I haven't listened to as many new music releases this year as usually, yet. Some of the new releases had been quite good, but I haven't seen many being very good or excellent this year (as in 2021 for instance). What albums this year would you say are very good or excellent so far? What would you recommend?
I've been behind because of the NBA playoffs (die hard Nuggets fan), but I think its been a solid if unspectacular year. I'm not sure my recs are gonna mean much to you considering I thought 2021 was the worst year for music since 2012 (and much prefered 2020 & 2022).
However, my ten recs considering what's already been suggested:
Caroline Polacheck- Desire, I Want to Turn into You (art pop)
Yves Tmor: Praise a Lord Who Chews (art/indie rock)
Wednesday: Rat Finds God (indie rock)
Killer Mike: Micheal (Rap)
Bully: Change Your Mind (alt-rock)
Danny Brown & JPEG MAFIA: Scaring the Hoes (experimental rap)
The Murder Capitol: Gigi's Recovery (post-punk)
Kari Faux: Real Bitches Don't Die (rap, r&b)
Boygenius: The Record (indie folk / rock)
Maya Ongaku: Approach to Anima (folk, world, jazz)
Missed this when it came out last month, but thanks to it making Bandcamp's best hip hop for May 2023 list I've finally checked it out and am damn glad I did - this is absolutely delightful:
These are my favorites for the first half of the year.
The Sons of Rainier - Take Me Anywhere
Dean Johnson - Nothing For Me, Please
Sunny War - Anarchist Gospel
Jason Isbell - Weathervanes
Dougie Poole - The Rainbow Wheel of Death
Kassi Valazza - Knows Nothing
Rose City Band - Garden Party
Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert
The Pink Stones - You Know Who
Bobby Lee - Endless Skyways
Cory Hanson - Western Cum
Nat Myers - Yellow Peril
Esther Rose - Safe to Run
Stella Kola - s/t
Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love
Anna St. Louis - In the Air
Country Westerns - Forgive the City
Jeremi Albino - Tears You Hide
*There's a chance Lucinda Williams should be on this list - hell, I hope she should be on this list, but the new album appears to only be streaming on Apple Music, which I do not use, and my physical copy won't be here for a couple more weeks, so this list is what it is in the meanwhile.
ALBUMS Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit ā Weathervanes McKinley Dixon ā Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard ā PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation Meshell Ndegeocello ā The Omnichord Real Book Killer Mike ā Michael Greg Foat & Gigi Masin ā Dolphin Janelle MonĆ”e ā The Age of Pleasure aja monet ā when poems do what they do BCUC ā Millions of Us EPs Vivat Virtute āJune First lophiile ā The Good Days Between Slipknot ā Adderall
View attachment 176544 *There's a chance Lucinda Williams should be on this list - hell, I hope she should be on this list, but the new album appears to only be streaming on Apple Music, which I do not use, and my physical copy won't be here for a couple more weeks, so this list is what it is in the meanwhile.
ALBUMS Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit ā Weathervanes McKinley Dixon ā Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard ā PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation Meshell Ndegeocello ā The Omnichord Real Book Killer Mike ā Michael Greg Foat & Gigi Masin ā Dolphin Janelle MonĆ”e ā The Age of Pleasure aja monet ā when poems do what they do BCUC ā Millions of Us EPs Vivat Virtute āJune First lophiile ā The Good Days Between Slipknot ā Adderall
View attachment 176544 *There's a chance Lucinda Williams should be on this list - hell, I hope she should be on this list, but the new album appears to only be streaming on Apple Music, which I do not use, and my physical copy won't be here for a couple more weeks, so this list is what it is in the meanwhile.
ALBUMS Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit ā Weathervanes McKinley Dixon ā Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard ā PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation Meshell Ndegeocello ā The Omnichord Real Book Killer Mike ā Michael Greg Foat & Gigi Masin ā Dolphin Janelle MonĆ”e ā The Age of Pleasure aja monet ā when poems do what they do BCUC ā Millions of Us EPs Vivat Virtute āJune First lophiile ā The Good Days Between Slipknot ā Adderall
The Age of Pleasure by Janelle MonƔe Amatssou by Tinariwen Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? By McKinley Dixon "Darling The Dawn" by ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT Dolphin by Greg Foat & Gigi Masin
Gala! by Misha Panfilov Glorious Game by Black Thought & El Michels Affair The Horse by Matthew Herbert x London Contemporary Orchestra I Came From Love by Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations In Search of a Better Tomorrow by EABS meets Jaubi
Lacuna in the House of Mirrors by KAMAUU Late Reflections by Grandbrothers LEGNA by The Gaslamp Killer meets The Heliocentrics Maps by billy woods & Kenny Segal Michael by Killer Mike
Millions of Us by BCUC My Soft Machine by Arlo Parks The Omnichord Real Book by Meshell Ndegeocello PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard The Red Brain by Wax Mannequin**
Red Hot & Ra: Nuclear War by Various Still Dreaming by Kid Abstrakt & Leo Low Pass Through and Through by Baby Rose Weathervanes by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit when poems do what they do by aja monet
Not much has changed since last month, Oleksandr Yurchenko being the only change, having made it into the nine with their June release. I feel like my Top 20 is becoming a little more solidified with June being a great month for new additions.
