Tag Archives for Ada Rook

100 Best Albums of 2023: 50-26

Tired of this yet? I am! For previous coverage, check out: Songs | 100-76 | 75-51 | 25-1

We continue on with my expertly planned-out, lab-tested top 100 albums of 2023. No reason to say any more here, so let’s dig in.

#50. Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS

Gatekeepers be damned, this kid rocks. Rodrigo has an obvious affinity for rock and alternative bands of years passed, and incorporates them into her pop music in ways that her peers haven’t even attempted to do. I mean, she’s got the Breeders opening for her next year. The Breeders! Anyways, this album is full of appropriately youthful energy, full of high school tales and music that is both digestible, bouncy pop and punchy rock elements. She also corrects the one flaw I had in her debut – too many slow tunes. This album is a more consistent collection, a rare sophomore album that stays in the same lane as a debut while improving on it steadily.

RIYL: Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, i mean chances are you know this one already

#49. Susanne Sundfør – Blómi 

Easily, and I mean easily, one of my favorite artists, the Norwegian singer-songwriter is constantly reimagining things. Her first two solo albums are ho-hum singer-songwriter stuff, but every album since then has had a unique, fascinating identity. Her newest is in some ways a continuation of the sparse, acoustic guitar-vocals-piano of her last record Music For People in Trouble, but where that album had a creeping ominous aura, this one feels warm and nostalgic. That may be due in part to fewer songs in English, as well as a “back to basics” feel that feels refreshing after a journey through a bunch of other influences. Her music is often complex and difficult, but this record is still very approachable. That she isn’t on the radar of Americans is criminal.

RIYL: Marissa Nadler, Angel Olsen, pulling the covers back over your head

#48. Everything But the Girl – Fuse

I went into this one as an outsider. The softer side of new wave (i.e. Tears for Fears) is something I have only very recently learned to appreciate, so I didn’t have the highest hopes for this. It’s their first album in 24 years! Instead, I absolutely ate it up. This is a collection of dance songs for a sophisticated audience, a reminder for professional adults to go out and have some damn fun. It is difficult to make dance music that doesn’t sound at least a bit plastic, but these songs are emotional and raw, not to mention immaculately produced. With mixes of electronic and acoustic, it is a diverse set, all brought together by earnestness, crisp mastering and raw vocals. 

RIYL: Tears For Fears, Massive Attack, stretching before you dance

#47. Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Data Doom

Many of the artists on this list I have a deep knowledge on. This is not one of those artists. I know practically nothing about this group, but I saw them mentioned alongside plenty of bands I love. It’s easy to say that this band is name-brand Oh Sees. But, Dwyer & gang are one of my favorite bands, and their sole release this year was super underwhelming, so there was a hole to be filled. This is incredibly fun psych-rock, designed purely to stimulate and clear the seats of butts. When I say “psych-rock,” don’t think prolonged, meandering Jerry Garcia jams. These are brief songs jampacked with energy, rawness and a million little ideas. A pure blast.

RIYL: Thee Oh Sees, early Tame Impala, two hits of acid

#46. Billy Woods/Kenny Segal – Maps

Billy Woods was one of my favorite finds of 2022, releasing two albums I adored, and he keeps the train rolling here. His sole album is a travelog, chronicling the intense touring schedule he underwent “post”-COVID. Segal provides production across the album, and both men keep things simple and serene. Woods is a natural raconteur, and the stories he weaves across the album are so innately interesting and revealing. Woods might be one of the most undersung talents in the rap scene, hopefully this one proves to be the breakthrough. 

RIYL: Ghais Guevara, R.A.P. Ferreira, telling your friends you were listening to the hot new artist five years ago

#45. Lana Del Rabies – Strega Beata

Yeah yeah, the name is a throwaway pun, but it lets you into the music too. LDR – this LDR, the primary one is coming later – is a harsh noise artist, chunneling in the exact opposite of Lana Del Rey in every possible way. This specific album, though, is a much lighter approach, incorporating hefty amounts of ambient. The fishhook divide between harsh noise and ambient is one that has been explored countless times, but rarely as effectively as here. This is sheer catharsis, at the hands of both extreme noise and the absence of. Very limited audience on this one, but those that stumble on it should appreciate it.

