Sunday, December 31, 2023

Less extensive list than usual this year, but the list as a whole has some pretty exceptional albums all around. Enjoy!

* * * * * * * * * *
1.  Ulrika Spacek - “Compact Trauma”

2.  Activity - “Spirit in the Room”

3.  Reverend Kristen Michael Hayter - “Saved!”

4.  Oneohtrix Point Never - “Again”

5.  Teresa Winter - “Proserpine” 

6.  Bar Italia - “Tracey Denim”

7.  Mars Kumari- “I Thought I Lost You”

8.  Mary Ocher - “Approaching Singularity: Music for the End of Time” 

9.  African American Sound Recordings - “Share Spirit”

10.  Dean Johnson - “Nothing for me, Please” 


11.  PJ Harvey - “I Inside the Old Year Dying”

Laurel Halo - “Atlas”

Woods - “Perennial”

Eartheater - “Powders”

Philipp Johann Thimm - “Birds Singing till the End of the World” 

Zakè & Benoît Pioulard - “Eve”

Steph Green - “Lore”

Damien Jurado - “Passing the Giraffes” 

Slowdive - “Everything Is Alive”

Jess Williamson  - “Time Ain’t Accidental”


21.  Wanderwelle - “All Hands Bury the Cliffs at Sea”

Eterna - “Wardrove”

Tim Hecker - “No Highs”

Marlene Ribeiro - “Toquei no Sol”

Nonconnah - “Unicorn Family”

La Timpa - “Pity by one All Good Treasure”

Spivak - “You Win Again”

Gruf Rhys - “The Almond & the Seahorse (OST)

Niecy Blues - “Exit Stimulation”

Young Fathers - “Heavy Heavy”


31.  Wednesday - “Rat Saw God”

Bonny Doon - “Let There Be Music”

Sparklehorse - “Bird Machine”

Everything But The Girl - “Fuse”

Holy Hive - “Celeste”

Being Dead - “When Horses Would Run”

Frankie Rose - “Love As Protection” 

Prewn - “Through the Window”

Mui Zwu - “Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century”

Gaz Coombes - “Turn the Car Around”


41.  Laurel Halo - “Atlas”

Animal Collective - “Isn’t It Now?”

Bar Italia - “Twits”

Hania Rani - “Ghosts”

White China - “Hang Up the Lights”

Sun June - “Bad Dream Jaguar” 

Flora Yin-Wong - “Cold Reading” 

Emma Tricca - “Aspirin Sun”

Mizu - “Distant Intervals”

Edless - “Editing a Dream”


51.  Yves Tumor - “Praise a Lord Who Chews but who does not Consume”

Glasser - “Crux”

Shabazz Palaces - “Robed in Rareness”

Ora Cogan - “Formless”

Ryuichi Sakamoto - “12”

Devendra Banhart - “

Modern Cosmology - “What Will You Grow Now”

Lorelle Meets the Obsolete - “Datura”

Lost Girls - “Selvutsletter”

Ruby Haunt - “Between Heavens”


61.  Loscil & Lawrence English - “Colours of Air”

Mhaol - “Attachment Styles”

Jackson & the Janks - “s/t”

The Black Dog - “The Grey Album”

Mutual Benefit - “Growing at the Edges”

Nighttime - “Keeper is the Heart”

Mark McGuire - “A Pocket Full of Rain”

Young Moon - “Triggered by Sunsets”

Maria BC - “Spike Field”

Heathered Pearls - “Loyal Extras”


71.  Sex - “Textin’ Yr Exes”

Duff Thompson - “Shadow People” 

DJ Shadow- “Action Adventure”

Mary Lattimore - “Goodbye, Hotel Arkada”

FACS - “Still Life In Decay”

Danny Paul Grody - “Arc of Light”

Saloli - “Canyon”

Tirzah - “trip9love”

Samuel Organ - “Guided by Horses”

Eye - “Honolulu Saigon”