Total 2023 releases (albums/EPs/mixtapes) listened to as of June 30: 141 219
I've been slowing down with listening again. My 10 day trip to Japan in mid-April was definitely a factor. I feel like this past quarter was somewhat slow overall, with the month of May being a dismal month overall. Most disappointingly, despite all of the June release hype from here and other avenues of the internet, I only found a handful of the releases in that month to be worthy of a mention. Granted, I listened to a small selection of releases in June (and 78 in the past three months overall), but...
This release period did thankfully spawn some top10 contenders (Lucinda Chua, Lankum, Jess Williamson, billy woods) for year-end evaluation.
Saving releases from yesterday and other releases I haven't listened to from the prior Friday to be considered for Q3.
Entries are alphabetized by band name/artist last name.
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily - Love in Exile [chamber jazz, ghazal, ambient] Lucinda Chua - YIAN [ambient pop, singer/songwriter, modern classical] McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?[jazz rap, conscious hip hop, neo-soul] Greg Foat, Gigi Masin - Dolphin [ambient]
Katie Gately - Fawn/Brute [art pop, post-Industrial, darkwave] Tim Hecker - No Highs [ambient, electroacoustic, post-minimalism] JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes [experimental hip hop, hardcore hip hop] Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd [singer-songwriter, baroque pop, art pop]
Lankum - False Lankum [Irish folk music, drone, avant-folk] Liturgy - 93696 [black metal, avant-garde metal, choral] maya ongaku - Approach to Anima [folk pop, psychedelic folk, chamber jazz] Slowspin - Talisman [South Asian folk music, dream pop, experimental]
Susanne SundfĆør - bloĢmi [singer-songwriter, art pop, chamber folk] Ī¼-Ziq - 1977 [ambient, ambient techno] Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental [Americana, singer-songwriter] billy woods, Kenny Segal - Maps [abstract hip hop, jazz rap, conscious hip hop]
Not much has changed since last month, Oleksandr Yurchenko being the only change, having made it into the nine with their June release. I feel like my Top 20 is becoming a little more solidified with June being a great month for new additions.
Total 2023 releases (albums/EPs/mixtapes) listened to as of June 30: 141 219
I've been slowing down with listening again. My 10 day trip to Japan in mid-April was definitely a factor. I feel like this past quarter was somewhat slow overall, with the month of May being a dismal month overall. Most disappointingly, despite all of the June release hype from here and other avenues of the internet, I only found a handful of the releases in that month to be worthy of a mention. Granted, I listened to a small selection of releases in June (and 78 in the past three months overall), but...
This release period did thankfully spawn some top10 contenders (Lucinda Chua, Lankum, Jess Williamson, billy woods) for year-end evaluation.
Saving releases from yesterday and other releases I haven't listened to from the prior Friday to be considered for Q3.
Entries are alphabetized by band name/artist last name.
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily - Love in Exile [chamber jazz, ghazal, ambient] Lucinda Chua - YIAN [ambient pop, singer/songwriter, modern classical] McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?[jazz rap, conscious hip hop, neo-soul] Greg Foat, Gigi Masin - Dolphin [ambient]
Katie Gately - Fawn/Brute [art pop, post-Industrial, darkwave] Tim Hecker - No Highs [ambient, electroacoustic, post-minimalism] JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes [experimental hip hop, hardcore hip hop] Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd [singer-songwriter, baroque pop, art pop]
Lankum - False Lankum [Irish folk music, drone, avant-folk] Liturgy - 93696 [black metal, avant-garde metal, choral] maya ongaku - Approach to Anima [folk pop, psychedelic folk, chamber jazz] Slowspin - Talisman [South Asian folk music, dream pop, experimental]
Susanne SundfĆør - bloĢmi [singer-songwriter, art pop, chamber folk] Ī¼-Ziq - 1977 [ambient, ambient techno] Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental [Americana, singer-songwriter] billy woods, Kenny Segal - Maps [abstract hip hop, jazz rap, conscious hip hop]
That isnāt meant as a critique or criticism. I just donāt wade as far into the new release pool as many of folks on here. I kinda let new music come to me. I donāt spend much time chasing it. If I read an interesting review or the band or artist is a favorite of mine I will check it out immediately, beyond that I use N&G and the likes to kinda filter out what new stuff I should be listening too. Lots of times it means I am not first to something but I donāt mind being a bit late to the party.
list here!
