In alphabetical order, here are my favourite EPs, albums, and mixtapes from the past year.
aasir – THE GHOST OF TOMORROW
Hip hop often travels time by way of sampling. Pulling pieces from old dusty instrumentals or cartoons or flicks, it brings a musical past into the present that evokes a certain sense of haunting with the spiritual presence of musicians, actors, or other figures that are there in voice, instrument, and otherwise unphysicality. aasir, one of the premier MCs in the NYC underground, has been “feeling real spiritual” lately, and has put these feelngs prominently into the Ghost of Tomorrow mixtape. Like always, aasir makes rapping seem so easy with a calm sturdy and subtly charismatic presence on the mic, while weaving in real life ghost stories of the past in between contemplating the ephemeral presence of the future. It’s a compelling conceptual direction for one of the most reliable and undeniable rhymesayers in the game.
absinthe father – moving forward
Like the title suggests, moving forward is a record that evokes both a sense of travel and onward displacement from the past. The dreamy guitarwork that makes songs feel as expansive as prairies blurrily racing by from a car window, while close and vulnerable lyrics feel like a heart untwisting itself and starting anew. The pop sensibilities provide an even shinier spark, with undeniably choruses ringing out on cuts like “bells” and the sugary yet crunchy yet melancholic yet triumphant closer “ender”. Surprisingly, I’ve heard nary a word about this record outside of hardcore-adjacent circles, but it’s really just too darn good for there to not be more people on the absinthe father train.
Anxious – Little Green House
One of the best kinds of emo is when a song is incredibly anthemic and demands to be sung along to poorly and loudly with an energy and enthusiasm that almost makes you forget or overlook any devastation in the lyrics. That’s several songs on Little Green House, but especially “In April”. It’s almost embarrassing how many times I listened to that song without fully registering that a song that sounds this fun opens with a line about wiping tears away, or without feeling the lump in the throat that a line like “how could you have known to hold me as something more than a friend, but less than someone you can depend” compels. The uplifting energy/musical tone with painful lyrics combo is well trodden in the emo/pop punk/melodic hardcore hemisphere, but with Little Green House it never grows stale with songwriting this impactful. The craziest thing is that this group seems like they are still only getting started on what could be a long and rewarding run that continues to factor prominently in the ongoing development of heart-on-the-sleeve rock music. With two “stand-alone” singles dropping in October, I wouldn’t be surprised if another project arrives in the coming year.
Blume – Waves of Love
I’m posting pretty infrequently on this music blog/radio show thing I have going on, but when I do, there’s a pretty good chance I’m giving Blume some praise. Not only is Arthur Bennell a prolific artist, but the output is consistently so damn good. I’m always excited to see how the glistening guitar sounds of 80’s British dream pop and space rock are given a new spin, shifting into motorik grooves that lock in skyward turning solos or through slower, veering on ambient pieces that so vividly conjure images of puffy clouds floating by in a sun-filled sky on the most relaxing do-nothing day in the park. Particular highlights on this latest edition to the catalogue include the bright and peppy “Earth Shaker” and the incredibly hypnotic meditation on the cycles of worrying lows and drug-induced escapist highs that is the closing track “I Just Don’t Know.”
COCAINELOVER – CATARACT BLUES
The artist also known as DJ DEADHORSES slows down the tempo and adds in gothically drawled vocal performances on tracks that sit somewhere in between grey and haunted UK post-punk and the most icey and morose of 2010s emo rap. The sampling on this project is incredible (adding a four on the floor pattern to the haunting guitar cry and dejected bassline of southpacific’s “Automata” is still such a crazy and genius idea to me); it’s just more proof that this is an artist with incredible range and creativity.
DJ DEADHORSES – DEATH RIDES A PALE WHITE HORSE
A repost of DJ DEADHORSES’ “BLUNT 2 MY LIPS” came across my Soundcloud feed at the perfect time earlier this year. I was in the midst of getting deeper into my Memphis hip hop scholarship and exploring the solo projects of Three 6 Mafia members and the posse’s close-tied affiliates. Project Pat’s 2001 classic Mista Don’t Play: Everythangs Workin’ had established itself as an early favourite, so naturally I felt blessed to be graced with Pat dicing up weed bars over a clouded-out haze of smoke so thick that only DEADHORSES’ sprinting breakbeats could break through. Like any great remix/mashup/sample-intensive artist, DEADHORSES can put a fresh and exciting spin on damn near anything, as is evident in wide array of artists that the source material comes from. Even with the presence of vocals reduced to near nothing, the production still shines on tracks like SACRED BOND, which is a grimy and tense house banger that would go off in the most derelict basement club you can imagine.