RIYL: Pharmakon, Uboa, that one particular Deafheaven album where they pissed people off by doing ambient music

#44. Paris Texas – MID AIR

Just some good ass rap. When you name yourselves after one of the most notoriously despondent films, you’re already setting yourself apart from your peers. Paris Texas makes very thrilling and bombastic music, avoiding both the cliches of conventional hip-hop and the noisiness of experimental rap. Their debut album sees a hefty load of songs that are occasionally difficult, but always fun. For bonus points, check out the tongue-in-cheek late addition “Lana Del Rey,” named as such because Lana put a song on her album called “Paris Texas.”

RIYL: OutKast, Injury Reserve, your car’s speakers

#43. Slowdive – everything is alive

There are a hundred million different timelines where we aren’t getting new Slowdive albums, so we should take anything from the shoegaze legends as a blessing. The fact that their reunion albums are this good, especially when the shoegaze reunion albums are usually awful? Unbelievable. Everything about this release is soft, even for them. Even the title is lowercase. This album is a gentle touch, a spring breeze, a bunny hopping through a field. Some songs have rhythm and percussion, some are just aura, but all are full, affirming and warm. It’s a nice antidote to much of the hostility on this list.

RIYL: Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Twins, opening the windows for some spring air

#42. James Blake – Playing Robots Into Heaven

After a solid debut and a sophomore album I adored, the English alt-electronic artist James Blake went on a run of albums that were at worst total duds and at best decent but forgettable. Luckily, that streak is over, as his newest recaptures the energy that made his early music so palpable. This album is all over the place – cohesion is the biggest drawback – but Blake is clearly playing with competing aspirations. Nearly everything works, from the moodier, slower songs that we’ve become used to, to the wall-to-wall electro-bangers of years past. If you’re into dance music, then rest assured: James Blake is back. 

RIYL: Hot Chip, Jamie XX, crying in da club

#41. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean – Obsession Destruction

From my home city and named after a Thou song, this band already had points in their favor for me. But the album is that good, too. I’m not a big doom metal guy, but I appreciate good doom when I hear it, and this is some of the best of the year. With titles like “Ten Thousand Years of Unending Failure” you know you’re going to get some sludgy, heavy and morose stuff. The riffs are incredible, the songs are extended without ever growing tedious, and there’s just enough non-doom influence to spice up every song. If doom is your thing, you may have missed this one – rectify that.

RIYL: Sleep, Thou, the misery of continued existence

#40. Arlo Parks – My Soft Machine

I had lofty expectations for the Arlo Parks sophomore album. Her debut Collapsed in Sunbeams was arguably my favorite album of 2021. This one doesn’t quiiiite live up, but it’s still remarkable. Parks somewhat trades in the jazzy and loose elements of her debut in favor of more standard pop instrumentation and songwriting, to no diminished effect. There’s still plenty to pull apart here, mostly surrounding her consistently heartfelt and earnest lyrics. Her voice is as strong as ever. Her music remains an enigmatic mix of alternative and R&B that sounds totally natural. This one goes down real smooth.

RIYL: Sudan Archives, SAULT, morning snuggles

#39. Yaeji – With A Hammer

Yaeji first popped up on my radar way back in 2018 with an introductory single, but I didn’t keep much of a tab on her until she rocketed back into the limelight with her debut album. The title and accompanying image make a grand statement, that the multi-genre pop singer isn’t here to play. Like many of the best pop singers out there now, she’s reinterpreting the genre to be diverse tunes that aren’t factory-assembled chintzy radio bangers. These are songs with incredible amounts of depth, influence and unpredictability. It isn’t really hyperpop, but more along the lines of a very mature and patient type of pop like we’ve seen out of Rina Sawayama. It’s super unique stuff.

RIYL: Rina Sawayama, Toro Y Moi, hooks upon hooks upon hooks

#38. Lifeguard – Dressed in Trenches

Another one that snuck past debatability! I normally do not include EP’s but there were too many excellent ones this year. Unlike some headier entries on this list, this is just 18 minutes of rippage. These kids (yes, children) know how to write a damn good rock song, or five. “Alarm” features one of the simplest but most effective riffs you’ll hear all year, coupled with one of the catchiest choruses. The other four songs mostly follow this path, with some slower deviations. This group has the energy of literal teenagers with the confidence of musicians much older. 

