2023-12-31 11:34:22
| HM | EPs | 50 – 41 | 40 – 31 | 30 – 21 | 20 – 11 | 10 – 01 | The Playlist |
20. Home Front – Games of Powers
Review | Spotify
Graeme MacKinnon (vocals, guitar, bass) and Clint Frazier (synthesizers, drums, programming) play (post-)punk with a distinctive coldwave influence, which follows the (on record by The Chisel-frontman roared along) super hit Nation not just in New Face of Death demonstrates quite clearly how an Oi! axis from early The Cure and Ian MacKaye beyond Fugazi could work as a tidy catchy tune with a foot in synthpop.
With producer and Fucked Up-Mate Jonah Falco has the two British-sounding Canadians as Home Front ethereal hymns (Overtime) alongside melancholic reflections (Contact) asked, quote in their 80s loves Joy Division (End Transmission) just as obvious as Suicide (Born Killer) and not only get away with it, but also combine all of this into a coherent album that just doesn’t want to wear out in its addictive catchiness.
19. Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
Review | Spotify
First of all has King’s wool managed to edit one of their albums down to its essential dimensions so that not an unnecessary meter remained – and that will be a decade ago next year.
Regarding a slope of meandering that doesn’t reach the point Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd But now, with two enervating interludes that nobody really needs over eight minutes, she has taken a frustrating new top spot in the discography of the glamorous melancholic. Del Rey and her team of producers also ensure a general imbalance in the direction: the soul in The Grants as well as the title track and the electronic downbeat twist A&W are good for the outstanding songs – but are also not what Del Rey’s ninth album would have needed when looking at the big picture. That’s what’s even more frustrating Bleachers-Feature in Margaretwhich was completely out of place Fishtails and that through his annoying Angelina-Sample peppers that have become practically inaudible.
Because (subjectively ideally separated into an EP and an album that captures side scenes homogeneously) Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd Between these ends there really isn’t any need for a spectacle, and with a relative inconspicuousness over gems that are magical in their simplicity Kintsugi, Fingertips, Paris, Texas and especially Grandfather Please Stand on the Shoulders of My Father While He’s Deep-Sea Fishing threatens to become a little bit magical.
18. Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist – Voir Dire
Review | Spotify
The 2022 so workaholic Alchemist Alan Daniel Maman left it next to the two-piece this year Flying High or The Great Escape In reality, taking a relatively calm approach is hiding See Say actually been online under a false name since mid-2021 – around two years before he and Earl Sweatshirt got serious via a digital scavenger hunt and presented their cooperation to the general public.
For Speak the Truth Following his usual production culture, Maman completely embraces the MO and preferences of Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, serving up a fragmentarily sketched style, but cleaning it up more neatly than it does Earl is used to. This makes the beat backdrop more grippy and reinforces the characteristic vintage contours: rounder, smoother and more soulful than, for example Heat Check or Mancala you have Earl In this respect, we haven’t heard yet that he harmonizes excellently with Vince Staples, but we’ve known for a long time. By the way, these are also points that speak in favor of the streaming version (which differs from the regular version), See Say but in every appearance it belongs to an album that is listened to more often and more fondly than any objectively possibly “better” hip hop records (such as We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, Parthian Shots, He Left Nothing For The Swim Back or Maps) made.
17. Johnny Booth – Moments Elsewhere
Review | Spotify
Johnny Booth Your third long player might start with the smashing synergy Frontierer-Math and Every Time I Die-Metalcore, quit Moments Elsewhere but by no means with this ideal.
The revival fetishists from Long Island have far too much interest in cheesy pop melodies, nu metal ingredients and electronic trends, in emo kitsch and the alternative rock mainstream.
Which, of course, leads to an equally broad surface for performance and attack: the 41 minutes here are certainly more polarizing purist poison than a jack-of-all-trades parade that is suitable for consensus. But even if Moments Elsewhere delivers some penetrating aerial blows or not entirely tasteful low blows, the rate of effective hits falls with impressive vehemence in favor of precisely because of this Johnny Booth out of.
16. Jeromes Dream – The Gray Inbetween
Review | Spotify
If Jeromes Dream prepared to deal with her with the ambivalent LP In order to bring a concrete comeback to the stage, it was clear to everyone involved that something had to change in the basic orientation, namely the vocals, as Jeff Smith, who had started to scream aggressively again instead of monotonous shouts, explains: “When we started rehearsing for touring I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to try this,’ and it was right, and everybody was like, ‘This is what we needed to do. It feels better.’ If you saw us in 2019 or you watched any YouTube videos, I’m moving back towards that place, and then we released Keep Those Bristles Clean and Closed with screaming vocals. I actually re-recorded those after we got back from tour because I was like, ‘Well, this is where we’re actually at.“
How extremely important this step is next to the personnel change on the guitar from Nick Antonopoulos Loma Prieta-Wunderwuzzi Sean Leary (the thanks Last had quite a triumphant year to celebrate) for the energy and urgency of the screamo entity Jeromes Dream is hard to put into words, but it is distilled into 25 minutes of furiosum: The Gray in Between is the worthy successor to the absolute classic Seeing Means More Than Safety.
15. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin
Review | Spotify
If this list were about choosing the most impressive pair of scissors in terms of their ugly appearance and the beguiling grace of the content behind them, Sufjan Stevens would deservedly be at the top of the podium.
The enveloping cover collage and the beauty of the 40 minutes, in the balance of restraint and opulence around masterful arrangements and knee-jerk touching melodies, basically hurt in their own way. Because Stevens’ music, jubilant with blissful harmony, has rarely been sadder than on Javelin – the lyrical level is pure sadness, bordering on depression, and an often hopeless search for meaning, a longing for love.
This homogeneously captured discrepancy culminates in the comfortably open intimacy Will Anybody Ever Love Me?a downright shockingly melancholic goosebumps song for eternity, which is already synonymous with Sufjan Stevens’ sensitive pop understanding.
14. Culk – Generation Maximum
Review | Spotify
Culk have always been able to draw conclusions from the personal to the big picture, but for their third studio album the band is broadening the focus (perhaps also as a reaction to The new cheerfulness of 2022?), look outwards and observe more than just one generation.
They see a world that is being torn apart between hedonism and idealism in the vice of general despair, but they do not find powerlessness there, but rather a spirit of optimism that, despite all the gloom, brings more reconciliatory hope to their still deeply melancholic perspective Disperse over you (2020) and the self-titled debut (2019) they knew.
The Viennese quartet only tweaks the small adjustments of their unmistakably patented sound, but in doing so they have recorded their most complete work to date.
13. Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis
Review | Spotify
With Hive Mind Narcosis as a demonic soundtrack, Goya’s witches begin to rage in one’s mind’s eye in a manic fever dream delirium, as if they were at the finale of Hereditary sprung.
It took almost nine years for this to happen Thantifaxath a fulfilling successor to their debut Sacred White Noise were able to dissuade. It was a taming of opposing dichotomy energies: “On one level there is a strong resistance to something, and on the other there is a total acceptance of that same thing“. Progressively structured, unpredictable and yet attacking exactly where the complexity directly captivates, leading Thantifaxath Their dissonant Black Metal moves even further into the avant-garde and blends more fully into the atmosphere, even shimmering psychedelic at times. The sense of dynamics, density and intensity in the striking songwriting is held together by a powerful production and almost unearthly drumming, allowing a hypnotically tormenting, intricate fascination to continue to grow.
Ob Hive Mind Narcosis Only time will tell whether it is the masterpiece the hype makes it into. Until then, the Canadians are almost scratching in places that would otherwise only be Deathspell Omega to reach.
12. Lankum – False Lankum
Review | Spotify
Hearing Daragh Lynch reminisce about a youth socialized by Shane Gowan (the icon who always remained out of reach) makes the past and cultural history tangible.
However, Lynch delves even further into the subject with his band: Lankum stand with their monumental third work False Lankum Even ahead of colleagues like Lisa O’Neill and Grian Chatten at the top of a vital and rare Irish music scene with a sense of Celtic tradition.
Have adapted to conventions Lankum for this since its beginnings as Lynched barely. Rather, the band from Dublin waited until the world leaned towards the gravity they emanated. While declared fans like Kristin Hayter emulate and internalize the quartet’s aesthetic, which is completely removed from modernity Lankum Even their traditional MO, make no distinction between cover songs and their own originals when it comes to avant-garde folk shanties, because any material anyway sounds like a collection of classic traditionals that have been tanned over countless years and that seem to have been anchored in the subconscious of a collective memory since time immemorial: So especially the music of False Lankum may actually be true, it works universally in a familiar way.
11. Gridlink – Coronet Juniper
Review | Spotify |
Jon Chang has ended his career. Again, but this time it’s actually final.
Whether he chose the right time for this is, of course, debatable. Less because of that Longhena as a veritable masterpiece in 2014, the more triumphant swan song of one with Discordance Axis The grind game would have been the iconic card that began with its iconic form. And certainly not because the show is so fabulous from start to finish Coronet Juniper would be an undignified farewell.
On the contrary, because a band is in absolute top form (around Chang, who hisses in impressively vital hysteria, and Takafumi Matsubara, who, despite his numerous playgrounds, seems to be exploding with ideas, while Brian Fajardo has enough speed for two fireworks displays) here always seems to be one step away from being able to ignite the turbo boost into the next phase of your career (beyond the NWOBHM high-speed power metal anime madness) – and right now it was actually even more exciting than it would have been after 2014, where the path Gridlink could lead to.
Be that as it may: the attached karaoke appendix from Coronet Juniper shows that Jon Chang is irreplaceable – but that the best screamer in the genre has truly earned his pension after a flawless career.
| HM | EPs | 50 – 41 | 40 – 31 | 30 – 21 | 20 – 11 | 10 – 01 | The Playlist |
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