This is an odd and drawn out list. It's the longest I've made since I started these things ten years back. For the last few years on It Starts there have been 50 selections. Then things grew to 100. 150 is as far as I can possibly go and I might have to shrink to something more manageable again next time round. Every indication right now says that I won't have as much time to write next year and will do well to repeat 2023's tally of records, 150 - each with an attached review. We'll see how we go.
In the meantime. my list for 2023. There are a great number of the usual suspects who feature in the upper reaches of other magazines and sites rundowns..It's notable actually how the lists this year seem to be largely the same records in different orders. A general consensus has established itself this time round. Simply put, False Lankum then the rest. That's the story here too.
I imagine there are any number of selections that are less familiar below though, and Darren Jones my faithful first mate here, and I found our own way to plotting pretty much our own course.I think it rubbishes the notion that the best stuff has already been done, that there's always plenty of great music around if you seek it out and you don't have to stick solely to the paths mapped out by Mojo, The Guardian and the like. .
This is not really a list where the order matters. All 150 choices here have something to recommend them. Or certainly something that drew me to them and them to me. I'd only really stand by the first four in terms of their order. Lankum, Cale, Craven Faults, Paul Simon. The four albums that really stood out to me and I kept coming back to as 'Outstanding' in a sea of 'Excellent'. These four all have a spiritual quaity that first drew me to them and still does. Wells to keep drawing at. Elsewhere it's just a great selection of varied albums you might care to dip into. My reviews can be tracked down in the search. I think there's a lot to investigate here.
If you cut me in half to see what I was made of; like Pinkie in Brighton Rock; In terms of music, and probably in other ways too I'd probably say 'Indie'. The kind of person who makes playlists of favourite Pavement songs and has an unhealthily robust knowledge of the C-86 scene. I'm not hearing that many Rap, Hip Hop and R&B albums that speak that loudly to me these days.The Lil Yachty is there in the Top Ten but there's not much there apart from that. I guess you can't cover all bases.
There are actually no end of other albums that could easily be here. The Golden Apples record Bananasugarfire has attached itself to me like a limpet in recent weeks. A deep search of what I've been listening to through the year would probably unearth twenty more great records I'd like to pass on. Vanishing Twin? Sagittaire? I forgot about them momentarily when it came to writing this down. Oh and the Peter Gabriel album which arrived late in the year is great. Many favourites have fallen by the wayside and not made this list. These things become like The Grand National the longer they get. Fancied runners fall and you forget you had a fiver on them. It doesn't really matter. Onward. Ten years of doing this on a daily basis has established a routine and momentum if nothing else.
Over the next few days I'll post some other 2023 rundowns. Mojo. Best Ever Albums and the like. Then on New Year's Eve a List of Lists. Please don't put your lives on hold. It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.... Oh, Merry Christmas!
Only the Top 50
- Lankum - False Lankum
- John Cale - Mercy
- Craven Faults - Standers.
- Paul Simon - Seven Psalms
- Yo La Tengo - This Stupid Year
- Paper Bee - Thaw, Freeze, Thaw
- Blur - The Ballad of Darren
- Lil Yachty - Let's Start Here
- Lisa O'Neill - All Of This Is Chance
- Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
- The Finks - Birthdays at Solo Pasta
- En Attendant Ana - Principia
- Feist - Multitudes
- Joanna Sternberg - I've Got Me
- PJ Harvey - Inside The Old Year Dying
- Baxter Dury - I Thought I Was Better Than You
- Meg Baird - Furling
- Loney Holley - Oh Me Oh My
- Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert
- Index For Working Musik - Dragging the Needlework for the Kids at Uphole
- The WAEVE - The WAEVE
- Robert Forster - The Candle & The Flame
- Ulrika Spacek - Compact Trauma
- Warrington- Runcorn New Town Development Plan - The Nation's Most Central Location
- Wilco - Cousin
- Califone - Villagers
- Wednesday - Rat Saw God
- Anohni & The Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross
- Ora Cogan - Formless
- Dignan Porch - Electric Threads
- Lael Neale - Star Eaters Delight
- Bonnie Prince Billy - Keeping Secrets Will Destroy Me
- Fog Lake - Midnight Society
- Radiator Hospital - Can't Make any Promises
- Water From Your Eyes - Everyone's Crushed
- Amy Mae Ellis - Over Ling & Bell
- U.S.Girls - Bless This Mess
- Sunny War - Anarchist Gospel
- maya ongaku - Approach to Anima
- The Murder Capital - Gigi's Recovery
- Mega Bog - End Of Everything
- Shirley Collins - Archangel Hill
- Isolated Gate - Universe in Reverse
- Kara Jackson - Why Does The World Give Us People To Love.
- Nabihah Iqbal - DREAMER
- Holiday Ghosts - Absolute Reality
- Modern Kosmology - What Will You Grow Now
- Alasdair Roberts - Grief in the Kitchen & Mirth in the Hall
- Being Dead - When Horses Would Run
- Tinariwen - Amatssou
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