RIYL: Superchunk, Sleater-Kinney, moshing in dry heat at a festival

#37. Pacing – Real poetry is always about plants and birds and trees and the animals and milk and honey breathing in the pink but real life is behind a screen

I don’t know anything about this artist. I don’t know how they ended up on my listen-to queue, whether it was a recommendation from someone or they’re friends with a friend, or what. What I do know is that it caught me completely off-guard. I’m hit and miss on lo-fi bedroom stuff, but this was a collection of songs that were mostly fun, occasionally dramatic, and 100% earnest. These quick ditties are full of earworm melodies, jokes, honest reflections, and uncomfortable truths. Every song wins. Genuinely loved this.

RIYL: Kimya Dawson, claire rousay, still spinning the Juno soundtrack

#36. Ada Rook – Rookie’s Bustle

Alright so I listened to this one early in the year and I don’t remember it fondly, but it’s a great Ada Rook so I can tell how it goes anyways – a blend of particularly forceful and strained screamo mixed with synths and a healthy touch of pop music. Rook is part of Black Dresses, hyperpop extraordinaires, and their solo music pushes the intense elements even further. Rook is my favorite screamer in music right now, and this mini-album is chock full of it. Heavy and emotional stuff.

RIYL: Uboa, Pharmakon, the hottest and most deranged goth girl you’ve ever seen

#35. Burner – It All Returns to Nothing

I’ve mentioned it elsewhere on this list, but there is a current trend in making the most abrasive and dense music possible. Burner might have cracked the code completely. This album, which exists on the fringes of noise and metal, is 34 minutes of relentless chaos designed to shun away even the most ardent noise fan. It is a pure spectacle, and the fact that these are well-constructed songs takes a backseat. But they are, as otherwise this would be a pointless exercise in noise. I’m rambling. Check this out if you like the heaviest of heavy.

RIYL: Nails, Full of Hell, folk horror

#34. Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under ocean boulevard

I’m an unabashed Lana fan, but I always take her new releases with a grain of salt. Her catalog has been so inconsistent over the years; thankfully, this is a top 3 Lana album. Despite the daunting length, every song feels important. We also get Lana at her most diverse – we have trap on A&M, we get Jon Batiste, we get a Father John Misty collab that’s the most 50’s song either artist has ever done. It’s a winding collection of inspired tunes. It’s not quite the best album Lana has done, but it’s easily the best album Lana has done. But surely you’ve already got an opinion on this one.

RIYL: Adele, Ethel Cain, being a housewife in the 1950’s

#33. Sightless Pit – Lockstep Bloodwar

The band/album names may insinuate something heavy. The members of Sightless Pit – Dylan Walker of Full of Hell and Lee Buford of the Body – insinuate something disgustingly heavy. And for the most part, it is. Members of two of the heaviest and most unpredictable bands in all of music come together for their second official collaboration. Two kings of sheer noise bring a natural melding of their music. But they bring other influences too – across this album, there’s all sorts of trap, jazz and ambient influences mixed into the normal abrasive chaos. Everyone from melodic ambient upstart claire rousay to rap legend Gangsta Boo make appearances. The album brings everything you’d expect, and everything you wouldn’t, from the men involved.

RIYL: Lingua Ignota, Nothing, just any kind of music you don’t hear on the radio

#32. Foo Fighters – But Here We Are

I’m not much of a big Foo guy. I think they’ve got a pair of great albums, and a career of weak ones that have 2-4 great songs. On the whole, low batting average. But sometimes a tragedy can bring out the best in a group, even when it’s the biggest rock band in the world. The Fighters haven’t sounded this energized in decades, and haven’t sounded this despondent ever. It’s obvious the band looked inward, trashed their template and wrote from the heart. These songs are earnest, difficult and affirming, declarations from a band that is choosing to soldier on without Taylor Hawkins. These songs also, of course, rip total ass. 

RIYL: Queens of the Stone Age, the Smashing Pumpkins, did you really need to read this one?

#31. Portrayal of Guilt – Devil Music

Upstarts Portrayal of Guilt had already established themselves as one of the most ambitious and unique bands in modern metal before this album, which boasts one of the most intriguing concepts of the year. Side A of this album is five standard POG songs, aka short and abrasive noise jams that stray away from anything melodic or familiar and thrust the listener into a world of unknown. Side B consists of the same songs, performed with a string section instead of the normal band. The whole album is only 31 minutes, and frankly both sides could’ve had more juice. The concept just flat out works and provides for one of the single most unique releases of the year.

