January 2024: Rookie (Releases) Of The Year
The big 2023 review, plus worship live at the altar of Sleep Token
The best, the best, the best, the best of 2023
Look, there’s much to read this month because it’s the big Top 50 Releases of the Year edition (clumsily named because EPs count too) so I’ll keep the preamble to a minimum. Obviously this is a fully objective list that brooks no argument on inclusion criteria or sequencing, though please let me know what I did miss or get wrong anyway. This month’s playlist (links: Spotify | TIDAL) features songs from each of the releases but is ordered from top to bottom, whereas this is in reverse order to ramp up that tension for #1, so spoilers beware.
50. blanket - Blue Eyes (EP)
A mix of covers and originals on this EP from blanket, who hail from the Swervedriver school of shoegaze (and aren't afraid of a few metal tropes whilst they're at it). A fun amuse-bouche ahead of a new album anticipated this year.
49. Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex
Another consistently strong effort from prog master Steven Wilson, all intricate programmed percussion and modular synths. It's at its most compelling when veering into the intense and weird.
48. Parachute for Gordo - Affe zu, Klappe tot (EP)
Affable, oddball, animal-themed post-rock from the new EP, their first since relocating to Berlin (and taking inspiration from the local language). The band retain the clever intricacy of previous releases whilst adding a slightly harder and experimental edge.
47. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land Of Sleeper
More relentless Sabbath-influenced sludge metal from the lads in Pigs x7, who are riding a wave of more mainstream popularity after their last album Viscerals made the Rough Trade AOTY cut. This follow-up is self-assured and follows the same playbook of intensity through ramping up/down the tempo and threatening, shlock-horror energy.
46. covet - catharsis
Typically virtuosic fare from the instrumental three-piece led by guitar wizard Yvette Young, with some dabbling in additional instrumentation and slower tempos giving variation to the formula of the last two albums.
45. bdrmm - I Don't Know
A thunderous slice of shoegaze from bdrmm on their follow-up to their acclaimed debut. This second outing is more experimental, the raw energy of the first record channelled into new textures and instrumentation.
44. Pomegranate Tiger - All Input Is Error
Is your attention span below the 20-second mark? Do you wish all music sounded like the John Petrucci-led instrumental bits of Dream Theater? Do you find yourself tapping triplet polyrhythms at your desk whilst your colleagues stare in mild annoyance? You should listen to the new Pomegranate Tiger record.
43. Neska Lagun - Caos:Calma
Soaring post-hardcore riffs and screams from the Berlin quartet. Occasionally slips into by-the-numbers stuff, but picks up some energy with some math-adjacent riffs in the later stages. And let's face it, you've loved by-the-numbers post-hardcore ever since you first bought Relationship of Command and realised a new genre had been invented.
42. Jo Quail - Invocation / Supplication (Double EP)
The metal community's favourite cellist (sorry, Yo-Yo Ma) returns with a double release of full orchestra compositions, with separate guest vocals from Maria Franz on Invocation's fuller cacophony and Lorenzo Esposito on the more contemplative Supplication. Both releases nail the feeling we expect from Jo Quail, namely - heaviness without the tropes of metal music.
41. Svalbard - The Weight Of The Mask
The Weight of the Mask gives us more emotionally wrought blackgaze over hardcore drums - it's an intense listen and a lot to take in in one go, but worth it for the cathartic album closer and the calmer textures of How To Swim Down.
40. Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We
More understated balladry from Mitski on her follow-up to Laurel Hell - her signature sound remains in good form, mixing devastating lyrics and slow-paced but brief acoustic guitar structures with enough additional sonic weirdness to throw you off-kilter.
39. '68 - Yes, and...
I dunno man, power duos were in vogue for a bit but then everyone forgot Drenge existed and Royal Blood turned out to be pretty ropey after that first album. I guess '68 never got the memo (praise be) - this is swaggering, thunderous rock, with a healthy American twang, dry humour and plenty of grit.