Downward – THE BRASS TAX
Downward are a band that come from but also buck the trends of the south central U.S. shoegaze/alt-rock/slowcore/post-hardcore/allandnoneofthesegenredescriptors scene. At times uber-heavy sonically and others shockingly delicate, The Brass Tax is incredibly ambitious and dynamic for a 5 song release that culminates in a heartwrenching closing track. Very excited to see where this band goes next, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to surprise me.
Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter
Not since Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city has an album’s cinematic universe captivated me as much as Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter. The stage was set with Cain’s previous EPs and the enveloping photographic moodboard of her Tumblr account, collecting images of decaying and distraught middle of nowhere small towns. The factory closed up shop decades ago, the train no longer rumbles through, but the alcohol keeps flowing strong out of sight from the dwindling but dedicated attendees of the local church service. From the haunting soundscapes and Cain’s often awe-inspiring vocal performances, a tale of blood, dirt, lost faith, and death of the American dream is weaved in visceral detail. It’s a striking artwork that establishes Hayden Anhedönia as one of the most poignant songwriters of this modern age.
End It – Unpleasant Living
“End It! BCHC
What’s shaking you fucking chumps?
End It. Baltimore City Hate Crew
You don’t like us, and we don’t like you
Use your 24 to mind your fucking business
And I’ll mind mine bitch, get it how you live!”
If you want to get any uninitiated listener hooked onto hardcore, show them the “New Wage Slavery” video. Works every time.
Eyes Front – Tied To The Tracks
I really can’t think of a more electrifying opening riff on a release than the buzzsaw chords that usher in this EP’s first track “Out Swingin’”. As one of the premier acts in Edmonton hardcore, Eyes Front are a force to be reckoned with in the flesh and on tape. Well-equipped in the riff department and with some of the best vocals in wildrose hxc, the band captures the harsh and brutal frustration of feeling like you’re “always losing in the champion city,” but they stay winning on this one.
False Body – Showing Up Anyway
After spending several years establishing themselves as one of the premier live acts in the hardcore circuits of western Canada, False Body have dropped a record that shows they’re the real deal on wax as well. Michelle Belec’s vocals hit with an intense visceral force, while backed by an equally impactful rhythm section. Add in some nasty nasty breakdowns on cuts like “Burn the Witch”, “No Home”, and “Pavement”, and you’ve got a shockingly impressive amount of killer shit in only 14 minutes of music.
Hatchie – Giving the World Away
Some of the best dream pop is dream pop that looks to maximize both dream and pop. That continues to be Hatchie’s calling card on a project with MASSIVE stadium-sized choruses, gloriously euphoric guitar and synth work, and the new addition of early 90s-esque alt-dance rhythms. Pop music doesn’t get much catchier and prettier than this.
henderson century – joy unspeakable
I love a good label compilation, and in the case of View New Country’s VNC Mixtape, here is one with a bunch of artists using shoegaze, slowcore, and singer/songwriter templates in fresh and invigorated ways. In addition to Bedlocked’s 2018 album Sprawl, henderson century’s joy unspeakable is another release from the VNC universe that I fell hard for. The songwriting is poetically cryptic but also subtly emotionally revealing. If you allow me to be goofy for a second, the cathartically intense crescendos on tracks like “river” and “miracle ii” make me feel like “I’m literally the guy in the pic” on the album cover. This is perhaps the best sit-in-silence-and-contemplate-existence-while-staring-off-into-the-horizon album of the year.
Jozem – it came to me in a dream
From both a vocal and production standpoint, this is simply one of the most beautiful sounding records of the year. I often imagine I am walking through a lantern-lit garden at night, with fireflies dancing in the air as Jozem’s vocal harmonies serenade me. The record is a contemplative meditation on coming of age in one’s twenties, and offers much to resonate with as you immerse yourself in Jozem’s world.
MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs
It’s true, MJ Lenderman did that. This is an album that sounds like it was written while drinkin’ beers on the porch and it sounds best when listened to while drinkin’ beers on the porch.
Money – Money
Money shares members with Cursetheknife, but shed the freewheeling dreaminess of the latter for heavy emphasis on downtuned guitars and downtrodden numbness. Dejected but simultaneously half detached in the gloomy hooks, lines like “this kind of pain doesn’t change until it’s over” read both like matter of fact observations and injured turmoil. The unfruitful death drive hinted at by “Budd Dwyer” brings a conclusion to a journey that is intended for Heaven’s Gate but winds up in a “Slower Hell”.
Prize Horse – Welder
Like the chilly frigidness of Prize Horse’s Minneapolis origins, Welder evokes a snowy and barren feel akin to the winter freeze of the prairies where I have lived. The drums knock hard and the bass rattles the skull, but the air is thick with a melancholic exhaustion that is best described, not in words, but through a pensive gaze out of a frost-framed window that only the tundra can return.
