Not because anyone asked me but because old habits don’t die, here are the 10 new albums that I enjoyed listening to the most in 2023, ranked in order of how much I enjoyed listening to them.
1. Caroline Polachek: Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
It was my album of the year when it came out in February and it’s still my album of the year 10 months later, by a wide margin. I just wish Polachek hadn’t picked Grimes, whose voice and relationship with Elon Musk set my teeth on edge, to be one of two guest vocalists on the otherwise lovely “Fly to You.” (The second guest, Dido, is similarly unnecessary but way more appropriate.) That aside, my vote for art-pop queen of the 2020s is secure until further notice.
Great to have them back and sounding so good. “The Narcissist” and “Barbaric” continue a long, long line of distinguished Blur singles. They’re also—and this is my one complaint—the only up-tempo songs on the original album, which is why no one should listen to the original album now that the superior 13-song deluxe version exists. Not sure why they bothered putting out a 10-song version in the first place.
Since I recently finished writing almost 6,000 words about Peter Gabriel, I think I’ll leave it at that.
4. Queens of the Stone Age: In Times New Roman…
I’ve been a QOTSA fan for 25 years, so it’s not surprising their latest one made it on my list. Gotta say, though, much of this album is too murky for my full satisfaction. I presume that it was Josh Homme’s conscious choice to make the mix of “Paper Machete” sound like it’s been enveloped by curtains of gauze, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Still, the tunes and the performances rise above. And “Emotion Sickness” is a straight-up classic.
5. Everything But the Girl: Fuse
Great to have them back and sounding so good, part two. “Kiss me while the music plays/Kiss me while the world decays” (from “Nothing Left to Lose”) was the couplet of the year.
They got a vat of ink in 2023 and, amazingly, they deserved it. They deserve all the Grammys too.
Thanks to modern technology and the careful ministrations of family and friends, the late lamented Mark Linkous is resurrected for 43 minutes and 47 seconds that are as tuneful and creepy and funny and moving as any of the music he released when he was still with us.
At various times, Sabrina Teitelbaum’s voice and compositions remind me of Juliana Hatfield, Dolores O’Riordan, Kristin Hersh and Courtney Love. (Hey, I’m middle-aged, and so are my reference points. I own it.) “Joiner” in particular is a keeper. A debut of great promise.
9. This Is the Kit: Careful of Your Keepers
Kate Stables, leader of This Is the Kit, makes music that’s enchantingly odd. It’s a prog-jazz-folk hybrid rooted in the cyclical, and you can hear that in both her intricate fingerpicking patterns and the lacuna-ridden repetitions of her lyrics, which often suggest she’s been binge-reading Samuel Beckett. Not quite as good as her previous album, 2020’s Off Off On, but fine work nonetheless.
10. Bruce Cockburn: O Sun O Moon
Now 78, Cockburn is and will always remain something of a cult artist (except maybe in his native Canada), too earnest, too Christian, too whatever to fully break through. But the cult should be bigger, and this is some of his best stuff ever. “Orders,” “Us All” and “When the Spirit Walks in the Room” stunned me with their depth and eloquence the first time I heard them. Being a crusty geezer suits Cockburn to a tee.
If you haven’t heard these albums yet, I predict that each one will make your holidays more enjoyable. See you in the New Year.
Bruce Cockburn!!! I worked with him when he was signed to Danny Goldberg's Gold Mountain Records in the 80s, even went on tour with him for a bit. So glad he is still making music. I might just have to buy this one.