BLASTITUDE BEST OF 2023
Read something astute on Twitter or somewhere else on the internet that I can’t seem to locate right now about how year-end best-of lists have become this specialized esoteric exercise in an ocean of too much amazing (and even more ‘amazing’) brand new music and reissues and newly discovered albums from 2018 or whatever, where everyone basically has this different personalized list, and there’s no real consensus, and how it’s difficult to tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, etc. Well, here goes my own list of the extremely decentralized esoterica from 2023 I enjoyed the most this year, in order of release date:
ARBOR LABOR UNION Yonder (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE)
EQUIPMENT POINTED ANKH From Inside the House (BRUIT DIRECT DISQUES)
GREY WINDOWPANE “Ice the World” (STRANGE MONO)
WOLF EYES V/A Difficult Messages (LOWER FLOOR/DISCIPLES)
MEG BAIRD Furling (DRAG CITY)
DANE WATERS Torch Songs (NOT ON LABEL)
GINA BIRCH I Play My Bass Loud (THIRD MAN)
AROOJ AFTAB, VIJAY IYER, SHAHZAD ISMAILY Love in Exile (VERVE)
LEMUEL MARC Your Biggest Hater vol. 12 (HALF A MILLION)
GREY WINDOWPANE Barnie Bewail: A Film Soundtrack (HALF A MILLION)
THE GOD IN HACKNEY The World in Air Quotes (JUNIOR ASPIRIN)
STAUBITZ & WATERHOUSE Out & About (GERTRUDE TAPES)
BRYAN DAY + DERECK HIGGINS Woven Territories (PUBLIC EYESORE)
ARVO ZYLO 333 CD (NO PART OF IT)
GREYMOUTH Parked Up LP (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE)
THE GRAY FIELD RECORDINGS She Sleeps to the Sound of Knives CD
(ANTICLOCK)
VARIOUS ARTISTS Zum Audio 5 (ZUM)
JAIMIE BRANCH Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) (INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM)
LEWSBERG Out and About (NOT ON LABEL)
BLUES AMBUSH s/t LP (RADICAL DOCUMENTS)
MATANA ROBERTS Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden… (CONSTELLATION)
VARIOUS ARTISTS Watching the Void: A Smattering of Panic Records & Tapes (NO PART OF IT)
SCOTT SCHOLZ Whip Sigils (NO PART OF IT)
EMILY ROBB If I Am Misery Then Give Me Affection (PETTY BUNCO)
RYAN DAVIS & THE ROADHOUSE BAND Dancing on the Edge (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE)
ANDRE 3000 New Blue Sun (EPIC)
KAREN CONSTANCE Positively Susan (CHOCOLATE MONK)
And there you have it, sorry I didn’t write anything about ‘em, but you can look up stuff I wrote about quite a few of ‘em this past year on Blastitude.substack.com. Last year I didn’t write anything extra about the albums on my list either, but Mr. McMillen aka @the_pudds had been posting various rants and raves about his favorite albums of the year all December on Instagram, so (with his permission) I typed up all those posts and addended ‘em, so my readers could have something to, you know, actually read. Go read it again, why not? As of now Mr. McMillen hasn’t been posting anything about his favorite albums of 2023, but he did just remind us of something wonderful he made this year called the Pudding Stack. It’s basically the best cloud-based stolen-music dive-bar jukebox in the entire world, so hit shuffle all and enjoy the instant party and/or mixtape that immediately ensues. Recommended equally for New Year’s Eve tomorrow night or the New Year’s Eve of your mind six months from now. Almost none of it was released in 2023, but who needs his, my, yours, or anyone’s best of 2023 anyway, when time has truly become the flat circle your anarcho-hippie roommate was talking about back in the mid-1990s? It’s 1996, it’s 2022, it’s 2015, it’s 2007, it’s 2013, it’s 2023, and it’s also almost 2024, so Happy Midwinter, New Year, and the Jolliest of Yules to You and Yours, tonight and every night.