My 20 Favorite Albums of 2023

 Best is subjective so how about we call this the list of my favorite albums of 2023 - check them out

The Baseball Project- Grand Salami Time (Omnivore). Come for the Buck/Mills/Easter reunion, stay for the songs about Mark Fidrych, Jim Bouton and Sadaharu Oh 

The Bomboras-Songs From Beyond (MuSick) Rob Zombie championed horror surf band returns after 25 year hiatus 

Zach Bryan - self-titled (Belting Bronco/Warner) Hot buzz country artist makes album worthy of the buzz

Bug Club- Green Dream in F# (Bingo/We are Busy Bodies)  if you want to argue this is a 2022 release (it got its larger label and Bandcamp releases in April of 2023) then substitute it for one of the other two releases of theirs that came out this past year

Maher Cissoko - Kora World (Ajabu!) The prolific master of the 21 string West African instrument draws from history for this meditative work. 

Crocodiles - Upside Down In Heaven (Lollipop) Rejuvenated by their 2021 cover EP project, the band finds the melodic side of their Jesus and Mary Chain style noise rock. 

The Damned- Darkadelic (Edel/EARmusic) Building on the promising 2018 reunion Evil Spirits, with Paul Gray added as a cowriter for four tracks, the band hits its nearly 50 year career potential 

Galen and Paul - Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day (Sony) - Sea Shantys,Ye-ye Pop and romantic ballads hardly seem to be the expected from The Clash’s Paul Simonon and prog royalty Galen Ayers but this one is hard not to like 

The Gaslight Anthem - History Books (Rich Mahogany/Thirty Tigers) - Rejuvenated by a near decade hiatus, the band returns to Springsteen inspired Heartland Rock with actual Springsteen included. 

Gorillaz- Cracker Island (Parlophone/Warner) Now an eight album institution, more simple than ambitious, their best album in awhile.  

HD Harmsen -Glaciers (Strawberry Jam Jams) Veteran of the glory years of the Ames/Des Moines scene (2012-13), Harmsen returns with a quirky Shimmy Disc style pop record. 

Mick Harvey and Amanda Acevedo - Phantasmagoria in Blue (Mute) - Australian goth country icon Harvey teams with actress Acevedo for an album of more perfect goth country. 

Inna De Yard- Family Affair (Wagram) - Third album from Jamaican collective that mixes reggae legends (this time Keith and Tex) with new talent. 

Jim Bob- Thanks for Reaching Out (Cherry Red) - Clever social commentary on third album of former Carter USM main man’s trilogy that started with 2020s Pop Up Jim Bob

Don Letts- Outta Sync (Cigale/Cooking Vinyl) - Filmmaker/Clash colleague/Big Audio Dynamite cofounder releases his debut which is a fun producer party record.  

Lydia Loveless - Nothing’s Going to Stand in my Way Again (Bloodshot) Loveless continues to be one of the best songwriters on the planet. 

Metal Marty- Greatest Hits (Acetate) A de facto Supersuckers album from the band’s guitarist brings the old fashioned rock n roll

Theory of Ghosts-EPs 1 and 2 (Theory of Ghosts) - Ex Piano Magic main man Glen Johnson delights with a mix of slowcore and Bunnymen style alternative rock

The Ventures- New Space (Hi-Tide). Essentially a Ship of Theseus band led by producer/long time member Bob Spalding that captures a modern version of the Ventures sound as close as could be possible 

WITCH- Zango (Desert Daze) Jagari Chanda has relaunched the 70s Zamrock legends with a sound that equally recalls their classic songs and a modern sound. 

And one bonus pick

Gentlem3n- Mochyn Dall (Kinder Gentler) I can’t have an impartial opinion about my friend Jesse’s love letter to 90s Champaign scene

Album Review- Vince Clarke- Songs of Silence

 Do we all agree that Vince Clarke is probably the icon when it comes to synth pop. You likely know the story - cofounder of Depeche Mode, two incredible albums with Alison Moyet as Yazoo, detours with the Assembly and VCMG, bunch of remixes and probably most notably, the other half to Andy Bell for nearly 40 years now in Erasure.

Songs of Silence is a 2023 solo album (as far as I know, solo debut)by Vince Clarke with Clarke paying all the instruments. It is a Covid album of you want to call it that - recorded during that period with the pandemic a major influence explicit in the sound.

It’s not a dance record or synth pop in the terms you most recognize that term.

It is an ambient work for lack of a better description and it is very good.

No doubt Clarke is a bit of a musical genius, and the album being practically wordless makes it a normally tough sell for me. But like some recent solo works by other synth trailblazers - Martin Rev, Chris Carter, even JG Thirlwell- it is not a throwaway. (Like every other review, I can’t help but add the quote from Clarke that it was even a bit too drone-y for his cat, who departed the sessions)

Blackleg is a particularly strong moment. The Guardian describes it as so: an emotional hinge to this largely wordless album, setting a scab-bashing miners’ song from 19th-century Northumberland to a pitch-dark chasm of drones. “Take yer tools and yer duds as well, and hoy them down to the pit of hell,” sings our uncredited union man, “down you go, and fare ye well, you dirty blackleg miner.”

Album Review- Madness- Theater of the Absurd Presents: C'Est La Vie

Madness are a bunch of things. In the US, a one hit wonder with one massive evergreen song. For ska bands, an influence. But in many ways, maybe best known for their Britishness. This particular style that somehow doesn’t translate to America- like the Kinks, the Fall, Roxy Music, the Jam, and Blur, to name a few. Like nearly every band of their era, they now have two segments of their career. By the time I had became a fan, it was the mid 80s and the band was making unremarkable albums for Geffen. 

If you are an American like me, you likely picked up 83s self titled album which was if not quite a greatest hits (92s Divine Madness would do a better job of that), then definitely a premier sampler of their music. Regardless, the band had a great set of singles. 22 songs charted in the UK Top 20. The band reunited in 1999 with the Wonderful album and added five more studio albums since. The band is often ambitious and nearly all of their work has been critically acclaimed. My favorite of these is probably the least acclaimed but I love their 2005 covers album The Dangerman Sessions Vol 1. Uncut gave it a devastating 1.5 stars out of 5, though the accompanying review seems to suggest it’s a worthy album. 

After a soundtrack celebrating the bands career- 2022s Get Up- November 2023s Theater of the Absurd Presents: C’est La Vie is their most ambitious album in years- a concept album of sorts about England and about the band that lines up with that Kinks influence. And like the Kinks, an albums “concept” doesn’t really matter if the songs aren’t good. Early Madness records effortlessly captured the Nutty Boys but the Geffen records sounded like a forced formula. 

 C’est La Vie is a fun album that references previous points in their career. It captures that pop sound you hear on their classic singles. I am not sure that any of the songs measure quite up to the classics, but Madness fans should be happy