Spaghetti Blogonese's Top Albums of 2023

1. JAMES HOLDEN - IMAGINE THIS IS A HIGH DIMENSIONAL SPACE OF ALL POSSIBILITIES

Quite, simply a throwback to rave culture - not trance as a few publications made out. The bloop-bloop-bloop of a Kombucha tea being brewed sounds like his modular synths at work; Holden splicing together an hour and four minutes of vintage electronic bliss. At the center of it all, the magnificent opus of ''In The End You'll Know'' - a six minute scurry of manipulated bassline that gets buried, beamed up, filtered and squeezed through the eye of a needle; it's quite simply one of the best electronic songs of all time. The twists and turns that happen on this record make it much larger than the summation of its partakings - the sum of its parts if you'd like a cliche.

2. YVES TUMOR - PRAISE A LORD WHO CHEWS BUT WHICH DOES NOT CONSUME (OR SIMPLY, HOT BETWEEN WORLDS)

This came out on St Patricks day - so it's another early spring release that did well here. I wasn't expecting Yves Tumor to get on this list at all, as I'd never quite taken to him. But with this record, he went all Prince and just gave himself completely to the tracks. There are absolute bangers on here, other numbers oozing with soul - and the production is out of this world too. A chameleon of a band and another long named album on this list by Spaghetti Blogonese. Leaving so soon Marcoooos? Yes, editor, I have to go to work at Indian Mango. But you're here for a reason Marcooooos.

3. SLOWDIVE  - EVERYTHING IS ALIVE

Here's an album with a normal title. This one was out on September 1st, fresh for autumn and was a taste of spacey timelessness. I've lost my flair for writing about music, so need to practice more. This LP has 8 tracks of very differing quantities and themes. It's essentially the second act of Slowdive after their first three albums came out between 1991-1995 and then an 18 year gap made for their self-titled return in 2018 - a shoegaze masterpiece. This is like the gratis grateful sibling album to the previous; the previous the kestrel and this the dove. I dove right in.

4.  BLUE LAKE - SUN ARCS

Meditative music. Could have won the crown but I say this almost every year about a bunch of records. Jason Dungan, based in Denmark, custom-built his own 48 string zither, layered with slide guitar, clarinet and pump organ to communicate his walks in nature. It draws one in, in a hypnotic way - one day in summer I was in a shopping mall, buying toys for babies and ignored all the crowds with this record on headphones. Another day I was cleaning my apartment and the shimmering strings of "Writing'' came on and transported me to a state of absolute exaltation.

5. NOURISHED BY TIME - EROTIC PROBIOTIC 2

Once in a while, along comes along an artist with a brand new sound - and this was it. Marcus Brown with scat singing, piping and rapping - gets compared to Frank Ocean, but sounds much more original. I was in a bar one night and banged on ''The Fields'' on headphones and played it to two friends. One said it was weird, and the other said it's the funkiest thing since sliced bread.  I played this in my hotel room when I moved back to Vilnius in spring and it became clear that this one's an earworm.

6. SUFJAN STEVENS - JAVELIN

In which Sufjan consolidated all different sides of his career, Illinois-era big band mit backing singers, The Age Of Adz's scatty electronic production and keeping up the biblical thing, but thankfully as an undercurrent, as it's not exactly Bible-bashing music. As one of the best singer-songwriters of his generation, 48 years old, Sufjan delivered a warbly, autotuney doodly foodly - and as The Line of Best Fit aptly put it "A deeply personal, Earth-moving masterpiece exploring relationship tensions with the gravitas of an apocalypse and the simplicity of a melody passed down through generations.''

7. COMPLETE MOUNTAIN ALMANAC - COMPLETE MOUNTAIN ALMANAC

Chamber folk that is very, very delicate and supremely nuanced. Each track is named after a month of the year and it has a very natural cyclic feel. Rebekka Karijord and Jessica Dessner (sister of the twins from The National) have crafted a pastoral wonder that got better and better with each exploration. I used plenty of these cuts when making mixtapes for a special someone and I think she appreciated it in a tender way.

8. THE GOLDEN DREGS - ON GRACE AND DIGNITY

''Got to get away sometimes!'' croons Benjamin Woods on ''American Airlines'' and it becomes apparent that a major talent had arrived. In this age of listening to Spotify solo, sadly gems like this LP might not get unearthed by many, but on the plus side, why not enjoy the secret taste of these ''simmering barroom confessionals'' as Mojo superbly put it. I will be waiting with bated breath to see what their next move will be - but not with anxiety, with poise and G & D - as per the album title.

