Urban75 Album of the Year 2023 - The Results!

[krtek a houby]

A fabulous year for music (even if Chai didn't make the list) cheers, belboid

 

[marty21]

Cheers belboid !

 

[Knotted]

Struggled to find anything I really liked this year tbh which is odd because I liked loads from 2022. Billy Woods/Kenny Segal's Maps probably the best of a bad batch. Was excited about Yo La Tengo and Lankum releases, but they were both a bit disappointing I thought. I will find something eventually, there's always something.

Thanks belboid

 

[Silas Loom]

There is more than enough music already, and I don’t see the point of encouraging people to create any more until we’ve all listened properly to the existing corpus.

 

[Dr. Furface]

Shamefully I left this one off my list when it really should've been top 10, and as I won't be doing this in 10 years time to correct that error, I'm doing it now.

 

[billy_bob]

Struggled to find anything I really liked this year tbh which is odd because I liked loads from 2022. Billy Woods/Kenny Segal's Maps probably the best of a bad batch. Was excited about Yo La Tengo and Lankum releases, but they were both a bit disappointing I thought. I will find something eventually, there's always something.

Thanks belboid

IF you expected to like Lankum but were disappointed, have you tried ØXN's CYRM? It's like Lankum boiled down to their very essence.

(One of two albums, along with the Föllakzoid one, which I managed to discover needed to go on my AOTY list within about 24 hours of having sent my actual list to Belboid )

 

[Knotted]

IF you expected to like Lankum but were disappointed, have you tried ØXN's CYRM? It's like Lankum boiled down to their very essence.

(One of two albums, along with the Föllakzoid one, which I managed to discover needed to go on my AOTY list within about 24 hours of having sent my actual list to Belboid )

Oh that ØXN (one for the badly named band thread!) is interesting but not like Lankum at all I think. ØXN sounds more indie than folk to me, it's got basic rock structures underneath that eschew the drone and an emotive vocal delivery (at least on the song I've listened to). I really like what Lankum are doing - the drones, the minimalism and Radie's "folk" vocal delivery that doesn't try to wedge in extra emotion that isn't there in the song already (iyswim). My objection to Go Dig My Grave is insane tbh, it's that it sounds too much like it's made in a studio. I just want to get back to something raw and wild and this is all too cleaned up, all too "powerful". I liked the Shovel Dance Collective album The Water is the Shovel of the Shore from last year more for this reason. Uglier, grittier, more meandering, more purposeless, more primal, more noise, less like a well honed product.

 

[magneze]

Thanks for organizing belboid. Going to check out some these that didn't make it to my list.

 

[hitmouse]

Thanks for all your hard work yet again, belboid

Here's my list - the top 4 are pretty solid, then quite a few could have been higher/lower. Surprised Swans didn't make it into the top 40, they're usually pretty popular round here.

The Murder Capital - Gigi's Recovery
Black Honey - A Fistful of Peaches
Cloth - Secret Measure
Flyying Colours - You Never Know
We Are Scientists - Lobes
Manchester Orchestra - The Valley Of Vision
boygenius - the record
Samia - Honey
Swans - The Beggar
Anti-Flag - LIES THEY TELL OUR CHILDREN
Paramore - This Is Why
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics
Be Your Own Pet - Mommy
slowthai - UGLY
Margo Price - Strays
Caroline Rose - The Art of Forgetting
Slowdive - everything is alive
Screaming Females - Desire Pathway
Hey Colossus - In Blood
The New Pornographers - Continue as a Guest

Oh yeah, the Black Honey and Flyying Colours might well have made my list with a few more listens (although FC obviously have points deducted for annoying spelling). Completely forgot to listen to the new BYOP and maybe listened to the new Screamales once, but I imagine those might well have made my list if I'd properly listened to them as well.

There is more than enough music already, and I don’t see the point of encouraging people to create any more until we’ve all listened properly to the existing corpus.

Oh yeah, I just listen to the Shangri-Las and then post up any old nonsense on these threads and hope it looks plausible. I don't think anyone actually knows for sure whether Boymartyr or Protogenius or Thursday are real bands.