RIYL: Full of Hell, the Body, dreams that start out scary but get weirdly normal

#30. GEL: Only Constant

There is a new (?) blend of punk out there, with bands pushing the ‘hardcore’ label to the extreme levels and producing something that sounds like thrash metal’s dirtbag cousin. The divide between hardcore punk and noise music has never been more blurry, and GEL is just one of a few examples of it on this list. This album – all 16 minutes of it – is blistering, bruising hardcore specifically designed to pummel your senses in a convention hall basement. This band seems to have rockets strapped to their backs, so if you see their names crop up on a festival bill or as an opening act, get there in time. 

RIYL: Mannequin Pussy, Knocked Loose, music venues that are fire hazards

#29. Yves Tumor – Praise A Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)

The multi-genre music athlete Yves Tumor follows the trend he hinted at in his previous LP, ditching the abrasive and complex synths in favor of sultry guitar tracks. There is a lot of uncharted territory here for Sean to explore, and they touch most of it. A whiplash of tracks sends the listener through indie, experimental and hard rock tunes, all wrapped together in seductive production and appropriately religious lyrics. Fans of their older work will eat this one up, even with a general change-up in instrumentation. The one drawback of this album, it seems to be lacking in staying power; it was hotly discussed upon its release in March and is barely registering a blip these days. Still, it’s a powerful release.

RIYL: Lenny Kravitz, Miguel, fornicating

#28. The Men – New York City

No reason to spend a lot of time on this one – it’s just some exceptional garage rock. The Men sometimes like to drift off into other territories, so it’s refreshing to hear them pivot back to their punky, noisy roots. This album is super back-to-basics, even in its title; a simple declaration from one of the premier NYC bands. Rock on.

RIYL: Cloud Nothings, Ty Segall, getting the band back together

#27. Perennial – The Leaves of Autumn Symmetry

This EP doesn’t even crack 8 minutes but it’s some of the most fun you’ll have with headphones on. I’m pals with them so of course I had to include them. The five songs here show the band at their most chaotic, quick little fireballs of dance-punk. You don’t need more than 8 minutes here because you’ll be out of breath by the end.

RIYL: The Hives, The Fratellis, adderall

#26. Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World

I’ll hold my hands up and say I went into this album knowing little about YLT. There’s a handful of legacy indie bands – YLT, GBV, New Pornographers, Belle & Sebastian, etc – who have lengthy catalogs that I’ve just never tackled. Well I’m halfway through theirs now, because I loved this album. Patient, mature, and still refreshingly energetic, this album represents a legacy band still at their highest ambitions. I’ve listened to a number of YLT albums now, and I still think the opening track here (“Sinatra Drive Breakdown”) is my favorite. Yo La Tengo has the confidence to be ambitious, and the experience to know where to stop. Legacy bands aren’t supposed to be this good.

RIYL: Wilco, Belle & Sebastian, taking your son to the music festival

Before we jump into the final section, I should point out that there are so many albums from 2023 I still haven’t gotten to. Nicki Minaj and DJ Shadow dropped albums late in the year I didn’t have time for. Drake, Kim Petras, Metric, Sofia Kourtesis and Blackbraid all released albums I simply haven’t gotten to. I haven’t finished the Andre flute album yet. I missed new ones from Marnie Stern and Radiator Hospital until it was too late. Bell Witch, the Drums, Chris Stapleton, and who can forget Smokey Robinson’s “GASMS”? My apologies to the artists and their 99 albums still on my listen-to list. I won’t adjust this list, but if your favorite is missing – it’s possible I simply haven’t gotten to it yet!

Check back tomorrow for the big finale! You can expect: a metal band turned grunge, hyperpop, a death metal demo, a raucous rap collab album, multiple indie debuts, hardcore legends, and something that I normally disqualify from a best of list – a live album.

20 Great Songs You May Have Missed From 2022 (So Far)

Look, it’s been a weird year. I don’t really want to talk about it. What I do want to talk about is music, always, and what I’ve found is that there’s been a ton of great, under the radar stuff this year. I may do a proper post about what albums I’ve loved so far in 2022, but this post is specifically dedicated to songs you may have missed. You don’t need two posts about how great Bad Bunny or Sharon Van Etten are. So this post is 20 songs, unranked, that I think you should hear. I didn’t put any effort into planning genres here, just grabbed 20 that I love, but there’s a mix from noise to ska to old school hip-hop!