9. HEINALI - KYIV ETERNAL

Not just because of the war, - that just fasttracked it- rather played as a superb concept album of burnt-out electronica - lots of feedback and dissonance over samples that Oleh Shpudeiko captured with a handheld recorder from 2012 - here Kyiv Eternal acts as a loveletter to his city through these archived field recordings and in the mix crafts one of the best digital bodies of the year, decade, century. Yes, it's that fucking good.

10. LANKUM - FALSE LANKUM

Album of the year in five publications and getting its due credit here. Call it folk, avant-folk, drone, progressive folk or even doom-slumdog-of-a-funeral-chimney-potter - I'm down. This thing encompasses decades, centuries and eons of brutal human struggle through pure Irish conviction. The mettle and suffering underneath the surface here is certainly colossal.

Honorable mentions

everything but the girl

pj harvey

anohni

roisin murphy

sofia kourtesis

bonnie prince billy

dave okumu

jason isbell

romy

blonde redhead

david holmes

forest swords

lewsberg

home is where

witch

isolee

craven faults

fenne lily

index for working music

loscil

robert forster

john cale

water from your eyes 

Albums of the Decade - 30. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

 30. LANA DEL REY - NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL (2019) 

When this came out last year, a girl that I was in love with met me and motioned with her hand like a conductor to the "I'm waaaaasted" in "The Greatest"  - it was heart-achingly nostalgic - which I feel is what this LP is all about. What it boils down to. Hey Kevin, turn the water off ya ratbag.

That whole remembering of the times once had, when you bought a truck in the middle of the night, or threw off your nightgown, just like Sylvia Plath, or wanted to go to a party in California just hit me up. Kevin, make me a cuppa, would ya kid?

The hype surrounding this last year was just staggering, and I was initally skeptical of the Pitchfork hype and such, but wy be so, when you can just let the sheer quality wash over you? Kevin. Milk no sugar.

When c-wolves are giving flak to artists like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande because of their gender - the best way is to shove them a Lana Del Rey or Fiona Apple record and ask them to gobble it up.  My brew's ready. Thanks Kev.

Albums of the Decade - 53. Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like a Levee (2016)

53. HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER - HEART LIKE A LEVEE (2016) 

Almost went to see this band at xmas in 2016 but went to Lisbon instead and dreamed of being in Leeds. I went to Hamburg to a christmas market with a disco-ball and snowdrops flying, polished off a few mugs of mulled wine and then flew to Portugal. Felt like true jetsetter, instead of a trendsetter or a bedwetter.

This album is pure Jimmy Fuller in its capacity for a beautiful blonde beard, Worked with that guy in a call-center in 2008 and this goes out as a tribute to you Jimbeam.  You shaped my love of folk. That guy and the lean-ins on dates. The lunchtime pints. The gigs. The "yeah boy" - the yak and the sulk. The No 1 ' "Who's a bellend? / You are" - then he drenches me in a pint. "I like it!"

Jimmy's with a kid now and he's beautiful. Hope he grows up supporting West Ham too. Maybe he'll end up loving Leeds - I will buy him a Leeds bib when he's 18 and tell him it's the yak and the sulk and the smile going for a glass of milk or a pint. Heart Like a Levvee is "prismatic" as Uncut magazine said - I'll lean in to that.

Albums of the Decade - 56. Lambchop -Flotus (2016)

56. LAMBCHOP - FLOTUS (2016)

Lambchop's Flotus was a joie de vivre of vocodered folk. Like a reinvention, a rebirth, a calming come-uppeth though; not the kind of makeover like in a salon or on a TV show.

Kurt Wagner soothes in this outing. He's a kindred spirit who sounds crisp and fuzzy at the same time. His own autotuned vocals sound as backing vocals to which there is no real lead.

As I lay on the sofa typing this on the phone, which is rare please, as I don't want to sit at the  desk, I melt into a scuzzer of an LP, the kind that Uncut Magazine gave 5 stars back in 2016.

Those five stars alerted me to a band that truly changed genre - not direction - not style - but genre - who does that? Tell me? I can tell you: Lambchop did it in 2016, with their twelfth (!!!!!!!) LP. Boom. 

