Hoping for a restart button to life

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's top 50 albums of 2023

#8 is another one we've met before - they're coming thick and fast now, with this previous visit being Blur's The Ballad Of Darren, which I liked when I met it but I had to revisit my post to remind me of that, because I remembered it being pretty dull.  I should make myself re-listen to it as penance, but I'm not going to.

#7 : With A Hammer - Yaeji

Across 13 songs, Yaeji moves through a lifetime of hurt, confusion and resentment. Lyrically the songs explode with feeling, but the Korean-American producer’s sound is controlled and often pared back, taking more inspiration from pop structures than her previous EPs – the songs carefully fitted out with synths, woodwind and tidy vocal melodies – and lyrics are sung like mantras. On the title track, she releases the tension that has been accumulating across the album. “There were days I gave up / And put a mask on my face, brain and heart,” she sings in a deep hush. Now, she sings, it’s “time to wake up from my dream”. Healing takes time, and Yaeji understands the power of music that holds space for mending.

Yaeji is another one I've only heard of through "customers also listened to"  and once again, The Guardian gives me very little idea as to what I should be expecting.

And well, yes.  Hmmm.  What is this exactly?  I'd say Fever Ray is probably the closest thing we've met to it on the list so far, but I'd also say this is a bit weirder than that.  Which, if you know anything about Fever Ray, being weirder than her is quite the achievement.  She also is, in case you hadn't noticed, most definitely with a hammer.

Wikipedia tells me this is her debut album and the critics liked it, with one stating that it was "a generous, understated exploration of rage as a source of creative renewal".  Seriously, what can that even mean?!?  Apparently, it reached #13 on the US World Music album chart - whose even existence has me intrigued as to what else appears on there.  But it'll be nothing like this, I can assure you - but I do like the album cover.

"Customers also listened to" Kelala, Wednesday, Yves Tumor and Mandy, Indiana - and that selection MUST be caused by The Guardian's list because there's no way any one person would listen to all those albums for any other reason.  I didn't mind this but I really struggle to imagine a scenario where I'd choose to listen to it.

And #6 is another previous visit - Lana del Rey's Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.  Which is another one I had to check the post to see what I thought of it, despite having also seen her live this year - I think "OK" kinda covers it.

Another three very different albums, but as with the previous round, whilst they're not necessarily my sort of thing I'd have to say they all sound pretty well put together.

#11/10/9 - Three well put together albums
#5/4 - One I wanted to like, and one I really did