I wish you roses while you can still smell 'em

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

#23 : Red Moon In Venus - Kali Uchis

The air fairly throbs with light, colour and scent in this intoxicating album by the Colombian-American R&B singer-songwriter: a study of the divine feminine in a truly heavenly setting. There are rapturous statements of love and feelings of impotent hurt, but Uchis is no simpering fool. “Every time I see you smile, that’s all me,” she reminds her lover on All Mine, before turning to a rival: “You couldn’t keep him even if I gave him to you.” Meanwhile on Moral Conscience she tells an ex with brutal simplicity, “when you’re all alone you’ll know you were wrong”, using one of the many thrillingly bright melodies that sharpen the glow of this superb album.

Nope - never heard of her and R&B covers such a multitude of sins it's impossible to guess what I'm going to get.

This isn't bad at all - it's on the smooooth and shimmery side of R&B and she's got a nice voice and the tracks sound very cool, particularly over headphones.  I'm not sure I'd describe the album as superb but it's certainly perfectly listenable and slides past you effortlessly - I'd say Jessie Ware is the closest sound that immediately springs to mind for me so if you like her then maybe check this out.

Wikipedia follows the format that a lot of recent entries have - "<X> said they were working on an album and then, surprise surprise, <X> released an album".  The critics liked it though and it did surprisingly well commercially, getting to #4 in the US (her previous best was #36) and even #52 over here.

"Customers also listened to" Omar Apollo, Steve Lacy, Daniel Caesar and SZA - SZA's not a bad shout for a close comparison actually (but I don't see the Steve Lacy connection).  I didn't mind Kali at all actually - I won't revisit it, but if it somehow finds its way into my ears again, I won't complain.

#22 : Javelin - Sufjan Stevens

With masterful arrangements that concertina between delicate fingerpicking and voluptuous orchestral heft, Sufjan Stevens socks you again and again with bolts of pure feeling. He allows his voice to become frail to better amplify its opposite: angelic backing vocalists who offer consoling choruses and sunbeams of wordless love as Stevens frets about his failings and yearns for human connection. By finessing the stark folk of 2015’s much-loved Carrie & Lowell into the grand visions elsewhere in his catalogue, and with electronic percussion more subtly woven than ever before, Stevens is at the top of his songwriting game.

The critics love Sufjan but he never really clicks for me - I can see there's a lot of skill that goes into his stuff, but I just don't really like his voice which doesn't really help matters.  I'm happy to see if that all changes here, but the fact that The Guardian says he "allows his voice to become frail" isn't exactly filling me with confidence.

Nope - we're still in that place.  I do have to agree with The Guardian's "masterful arrangements" comment - there's a lot of work gone into all the instruments (there's some lovely guitar playing in particular) and vocals here, but I still don't like his voice.  I can see the argument that this is a great album, but I just don't like it enough to go there.  I think if someone like John Grant or Father John Misty were to do this, I'd go for it a lot more - but they haven't, so I don't.  Having said that, I did particularly like "My Red Little Fox" though - but I really don't like that album cover.

Wikipedia tells me this is his tenth album - he created most of it in his home studio along with his mates, which included Bryce Dessner, the guitarist from The National, making his third appearance on the list.  It also tells me that "There's A World" is a Neil Young cover from Harvest - I think I was vaguely aware it sounded a bit different from the other tracks, but I can't be certain!  It also tells me "the album release was accompanied by a 48-page book of "imaginative visual" art and 10 short essays tied to the songs" - doesn't that just sound PERFECTLY DREADFUL?!?  The critics, of course, loved the album (they can't get enough Sufjan) and it did surprisingly well commercially - #7 in the UK and #4 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" The National, boygenius, Mitski and Blonde Redhead - we've obviously already seen The National twice and I reckon we'll also be seeing two of the others before the list is out.  I really want to like Sufjan more than I do, but I think we just have to accept it's not going to happen now, is it?

#26/25/24 - One of these is gorgeous
#21/20/19 - Three albums I like, but...