Albums of the Decade - 62. Land Observations - Roman Roads IV : XI (2012)

62. LAND OBSERVATIONS - ROMAN ROADS IV: XI  (2012)

Visual artist James Brooks crafted this gorgeous piece to accompany his visual art concerning mapping and cartography. Think boundaries and surface area infused with gently ruminative guitar licks over looped pedals. It is in keeping with the theme of one of my favourite novels of the decade, The Map and the Territory by Michel Houlebecq - in which an artist is doing amazingly successfully in depicting Michelin maps, is dating a Russian model - but the boiler in his house is broken and keeps fucking up - the text a paean to try and find some structure in ones own existential crisis.

Luckily with Roman Roads, no shit hits any fan, as the burnished film on these licks oscillate and oscillate. The album actually leaves the artists house on opeenr "Before the Kingsland Road" and takes some existent routes and others philosophical. I'll pander now:

When does one go? 
Where does I depart 
How come I didn't hang the clothes out to dry and instead you put them on the clothes horse? 
When will you send that fax?
Map me out my future would you?
Thanks.

Albums of the Decade - 65. Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness (2017)

65. JULIE BYRNE - NOT EVEN HAPPINESS (2017) 

A sweet and tender trip into a folk kind of nostalgia. Last FM has her down as a mix of Leonard Cohen and Vashti Bunyan. Easy shapes. I'm deep into her. Don't marry him. Don't carry him into paradise. Melt into the heat of the passion. Don't turn away from me. Send me away from me. Was listening to James Blake and RZA again as I wrote this.

I felt pretty blue yeterday morning (Monday) - so I played this album and it really calmed my chambers, as I worked out some semi-structure to the week. I managed to bang on the blackboard in my kitchen to buy some tea, pesto, sandwich filling, milk and vegetables - and that was achieved, plus a can of tuna I recall - a cheap legendary shop.

Albums of the decade - 81. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse

81. BILL CALLAHAN - APOCALYPSE 

"Yeah it's all coming back to me now
My apocalypse, my apocalypse
The curtain rose and burned in the morning sun"

...so it goes on "One Fine Morning" - the sumptuous, but harrowing closer of this majestic album from 2011. I actually caught him live in a church in Brighton in 2008 and it was one of the most hushed, graceful, well-executed concerts a young man could wish for.

Apocalypse, in my opinion, is this singer-songwriters best work. It might not get his best score on Metacritic or whatever, but for the most part, it's his most impactful and demonstrating the broadest range. The urgent march of "America," the sputtering-smoothness of "Baby's Breath" and the lyrical overlaps of "Riding For The Feeling" - c'est aperetive.

The perfect follow-up to 2009's Sometimes I  Wish We Were an Eagle, which was hella hush-hush - he's been slowly building up quite a name as a lo-fi, organic folk hero, separate to his output as Smog - a whopping 13 albums! - and now 6 under this name - we can add hashcakes of #prolific #consistent #worldly #instabill #callahan4eva #americasnexttopcrooner

Albums of The Decade - 90. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

90. KURT VILE - SMOKE RING FOR MY HALO

One of the sloppiest, most existential artists in modern music; one of the most talented artists out there. One of the grainiest springboards for better things -  2011 saw me discover this singer-songwriter with gusto aplomb. Vile is absolutely someone whose output has rang continuously in my ears all decade - especially with that swimming effect used on the effects pedals, which is also employed by his former band The War On Drugs.

I remember it being cold for once in Taipei in the winter of 2011 and "Runner Ups" coupled with the oncoming trade wind, created this aura, this relief, this depth:

If it ain't workin', take a whiz on the world
An entire nation drinkin' from a dirty cup
My best friend's long gone, but I got runner ups

When I'm walkin' my head is practically draggin'
All I ever see is just a whole lotta dirt
My whole life's been one long running gag
Two packs of red apples for the long ride home
Well, you know, baby

Lyrics like that are typical of his self-deprecation and there's plenty more where that came from, as you could probably gauge from the title track and other delights like "Peeping Tomboy" - playful is key here :) 

Albums Of The Decade - 92. Bibio - A Mineral Love

92. BIBIO - A MINERAL LOVE 

Underrated sepia beige. Could there be a worse line than that to sell this album? It's folk with rose-tinted lenses, it's a dove cooing, it's spring spilling into summer. The production is as angelic as a delight, as a dessert. Normally. I'd abhor something so mucically fluffy - but Bibio has the depth to line this output with substance.