81.  Mitski - “This Land is Inhospitable & so are We”

Lusine - “Long Light”

Julie Byrne - “The Greater Wings”

De Ambassade - “The Fool”

Austra - “Swan Song (Original Score)”

Body/Negative- “Everett”

Jon Collin & Demdike Stare - “Minerals”

Katie Gately - “Fawn/Brute”

En Attendant Ara - “Principia”

V/Z & Valentine Magetti - “Sueno Assente”


91.  Wiktor Stribog - “Astroenergoteropia”

Tomasz Bednarczyk - “Catbient”

Vanishing Twin - “Afternoon X”

Shana Cleveland - “Manzanita”

Otay:onii - “Dream Hacker”

Penelope Trappes - “

The Chap - “Burger Sauce”

Meernaa - “So Far So Good”

OZmotic & Fennesz - “Senzatempo”

Damien Jurado - “Motorcycle Madness”


101.  Blush - “Supercrush” 

Croatian Amor & Scandinavian Star - “Two 

Autumns / Spring Snow”

Index for Working Musik - “Dragging the Needlework for the Kids at Uphole”

Cosmetics - “Baby” 

Luca Beatović - “In Place”

Anika - “Eat Liquid”

Yaeji - “With a Hammer”

Vinyl Williams - “Aeterna”

TALsounds - “Shift”

Ruth Mascelli - “Non-Stop Healing Frequencies”


111.  Holy Wave - “Five of Cups”

Frederik Valentin & Loke Rahbeck - “The Friend’s  Place”

Emil Amos - “Zone Black”



Favorite EPs:


Astral Swans & Chad Vangaalen - “split ep”

Lennie Rayen - “Believe That It’s Blue”

KMRU - “Drawing Water”

Kelly Lee Owens - “LP 8.2”

Carmen Villain - “

Color Me Blood Red - “s/t”

Alpha Maid - “spresso” 

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Best Albums of 2022

I’m still working on my best albums list but thought I’d share my top 33⅓ (so far) along with my best songs playlist. I’m freaking out over albums 1 and 2 (which may just swap): they’re two of the best records I have ever heard. Stay tuned for the full list, I’ll tag the usual suspects in that one when I post it later this month.

* * * * * * * * * *
1. Akini Jing - “Endless Farewell”
2. Tempers - “New Meaning”
3. Perfume Genius - “Ugly Season”
4. Kendrick Lamar - “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers”
5. King Hannah - “I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me”
6. Raum - “Daughter”
7. Lucrecia Dalt - “¡Ay!”
8. Porridge Radio - “Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky”
9. Bloodz Boi (w’ Claire Rousay & More Ease) - “a crying poem”
10. Animal Collective - “Time Skiffs”
11. Kurt Vile - “(Watch My Moves)”
12. Naima Bock - “Giant Palm”
13. Dottie - “Thief”
14. Horsegirl - “Versions of Modern Performance”
15. Nosaj Thing - “Continua”
16. Sudan Archives - “Natural Brown Prom Queen”
17. JEEN. - “Tracer”
18. Fontaines DC - “Skinty Fia”
19. Angel Olsen - “Big Time”
Sofie Birch - “Holotropica”
21. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Emile Mosseri - “I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon”
22. Plains - “I Walked With You A Ways”
23. FKA Twigs - “Caprisongs”
24. Viul & Benoît Pioulard - “Konec”
25. Danger Mouse w’ Black Thought - “Cheat Codes”
26. Tomberlin - “i don’t know who needs to hear this…”
27. Cate Le Bon - “Pompeii”
28. Soundwalk Collective w’ Patti Smith - “The Perfect Vision Reworkings”
29. Soccer Mommy - “Sometimes, Forever”
30. Rachika Nayar - “Heaven Come Crashing”
31. Just Mustard - “Heart Under”
32. Abby Sage - “The Florist” (ep)
33. Melody’s Echo Chamber - “Emotional Eternal”
… & ⅓ : Young Moon - “Paraverbal Orchids”