It Starts With a Birthstone - Albums of the Year

 

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!

1. Lankum - False Lankum 
2. John Cale - Mercy
3. Craven Faults - Standers.
4. Paul Simon - Seven Psalms
5. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid Year
6. Paper Bee - Thaw, Freeze, Thaw
7. Blur - The Ballad of Darren
8.  Lil Yachty - Let's Start Here
9. Lisa O'Neill - All Of This Is Chance
10. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
11. The Finks - Birthdays at Solo Pasta
12. En Attendant Ana - Principia
13. Feist -  Multitudes
14. Joanna Sternberg - I've Got Me
15. PJ Harvey - Inside The Old Year Dying
16. Baxter Dury - I Thought I Was Better Than You
17. Meg Baird - Furling
18. Loney Holley - Oh Me Oh My
19. Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert
20. Index For Working Musik - Dragging the Needlework for the Kids at Uphole
21. The WAEVE - The WAEVE 
22. Robert Forster - The Candle & The Flame
23. Ulrika Spacek - Compact Trauma
24. Warrington- Runcorn New Town Development Plan - The Nation's Most Central Location
25. Wilco - Cousin
26. Califone - Villagers
27. Wednesday - Rat Saw God
28. Anohni & The Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross
29. Ora Cogan - Formless
30.  Dignan Porch - Electric Threads
31.  Lael Neale - Star Eaters Delight 
32. Bonnie Prince Billy - Keeping Secrets Will Destroy Me
33. Fog Lake - Midnight Society
34. Radiator Hospital - Can't Make any Promises
35. Water From Your Eyes - Everyone's Crushed 
36. Amy Mae Ellis - Over Ling & Bell
37. U.S.Girls - Bless This Mess
38. Sunny War - Anarchist Gospel
39.  maya ongaku - Approach to Anima
40.  The Murder Capital - Gigi's Recovery
41. Mega Bog - End Of Everything
42. Shirley Collins - Archangel Hill
43. Isolated Gate - Universe in Reverse
44. Kara Jackson - Why Does The World Give Us People To Love.
45. Nabihah Iqbal - DREAMER
46. Holiday Ghosts - Absolute Reality
47. Modern Kosmology - What Will You Grow Now
48. Alasdair Roberts - Grief in the Kitchen & Mirth in the Hall
49. Being Dead - When Horses Would Run 
50.  Tinariwen - Amatssou
51. The Reds, Pinks & Purples - The Town That Cursed Your Name
52. Deerhoof - Miracle Level
53. This is Your Kit - Careful of Your Keepers
54. Beach Fossils - Bunny
55. Sleaford Mods- UK GRIM
56. Emma Tricca - Aspirin Sun
57. Mary Elizabeth Remington - In Embudo
58.  Arbor Labor Union - Yonder
59.  Silver Biplanes - A Moment in the Sun
60.  Beat Awfuls - PAWS
61.  Jessie Ware - That ! Feels Good !
62. Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume (or Simply Hot Between World)
63. Death & Vanilla - Flicker
64. Shana Cleveland - Manzanita
65. The Lost Days - In The Store
66. Lewsberg - Out & About
67.  The Homesick - The Homesick
68. Naomi Yang - Never Be a Punchbag for Nobody
69. Altin Gun - Ask Bike - Arte Bruta
70. Billy Reeves - Nostalgia of the Future
71. The 1981 - Move On
72.  Packs - Crispy, Crunchy Now,
73.  Monde UFO - Vandalized Statue To Be Replaced by Shrine 
74.  Community College - SCHMOMCO
75. Ben Harper - Wide Open Light
76. BC Camplight - The Last Rotation of Earth
77. Billy Nomates - CACTI
78. Wreckless Eric - Leisureland
79. Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard
80. Billie Marten - Drop Cherries
81. Goo - Squid Ink Sky
82. The Golden Dregs - On Grace & Dignity
83.  Kevin Morby -  More Photographs ( A Continuum)
84. Jeffrey Silverstein - Western Sky Music
85. Janelle Monae - The Age of Pleasure
86. Joanna Samuels - Bystander
87. Bedchamber - De Capa
88. Sweeping Promises - Good Loving is Coming For You
89.  Mandy Indiana - i've seen a way.
90.  RVG - Brain Worms
91. Jeremy Tuplin - Jeremy's Discotheque
92. Will Sprott - Natural Internet
93. Do Nothing - Snake Sideways
94. Levyosn - Levyosn's Lullaby
95.  bdrmm - I Don't Know
96. Generationals - Heatherhead
97.  Special Friend - Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing in
98. Those Pretty Wrongs - Holiday Camp
99. Cable Ties - All Her Plans
100. Josephine Foster - Domestic Sphere
101. Belle & Sebastian - Late Developers
102. Yaeji - With a Hammer
103. Joe McAlinden - Where the Clouds Go Swimming
104.  HOUSE OF ALL - HOUSE OF ALL
105. Jenny O - Spectra
106. Doug Tuttle - Keeping Alive
107. bar italia - Tracy Denim
108.  Gaadge - Somewhere Down Below
109. Jana Horn - The Window Is The Dream
110. Sarabeth Tucek - June Of All
111.  Diners - DOMINO
112. Spencer Cullum - Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection 2
113. Purling Hiss - Drag on Girard
114. La Securitie - Stay Safe
115.  Gina Birch - I Play My Bass Loud
116. Jesse Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental
117.  Loma Prieta - Last
118.  The C.I.A. - Surgery Channel
119.  Foo Fighters - Here We Are
120. Guided by Voices - Welshpool Frillies
121.  The Go! Team - Get Up Sequences Part 2
122. Oxbow - Love's Holiday
123. Telehealth - Content Oscillator
124. Kosmischer Laufer - The Secret Kosmic Programme of the East German Olympic Program
125. Soft Walls - True Love
126.  Tiny Ruins - Ceremony
127. Jenny Lewis  Joy 'All
128. The Hepburns - Only The Hours
129. Guardian Singles - Feed Me to The Doves
130. Gabriels - Angels & Queens
131. Creep Show - Yawning Abyss
132. Julie Byrne - The Greater Wings
133. Connections - Cool Change
134.  The Tallest Man on Earth - Henry St,
135. Peter One - Come Back To Me
136.  Surf Friends - Sonic Waves
137.  Psychotic Monks - Pink Color Surgery
138. Fruit Bats - A River Running to Your Heart
139. shame - Food For Worms
140. Foyer Red - Yarn The Hours Away
141. Cornelius - Dream in Dream
142. Mersault - Meursault
143.  Lightning Dust - Nostalgia Killer
144. Benoit Pioulard - Eidetic
145. Juni Habel - Carvings
146. Paramore - This is Why
147. Tough Age - Waiting Here
148. The Lemon Twigs - Everything Harmony
149.  Church Village Collective - Get Real
150. Terry - Call Me Terry