Best Albums of 2023 Reviewed

Slowdive: everything is alive

Dream pop
shoegaze
post-rock

Album #: 5

United Kingdom

Review

Another beautiful Slowdive album that sounds fresh but still like no one else but Slowdive? Wow.

I don't think there's a standout couple of songs like there is on the self-titled comeback, but I think Everything Is Alive is the stronger overall album, and "shanty" at least is up there with Slowdive's very best.

Despite sounding like Slowdive, two tracks remind me of what Collapse Under the Empire (CUTE) - another absolute favourite band - have been doing brilliantly for over ten years now. Especially "the slab," which I initially mistook for CUTE, though I think CUTE do that blend of synthy atmospheric post-rock better (hear The Sirens Sound album, for example). Slowdive just beat them to my album of 2023 though and were also my gig of 2023.

Favourite songs: shanty / skin in the game

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Monika Roscher Bigband: Witchy Activities and the Maple Death

Experimental big band
avant-prog
progressive pop

Album #: 3

Germany

Review

It's much-loved by others, but I'm unsure about a short stretch of this album (the "Witches Brew" suite), but I find the rest intoxicating and often exhilarating like nothing I've heard before.

Thanks to one song ("Firebird") I initially loved, I'm glad I perservered with the outlandishness.

A brilliant mix of rock, jazz, prog, orchestral, pop, and more.

Witchy Activities and the Maple Death continues to surprise me after multiple listens.

I'm excited to listen to Monika Roscher's back catalogue, and if she doesn't make it to the UK with her band, I'll coordinate a holiday around one of her tours or gigs in Germany.

More of this kind of thing!

Favourite songs: 8 Prinzessinnen / Firebird / Creatures of Dawn / Queen of Spades

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Collapse Under The Empire: Recurring

Post-rock

Album #: 9

Germany

Review

Another Collapse Under The Empire album...another album of the year contender - their 8th in a row that's been up there for me.

Cinematic dystopian post-rock with light amongst the darkness.

Whereas some non-album singles since the previous album took a different direction (like the excellent "Section V" and "Section VI"), Recurring mostly continues with the formula CUTE have perfected since 2010's The Sirens Sound and my 2011 album of the year Shoulders and Giants, plus added changes in structure and mood within songs here and there. "Mercy" for example, which switches from dark to light and back and shifts in pace. There are the usual dips into various genres that CUTE do so well - if you only heard a certain 20-ish seconds of the aforementioned "Mercy," you might think it's from a synth pop band.

Recurring seems to have more light in the dystopia compared to past CUTE releases, feeling very uplifting in parts. Maybe that felt a necessity given CUTE's origins and the state of much of the world during and following the pandemic.

No other band or musician I know has been as consistent as CUTE when it comes to my absolute favourites of the year: long may their run of exceptional albums continue!

And if I could see any band live... *fingers crossed*

Favourite songs: Revelation / Mercy

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Spurv: Brefjære

Post-rock
post-metal

Album #: 3

Norway

Review

Brefjære is probably even better than previous album Myra, one of my albums of 2018. It's Spurv at their most cinematic, with occasional choral vocals and brass at key points helping raise the album to another level.

I've seen Brefjære compared to Mono. The sometimes heavy and slightly dark but still melodic and at times uplifting brand of post-rock Spurv have made here reminds me more of Kokomo and Russian Circles.

Favourite songs: En brennende vogn over jordet / Urdråpene

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Depeche Mode: Memento mori

Synthpop
electro-industrial

Album #: 15

United Kingdom

Review

A contender for Depeche Mode's best album. Memento mori is like a load of their best bits - from the poppier and darker sides - combined into one.

In 2024, I'll be seeing them live for the first time since 2001.

Favourite songs: Ghosts Again / Soul With Me

Amazon

Magic Wands: Switch

Dream pop
shoegaze
gothic rock

Album #: 6

United States

Review

Switch is an album full of beguiling dream pop gems.

"Joy" is dark dream pop perfection, propelled along by its bassline that's surrounded by ethereal droney guitars, and dreamy synths and vocals.