38. Manchester Orchestra - The Valley of Vision (EP)
2017's A Black Mile To The Surface remains both one of my favourite records - a failed concept album, light years ahead of their earlier records in maturity and unafraid to overwhelm the listener on multiple fronts. The band hasn't quite hit the same stride since then, but this year's EP comes close by reprising the songwriting quality in a quieter, sombre mode. Andy Hull's unique voice remains the band's greatest strength, and the highlights of the EP are solidly where he's let off the leash.
37. M83 - Fantasy
That huge M83 sound is back, mixing both the catchy song structures of 2017’s Junk with elements of the 70s prog soundtrack of DSVII to great effect.
36. Clt Drp - Nothing Clever, Just Feelings
This is a lot of fun - guitars forced through so many effects they sound like nightmarish synths, propulsive drums and huge defiant energy from the ever-exciting Clt Drp on their latest album. It's sexy, it has attitude - buckle up.
35. Calva Louise - Over The Threshold
Writer bias aside - this mixtape from Calva Louise shows a much heavier and eclectic direction, with double-kick drums, metalcore riffs, and Jess Allanic's vocals tipping into a full rageful scream. Tempered with some fun new textures on keyboards and synths, including the title track's synthwave feel that fits the band like a glove. Not to mention the suite of accompanying homemade CGI music videos for most of the songs. Top quality.
34. Origami Angel - The Brightest Days
Easycore is a tough line to tread - you've got to dial in the right levels of earnestness, camp, irony and competence to not feel like a Disney Channel band cosplaying at breakdowns. This year's mini-album from DC's Origami Angel doesn't get the calibration quite right compared to landmark sophomore effort Gami Gang, but there's enough brio in the rapid-fire lyrical delivery, warp-speed tempos and cathartic choruses to stay above the waterline of their cookie-cutter peers.
33. Lakes - Elysian Skies
It seems the American Midwest has come to the UK and set up shop in Watford. Local emo heroes Lakes' third album brings further sweet, optimistic and math-adjacent bangers to soundtrack any good drive north out of London - "Take me home, M1 Road" and all that. Let's hope the right wing doesn't infiltrate local government and start fracking in Rickmansworth. Read the full album review here.
32. Codex Serafini - The Imprecation Of Anima
Bemasked on stage, Codex Serafini deliver a unique take mixing elements of art-rock, post-rock and metal, supplanted by the cacophonous yelps of their frontwoman and a saxophone. This album's extended-length tracks are exercises in ramping and releasing tension, a boiling pot threatening to spill over at any moment. Did I mention there's a saxophone? That's basically cheating.
31. Haken - Fauna
They may err on the cheesy side of prog metal, but Haken have unquestionable talent - and a willingness to borrow from other genres, as evidenced by the heavy Everything Everything influence on single The Alphabet of Me. They wear the variations in formula well, but continue to execute the standard heavy prog fare as well as anyone else in the business.
30. GGGOLDDD - PTSD (EP)
Brutalist industrial soundscapes and percussion act as gnarly background to devastating lyrics delivered inimitably by GGGOLDDD frontwoman Milena Eva - a fantastic if draining EP of material working to move on from the horrifying subject matter of their most recent album.
29. Heretoir - Nightsphere
Wanted: An album of slow dramatic builds over double-kick drums, and then a smash-cut fill into a high-tempo blastbeat and screams. Thank you, Heretoir, for delivering on that very specific wishlist item for me this year.
28. SuDs - The Great Overgrowth
Sometimes you just need a blast of relentlessly cheerful bubblegum garage rock. SuDs bring this energy in spades, mixing folksy charm with jubilant rock-out moments on their debut. There are plenty of bands and records that make me feel old these days, but this one never makes me feel sad about it.
27. Abstract Void - Forever
Synthwave blackgaze? Yes, please. Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't more of this sort of fusion out there, the 80s cheese synths a la Stranger Things / Drive soundtracks complement the double-kick intensity and throaty Deafheaven-esque screams delightfully, with the latter mixed low enough to qualify as texture. Great stuff.
26. TesseracT - War Of Being
Ever-maturing djent heroics from TesseracT on their fifth album, who have gone from strength to strength since settling their line-up and moving to festival headliner status. The writing here goes up a couple of gears in heaviness and sophistication on previous efforts, whilst still retaining the bass-driven riffs and Daniel Tompkins' versatility on vocals. Read about the accompanying video game here.
