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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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Problem Patterns’ debut album: Blouse Club
New album: Belfast’s answer to Amyl & the Sniffers pull no punches and leave no prisoners with their angry, shouty, catchy, feminist, caustically sharp and witty debut LP, their fast furious songs of social critique, from the energetic Riot Grrrl punk quartet of Beverley Boal, Bethany Crooks, Ciara King and Alanah Smith
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Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee: Los Angeles
New album: The ex-Cure drummer and the acclaimed percussionist of Siouxsie, Creatures and other bands team up with the Irish producer for a wonderfully rhythmic, sharply witty, krautrock-style/synth pop-punk fusion with guest vocalists including LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy
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Unschooling: New World Artifacts
New album: A striking post-punk debut of lo-fi, spiky guitar sounds and abstract, strangely alluring disharmony by the French, Rouen-based quintet fronted by guitarist and vocalist Vincent Fevrier
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CLT DRP: Nothing Clever, Just Feelings
New album: Brilliantly original and fresh post- and dance-punk and electro-pop by the Brighton band with songs about heartbreak and queerness, feminism, vulnerability and gender fluidity, packed with unique sounds, passion and humour
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Snõõper: Super Snõõper (Third Man Records)
New album: With shades of early-80s Delta 5, a fabulously entertaining, sprightly, short ’n’ sharp, stop-start punk, post-punk full debut LP by the Nashville band who combine a fun DIY girl garage-rock interspersed with electronic beeps and random conversations
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Do Nothing: Snake Sideways
New album: Wonderfully offbeat, playful, original, witty post-punk with superb, sweeping melodies, warped experimental guitar, swinging, alternative rhythms, and laced with wry, clever ironic lyrics in this dynamic debut by the Nottingham quartet
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Ursa Major Moving Group
New album: A stellar, innovative and absorbing debut LP project by London multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer Ursula Russell fusing folk, chamber pop and gentle post-punk
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Dream Wife: Social Lubrication
New album: Punchy, whip-smart, witty, menacing, fierce but also explosively and mischievously fun, the London post-punk band fronted by return with a perhaps their best yet - a pulsating set of sharp, feminist songs about relationships, society and more
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Another landmark: Squid’s second album, O Monolith
New album: The second album by the Brighton-formed experimental post-punks after 2021’s Bright Green Field sees them push into abstract prog, folk, jazz and other musical territory of light and shade, loud to intimate and intricate, all with sharp sense of life’s tragedy, comedy and absurdity
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Protomartyr: Formal Growth In The Desert
New album: Stormy, dark, passionate, punchy, with biting lyrics, this powerful sixth album by the Detroit-formed post-punk quartet is inspired by the metaphorical desolation of the titular landscape and getting on with life even when it feels impossibly hard
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Brix Smith: Valley of the Dolls
New album: Fizzing with energy, a blistering album of feisty brilliance à la Hole or Breeders, this is possibly the ex-Fall and The Extricated singer’s finest work yet, a debut solo LP featuring a female supergroup that includes My Bloody Valentine’s Deb Googe on bass
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Cloth: Secret Measure
New album: Gently spun, delicately understated and cleverly crafted, dreamy, angular guitar pop-rock with a light touch of synths from the Glasgow twins Rachael and Paul Swinton
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Comfort: What's Bad Enough?
New album: Truly original and arresting cross-genre electronica-postpunk-hip-hop by the Glasgow sibling duo of vocalist and transwoman Natalie and instrumentalist brother Sean McGhee who challenge gender norms and ideas of beauty
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The Bloodstreams: How To Be A God
New album: With oodles of swagger, theatricality and panache, a wonderful debut by the seasoned Deptford quartet, with witty, black-humoured 60s garage rock and stylish echoes of Siouxsie, Birthday Party-era Nick Cave, Stones, the Doors and the Kramps
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Deerhoof: Miracle-Level
New album: A 19th studio album by San Francisco the prog-punk-jazz experimentalists drummer Greg Saunier, guitarists Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich, and bassist/singer Satomi Matsuzaki is another blast of brilliant musicianship, but also the first entirely sung in Matsuzaki’s native Japanese
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A Certain Ratio: 1982
New album: The Manchester post-punk veterans Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson, return with a sparklingly eclectic record of electronica, dance, jazz, funk, Afrobeat and more with a retrospective feel on their history
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Yves Tumor’s latest album: Praise A Lord Who Chews …
New album: A mouthful of a title but another striking, genre-spanning fifth LP by the unique Knoxville-raised Sean Bowie, whose extraordinary non-gender presence adorns this mix of thrumming postpunk, indie R&B, trip-hop, funk, glam, sensual soul and psychedelia
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Sleaford Mods - UK Grim
New album: Nottingham’s Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn return with another set of, angry, catchy, darkly humorous belters, pulling no punches when it comes to the shambolic state of Tory-led Brexit Britain
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As in the tattoo: slowthai’s third LP UGLY
New album: The abrasive but exciting Northampton rapper Tyrone Frampton’s third LP is a powerful, heady concoction, containing this time less grime and politics, more punk and post-punk, rock guitars, and focusing on personal issues, with a paradoxical facial tattooed title acronym meaning U Gotta Love Yourself
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