"Starbreeze" is another highlight and for me the most hypnotic track on Switch.

Favourite songs: Joy / Starbreeze

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cursetheknife: There's a Place I Can Rest

Alternative rock
alternative metal
shoegaze

Album #: 2

United States

Review

There's a particular 1990s alt-metal sound I love, heard with (especially early-)Feeder, Smashing Pumpkins, and occasionally Deftones. There's a Place I Can Rest has that kind of sound with a brilliant shoegaze edge and superb Nothing-esque fuzzy melodies.

Favourite songs: Thrall

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Hammock: Love in the Void

Post-rock
ambient

Album #: 13

United States

Review

I'm disappointed the gorgeous sensory explosion that was the single "A Sensory Explosion" is missing, and I expected the album to be more in that vein from comments from Hammock around that time.

But it's another solid Hammock album that's almost up there with my favourites. Love in the Void includes a good mix of ambient and post-rock and blasts of shoegaze noise. Perfect for bedtime listening.

Favourite songs: It's OK to Be Afraid of the Universe / Release / Gods Becoming Memories

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The WAEVE: The WAEVE

Art rock

Album #: debut

United Kingdom

Review

An interesting mix of genres and instrumentation that melds into what's probably my favourite release by Rose Elinor Dougall or Graham Coxon, possibly even outshining the best albums by their bands The Pipettes and Blur. Not really much like either apart from a touch of Blur-esque Coxon.

With tracks like Kill Me Again, The WAEVE occasionally reminds me of cool noughties band The Shortwave Set.

It was seeing The Waeve play most of this album live (Gigs of 2023) that made me realise how good the album is.

Favourite songs: Kill Me Again / Drowning

Bandcamp Amazon

Steady Holiday: Newfound Oxygen

Indie pop
chamber pop

Album #: 4

United States

Review

Yet another consistently solid indie pop gem from Dre Babinski and the lushest-sounding of her albums so far.

While there is darkness in the music, she has a similar talent to Miss Li in disarming the listener with upbeat and fun melodies and dark subjects. Babinski's fun personality always comes across in at least a few of her songs each album too.

Favourite songs: The Balance / High Alert

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Fabrizio Paterlini: Riverscape

Modern classical
ambient
minimalist piano

Album #: 12

Italy

Review

Another excellent album from Fabrizio Paterlini; starting with a drone, Riverscape continues on to be full of lovely melodies that often sound like the water (and photographs of rivers by Kristel Schneider) that inspired the album.

Paterlini sounds like Paterlini, but occasionally also like the best of Einaudi, such as on the gorgeous "Be in the Moment."

Favourite songs: River Flows / Water Has Memories / Be in the Moment

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Uniforms: Trance

Post-punk
shoegaze

Album #: 3

Spain

Review

UNIFORMS' Fantasía moral and its dreamy shoegaze was one of my highlights of 2020.

While the shoegaze influence is still strong on Trance, and I loved the singles released in the lead up to the album (The Ladytron-esque "I Quit" is a belter), the darker and more post-punk orientation took a couple of listens for me to get used to before I started to love Trance as much as Uniforms' previous album.

Favourite songs: I Quit / Ligeia / Nomofobia

Bandcamp

Gemma Ray: Gemma Ray & the Death Bell Gang

Indie pop
art pop
neo-psychedelia

Album #: 9

United Kingdom

Review

Not what I expected at all, and the experimentation on Gemma Ray & the Death Bell Gang has resulted in a dystopian and at times unsettling pop listen that's probably my favourite Gemma Ray album so far.

Favourite songs: Come Oblivion / No Love

Bandcamp

Soars: Repeater

Post-rock
progressive electronic

Album #: 2

Sweden

Review

An excellent second album from pg.lost's/Cult of Luna's Kristian Karlsson, which sometimes sounds like a cross between post-rock legends God Is an Astronaut with that wistful kind of lost in space but uplifting joy they do best and the layers and atmosphere of Collapse Under the Empire.