25. Din Of Celestial Birds - The Night Is For Dreamers
A very strong post-rock debut from Din of Celestial Birds, who aren’t shy to break out the heavy, triumphant guitar riffs alongside the more established tropes of voiceovers and tremolo picking. I caught their live full album show in Cambridge this year (sadly trumped for a review feature by Beyond The Redshift festival) - hugely entertaining and visceral.
24. Carbon Based Lifeforms - Seeker
Ostensibly an electronic band, there’s more than a bit of a shoegaze inspiration in Carbon Based Lifeforms’ latest album, as well as some Ben Prunty FTL soundtrack vibes to give it that cosmic feel. Definitely my go-to ambient listen of the year.
23. Periphery - Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre
I'm struggling to justify not placing this album higher on the list. It probably hits more of my Tropes Wishlist than any other album; the musicianship and wild genre swings are second to none (and it musically references the Hades video game, which is a trope I didn't know I needed). The best I can level is that it's exhausting and has airs of technical exercise and cheese - but I like all those things! Look, I never got into Periphery properly before and I'm afraid to now because it seems like they end up becoming your favourite band when you do. Be less afraid than me.
22. Explosions In The Sky - End
Another release of unquestionable if formulaic quality from the post-rock masters, taking a break from their recent soundtrack exploits to record an album of finalities. There are some different gears to the songwriting 20 years on from the classic The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, but as soon as that guitar tone comes in, you know you're back on cosy, familiar ground.
21. Maebe - Rebirth. Relive. Repeat.
I got a fever, and the only prescription is more guitar. C’mon, just keep layering them up. We'll figure out how to do it live later. Joking aside, this is a surprisingly versatile and catchy set of maximalist instrumental guitar heroics of the school of "melody and dynamics first".
20. Night Verses - Every Sound Has A Color In The Night Pt. 1
Blisteringly heavy drums, thumping bass and a guitar that sails between grinding 8-string riffage and siren-like reverb-drenched highs. It's good to have Night Verses back making their unique blend of instrumental metal, including a fun cameo from Tool to boot. Read the full album review here.
19. Black Country, New Road - Live At Bush Hall
Once again redefining themselves following the departure of frontman Isaac Wood, BC,NR have retired their existing material to date in favour of a new slate of songs, recorded live last year. Vocal duties are now spread across the band (though bassist Tyler Hyde takes the lion's share), and the new material feels looser, more optimistic, possessing a different creative energy. There's still a feeling of transition here - not quite the finished article; but more than enough to reassure that there's plenty to come yet.
18. Sawce - Life Is Temporary, Sawce Is Forever
Let’s get the guitar-driven math-rock band going again, but this time get heavier and throw in a ton of chiptune too, yeah? At least, that’s my headcanon for this year’s Sawce release. Read the full album review here.
17. Me Rex - Giant Elk
I boldly announced ME REX to be my favourite songwriters in a gushing tweet after their London live show early last year. There’s little in their first traditional full-length album to disabuse that take. Read the full album review here.
16. Invent Animate - Heavener
This list is a little light on more traditional metal and metalcore albums. That’s at least in part due to Invent Animate releasing hands-down the best metalcore record of the year way back in March - and nothing else has really stood up to its incredible pacing and emotional melodic flourishes.
15. Jakub Zytecki - Remind Me
The Polish guitar virtuoso doubles down on the modern pop approach, sounding like The 1975 if they shredded on 8-string guitars. Beneath the syrupy production are some genuinely great melodic hooks as well as the signature subtle (and not-so-subtle) impossible guitar lines and effects.
14. The Ocean - Holocene
A slower, tighter and more contemplative effort from the post-metal outfit compared to their last few releases, but not without its kitchen sink moments either. There’s serious confidence and maturity on show here in the songwriting. Read the full album review here.
13. Lankum - False Lankum
It takes a special kind of folk record to get on my radar - a genre I enjoy contextually live but otherwise have limited patience for. The universal praise for False Lankum is well-earned - huge, menacing folk reels, ethereal vocal harmonies and a rising sense of dread through the doom-laden standards and originals. The mixing of the bass frequencies on this is incredible.