I first ran into Bibio at the top of the decade; glued to 2009's Ambivalence Avenue,making a big move to Taiwan in 2010. As I played tracks like Lovers' Carvings to my new roommates, it stopped them in their tracks. That timelessness of summer was captured in a few chords of gold, as Stephen Wilinson gave the bucolic sounds that chastened the city sprawl that we were feeling.

Advance it to 2016 and as I was leaving Asia, the technicolor hues were seeping through the audio, as four albums in-between had shown that Bibio, as a package, had finally put the feather in his cap. And. while it's rarely just a record that stands alone to represent an artist during the last ten years, at least with this effort, it typifies idealism in a laudative sense.

Albums of the decade - 99. James Yorkston - The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society

99. JAMES YORKSTON -  THE CELLARDYKE RECORDING AND WASSAILING SOCIETY

Next on my pick list is this by James Yorkston from Scotland, who has been omnipresent and understated for the last 10 years around these parts - I've scrolled down and around on Spaghetti Blogonese and seen some sloppy late-night red wine posts, enthusing about his folkmanship and I can't guarantee that there won't not be a bit of nonsense repeated in the gloaming. 

Keeping it real for now though, after a chilled Sunday recuperating with some Adrian Younge, I sank into this full hour of lavish folk after coming back from the Vilnius International Film Festival, and felt a strong sense of teapots and folklore. As The Guardian said of this record in 2014 "James Yorkston fans get their money's worth: dense with dialogue and spanning 16 tracks, the folk songwriter's eighth album feels like an hour with old friends."

Yorkston's bassist Doogie Paul tragically died of cancer in 2012 and the song "Broken Wave (Blues for Doogie") is one of the most beautiful songs written this decade, maybe ever. I have to fill the right side of my blog up with hashtags in a minute, to try and get some more exposure and readers - but James Yorkston feels like the least worthy of hashtaggery in this 100. You know me though - I'll plough it through nevertheless. 

Albums of 2016 - (1-26) - Backlog

ALBUMS OF 2016 (Clearing the backlog)

1. DAVID HOLMES – LATE NIGHT TALES (MIXTAPE)

My toppest DJ of all time put together his best ever collection with a haunting, holistic and hypnotising collection of songs, comprising folk, psychedelia and spoken word among others. It includes some heartbreaking moments of self-discovery along the way and a million and one fucking highlights.

2. TIM HECKER – LOVE STREAMS

Amazing fusion of electronic dissonance, woodwind and choral voice on what could be his best album to date. It is a beautiful abstract commentary on mentalist times of selfies and love lost. Had to say it.

3. JUNIOR BOYS – BIG BLACK COAT

Tip of the fucking iceberg on the criminally underrated fifth electronic LP for the Canadian duo. From front to back it works sublimely, coming in from the fringe, in out of the autumnal rain again.

4. BLOOD ORANGE – FREETOWN SOUND

The most unlikely re-branding of my fucking short life-span; former indie lightweight Lightspeed Champion came back and brought an absolutely soulfully championed delight of a delight.

5. RADIOHEAD – A MOON SHAPED POOL

If 2016 was the best year of the decade so far for music, then A Moon Shaped Pool was the best release by the band since Kid A. A stunningly beautiful album of masterclass and tapestry.

6. BON IVER – 22, A MILLION

The third album and Justin Vernon can do no wrong. When I played this, it had just hit October 2016 and I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand and the electronics of “and I'm standing at the station” was on the headphones. At times sounding like Bain from Batman, and others like the old beardo from the log cabin that we loved on For Emma, Forever Ago – this was a prime cut indeed Jack.

7. IMARHAN – IMARHAN

Wow! - Algerian desert rock group that has some blood and musical lineage to the Malian and Algerian purveyors Tinariwen, who are also highly drinkable. Feels like drinking water in the desert – musical equivalent.

8. DAVID BOWIE – BLACK STAR

An amazing concoction of foresight to rest your head and cosmic retrograde in an artists unparalleled vision of psychedelic loss, pining and so long Davey here forever.

9. RUN THE JEWELS - RTJ3

This came out on Christmas Eve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The best musical Christmas present since Burial released the Rival Dealers EP in 2013 – it fittingly was the best hip-hop LP of the year.