 

[stavros]

My selection for your delighted ears:

1. Hollie Kenniff - We All Have Places That We Miss
2. Cable Ties - All Her Plans
3. Slowdive - Everything Is Alive
4. Heinali - Kyiv Eternal
5. Bully - Lucky For You
6. Autechre - AE LIVE 2022
7. Tapes and Topographies - Microtones
8. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World
9. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes
10. Actress - LXXXVIII
11. John Frusciante - : II .
12. Tim Hecker - No Highs
13. Ryuichi Sakamoto -12
14. 파란노을 (Parannoul) - After the Magic
15. Loscil, Lawrence English - Colours of Air
16. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Reciprocals
17. The Black Dog - My Brutal Life
18. KMRU - Dissolution Grip
19. Gescom/Autechre - Hanalgig
20. Föllakzoid - V
21. Kimbra - A Reckoning

I'm chuffed that Slowdive won, although it means that I think Fuck Buttons are my only number one ever who've won the popular vote.

 

[hash tag]

2023 hasn't really done it for me either. But, no worst album of the year. It that because it's so obvious that the worst album by a country mile is Dark Side redux. Such a very very sad disappointment.

 

[braindancer]

The OXN album is cracking for sure but I personally preferred Lankum.

My selection for your delighted ears:

1. Hollie Kenniff - We All Have Places That We Miss
2. Cable Ties - All Her Plans
3. Slowdive - Everything Is Alive
4. Heinali - Kyiv Eternal
5. Bully - Lucky For You
6. Autechre - AE LIVE 2022
7. Tapes and Topographies - Microtones
8. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World
9. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes
10. Actress - LXXXVIII
11. John Frusciante - : II .
12. Tim Hecker - No Highs
13. Ryuichi Sakamoto -12
14. 파란노을 (Parannoul) - After the Magic
15. Loscil, Lawrence English - Colours of Air
16. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Reciprocals
17. The Black Dog - My Brutal Life
18. KMRU - Dissolution Grip
19. Gescom/Autechre - Hanalgig
20. Föllakzoid - V
21. Kimbra - A Reckoning

I'm chuffed that Slowdive won, although it means that I think Fuck Buttons are my only number one ever who've won the popular vote.

Definitely need to check out the Loscil, KFW and KMRU albums - not listened to any of those - nor the Gescom/Autechre thing....

 

[Hollis]

Oh dear. I think everyone has forgot about The Waeve... album came out in Feb 2023. Would definitely have been on my list... if I'd remembered..

 

[MBV]

Other albums I considered:

Colin Stetson
Colleen
Kurt Vile (an EP but album length)
Youth Lagoon

 

[twistedAM]

Glad to see Anohni and the Johnsons - probably the most hyped album on my social media feeds in the past year - didn't make it. I got through about seven minutes of that crap before realising it was a marketing campaign rather than a musical genius.

 

[braindancer]

Other albums I considered:

Colin Stetson
Colleen
Kurt Vile (an EP but album length)
Youth Lagoon

Colin Stetson narrowly missed a spot on my list too - I bet he's gutted...

 

[stavros]

The OXN album is cracking for sure but I personally preferred Lankum.


Definitely need to check out the Loscil, KFW and KMRU albums - not listened to any of those - nor the Gescom/Autechre thing....

KMRU released two albums this year, and they're both worth a listen. He's a new discovery of mine.

The Gescom album is apparently a mixtape by Sean, from about ten years ago or so.

 

[billy_bob]

Colin Stetson narrowly missed a spot on my list too - I bet he's gutted...

I think he guests on at least one track on 93% of the albums that were released this year, so he wins anyway.

 

[heinous seamus]

Ah dear. Another year passed, with only one new album listened to (and it didn't even make the list!)

 

[sim667]

Who let the young person in?

Oh hai

Only 2 of mine made it in…..