Favourite songs: The Waiting / Unfollow

Bandcamp

The Shallows: Wave States

Shoegaze
dream pop

Album #: debut

United States

Review

A dreamy dark pop debut with hauntingly beautiful vocals that I'm sure many fans of early-4AD dream pop will love.

Favourite songs: Soft Night / Channels

Bandcamp

Hannah Aldridge: Dream of America

Americana
gothic country

Album #: 3

United States

Review

I discovered Hannah Aldridge by checking out the listings of a local music promoter and ended up seeing her live twice in 2023; once solo in a beautiful church, and once with a full band in a pub venue that was so intimate it felt like being in someone's living room.

I loved Dream of America on first listen, the dreamy gothic country reminding me of Marissa Nadler's excellent The Path of the Clouds.

Favourite songs: The Great Divide / Beautiful Oblivion

Bandcamp Amazon

ISON: Stars & Embers

Post-rock
ethereal wave

Album #: 3

Sweden

Review

Downtempo and doomy but beautiful and majestic with ethereal blasts of shoegaze noise.

Favourite songs: Luminescent Reverie

Bandcamp

Hania Rani: Ghosts

Ambient pop
modern classical
electronic

Album #: 4

Poland

Review

My favourite tracks on Ghosts are mostly minimalist piano with subtle electronics, but the diversity of the album makes Ghosts an interesting listen throughout the 1 hour 6 minute runtime, with elements of Bjork and Radiohead coming through on other tracks. I'd only heard instrumental Hania Rani music before, so the occasional vocals - who are Rani herself - were a great surprise too.

Rani also released the excellent On Giacometti soundtrack in 2023.

Favourite songs: Moans / The Boat

Bandcamp

Sigur Rós: ÁTTA

Ambient
chamber music
post-rock

Album #: 8

Iceland

Review

Until ÁTTA, I hadn't got into a full album by Sigur Rós since ( ) (Valtari came closest, and I enjoyed the dark turn for a couple of Kveikur tracks).

ÁTTA sounds like Sigur Rós back to their uplifting melancholic and beautiful best.

Favourite songs:

Amazon

Daughter: Stereo Mind Game

Dream pop
indie rock

Album #: 3

United Kingdom

Review

Sometimes I'm familiar with bands for years until a particular album clicks with me for some reason, then I think about great gigs I might have missed. Stereo Mind Game is one of those albums.

It's beautifully arranged and maybe warmer and more upbeat than previous releases - perhaps what's attracted me this time. I do like my music bleak and will revisit those older albums.

Favourite songs:

Amazon

April March: April March Meets Staplin

Yé-yé
indie pop
psychedelic rock

Album #: 9

United States/France

Review

I'm not familiar with every April March release, but backed by French duo Staplin, April March Meets Staplin is her most eclectic release I've heard.

It starts rather darkly, with second track "Alfie Solomon's Hush" sounding like Portishead, before introducing the more familiar French pop I know April March for on tracks 3 and 4 and my album highlight "Lay Down Snow White," which could've been lifted from the best of the 1960s, followed a few tracks later by the cheeky yé-yé highlight of "Natalie," which reminds me of Fabienne Delsol - the only other yé-yé artist I know well from recent years.

The world needs more yé-yé. According to RYM, April March Meets Staplin is the only yé-yé-featuring release in 2023.

April March (AKA Elinor Blake) has a quietly successful career as a singer and illustrator/animator; I bet most have heard her vocals somewhere (on "Chick Habit" in various places including the Tarantino film "Death Proof," for example, which is when I first looked her up).

Favourite songs: Lay Down Snow White / Natalie / Les fleurs invisibles

Bandcamp

Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream: North EP

Post-rock

Album #: 3

France

Review

Two tracks and 33 minutes long, and Silent Whale Becomes A° Dream's best release since their debut album, with the kinds of beautiful orchestral swells I don't hear all that much in post-rock these days.

Favourite songs: North / Architeuthis Remastered

Bandcamp

Kara Jackson: Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?