10. JAMES BLAKE – THE COLOUR IN ANYTHING

The longest, perhaps greatest piece of work he has ever done – amassing seventeen tracks of electronic and experimental R&B that has to be heard to be seen to be felt to believed.

11. ANOHNI – HOPELESSNESS

Wouldn't have predicted that Antony from Antony & The Johnsons would come through to make an absolute belter of a protest album. This is so much of its time. It sums up the shite turmoil we're in perfectamundo with 21^st century production more than I could ever have imagined.

12. VARIOUS – DAY OF THE DEAD – GRATEFUL DEAD

A three disc opus of Grateful Dead covers spanning three volumes and over five hours of pure Sunday folk and slumber , curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National – following 2009's excellent charitable Dark was the Night – the range of voices on here, from Phosphorescent to Perfume Genius to Tim Hecker to Orchestra Baobab is just incredible.

13. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – SKELETON TREE

Offset by the death of his son - he had actually written a lot of this before the tragedy apparently – but I don't buy it – this album was so hard to listen to. And it is now – the densest, most syrupy album of the century. Listening to it now :(

14.COMMON – BLACK AMERICA AGAIN

Maybe I should try again and again to get into Kendrick, but it just ain't happening – you can't just force yourself to like something – I really am more fond of the old-school and Common Sense epitomises the need for an established voice, though it is still great that we have the upstart Lamar.

15. JAIMEO BROWN TRANSCENDENCE – WORK SONGS

Blues, soul, funk, rock 'n' roll distilled into stories of slaves and prisoners and workers. This is an absolutely phenomenal piece of artistry.

16. UNDERWORLD – BARBARA BARBARA, WE FACE A SHINING FUTURE

This is one of my besto friends favoritest ever bands. The spoken poetry of Karl Hyde over the pulsating electronica of seven gems from Bethlehem just rules better than any world, Frankenstein or purrs.

17. CAVERN OF ANTI-MATTER – VOID BEATS / INVOCATION TREX

Crunches, whirs, fizzes, cranks, shafts, tussles, shovels, pangs, bangs, crunches, slams, scrapes, clunks.

The onomatopoeic appeal of this electronic busyness should be played in its entirety at Prague's The Cross Club.

18. YORKSTON / THORNE / KHAN – EVERYTHING SACRED

Three divergent musicians with varying styles come together to make a sterling record that shuffles around musically without fidgeting or getting whimsical. It is such a nice piece that makes me feel I was being curtailed by forced collaborations before I restored my faith in them again.

19. A TRIBE CALLED QUEST – WE GOT IT FROM HERE... THANK YOU 4 YOUR SERVICE

You wouldn't have thought that at the end of a year devoid of good hip-hop, the old-school would come back and save it – ATCQ and Common Sense both dropped late 2016 albums – this one a sci-fi opus that did fantastic things for the genre, before an amazing force brought the fucking jams.

20. ADRIAN YOUNGE – SOMETHING ABOUT APRIL 2

Soul, hip-hop, noir, all of your musical grocery goods condensed into a soundtrack stye montage that recreates old soul classics. This truly was the first great long player of 2016 which was out in Jan.

21. LEONARD COHEN – YOU WANT IT DARKER

As with Bowie, what a final salutation before heading up to the clouds (if that's what happens) – this was a real crooning of an album. I love to play it around Christmas, booyah booyah. Shame he's gone, but he was 82 – good innings.

22. DEERHOOF - THE MAGIC

The sound of swirlguns melding everywhere, this is mental-riffic from a band who have cooked up a stew again on this, their thirteenth album proper.

23. ELUVIUM – FALSE READINGS

I just love this artist. He's had a bit of slander before for being a bit blow-in-the-wind. kind of new-age but the piano and drones are just out of this world again on album number eight.

24. MATMOS – ULTIMATE CARE ii

This was made with the sounds of a parts of a washing machine. I really wanna give it a ripe pun like “good clean fun” or “detergent of the year” but I'll get too washed.....er.....carried away. Experimental triumph.

25. RIVAL CONSOLES – NIGHT MELODY

Essentially a mini-album that splibbles loads of great electronica over scuttering beats. Man, the amount of times I have written the word “electronica” or “electronic” on this post is mental.

26. DIIV – IS THE IS ARE

Playing in Taipei live at the time of writing this. I wish I was there – their breezy indie makes me want my old life back there for a short run the down the streets, even in sub-tropical sweat.