Murn 2023: A Reminder of Why We're Here

Unfortunately, music exploration took a backseat in 2023. Maybe due to other interests creeping in, or the fact that I hit another wall with regards to how much words my brain cared to hear. Like the Trump news overflow of years past, I felt like I had little patience for listening to bullshit. This sadly affected my music consumption and pushed me more towards instrumental and hip-hop beats. Luckily, there were a handful of gems that broke through my mental blockage.

15. Bahamas – Bootcut

I give credit to Afie for trying a dedicated genre album, but the country vibes just were not for me. The first few times I threw this on, I turned it off and told myself that I needed to be in the right mood. After a few more tries, I found that no mood could make me really enjoy this album. Unfortunately, this is relegated to background music only. That is a shame.

14. Slowdive – Everything Is Alive

Conversely, Slowdive has a formula that continues to work well. This is their fifth studio album and my favorite. This is the point of my write-up where more instrumental and mood-dependent music starts. This album has the typical Slowdive haunting melancholy guitar noise that really does it for me.

13. Israel Nash – Ozarker

Another fifth album from an artist. This is another great album by him. It has all the trappings of his typical sound. I read a review that described this album as "vaulting harmonies with brazenly windswept sound". That is more accurate than I can try to describe. If this was so good, then why is it 13th on the list? Good question. This is the album I could see being ranked higher when I look back. Onward with the list.

12. Raze Regal & White Denim - self-titled

This was another album that took a little getting used to. I’m always going to give kudos to artists who tweak the formula and push themselves. After a handful of listens, this finally clicked for me. Credit to Melse for pushing it one last time.

11. Poolside – Blame It All On Love

Ahh, back to easy beats and calming vocals. What are you singing about? I really don’t care, because this album makes me feel like relaxing with a drink in my hand. Maybe a drink while Poolside? Sorry.

10. Ric Wavy – For Your Soul

8 songs. 15 total minutes. Not labeled as an EP, whatever. Boy, are they an enjoyable 15 minutes. I have heard that before. Instrumental feel-good hip-hop-inspired beats that are perfect for cooking dinner or doing some work in the office.

9. Sharks Deli – Cloud City Ultra

8 songs. 16 total minutes. Like a Ric Wavy album with a little more “urban” edge to it. The same notes apply.

8. Boy & Bear - self-titled

Lots of fifth studio album releases on this list. Unfortunately, I didn’t go back to this album a ton. I knew it was a good album that was as catchy and poppy as ever, but I feel like it got lost in the shuffle a bit for me. Enough to snag the seventh spot though. So that’s saying something.

7. Andrew Bird – Outside Problems

This is an instrumental follow-up to the prior year’s Inside Problems record. This kept that same vibe but just removed the words. No words you say??

6. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – V

Hey, V stands for 5. This happens to be UMO’s fifth album. We had some Australian action with Boy & Bear, and now we are moving southeast to New Zealand. I feel like this album is more accessible, poppier, and catchier than what they have recently put out. The last couple of UMO albums felt like they had some B-side crud that they needed to unload. Or they were just trying to push themselves in a different direction, and I am just an ungrateful fan.

5. Nas – Magic 2 & 3

I feel like for the last three years, I put the obligatory Nas album(s) on the list. Still making great music with Hit-Boy. One of my favorite rappers of all time. In a time where “pussy rap” clogs the airwaves and soccer moms blast lyrics to songs about how wet one’s vagina can be; Nas brings it back to what hip-hop was and should be. Using your brain to write insightful verses along with a DJ that doesn’t use a Casio keyboard and autotune gives me hope that the music genre I love can survive.

4. Moses Yoofee Trio – Ocean

Hip-hop acid jazz has all of my tastes rolled into one. And you guessed it - no vocals to ruin those sweet, sweet tunes. Technically an EP of only 23 minutes, the theme of my music consumption is “get in and get out”.