8 Kalacas – “Frontera”

Coming out of the gates with a controversial choice, because I know some people don’t like metal, and some people really don’t like ska, so ska-metal might sound atrocious. But 8 Kalacas combines the two in a way detached from any dopey 90’s skacore done by ignorant white dudes. Not to say that the music isn’t fun, because it’s a guilty pleasure of a track, but there’s enough genuine artistic passion and seriousness in the lyrics – a tale about immigrating back to Mexico after the American dream has failed you – to present this as a woeful tune demanding of your attention.

FFO: Streetlight Manifesto, Soulfly, dancing and/or immigration reform

Börn – “Norn”

I know absolutely nothing about this band and, full disclosure, I only found them on a bigger blog doing this exact same type of midyear post. I don’t know how they found this band, a new Icelandic band who’s debut album has yet to muster 3500+ spotify plays for any song. But boy does this rip. This is the exact type of music I was looking for in my teens – guitar-heavy goth shit. This has the sound of a noisy, combustible no wave or noise rock band, but the vocals of something more gothic. It’s loud, melodic, dark and extremely sweaty. More of this, please.

FFO: METZ, mclusky, sweating your mascara off

Foxtails – “space orphan”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKGHeIiBQ48

There’s a handful of albums I’ve listened to or added to lists to listen that were based off recommendations where I simply cannot remember where they were recommended to me. I jumped into this album entirely unfamiliar with the group, but based on the low-caps band name/album title/song titles and the cutesy album cover, I was expecting some tender indie. What I got instead was an inspired mix of alternative, violin, and scream-y vocals, not out of the realm of Defiance, Ohio, but less gimmicky then them too. This song is more representative of how much I loved the album in general, but it rips. There’s some very chaotic, downright uncomfortable stuff going on here.

FFO: Defiance Ohio, Gouge Away, having a breakdown in small town america

HEALTH/Ada Rook/PlayThatBoyZai – “MURDER DEATH KILL”

MDK ALL FUCKIN DAY

HEALTH is one of my favorite bands, and Ada Rook is maybe my favorite screamer right now, so this pairing just makes sense. The industrial group has been working with tons of artists – most notably Nine Inch Nails – across two collaborative albums. Results have been mixed, but this absolute ripper of a 2-minute song makes it all worth it. Music doesn’t get much more in your face than this, an absolute wicked aura matched only by volume. Seems intentional that the title matches the slogan of a wrestler who was once killed in the ring, revived, and tried to fight the paramedics to clear him to finish the match. I’m MDK affiliated.

FFO: Backxwash, The Body, light tube bundles

KRS-One – “Raw Hip Hop”

Thirty-six years into his career, KRS-One doesn’t have anything he has to prove to anyone, and he’s allowed to do whatever he wants. While his new album – his 16th(!) solo record – varies in quality, it’s got some bangers like “Raw Hip Hop.” It lives up to the title, with a first-person overview of the genre’s history from someone who’s always been at the forefront of it. His forceful rapping is mixed with a minimalist beat, resulting in an old-school sounding song from an old-school artist. It’s criminal that he still flies under the radar.

FFO: Q-Tip, Biz Markie, an era without Machine Gun Kelly in it

Leikeli47 – “Chitty Bang”

Okay so you probably have heard this song, as it’s being used in a TV commercial right now (don’t ask me for what, I tune those out), but it’s worth a mention here as the full song is simply a blast. The song opens the rapper’s excellent new album “Shape Up,” the first of many straight fun songs on a Side A that plays like one long party jam. Given that “Zoom” has well eclipsed 5 million Spotify plays and “Done Right” seems to be on TikTok a lot, I’m guessing – hoping – that Leikeli47 isn’t on these lists much longer.

FFO: Princess Nokia, Rico Nasty, that brief era where MIA was huge

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – “The Harvest”

You’re right, I did want to write about this one partially because they have the best band name in music hands down. But I’ve been singing their praises for a few years now. I’m hit and miss when it comes to stoner metal, so it makes sense that I’d love this song that really toys with the format. It’s got the length (9:10) and it’s got the riffs – by god, does it have the riffs – but it’s also got spacey synths and dreamy vocals. It somehow sounds both warm and menacing at the same time, as if it is simply not of this planet. I’ll give you a few minutes to take a few tokes before we continue.

