Bully album has plenty of rock to go around.
10. Dudu Tassa & Jonny Greenwood - Jarak Qaribak
It's not quite the left turn that Andre 3000's album is, but Radiohead instrumentation wizard and film scorer Jonny Greenwood partnered with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa to reimagine songs from across the Middle East. This album coincided perfectly with a vacation we took this year to UAE and Jordan. Popular music from these regions sounds really foreign to western ears but you start to hear the beauty in the voices and instrumentation when you're immersed in. The genius of Jonny Greenwood is to not lose those elements but to augment it with western instrumentation. Everything on Jarak Qaribak is 100% distinctly Middle Eastern but it sounds a lot more modern.
9. Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face
This album really cranked up the pre-launch buzz to Last Dinner Party levels and beyond. Stephen Sanchez has been a known quantity in Nashville for a while and his label has been drumming up this debut album since they dropped Until I Found You last year. And then they released the album with a live visual album replete with major corporate sponsors. Which is all a bit much. What's really weird, though, is that the album is kind of a concept album that revolves around a 1950s-ish romance featuring Sanchez as a character called "The Troubadour". All that honestly feels like some annoying marketing douche at the record company coming up with this "really great idea" that leans into the types of songs that Sanchez sings and his legitimately incredible voice. This album doesn't need all that marketing bullshit. There is undeniably a 50s crooner vibe to the songs on this album but that's also a testament to his voice. Last year you had Orville Peck's vocal performance on Let Me Drown. This year you have Stephen Sanchez on Be More.
8. Margo Cilker - Valley of Heart's Delight
Two trends seem to explain the emergence of out and out country music on this list in recent years. One, I'm getting a lot better about seeking out indie country. Two, there is a real artist backlash against the pop country ideal that's held for the last 50 or so years that country music is about God, Republicans, and pick-up trucks. I think you saw that backlash this year with Zach Bryan singing songs that sound more like Bruce Springsteen talking about the issues of the working class and Maren Morris outright telling the country music establishment to go fuck itself. Now, both of those artists are still a little too country for me, but enter Margo Cilker's album which isn't political at all. It's all everday life songs, drinking Shiner Bock with friends, etc. but they're songs that are all outlaw country which is a lot closer to punk rock than you might think.
7. Wednesday - Rat Saw God
This is the other album (with Paris Texas) that kept moving up my list the more I listened to it. Take the country rock of Ratboys, mix it with Bully rocking out and screaming and you've got Wednesday. And this is now the part of the list where albums really don't have a weak spot. This album has been in heavy rotation for the last two months. They also get bonus points for referencing Drive By Truckers.
6. Billy Woods & Kenny Segal - Maps
This is the hip hop album that gets just as edgy as I want without going too far. It's definitely not the album for you if you're looking for hooks. This is like a much more listenable version of Black Star (who I still can't believe was an SNL musical guest last year - a testament to the pull Dave Chappelle has). Think dense, smart lyrics but it's dropped over Kenny Segal's diverse beats ranging from jazz to lo-fi indie. Honestly, it's Kenny Segal's beats that elevate this over every other rap record this year. This is definitely not rhymes on top of break beats.
5. Slowdive - everything is alive
Slowdive's surprise reunion a few years back keeps getting better. The shoegaze pioneers still deliver wave after wave of textured noise better than anyone since My Bloody Valentine. Like a lot of the long-time acts on the list this year, this album feels like the band's best since their seminal years. In this case, I think this is Slowdive's best album since Souvlaki. It's Slowdive at their dreamy, wispy best but with a little bit more of the caution and reluctance that comes with being an adult.
4. Militarie Gun - Life Under the Gun
I am never not going to have a soft spot in my heart for indie punk done well. Give me a four piece band with some basic chords and screaming done well and it will always make this list. This is the music I grew up on and, at this point, I'm not going to grow out of it. Of all the bands like that this year, Militarie Gun did it best. These guys have been releasing singles since the pandemic but finally had enough material for a full length LP. There's not a whole lot of range here, it's just angry, energetic pop punk. The line from Very High that "I've been feeling pretty down so I get very high" pretty much sums it up. But everything here is fun from Do It Fasterto Will Logic to Very High.
3. Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS
I'm not even joking. Every time I mention my absolute love of this Olivia Rodrigo album, people look at me like I'm a creeper. Similarly, her upcoming tour which features The Breeders as openers is going to create some awkward demographics at those shows. But in a lot of ways Olivia Rodrigo is a clear descendent of the Breeders. This is 20-something female rage music, a lot more raw than anything T Swift or Billie Eilish have ever done. My wife summed up the sound of Guts as "I'm pretty. You think I'm pretty. FUCK YOU I'M NOT PRETTY." But beyond the barely contained rage on some of the tracks, this is a great document of the ups and downs of being a 20-something. From dissing shitty boyfriends on Vampire to hooking back up with exes on Bad Idea Right?to the existential dread of life on Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl. Obviously, it's been a long time since I've dealt with any of this stuff but I had the Breeders to help me through it all back then.
2. Lana del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
If we're just talking pure artistic merits, this would probably be my number one album of the year. This album is incredible. Just like Sufjan's Javelin, this is a meaty album that you're not going to listen to over and over again. Incredibly personal, this album details her struggles with abandonment, loneliness, feelings of no self worth stemming from childhood abuse through a number of bad adult relationships. It's powerful. The lyrics are sometimes so stark that it's hard not to come to tears. On the title track alone, she sings "I can't help but feel my body somehow marred my soul. Handmade beauty sealed up by two manmade walls." and "Open me up, tell me you like it. Fuck me to death, love me until I love myself." Just....I mean.......
By the time you get to A&W which is about being a success and the different type of loneliness that comes with that, she sings "It's not about having someone to love me any more. This is the experience of being an American whore."
On Kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing broken objects), it's "I can't say I run when things get hard. It's just that I don't trust myself with my heart. But I've had to let it break a little more cause they say that's what it's for."
Candy Necklacesallows Lana to drop her music bona fides by referencing Tribe and Roc-a-fella but it's still about relationships not working with "Thought that we were cool and kickin' it like Tribe Called Quest. You the best, but baby you've been bringing me down."
It's not just the lyrics. This is a wonderfully composed album that works with the lyrics featuring a long list of collaborators including Jon Baptiste on Candy Necklaces, Father John Misty on Let the Light In, Bleachers shows up on Margaret, and Jack Antonoff is on a bunch of songs. This is an epic.
1. Metallica - 72 Seasons
This is pretty much the spiritual opposite of Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. There aren't any deep lyrics anywhere on 72 Seasons. Instead, it's filled with the type of vaguely foreboding but ultimately meaningless lyrics that works so well for metal albums. Things like "If darkness had a son, here I am. Temptation is his father." and "What is gone is gone and done. Look back, psychotic. No chance before this life began." One song, Lux Aeterna, even breaks out some rudimentary Latin for no real reason.
But that's part of the charm. You listen to Metallica because they are the most inherently visceral band of all time. They've had 30 years of albums that are okay but don't have the power of And Justice for All or Master of Puppets. This is, without a doubt, their best album since the Black album. And it's that power borne of the speed that they play at, Lars's drumming, Hetfield's voice, etc. that no one can match. Just like the best Metallica albums, you turn this on in the car as loud as you can take and it somehow unleashes unbridled joy and anger simultaneously.
This is the album I listened to the most this year and I love it every time I listen to it. For 2023, which had a lot of musical joy built into it, it felt like this was the album to pick for number one this year.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=link}