3. The Arcs - Electrophonic Chronic

This album was a staple in and around our trip to Mexico in early 2023. That connection propelled it higher for me than both Ironfish and Melse in their rankings. Besides the nostalgic aspect, this album is pretty much perfection in my opinion. My top three were very close - and this having one or two skips -  puts it in the third spot in the rankings.

2. CVC – Get Real

I’m breaking with the pattern of brethren and placing this album second. This felt like a shoo-in for the top spot for a long time. The 70s vibe, brilliant guitar riffs, and laidback song themes would be more than enough to take the crown in most years.

1. Gaz Coombes – Turn The Car Around

Until I ran into this jewel of an album. My god, this is perfect. What if Thom Yorke wasn’t so odd and decided to make an album that you didn’t need to be on drugs to enjoy? This is my first run-in with Mr. Coombes. I found out that he fronted the 90s English band Supergrass. Apparently, he’s a big deal in England. This album is artful without being pretentious. Poppy and catchy without sounding watered down or vapid. Introspective without being overly whiny or emotional. The best part is, it's shrouded in Pink Floyd-scented guitar rock that grounds the sound and brings this bitch in for a landing. Straight through your ear holes and deep into that mush of a brain. And for 38 minutes, he makes the vocals that I tried hard to dodge in 2023; so worth it.

Melse 2023: New That Sounds Old

Every year my list is either wayyyy too top-heavy and lacks body, or vice versa.  There is never a linear situation it seems! And this year is no different.  My top EIGHT albums all caught “album of the year” attention from me, but nothing blew my skirt up so much that it was obvious.

On to the goods!

Honorable Mentions:

Susto - My Entire Life

Eric Silverman - Stay In It

Zach Bryan - self-titled

Shamus - The Shepherd and the Wolf

The Arcs - Electrophonic Chronic

The Real Deal Top 15

15. Scott McMicken - Shabang

I had almost written off anything Dr. Dog-related releases after their last few albums did virtually nothing for me but man this one is very good.  I’m a huge fan of an album that carries a vibe or a singular sound throughout and this is what we have here.  It’s a spacey, trippy, lo-fi-ish slow album that just flows in that Dr. Dog space that we all know and love.  Considering I always preferred Toby's songs to Scott's songs this is major praise from me.  I put this on for the first time at midnight driving back from seeing RHCP in Syracuse while everybody else in the car slept and it took me all the way home.

14.  Bahamas - Bootcut

Afie making a country album is quite the left turn and boy oh boy do I love left turns!  I’ve always had a soft spot for really well done country and this one fits the bill.  Honestly, he’s a songwriter first and foremost, so I doubt there’s a genre he couldn’t pull off.  These songs almost sound like he’s sort of poking fun at the genre, but they’re still good.  That’s just him.

13.  Deer Tick - Emotional Contracts

A band that has always been in my orbit, they’ve never really put together an album that truly hit me until now.  Very versatile guitar rock all over this one. Just well-crafted songs that all fit together.  

12.  Boy & Bear - self-titled

2015’s Limit of Love was my first foray into these guys and I actually totally forgot I liked it until I heard the new single on the work adult rock station.  This one dink and dunks along just as well as Limit of Love but a touch more synthy and boy does it work out well.  This one got heavy, heavy play at work for me. 

11. Uh-Huh - self titled

What a strange sound these guys have.  It’s like synthy ’80s shit but really bass driven - cannot get enough of it though!  The vocals are obscure and hard to hear at times.  It’s exactly what I would want to listen to in a dark room at the end of a long night.  

10.  Cafe Racer - Words in Error

Their last release was VERY high on my list a few years back and this one is almost as good (shows the strength of my list this year). Fuzzed-out guitar rock with breathy whisper vocals is the main formula and I love it.  I guarantee every band member wears sunglasses all day and all night.  You want to hear this at a cool underground club at 3am.

9.  Albert Hammond Jr - Melodies on Hiatus

Five years have passed since AHJ’s last release, Francis Trouble, which I was lukewarm on.  In between then and now The Strokes made a largely forgettable album.  The first single off this AHJ joint was ALSO forgettable and I was realllllll worried.  Then I listened to the whole thing and man was I pleased I did!  This is a classic AHJ release from front to back (it is a tad too long for me), stuffed with killer riffs and some solos, wonderful vocals, and catchy ass choruses.  The solo stuff from the boys is all so much better collectively than what they’re currently doing as a band.  