FFO: Blood Incantation, Neurosis, getting high in the forest and what, is that a UFO? is that a UFO?

Mattiel – “Lighthouse”

Mattiel is one of a handful of indie artists whose continued lack of mainstream success upsets me to no end. Their new album “Georgia Gothic” continues their trend of making very digestible indie tunes with diverse inspirations, but a complete sound. My personal favorite, “Lighthouse” is bolstered by horns and and an excellent, repeated vocal line. Songs like this were designed to stick in your head.

FFO: Sunflower Bean, Horsegirl, feeling restless on a nice summer day

MJ Lenderman – “Tastes Just Like It Costs”

The name MJ Lenderman has been on my radar for a bit but his recent “Boat Songs” album is the first release of his I’ve actually heard. His name usually comes up alongside folksier artists that I’m usually hit-and-miss on, so to hear an album of generally grungier, more old school alternative was a delightful surprise. This is possibly my favorite on the album, because I’m a huge sucker for a song that ends on a repeating line (as seen elsewhere on on this list). This is a poppy, fuzzy guitar song with a neat vocal rhythm, resulting in what Dinosaur, Jr. might sound like if J. Mascis was just a little bit playful.

FFO: Dinosaur, Jr., Pavement, flannel shirts

Otoboke Beaver – “I Won’t Dish Out Salads”

I picked this one up via a recommendation and only listened to it this week, and I remain confounded on how to even classify this band. It’s garage-punk, with the ferocity of noise and the vocals of something poppier. Too melodic for Melt Banana, too hardcore for J-pop, and the tracks are just the right length for grindcore (the album’s last three songs account for only 39 seconds of music). It’s fun, aggressive, and insanely melodic. There’s only one other band I’ve listened to this year that sounded similar, and they’re…

FFO: Melt Banana, Guerilla Toss, trashing the term “guilty pleasure” once and for all

Perennial – “Tooth Plus Claw”

I’m a little biased on this one, as I recently got to interview these fine folks about their excellent new album, but it’s one of my favorite songs from the year nonetheless. Perennial’s music is a blast in both ways, and this song works a mission statement – a bouncy dance-punk track that harmonizes fun and aggression, all wrapped up in 85 seconds. Some bands that came up in conversation were Be Your Own Pet & The Hives, and it’s hard not to see Perennial as a spiritual successor to both those names.

FFO: Be Your Own Pet, The Hives, chugging cold brew

PLOSIVS – “Hit the Breaks”

Somehow this supergroup comprising members of Pinback, Against Me! (Atom Willard!) and Hot Snakes seems to have gone completely under the radar. The opening song off their debut song definitely sounds like the latter band, an aggressive but melodic indie-punk ditty that sounds like it was designed to absolutely kill in a live setting. You could argue that we don’t need yet another jangly garage group – but when it sounds as good as this, who cares?

FFO: Hot Snakes, Les Savy Fav, dads that rock

Porridge Radio – “Birthday Party”

Naming a song “Birthday Party” and then repeating the line “I don’t wanna be loved” endlessly is the grimmest possible way to establish a song. But that’s what the indie group Porridge Radio is about. Add in the pained vocals, deceivingly catchy rhythms and faint sounds of kids in the background, and you’ve got one of the year’s most brutally depressing songs. It’s what to expect from Porridge Radio, and it’s done well across the whole album, but never as good as here.

FFO: Nick Cave, the sadder Los Campesinos! albums, working on your birthday

SOAK – “Purgatory”

We’ve seen an absolute glut of electric-acoustic indie with pretty vocals over the last decade, but it’s still so nice to find artists who can do it so well. This song, the opener to a very solid album, mixes comforting acoustic with more unpredictable electric rhythms and deceptively haunting vocals. Their voice sounds so, so much like Adrienne Lenker’s, which is to say pretty and haunting at the same time. The repetition on “I’ll be hungry forever” to end the song is an extra wrinkle on the song’s beauty.