12. Squid - O Monolith
I over-listened to this record when writing my review earlier this year, which left me struggling for objective distance. Fresh ears reveal the truth - Squid have crafted a post-punk album of serious quality, whose only fault is its reuse of the same archetypes as on the last album. That's ok; they're damn good archetypes. Read the full album review here.
11. boygenius - the record
Take three of the best introverted singer-songwriters of their generation and put them together in a supergroup. Fantastic. The 2018 EP gave a hint of the potential alchemy of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers as a collective, but they come into their own on this debut album - greater than the sum of their talented parts, more so for the clear amount of fun they're having together.
10. Sugar Horse - Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico (EP)
One big 18-minute song as EP, the most assured and complete release yet from Sugar Horse, showcasing drop-tuned drone riffs, shoegaze wonder, and The Cure-esque vocals alongside the brutal screams. A tour de force.
9. Copse - Old Belief | New Despair (EP)
Two stunning new tracks from Copse - Old Belief is maximum aggression and speed in its blastbeats from the very first, but it’s the slow build of New Despair, stretching out a clean but anguished vocal line for what seems like forever before finally letting loose, that is the real masterpiece here. Can we have some more?
8. HEALTH - RAT WARS
HEALTH, in addition to their strong meme credentials (probably 2nd best on this list), have an industrial sound mixed with the kind of guitar riffage seldom seen since early 2000's multiplayer arena shooter soundtracks and the juxtaposition of frontman Jake Duzsik's soft, ethereal vocals. Normally a genre I bounce off of, this album's sheer weirdness and lack of fear have been stuck in my head on repeat since the first listen.
7. Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden
This year’s Sleep Token album is mostly about a set of weirdly specific sexual metaphors. In this essay I will Look, it’s really good, OK? It does the big thing with the guitar bends on that first song, and there’s the soulful vocals and the insane drums and breakdowns. Worship.
6. Polinski - Telex From MIDI City
65daysofstatic musician Paul Wolinski, presumably in breaks from working on infinite music generation with that band, has found time to work on algorithmic music, write a Ph.D thesis on songcraft, soundtrack a few video games, and this year put out this solo album on VHS (among other formats, thankfully). Superbly crafted electronica.
5. Slowdive - Everything Is Alive
Turns out TikTok is bringing shoegaze back - not something I had on my bingo card, but let it never be said that the younger generations lack taste. Benefitting from this resurgence are 90s legends Slowdive, who follow up their acclaimed 2017 comeback record with their most poignant and beautiful effort to date. Get staring at your pedalboard kids - all we need now is some scathing but secretly jealous mainstream journalists and to unfreeze Kevin Shields from his mixing desk carbonite and it'll be 1992 again.
4. Public Service Broadcasting - This New Noise
I was lucky enough to see this performed live at the Royal Albert Hall last year, a performance that moved me close to tears. Mixed for release this year, it retains its heft, combining the sample-heavy throwback PSB sound with the grandiose orchestra. It's not perfect - the melodic orchestration is often on the nose, the position of the drums in the mix sometimes uneven like a gurning extra in a background shot - but then, neither is its subject material of the BBC. A fitting and superb tribute.
3. The Callous Daoboys - God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys (EP)
Arch memelords, the stellarly named Callous Daoboys return with their trademark mashup of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Fall Out Boy for a near-faultless three-song assault with hilarious accompanying paranormal investigation music videos. They even made it into an actual Chevy ad. Soon, everything the light touches will be theirs.
2. Yussef Dayes - Black Classical Music
“But Chris,” I hear you say, “this is a jazz album. Why is a jazz album on a post-rock blog’s releases of the year list?” I don’t have a genre-based justification for you; I can only point to the incredible eclecticism of this record, veering from exceptionally crafted free jazz to Afrobeats to more modern pop improv, and throughout the impeccable drumcraft of Dayes behind the kit. It’s a bold canvas, a highly personal statement of musical intent, and a hair’s breadth away from first place on this list.
