Postcard 02: 29/01/2024.
We're talking lists baby; a rundown of some of my favourite records and songs from last year.
Welcome back to the Postbox! Before we delve into this week’s mail, I just want to say a few things. Firstly, a huge thanks for sticking around and subscribing. I’ve gotten a lot of joy out of putting this together so far, and it’s been wonderful hearing your responses to last weeks mailout. I’m really excited to see where this little project goes with you guys! Secondly, the image heading this week’s mailout is a photo from my good pal Luke Robinson that examines the interplay of water and light. I adore the subtle motion and the lack of clear form. I also reckon it’d make a cracking album cover.
Anyway, lists! As many of you already know, I bloody love a list. December then, as a time that is essentially earmarked for reviewing, ranking and rating the various releases of the year, is a dream for me. Although the days are gone when I used to inevitably get up-in-arms about Pitchfork’s choice for number 1 spot, it’s still a time in the music calendar I get especially excited for. I like having a framework to give me the space to think more critically about what I enjoy and why, and list season gives me that opportunity on a plate. It’s always interesting to see which albums stuck with me that I wouldn’t expect, which initial heavy hitters actually ran out of steam soon after release, or what incredible records I missed entirely. Making a list also acts as a time capsule for your future self who can judge you for being entirely wrong about your picks. I just looked up my list from ten years ago - apparently Future Island’s ‘Singles’ was my top record of 2014. Would I say that now? Probably not (but it is a very good record).
But I also think it’s a good opportunity to take stock of what music has meant that year; what’s resonated with people or what’s given a shock to the system of broader music culture. I’ve seen this commented in a few places, but to me 2023 was an interesting year in that it never seemed like there was one album you knew was going to be the top of every list. Others have said this is a symptom of it being a bit of a duff year, but after struggling to narrow down my top 10 I find it hard to agree; hopefully it’s more of a sign that on average people and the sites that are making these lists are engaging with a wider selection of music at face value and thus finding it harder to pick a standout. Maybe that’s optimistic of me!
As usual, I’ve spent a bit of time putting a top records of 2023 list together, and whilst I have somewhat missed the boat for when these things normally come out, I reckoned this newsletter was as good a spot as any to highlight a few of my favs. So without further ado, here’s a rundown of my top 5 records of the year:
5. James Holden - Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Full of All Possibilities
2023 was the year James Holden put out the record I was hoping he’d make. I’ve been following him since I got a cheap copy of Interiors in the Bleep sale many moons ago, and was impressed by the direction he’d taken on his record as The Animal Spirits a few years later, incorporating more live elements and human touches into it’s frenzied ‘folk trance’. ITIAHDPFOAP (even the abbreviation is ridiculous) manages to take that formula and perfect it, making one of the most personal, warm and euphoric electronica albums I’ve ever heard. It’s a record that is more interested in holding your attention through repetition, trance and evolution than showy moments, and it’s a risk that pays off; there’s a real sense of propulsion and ecstatic joy that resonates throughout the release which is impossible to ignore. He’s quoted as saying that this record is “a fantasy about a transformative music culture that would make the world better”, and I really do believe him. Yes, it has a ridiculous name. No, this should definitely not put you off.
4. Sluice - Radial Gate
Every year I find that there’s a little record from a band I didn’t previously know that sneaks it’s way into my top 10. This year, that record is Radial Gate by Sluice, a band from North Carolina who have made a gorgeous album that sounds like a mix between Bill Callahan, Yo La Tengo and the Silver Jews. Across its all too brief 27 minutes it manages to surprise at every turn, be that with unfurling song structures, smart genre-switching, or just fucking brilliant lyrics. ‘Acts 3:9’ is a particular stunner which features all of these traits, including one of my favourite lines on the record: “Though I did take a surprise shit while leaning off of a ridge/And was struck by the beauty and comedy of attempting to exist”. How good is that?!
3. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World
Yo La Tengo are the best punk band in the world; maybe not punk in sound, but definitely punk in ethos. What other band would fully commit to the bit and reenact an entire Seinfeld episode at a show? I will happily stand and die on this hill, and I think This Stupid World does an excellent job in proving this case. On their seventeenth (!!!) studio album, Yo La Tengo look at the world we find ourselves in and find different ways to both accept our reality and fight the situation, in turn making a record that bristles with frustration, melancholy and humour. It’s all summed up perfectly in the title track of the record. The inherent internal tension finally erupts in walls of drone and distortion propelled by drums that sound like crunching grass, before it’s cut through by the communal group vocals of three people who are reacting in the only way they know how: by carrying on. “This stupid world is killing me/This stupid world is all we have”. I can’t think of anything more punk than that.
2. Geese - 3D Country
In typical Chris Dean fashion, I had discounted Geese before I’d even heard them. Their first record was billed as another post-punky affair, and I’d decided it was just not something I needed more of in my life. However I gave the preview singles for their new record 3D Country a try, and my god I’m grateful I did. First and foremost, this record is FUN. Like, outrageously fun. It’s the sound of a band giving everything and anything a shot with the full fibure of their being. You want country funk? It’s got it. Songs with sitar? Hell yeah. Nonsensical lyrics? Fucking tonnes of them. I gave an actual laugh of pure joy the first time I heard the Queen-esque vocals on ‘Gravity Blues’. But it also manages to hold all this together in a surprisingly cohesive and sophisticated way, with a sequencing that makes the record fly past. Rock ‘n Roll ain’t dead yet.
1. Anna B. Savage - in|FLUX
This placement should come as no surprise to anyone who’s spoken to me at all over the last year. I’ve barely been able to shut up about this record, and I definitely can’t do it justice with words; Anna has crafted a sophomore album that takes the raw honesty of her first album and crafts it into something truly unique. This is a record that is defined by growth, both as an artist and as a human being, and the messiness, contradictions, and confidence that comes out of the process of truly discovering yourself. Across its 10 songs, in|FLUX addresses relationships in all manners, from lovers to friends to the relationship with the self, in a way that always feels fresh and with something interesting to say. It’s backed up by some excellent production from Mike Lindsay of Tunng; I love the sounds on this record, be it the weird vocal warping on “The Ghost” or “Crown Shyness”, or the closely mic’d vocals that sound like you’re being let in on a secret.
I could wax lyrical about this album for hours, but I’ll leave you with one clear example of why this is my record of the year. The final song on her first record A Common Turn is the beautiful, but devastating track ‘One’: a rework of an older track of hers that highlights the insidious comments that women have to bear in relation to their bodies, but also laments her own lack of confidence for allowing those worlds to have power. Contrast this with ‘The Orange’, the closing track of in|FLUX and my favourite song of the year; a song which is explicitly about the joy of finding comfort in yourself and the life that you’re living, even with ‘a lovely soft belly’. To position this song in the album in a way that allows for that direct comparison to be drawn is such a simple but perfect artistic statement that somehow breaks the fourth wall of the record, leaving just one person talking to another about how they’ve been doing. It is truly beautiful and I cannot help but be exceptionally moved by it. This is what makes music so incredible, and it makes me feel lucky to be alive.
Phew! Thanks for sticking with me, I promise we’re nearly done. Your postcard this week, somewhat unsurprisingly, picks some tracks that have ended up being in heavy rotation over the last 12 months. I’ve written enough waffle today, so I won’t go into specific details on individual songs, but I hope you find something you like on here, and it gives you a taste of some of the albums I’ve spoken about above. Thanks again for reading, and I look forward to delivering you some more post next week.
Postcard 02: 29/01/2024
James Holden - Worlds Collide Mountains Form
Big Thief - Born For Loving You
Michael Cormier-O’Leary - Newest Oldest Punk
Fever Ray - Shiver
CMAT (feat. John Grant) - Where Are Your Kids Tonight?
Yo La Tengo - Apology Letter
Sluice - Acts 9:3
Ratboys - Black Earth, WI
Sam Burton - Long Way Around
Anna B. Savage - The Orange