Albums I have listened to - 2023

"She Blinded Me With Science" is definitely a good song, but I wish that wasn't the first (or only) thing everyone thought of when Thomas Dolby's name comes up. His whole catalog is great, and this album is one of my favorites—although TBH it's pretty hard to pick just one album.

I have enjoyed Spoon's music since I first heard Girls Can Tell more than twenty years ago. This album is hands-down my favorite since Gimme Fiction, and it doesn't hurt that both my kids really like it as well and often request it when we are driving around in the car.

This album consistently comes up for me in the "Shoegaze" recommendations on Apple Music, but I would say it is more in the vein of post-rock—it has an Explosions In the Sky feel to it. I like it. My only quibble is with the track naming… the album has four long-ish tracks, each named after one of the four seasons. Pretty much all of this genre of rock feels like winter to me, so the song titles don't make much sense, but that's just me.

I unironically and unapologetically enjoy this album because it is just fantastic. I know Boston tends to get lumped in with 1970s over-produced, corporate/commercial rock, but these songs were written and recorded mostly in Tom Scholtz's basement on a bunch of hand-built gear. I feel like it was indie before indie was a thing. And really, there is just isn’t a single track on this record that is not stellar.

I hadn't listened to—or even heard of—this band before, but I ran across this album on Popmatters' "20 Best Metal Albums of 2023" list and I really like it. I agree with the reviewer's comment that it is reminiscent of Emperor/Immortal, but Lamp Of Murmur puts enough of their own spin on the classic Scandanavian metal sound to keep things interesting.

I would argue that these guys are probably the best American black metal band working today. They have had a stellar run of records since 2006’s Diadem Of 12 Stars, and this latest release does not disappoint. I love how they manage to consistently manage to balance the bleak, the cosmic, and the organic.

I have always enjoyed Baroness’s stuff—especially Red and Blue—but I will admit that the last few albums did not really grab me. This new one, though—it’s really good! I have listened to it five or six times since it came out on Friday and have found something new to appreciate each time.

I forget how I first heard about this album back when it came out in 2006—probably on some music blog, as was the style at the t time—but I really liked it and listened to it a lot. The band is a bit hard to pin down… maybe a bit of a less psyched-out version of the Black Angels? They entirely disappeared off the map after this album, although they suddenly reappeared with another album a few years back. That one did not stick with me as much as Fear Is On Our Side, which I still really like.

I saw this morning they have a new album coming out near the end of the month and liked the tracks that are already available, so I went back and listened to this one, which came out two years ago. I’ll be honest—I didn’t even know Teenage Fanclub was still a going concern. I liked Bandwagonesque well enough, but hadn’t thought much more about them after that one. I really like these newer albums; it’s a similar vibe to recent records from The Feelies, where the band sounds like they have really settled into themselves with age. I can appreciate that!

I have had some (or maybe most) of these tracks from various sources over the years, but it's great to finally have them all officially collected and released for real in one place. I think Folk Implosion is probably my favorite of Barlow's many musical outputs—I find the production and electronic instrumentation to be a much better fit for his introspective and personal lyrics than the noisy rock of Dinosaur Jr. or Sebadoh.

There is a new Slowdive album out this morning, and the day is better because of it.

I have listened to it several time already. I will likely listen a few more time before the day is done.

I only just discovered this band a year or so ago, which is a shame, because I really like their stuff. It's a little bit lo-fi/slowcore, but also kind of spacey. This EP is particularly good.

Noisy rock about bleak daily life? Yes, please—sign me up! I mean, how can you go wrong with songs like “Hot Rotten Grass Smell” and “TV In the Gas Pump”? This album came up in my recommendations last week. I just got around to it this morning and I like it quite a bit. I think I need to check out more of their back catalog.

I found this album via the similar-to listings after listening to the Death Valley Girls, and I really like it. It is similar to DVG—droning guitar rock, some surf leanings, lots of reverb—but without the spooky atmosphere and vocal harmonies. The band is from Costa Rica but all the lyrics are English, which is a bit of bummer. Still, it is quite good and I recommend it!

I really liked Ladies & Gentlemen… back when it came out and for some years after. I grew less fond of the band’s subsequent releases, finding that they sounded to me like they were just piling more and more stuff on top of what was already there. This album still has a bit of that quality, but I am liking it more than anything else Spiritualized has done in quite a while. I will admit, however, to finding myself thinking more than once while listening “This is all just about heroin, isn’t it?”

I listened to Led Zep endlessly in high school and the first year or two of college, but for whatever reason, I always neglected this album. I have gotten into it in recent years, though, and find that I like it a lot.

I started listening to this band a few albums ago and I really like them. It’s hazy, instrumental indie rock that might pair well with a William Tyler album.