1. 100 gecs - 10000 gecs
2. Brutalismus 3000 - Ultrakunst
3. Imanu - Paradise
4. Romy - Mid air
5. Evian Christ - Revanchist
6. Burr Oak - Somewhere we belong
7. Queens of the Stone Age - times new Roman
8. Jalen Ngonda - Come around and love me
9. SpongeBob Squarewave - Hands in the air LP
10. Rancid - Tomorrow never comes
11. EPROM - Syntheism
12. The chemical brothers - For that beautiful feeling
13. G Jones - Paths
14. Devildriver - dealing with demons vol II
15. Protoje - In search of zion
16. Emeli Sandé - How were we to know
17. Flume - Things don’t always go the way you plan
18. The smashing pumpkins - ATUM
19. Hudson Mohawke - Set the roof
20. Cleo Sol - Gold

 

[hitmouse]

Oh hai

Only 2 of mine made it in…..

1. 100 gecs - 10000 gecs
2. Brutalismus 3000 - Ultrakunst
3. Imanu - Paradise
4. Romy - Mid air
5. Evian Christ - Revanchist
6. Burr Oak - Somewhere we belong
7. Queens of the Stone Age - times new Roman
8. Jalen Ngonda - Come around and love me
9. SpongeBob Squarewave - Hands in the air LP
10. Rancid - Tomorrow never comes
11. EPROM - Syntheism
12. The chemical brothers - For that beautiful feeling
13. G Jones - Paths
14. Devildriver - dealing with demons vol II
15. Protoje - In search of zion
16. Emeli Sandé - How were we to know
17. Flume - Things don’t always go the way you plan
18. The smashing pumpkins - ATUM
19. Hudson Mohawke - Set the roof
20. Cleo Sol - Gold

Don't think I've heard a single one of those albums, but I did at least see SpongeBob Squarewave live this year.

 

[sim667]

If anyone else knows any other modern albums like the jalen ngonda one please tell me

 

[MBV]

Bobby Oroza sim667

 

[ska invita]

Just searched Jalen Ngonda....


...needs to be careful, Marvin Gaye sounding material seems to get sued for copyright breach a lot!

 

[Spandex]

If anyone else knows any other modern albums like the jalen ngonda one please tell me

Introducing... Aaron Fraser is in the same ballpark. There's other people on Daptone Records in the same soul style, like Lee Fields and Charles Bradley, though they don't have the silky smooth vocals of Jalen Ngonda. Have a dig around Colemine Records for more retro-soul - Durand Jones is another one.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Just searched Jalen Ngonda....


...needs to be careful, Marvin Gaye sounding material seems to get sued for copyright breach a lot!

Wow, that's such a rip off. As you say, others have been sued for much less.

 

[The39thStep]

Thanks to neonwilderness I listened to the Unthank : Smith - Nowhere And Everywhere album which I didn't know existed and it's excellent.

Here's my list

1. Death and Vanilla - Flicker
2. Ao- Ao Mar
3. ACR - 1982
4.Lost Girls- Salvutsletter
5. Clientele- I am not here anymore
6. Raven- Kerena
7.Mitski - The Land is Inhospitable
8.Exit North- Anyway Still
9. Mandy Indiana- I’ve seen away
10. To Tripps- Popular Jaguar
11. Our Broken Garden- Blind
12 Warrington Runcorn New Town Development- The Nation's Most Central Location

 

[Spandex]

Marvin Gaye sounding material seems to get sued for copyright breach a lot!

Other than the Marvin Gaye Estate suing Thicke & Williams and the heirs of Ed Townsend (the co-writer of Let's Get it On) suing Ed Sheeran are there other examples adding up to 'a lot'? Without millions of $$$s at stake would anyone bother pursuing a case against someone like Ngonda and a small label like Daptone?

 

[ska invita]

Other than the Marvin Gaye Estate suing Thicke & Williams and the heirs of Ed Townsend (the co-writer of Let's Get it On) suing Ed Sheeran are there other examples adding up to 'a lot'? Without millions of $$$s at stake would anyone bother pursuing a case against someone like Ngonda and a small label like Daptone?

yes fair point!

 

[hitmouse]

7.Mitski - The Land is Inhospitable

Ah, Mitski's another one I didn't even realise had a new album out. Maybe 2024 will finally be the year I get around to having an opinion about Mitski. Also, thinking about it that Rev Hayter album seems to have not made much of an impact?