Better late than never!
5. James Blake – Playing Robots into Heaven
After 2021’s “Friends that Break Your Heart”, a personal favourite of mine in his discography, it is refreshing to hear James Blake return to what sets him apart from other prominent artists occupying the same space as him, such as Sampha and Frank Ocean: his roots in production as opposed to songwriting. This album feels like a departure for a James Blake studio album – it’s not since his early EPs that he’s leant almost entirely on his instrumental pallet to carry a body of work. He’s still got it.
Highlights: Loading, Fall Back, Big Hammer, Playing Robots into Heaven
4. Black Country New Road – Live at Bush Hall
After a major lineup change in lead singer Isaac Wood leaving the group due to health reasons, many were wondering (myself included) how this band would adjust. Many bands would go on hiatus, or at least take their time refining their next project and re-introducing themselves to the world, but the guys took it in stride. Following Isaac’s departure, and the release of the wildly successful and critically acclaimed “Ants from Up There”, a tour was almost immediately announced. “Live at Bush Hall” was recorded on this tour, and it acts both as a time capsule to capture this tumultuous moment in the band’s existence, and a manifesto for what is to come. Every song here, and indeed every song performed on the tour, is completely original – no material from either of their much lauded-over albums makes any appearance. Opener “Up Song” is a heart-warming ode to the band’s success, highlight “Turbines/Pigs” carries the emotional weight and punch that the band achieved throughout “Ants…”, even almost surpassing it in my eyes. These tracks all sound brilliant in a live setting, adding a raw energy that lifts the songs to new heights, while still maintaining their intricacies. This project solidifies Black Country, New Road as a staple in modern British post-punk, and their insistence on performing and putting out near-flawless music despite a major lineup change is inspirational.
Highlights: Turbines/Pigs, Up Song
3. Sampha – Lahai
Sampha feels like a somewhat mythical figure in contemporary music, an artists’ artist, and with features on albums by Stormzy, Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar last year, his eventual return was imminent.
Opener “Stereo Colour Cloud” immediately draws focus to Sampha’s signature vocal tone, as chopped female vocals hinting at themes and concepts the album will later develop on give way to a deep thumping bass, underscoring Sampha’s confident lead vocal. The snappy, tight acoustic drums that enter the fray are also echoed throughout the album, providing a human sound to the syncopated and, to my ear, often digitally-composed rhythms. This gives way to a lush soundscape of plucks, plinks and swirls, and immediately I feel won over by this opener. Sampha’s vocal is strong enough to bring order to the chaos, assertively underpinning the entire track. I feel like I’m in safe hands.
Early highlight “Suspended” continues the psychedelic feeling of the album. The chorus harmonies provide a warm bed of sound that provide respite in between increasingly frantic and effect-driven vocals from Sampha during the verses, accompanied by trippy, cascading piano runs dancing between acoustic drums delivering punchy trap rhythms. “Inclination Compass” has pianos akin to something from Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, glistening synth pads and light drums fill out the mix into something that sounds restrained but not empty, a brief pause amongst the dizzying psychedelia of the rest of the project.
Overall, a worthy successor to his now almost 6-year old debut, and easily a top 3 album for me this year.
Highlights: Stereo Colour Cloud, Suspended, Only
2. Anohni and the Johnsons – My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross
I’ve been a fan on Anohni since I first heard ‘Fistful of Love’ from her second album with the Johnsons; ‘I Am A Bird Now’, back in 2014. I was mainly listening to electronic music at the time, and it really felt like the first time I appreciated a song for the rich emotions it conveyed, its musicianship, the depth of talent on display. That album shaped a lot of my musical taste in the years following; I listened to a lot of hip hop growing up, but was often attracted to artists who injected that same soul and drive into their music rather than who came across as the best rapper on a technical surface level. Since that album, Anohni has forayed more into electronic music as a solo artist, and there has never been a lapse in quality, but it was not what attracted me to her songs in the first place. Her returning with the Johnsons for a follow-up effort is more than welcome, and the 20-or-so years since their last effort hasn’t taken away from their incredible chemistry, and raw songwriting talent.
Opener “It Must Change” is stripped back, wonderful, modern soul music at its best. Anohni’s enchanting tremolo glides over lush, thick guitars and a stilted, swung drum pattern that is both complex and effortless. The build and payoff of “Can’t” calls back to the very peak of their early work, with the full band in swing and all emotions out on display. It’s just good music.
Highlights: It Must Change, Can’t, Sliver of Ice
Honourable Mentions, and why they didn’t make it to the list
- Sufjan Stevens – Javelin, made me cry too much
- MIKE – Burning Desire, too interesting. MIKE’s gonna get his own article on here soon enough
- Lost Girls – Selvutsetter, really cool, but the most mixed-bag album for me here. “With The Other Hand” would be very high on a ‘songs of 2023’ list for me though
- Geese – 3D Country, realised how good it was about a week too late for this
- JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown – Scaring the Hoes, Vol 1, scared me
- Maps – Billy Woods and Kenny Segal, see Geese – 3D country
1. Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy
This album has been in heavy (heavy) rotation for me since it’s release right at the start of 2023, and maybe had an unfair advantage in that I’ve formed the sort of emotional attachment to this album it takes the best part of a year to cultivate. Right from the get-go, the mood here is different to anything else I’ve heard this year, and seems to be a huge step up for what was already one of my favourite bands working today. Opener “Rice”, once that crescendo really kicks in, exudes a feeling of pure, unbridled joy and celebration that feels simultaneously over-the-top and authentic, a mood that is hit a few more times on this album throughout.
Closer “Be Your Lady” took a while to grow on me. The mood of this track changes abruptly throughout, and on the first few listens it’s hard not to feel a sense of whiplash between the disparate elements of the song – some of the loudest, heaviest drums on the album rudely interrupt one of its more tender moments here, all in just over three minutes. But after sitting with it for a while, and sitting with the feelings the album as a whole brings, it feels like more of a final manifesto, a conclusion, that draws everything together. It encapsulates the album’s mood succinctly, in a much more direct way than I ever could. It’s a victory lap.
I can’t really put into words what’s so special to me about this album, there are a few others on this list that are technically more impressive, emotionally more poignant and moving, with ambitions more grand – but this album made me love it from day one, and honestly made me more enthusiastic about music as a whole this year. It’s an easy choice for the #1 spot.
Highlights: Rice, Be Your Lady, Sink or Swim, their Glastonbury performance (!!!)