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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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Part 1 selection of 2023 favourite albums
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
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Oya Paya: Slumped Up
New album: Excellent, energised, pace-changing, dynamic indie debut LP by the Anglo-South East Asian, Liverpool-formed trio who also have a heady mix of British, Midwest and New York flavours, from The Lemonheads, to Blur, Red Hot Chilli Peppers to The Strokes
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Joanna Sternberg: I've Got Me
New album: Another retrieved treasure from earlier this year, released in June, of gentle, witty, melancholy intimate self-deprecatory folk numbers by the New York singer-songwriter who exudes a old-school charm
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@: Mind Palace Music
New album: A hidden gem released earlier in 2023 by duo Philadelphia guitarist Victoria Rose and Baltimore musician Stone Filipczak brings rich vocal harmonies and beautiful profound folk-pop
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Neil Young
New album: An affecting, intimate and novel release by the veteran Canadian singer-songwriter with a non-stop acoustic rendition of 13 of his own favourite songs spanning his career and comprising the unpredictable and lesser known
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Harp: Albion
New album: Ethereal, evocative, alternative folk, bathed in flutes and acoustic guitars, in this beautiful debut by the former Midlake singer Tim Smith and his wife Kathi Zung, covering a range of emotions, and bucolic, mountain images
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Alex Nicol: Been A Long Year Vol 1 & Vol 2
New album: Two EPs forming one LP, this gorgeously paced, subtle country-inflected alt-folk release by the Montreal singer-songwriter brings his pure, high, haunting voice with poignantly vivid, droll lyrics about the self and the external world
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Haiku Hands: Pleasure Beast
New album: A gloriously anarchic, energetic fusion of hip-hop, post-punk, vogue pop, electronica, bouncy 90s dance music and interwoven skits by the vibrant Australian trio of sisters Claire and Mie Nakazawa and Beatrice Lewis
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Peter Gabriel: i/o
New album: Strong, powerful, broad in scope, but also warm, tender emotional songs abound in this impressive, expansive return by the British artist with his first LP of new work in 21 years, with many great collaborators including co-producer Brian Eno, each of the 12 tracks has both Bright-Side and Dark-Side stereo mixes
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André 3000: New Blue Sun
New album: The actor and former half of superstar hip-hop duo Outcast makes a very surprising return after 17 years – a lengthy low-key, instrumental album built around his love of flute playing – minimal, meditational and relaxing
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GHOSTWOMAN: Hindsight Is 50/50
New album: This third LP by Canadian singer multi-instrumentalist Evan Uschenko and drummer Ille van Dessel, comes with a darker, moodier, goth-noir-psych-garage-rock smokiness
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Raze Regal & White Denim Inc
New album: The virtuoso experimental Texas rock band fronted by James Petralli join old friend and singer/ guitarist formerly of Oakland’s Once and Future Band in a pacy tapestry of cleverly interwoven psych, prog, funk, jazz and rock, with added echoes of Steely Dan
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H31R: HeadSpace
New album: Pronounced ‘Air’, the duo of Brooklyn rapper Maassai and New Jersey producer JWords serve up a stylish mix of bleeps, beats, industrial sounds, with clubby to woozy, inventive, minimal, alternative electronica marked by free-flowing hip-hop/spoken word
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The Polyphonic Spree: Salvage Enterprise
New album: The Dallas, Texas choral-folk-rock ensemble fronted by Tim DeLaughter return with a first set of originals since 2014’s Psychphonic , here with a bright, uplifting, evocative return that characteristically echoes the gentle psychedelia of Pink Floyd and The Flaming Lips
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Jaakko Eino Kalevi: Chaos Magic
New album: With echoes of classic sounds from The Human League to Air and even a dash of Wham!, the Finnish electro-pop artist’s cleverly textured, stylish double album also contains cosmic jazz, dub reggae, neon synthpop, tender ballads and psych-rock
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Bas Jan: Back To The Swamp
New album: This third album by the quartet fronted by singer and harpist Serafina Steer, is another wittily droll, darkly humorous collection about love and modern life’s absurdities and mundanities, with influences from The Pet Shop Boys, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Kate Bush, Heaven 17 and even a referential shake of Salt N Pepa
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Vince Clarke: Songs of Silence
New album: The legendary synth-pop songwriter best known for Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure releases, at last, his first solo album, a mesmeric, ambient, darkly sci-fi cinematic work made from modular synthesisers
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Marnie Stern: The Comeback Kid
New album: A joyously noisy return of proclamatory, zingy, explosively proggy indie-rock with the first album in 10 years since by the New York guitarist and singer, since 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia
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Sen Morimoto: Diagnosis
New album: The Chicago-based Japanese singer, rapper and jazz multi-instrumentalist’s new LP comprises a richly eclectic, dynamic selection of songs with an overriding theme of seeking the right direction in life
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