1. Spurv - Brefjære
I don’t know if the Spurv album really is the greatest album of the year, or if it will join the pantheon of post-rock greats alongside Departure Songs or Skinny Fists. (If I had to bet, I would sadly guess not.) But nothing I’ve listened to all year has grabbed me as hard or as wholly. Every aspect - the meticulous construction of the mix, the vast range of instrumentation and dynamics, the juxtaposition of Scandinavian folk choruses alongside metal riffs, the inter-song callbacks - for me, this comes together as a complete release. Yeah, I lied, turns out this is a subjective AOTY list. Deal with it. Read the full album review here.
From the Pit: Sleep Token
Wembley Arena, London, 16th December 2023
Picture the scene. Your band has slowly built up a mythos and a pretty strong following over the past few years. Your first two albums were well-received and ramped up the potential for what you can do. You start the year by releasing a couple of singles on consecutive days - and they go simply stratospheric on listen counts on Spotify. Suddenly your band is everywhere - a hugely acclaimed third album in the can, extensive touring planned across the world. On the back of this, you book your biggest ever show - a headline slot at Wembley Arena, over 10,000 capacity. It sells out in ten minutes.
Many, many column inches (and the vlogging equivalent - screen minutes?) have been written about Sleep Token over the past year, and the band does merit discussion. Are they the new face of metal for this decade - genre game changers that will have the mainstream legacy of Linkin Park in the 2000s or Bring Me The Horizon in the 2010s? Or the cynical view - are they simply a commercially dialled-in and heavily backed setup in the right place and at the right time to garner mainstream success, using metal music elements as a tool on that path?
Okay, both of those views are incredibly stupid and built on false premises. This happens when you become super famous practically overnight from within a subgenre. So let’s stick to some empirical facts from experiencing their live show, which I managed to snag a resale ticket for on short notice (this was originally going to be an article about The Darkness; you might get that next month instead).
One thing can’t be denied - Wembley Arena is a huge step up for any band, one that many couldn’t hope to pay off, and Sleep Token manages it. There are some cliched stagecraft tricks to fill out the experience - a backing choir, a drum riser so high it warrants a staircase, scantily-clad backing dancers deployed judiciously throughout the set. But the sound is huge throughout, never falling too small either in production or in the songcraft. The crushing riffs of Chokehold and Vore send the crowd into a moshing frenzy - impressive given how many must have queued for hours for a merch pop-up in Camden selling commemorative coins for £50, and then again for different merch in the venue. Whilst I’m pretty sure both you and I could pick up a guitar or bass and play for Sleep Token within a day or so, there are few with the sheer ability of drummer II - all intricate fills across double-digit counts of splash cymbals and toms, an astonishing driving force of unquestionable talent and quality.
But back to that scene we pictured, and fast-forward to the day of - I have nothing but praise and sympathy for frontman Vessel, who was sufficiently sick to come off stage partway through the set and for an assistant to declare he could no longer sing and that the crowd would need to step up. He returned and remained on stage throughout, a bewitching, masked presence conducting the energy of the crowd. Impressively, his voice made a comeback for the slower, piano-driven Atlantic and pushed through to the end - no mean feat. The crowd was full-throated in their support too, at what in other circumstances could have been a tricky turning point for such a huge (and for many, quite expensive) gig.
Where to from here? For those that follow that kind of thing, new masks were debuted for the band, and the third album declared the end of a chapter - you can’t fault the execution of the theatrical. Their following is huge and devoted. Whatever’s next, it hopefully won’t be dull - and there’s enough in this particular alchemy of a band to think it won’t be.
Support came from HEALTH, whose live shows begin with the theme tune to Neon Genesis Evangelion (thus outing me to everyone in earshot as an anime fan). Trying to trigger Third Impact as an opening band in a huge venue was always an unrealistic task, but one they approached gamely, their industrial riffs blasting the crowd with a bunch of cuts from latest album RAT WARS.
Given the fickle attention span I possess, a Top 50 list is an incredible feat in my mind! I’m going to have listen to some of these now (my music taste has zero overlap with yours, obviously)