FFO: Big Thief, Waxahatchee, autumn

Robert Stillman – “Cherry Ocean”

This song remains confounding to me. It’s just shy of 9 minutes, features just a few instruments and very hushed, difficult-to-decipher vocals. It’s the only song on the album with lyrics, as the album otherwise meanders around various subgenres of jazz. I *guess* this counts as jazz, too, but I’m not even comfortable with that label. All of the components of this feel warm – the piano drone, the sax, the quiet vocals – and yet the final product feels cold and questioning. The album’s title – What Does It Mean To Be An American? – comes from a different song, but in the year 2022 that is a menacing question, and this song reflects it. There’s practically nothing to pull from this track, and yet I keep coming back to it.

FFO: Mount Eerie, Gene Hackman playing saxophone at the end of “The Conversation”

Tropical Fuck Storm/King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – “Satanic Slumber Party Part 2 (Midnight in Sodom)“

Seemingly half of the current rock & punk bands I like come from Australia, so it only makes sense to see a team-up like this. I’ll admit I am not super familiar with TFS but Gizz has been my most played band each year since I got obsessed in 2018, and this song plays into their super wild side, just 6 minutes of chaotic art-punk that seems to never nail down any kind of central rhythm but also maintain just enough normalcy to not be pure cacophony. This song is pure, unadulterated fun. Gizz are by no means an undiscovered group but they released this split just weeks before their monstrous album “Omnium Gatherum” and it seems to have gotten lost in that album’s shadow. Also, be happy Gizz-heads: they’ve already committed to releasing 3 (!) more albums this year.

FFO: the better Animal Collective albums, black midi, riding a unicorn through a rainbow ocean

The Venomous Pinks – “Todos Unidos”

Ok so this song is actually 2 years old now and popped up on my radar last year, but the Arizona punk trio’s debut was finally released in June, so I’m counting it. Messy and angry, the song hearkens back to the times when hardcore punk was first burgeoning into the mainstream with its call to action and gang vocals. It feels refreshing to hear such straightforward street punk in an era where the genre label “punk” is arguably being thrown around too loosely. Given that they just wrapped up a tour with *the Dead Kennedys,* I would say to watch for this name.

FFO: Rancid, Pennywise, the great street punk bands from your hometown that split up to become firefighters

Weird Nightmare – “Searching For You”

Weird Nightmare is the solo project from Alex Edkins from METZ, but one listen to the song and you could probably figure that one out on your own. While the song is much more distinctly indie than anything METZ, the sweatiest band in the world, has done, it retains much of the same sound. Edkins still snarls his way through this slightly menacing track, and he remains infallible in his way of coupling melody and noise. This song takes heavy inspiration from some legendary 80’s/90’s guitar alternative, and we should be thankful for it.

FFO: METZ (obviously), Preoccupations, the crushing weight of a Tuesday afternoon

Zeal & Ardor – “Feed the Machine”

There weren’t a ton of albums I loved in Q1 this year so this new Zeal & Ardor album sat near the top of my list for a while. I truly don’t know why they’re not getting more attention than they are, though I blame the metal purists who demand every band follow the exact same script. Zeal & Ardor not only didn’t follow a metal script, they never even read it. This song – more indicative of how much I loved the album in general – starts with a damn stomp clap. The album takes black metal and incorporates elements of African music, chamber pop, industrial, folk, and just whatever the hell the band feels is appropriate. Nothing about it should work, and yet it does in a way that still makes metal feel fresh. Truly one of the best albums of the year so far.

FFO: Deafheaven, Author & Punisher, music that pisses off your parents and pisses off the people who make music to piss off your parents

Zola Jesus – “Sewn”

Zola’s new album “Arkhon” – only 1 day old at the time of me writing this – masterfully blends peaceful euphoria, haunting melodies and vengeful brooding into one album. My personal favorite from the album swings towards the latter, a menacing synth track that sounds like an animal creeping in the night. It hits remarkably well on the album, as the previous track is deceitfully melodic, but it works well as a standalone track as well.

FFO: Chelsea Wolfe, Jenny Hval, the Matrix nightclub scenes

And that’s 20! Thanks to anyone who actually read through all of this for some reason, I appreciate anyone so willing to discover new tunes! Also a shoutout to A Wilheim Scream, Blood Red Shoes & Thou, who all had songs that initially made the cut here before I swapped some around – I’ve loved these groups for years now. This was fun for me even if no one read it, so I’ll try to do another 20 at year’s end!