I did not share by Apple Music year-end wrap-up thing with anyone this year, since my listening habits are never quite as interesting or eclectic as I want them to be. Also, does anyone really care what indie-famous artist I listened to the most? Anyways, That! Feels Good! by Jessie Ware was my most listened-to album of 2023, which isn’t all that surprising considering just how punchy and deliciously well-crafted the album is. It is quite simply the type of album that begs to be played over and over again, so I made a habit of it back when it came out in late Spring and served as a nice segue into the feel-good vibes of the Summer. Continue reading →

One of the fonder music memories I have from 2023 was finally sitting in on one of KEXP’s in-studio sessions when I was in Seattle for the summer. The session I managed to see was for The Mountain Goats, a band that I had a lot more enthusiasm toward hearing than the group of friends I was with.

This seems to speak to the fact that The Mountain Goats appeal to a very particular type of obsessive fan, which I apparently am, having heard probably at least a dozen of their albums. However, the band kind of lost me in the course of their last few releases. They were always a very prolific band, but freed from an equally active touring life, it seems like the pandemic compelled John Darnielle to write even more songs than usual, many of which failed to hook me all that much. This is why I barely recognized any of the songs The Mountain Goats played during their KEXP session, since they were mostly from recent albums that I’d probably give a listen or two at most. Continue reading →

Ah, relationships and heartache. Two topics that never seem to grow old in the realm of pop music, and the topics that seem to be most abundant on Jamila Woods’ latest album Water Made Us. To call Water Made Us a concept album feels like a bit of a stretch, but its depictions of break-ups, moving on, and finding yourself lend it to a thematic cohesion at the very least. This was also an attribute of Woods’ last album Legacy! Legacy!, whose songs were inspired by iconic Black cultural figures in varying ways. Though here, she’s turned her gaze inward, and in the process creates something more personal while retaining her inscrutable cool. Continue reading →

Well, we’ve once again reached the point in the year that feels like a long slow march toward posting our Top Tens of the year in January. However, as far as December goes each year, I usually take this time to look back at a bunch of albums I haven’t really talked about in reviews or Little Picks on our podcast. Because I’ve been taking a more leisurely approach to reviewing albums, usually in one long monthly or seasonal post, it’s been pretty easy to keep up with talking about the albums that have impressed me this year. However, there have been a few from the last few months that I’ve been enjoying that I haven’t written about yet, and who knows, maybe there’ll be some albums from earlier in the year that I end up checking out and enjoying as various publications’ end-of-the-year lists start to trickle in. Continue reading →