Rabbit – DEMO and Halo of Flies
There are many things that all together make up a good hardcore band, but an unhinged and theatrical frontperson is really the icing on the cake. Enter Rabbit and their two releases of nasty-ass 80s death metal-tinged magic. This feral gremlin-sounding vocalist seems completely possessed and overtaken by the filth-caked riffs that lock in for some of the stankiest-stankface grooves I’ve laid ears on. The day is overdue for when those dorks on r/hardcore stop rehashing tired memes about crowdkilling Turnstile fans and fawn over this act that ought to blow up (in HC terms) sooner than later.
Saba – Few Good Things
First of all, this album sounds gorgeous, with rich neo-soul beats that soothe like the sun and a gentle breeze on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. It is in that afternoon that you look to capture a moment because you know it won’t last. Things change, and Saba is acutely aware of the discrepancies between his life as a child in a Black working class neighbourhood and his adult one as a successful artist. The contrast between scarcity and sufficiency is a prevalent theme, with the takeaway being that finding the value in what and who you have, especially when short on money, is the key to richness in living. The accompanying short film goes further to add in his family’s lived experience of institutional neglect of the neighbourhood brought upon by white flight, and gives nods as well to Black revolutionaries like Fred Hampton and Kwame Ture. In addition to the sweet beautiful sound, touching nostalgic tone, and abundance of catchy hooks, there is a lot of smaller little nuggets in this record to ponder on and be moved by.
Sky Above – Indistinct Objects
While I spent a good chunk of 2022 doing my listener homework on the history of various developments in techno, I didn’t do as well of a job keeping up with new releases. Indistinct Objects is one exception to my failure, and hard not be held rapt by in how it paints vivid scenes of acid-tinged cyber dystopian machine grooves. Highlights are abound, but “Obscure Artifacts” takes the cake for most hypnotic bass line that locks you in with unrelenting pressure.
SLIDE – PULL
Equally heavy in downward gravitational pull and light ethereal airness, PULL is a “heavygaze” album that stands apart and above from contemporaries who are often content to slap reverb onto grunge cliches and call it a day. The record takes its time in unfolding over the tracklist, with these slow tempos making the sudden rush of “Mirrors” feel even more electrifying when it kicks into high gear.
Soul Blind – Feel It All Around
I’m such a huge sucker for heavy alt-rock record that deals growling guitar tones and sticky hooks. Naturally, this Soul Blind record has been one of the first things I reach for if I wanna bang my head or throw dumbbells over top of it.
they are gutting a body of water – lucky styles
In a great piece for Stereogum, Eli Enis charts the new wave of American shoegaze bands pulling the genre into fresh and exciting directions. They Are Gutting A Body of Water is one group at the forefront of that movement and lucky styles is a fantastic introduction to this group. It’s a compact 24-minute package of 9 of the most delightful noise pop tunes you’ll hear from a group steeped in the foundational Philly sounds of gritty lofi production and grungy dirty riffs, but with the added elements of inventive sampling, breakbeat fusion, and pretty synthwork. It’s a record full of earworm melodies, with the instrumental chorus of “delta p” containing the most adorable synth line I’ve ever heard, and “behind the waterfall” being a hypnotic journey that sounds like it could only be the product of someone who loves chorus pedals as much as they do the Donkey Kong video game series. In weaving in electronic sounds in new and exciting ways, TAGABOW and likeminded groups like Full Body 2 have me really excited to see what magical directions the shoegaze scene will venture into in the future.
The Weeknd – Dawn FM
The Weeknd’s been a heavy hitter in pop music for well over a decade now, and the fact the evolving but always prominent depressive hedonia in his music continues to affirm him as one of the most compelling and popular artists in the game is very telling. Even as the post-recession era’s superficial optimism, that was covertly nihilistic, was broadcast with the most forced of enthusiasm during the Obama years, The Weeknd was lost in a haze of drugs, women, and partying that fell short of satisfying his desires and healing his wounds. Haunted by the past without the security of the future to look forward to, the thing most present on his mind on Dawn FM is death. In the middle of the pandemic, climate crisis, rise of fascism, and skyrocketing cost of living, the no future mindset is a hard one for many to escape. Leaning into 80s synth pop and new wave allows Tesfaye to evoke the sounds of a time that he wasn’t old enough to experience firsthand. You can hear in Dawn FM multiple struggles explicitly and implicitly: an inability to imagine a future for oneself, a cultural inability to image “new” sounding music, and political inability to imagine a future that isn’t more of the same late-stage capitalism in perpetual crises. Death seems like the only salvation from The Weeknd’s opulent but hollow playboy lifestyle and the past that continues to haunt him. But on “How Do I Make You Love Me?”, he notes the endless cycle he’s trapped within, and recognizes the need for a breakthrough.