Singer-songwriter
folk
alt country

Album #: debut

United States

Review

I doubt I've heard (m)any better albums lyrically in 2023, which reach the heartbreaking, especially with the title track's loss of a childhood friend Jackson planned to start a band with. The song builds to an outro of "I'll make a promise to you then / If we can ever sing again / You sing those high notes high, my friend / I'll sing the low notes in the end."

Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? is often just Jackson's unique husky vocals and subtle instrumentation, but occasionally reaches layered crescendos.

I imagined Jackson to be much older than her early 20s, and it'll be exciting to hear what she does next.

Favourite songs: brain / why does the earth give us people to love?

Bandcamp

SPELLLING: SPELLLING & the Mystery School

Art rock
art pop

Album #: 4

United States

Review

Under the Sun is one of the very best pop songs of the year with other tracks tending towards being darker.

I wasn't sure whether to include this album with it being reworks of older songs, but most sound almost completely reimagined, with fuller instrumentation and brighter production.

Favourite songs: Under the Sun / Haunted Water / Walk Up to Your House

Bandcamp

Isolde Lasoen: Oh Dear

Baroque pop
French Pop

Album #: 2

Belgium

Review

An album I didn't hear until a few months into 2024. Having searched for yé-yé and seen no new releases (see April March, above), I searched for French pop instead, and Isolde Lasoen from Belgium appeared.

Lasoen built Oh Dear up from drums, a vibraphone, and her vocals, to which lush string and horn arrangements were added. It's an album of unexpected twists and turns but always relaxing with it.

Favourite songs:

Bandcamp

Hochzeitskapelle + Japanese Friends: The Orchestra in the Sky [Kobe Recordings]

Chamber pop
jazz
folk

Album #: debut

Germany/Japan

Review

At times, like a more upbeat and ramshackle version of Beirut. Great stuff.

Favourite songs: Poisong / When the wind blows, the bucket maker gains / Garden of Peace / Kitakana St. March

Bandcamp

The Kundalini Genie: False Highs, True Lows

Psychedelic rock
shoegaze
dream pop

Album #: 6

United Kingdom

Review

I love the melding of psychedelic and shoegaze on False Highs, True Lows.

Favourite songs: Anything, Anymore / False Highs

Bandcamp Amazon

Film School: Field

Shoegaze
post-punk
indie rock

Album #: 7

United States

Review

Film School returned in 2018 after an 8-year album break with Bright to Death, which I thought was their best album until this year's Field, which is inspired by a 13th Century poem by Rumi.

While the shoegaze sound exists throughout Field, it doesn't have any out-and-out (or at least what I most associate with) shoegaze tracks like "Compare" or "Crushin'." Film School are one of the best at those kinds of tracks, so it's slightly disappointing, but with a psychedelic and post-punk (this is the most Film School have sounded like Joy Division) sound more to the fore, that lack of obvious shoegaze doesn't stop Field from being up there with Film School's best.

To add to my excitement of Film School's return in 2018, I saw them live in 2023 for the first time since 2008.

Favourite songs: Tape Rewind / Don't You Ever

Bandcamp

Slow Salvation: Here We Lie

Dream pop

Album #: debut

United States

Review

Icy beauty title track "Here We Lie" opens an album full of pretty dream pop gems.

Favourite songs: Here We Lie

Bandcamp

Pacifica: Freak Scene

Power pop
indie rock
garage rock

Album #: debut

Argentina

Review

A solid debut and one of my favourite power pop albums in years.

Favourite songs: Change Your Mind / Away

Amazon

Rippedd: Maybe in Another Life?

Shoegaze

Album #: debut

Ukraine

Review

Lo-fi rather beautiful and at times noisy shoegaze.

Favourite songs: i'm here

Bandcamp

Jalen Ngonda: Come Around and Love Me

Soul

Album #: debut

United States

Review

What a voice; Jalen Ngonda sounds straight from the best of 60s and 70s soul.

Favourite songs: Come Around and Love Me

Bandcamp Amazon