8.  Steve Marino - Too Late to Start Again

Oh god, this one is so catchy it hurts.  Just wonderfully melodic pop rock with catchy choruses and excellent backing vocals.  The songs are simple and the melody takes them to the sun.  A great, great modern power pop album.

7.  Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman...

Owners of my single favorite album of all time (Songs for the Deaf), of course, I was ready to go for this thing.  And it did NOT disappoint.  Josh Homme is getting a little long in the tooth and that's always a concern, but we are not at the end yet.  Riffy as all hell, vocally strong, and just heavy and cool as shit, this album rocks just as good as all the rest of their stuff.  Song sequencing is a big thing for me and they truly did it right here.  Every track flows so well into the next one it sends the whole thing to the moon. These guys might literally be the last great hard rock band.  

6.  Unknown Mortal Orchestra - V

2015’s Multi Love was the first time I experienced Ruban Nielson and his version of guitar/synth psych rock.  2018’s Sex & Food was lackluster, however, and he was on the back burner.  This one is excellent!  The lead single is dull and I was worried he had lost me for good but low and behold here we are.  Another example of an album that carries a vibe throughout, it has several little instrumental detours that are perfectly placed. It’s also a rare example of a synthy, electronic band that used MORE guitar than previously, which is always welcomed by me.  

5.  Raze Regal & White Denim - self-titled

Ahhhh, my boys!  White Denim has been one of my all-time favorite bands for probably 10 years, releasing one after another quality guitar rock albums.  The last two were a bit off, but still solid, so I was a touch concerned, but not too much.  Raze Regal (Texas-based guitar player) is here with the assist, and the results are fantastic.  Every song is meticulously crafted, with little interludes and bridges all over that absolutely flourish.  It’s not my favorite WD album (in fact it might not be in my top 3), but I truly think this is the most mature, well-thought-out, best album they’ve ever made.  

4.  Cactus Lee - Caravan

I’m a sucker for the solo singer-songwriter type album and that’s what we have here but with a little Americana/country-ish bend.  Beautifully crafted soft-edge melodic pop songs abound on this one.  A gifted lyricist and singer.  I have no idea where I found this.  It just appeared in my library one day. It’s unbelievably good.

3.  Art Feynman - Be Good the Crazy Boys 

Every year a band or an album comes out that is absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever heard.  That’s almost an impossible feat in 2023 and here we are.  This thing is insane.  It’s synthy 80’s pop with some guitar flair and an afro/world music vibe but it still somehow manages to sound modern and fresh.  I spent two months trying to put into words how to explain it and that's the best I have and it still sucks.  Please, please listen to this one!

2.  Wilco - Cousin 

Don’t call it a comeback!  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Ghost is Born, and Sky Blue Sky are 28, 38, and 101 on my all-time album list but Wilco has not made an album I really gave a shit about in 15 years.  I heard the first two singles and was pleasantly surprised. The rest of it is absolutely stellar. It truly reminds me of the old-school experimental stuff they made that was so good.  Like all their best stuff, it carries a vibe.  It’s so mid-tempo and cool the whole way with extended intros and outros on many songs.  Tweedy is at his best vocally when he sounds like he's falling asleep and that’s where he is here.  I’m absolutely floored.

1. CVC - Get Real

To pile on what I said about the Art Feynman album, it’s very, very hard to make new music that sounds like nothing that’s ever been made before and that’s what these guys have done.  Funky, groovy, 70s-ish pop rock with multiple lead singers and super catchy vocals with tons of harmonizing - but it sounds fresh and new at the same time! There isn’t a single song I think about skipping and there isn’t a single song that sounds like another song already on the album.  Truly a beautiful collection of tracks.  I tried willing the Wilco album into the top spot for nostalgia’s sake but I just could not do it in good faith.  This is my album of the year.