The Best Albums of 2023
Anxious
Sound
No. 10
Nature Morte
Big Brave
6-Song LP released February 24 on Thrill Jockey
Favorite track: “My Hope Renders Me a Fool”
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Favorite track: “My Hope Renders Me a Fool”
Stream/buy:
Bandcamp
No. 9
Souvenirs
Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru
8-Song LP released February 23 on Mississippi Records
Favorite track: “Clouds Moving on the Sky”
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Favorite track: “Clouds Moving on the Sky”
Stream/Buy:
Bandcamp
No. 8
Hex
Jon Mckiel
No. 7
Read the Air
Marbled Eye
No. 6
The Foreign Department
Astrel K
No. 5
Up On Gravity Hill
METZ
8-Song LP released April 12 on Sub Pop
Favorite track: “No Reservation / Love Comes Crashing”
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Favorite track: “No Reservation / Love Comes Crashing”
Stream/Buy:
Bandcamp
No. 4
Wall of Eyes
The Smile
No. 3
Distant Call: Collected Demos 2000-2006
Broadcast
14-Song Collection released September 28 on Warp
Favorite track: “Come Back to Me”
Stream/Buy:
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Favorite track: “Come Back to Me”
Stream/Buy:
Bandcamp
No. 2
Spell Blanket: Collected Demos 2006-2009
Broadcast
No. 1
Diamond Jubilee
Cindy Lee
32-Song 3xLP released October 23 on Superior Viaduct
Favorite track: “Dreams of You”
Stream/Buy:
Bandcamp
Favorite track: “Dreams of You”
Stream/Buy:
Bandcamp
Personhood. Dreams. Sun Records. Empty towns. Bus stations and train yards. Trying to find my way back to you. Brian Wilson. The Velvet Underground & Nico. Nico solo. Public Strain. Death to devices. Death to memes. Death to the vacant wave. Only you. Nancy Sinatra. T Rex. The Castiles. Lost songs by The Shangri-Las beamed from a distant planet. The past is gone. The past is now. True expression. Fuck what they think. The underground. The road, the rail, the sun, the (silver) moon. The guitar. The early 1960s. Longing. The magical properties of recorded noise.
These are just some of the thoughts that have entered my mind while listening to Diamond Jubilee, the hypnotizing, boundaryless 32-track collection of music released by Cindy Lee (Patrick Flegel) earlier this year, first in digital-only format and more recently as a 3xLP vinyl edition by Superior Viaduct.
These are just some of the thoughts that have entered my mind while listening to Diamond Jubilee, the hypnotizing, boundaryless 32-track collection of music released by Cindy Lee (Patrick Flegel) earlier this year, first in digital-only format and more recently as a 3xLP vinyl edition by Superior Viaduct.
Across the album's 32 tracks, Flegel cross-pollinates haunting melodies, intricate arrangements, and distinctive pop sensibilities. The eerie splendor of “Glitz”. The odd exuberance of “Olive Drab”. The dissonant, screeching guitar trance of “I Have My Doubts”. The shimmering instrumental elegance of “Realistik Heaven”. The Khruangbin-esque funk of “Dracula”. There are so many turns. So many hooks. The ideas are as limitless as Flegel’s capacity to express them.
Diamond Jubilee is a wonderfully sprawling work—errant but never uneven—blending nostalgia and here-and-now existence, deeply rooted in the psychedelic echoes of 60s pop but unquestionably new. It's such a deep well, and it captures the strange miscellany of human existence with such sweet idiosyncrasy that when it ends, the only thing to do is play it again.
December 2024
Diamond Jubilee is a wonderfully sprawling work—errant but never uneven—blending nostalgia and here-and-now existence, deeply rooted in the psychedelic echoes of 60s pop but unquestionably new. It's such a deep well, and it captures the strange miscellany of human existence with such sweet idiosyncrasy that when it ends, the only thing to do is play it again.
December 2024
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