Mosh through the orchestra pit

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

#16 : Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) - Yves Tumor

Now that’s an album title, and moreover, that’s a rock star. Tumor made the competition look creatively timid, spiritually blinkered and sartorially basic as they delved deeper into the scuzzy sound of excellent 2021 EP The Asymptotical World. In this raunchy street-punk setting, basslines prowl around flaming dustbins, guitar riffs etch lightning into leather, and Tumor’s focused, exacting vocals wrap you tight around their finger. Operator has a cheerleader chant of “Be aggressive! Be, be aggressive!”, the most obvious wakeup call on an album that reminds you to resist a safe and cosy life. 

That is indeed, as The Guardian says, an album title - we met Yves last year and I didn't quite get it, so let's hope for more luck this time!

Hmmm - I think I get it a bit more but there's a lot to unpick here and I really don't think they are aiming for an immediate gotcha.  They certainly do sound like a rock star - whilst I wouldn't say this album sounds like Prince, it certainly sounds like something he would have done for a laugh, just because he could.  Did I like it?  Well, I didn't NOT like it but I'm not sure I could say I really liked it either - I suspect I could listen to it several more times and still not be able to decide.

Wikipedia has remarkably little on the album but amusingly lists its genres as indie rock, post-punk, alternative dance, indie pop, electronica and psychedelic rock.  Also known as "look, we don't know, OK?!?".  The critics liked it a lot and wrote some surprisingly un-nonsense things about it - I quite liked Exclaim!'s comment that "bewildering and disparate influences merge to form an agitation of genre" - this album is indeed an agitation of genre.  Allmusic describes Yves as "a creative whirlwind" and that also seems very apt.  The album made a lot of year-end lists - it didn't make the main charts although it did get to #31 in the indie album charts.

"Customers also listened to" Kelela, Fever Ray, Caroline Polachek and Yaeji - all of which appear on this year's list and that's probably the only thing they have in common.  This is quite an impressive album but I'm not sure I'm qualified to say whether it's any good or not...

#15 is one we met back in April when I declared boygenius's offering to be a decent set of songs that there was a good chance of me revisiting.  I'll leave it with you to imagine how many times that actually happened...

#14 : Maps - Billy Woods & Kenny Segal

As a solo artist, label head and collaborator, including with the duo Armand Hammer, Billy Woods has long been revered in underground rap circles, but this album gave him some of his most accessible backings and brought him to a more mainstream audience. Newcomers and longtime fans alike thralled to his metre, which is focused yet chatty, rhythmic yet unbounded. He also has a gourmand’s lipsmacking appreciation for the tang and bite of language, and appropriately enough, food and drink appears throughout: “Slurp noodles out of clear soup / Delivery fee is oof”; “Julienned scallions and other alliums”; “I sip Mexico’s best slow mezcal Negroni / sitting atop the corral smokin’, watching unbroken wild ponies.”

Underground rap.  How could I not love this?  Hmmm - let's see what we've got, shall we?

Actually, I didn't mind it at all, but I have to say if these are his most accessible backings then I'm intrigued as to what his other stuff sounds like - these appear to be jazz percussion on whatever they could find lying around.  They're quite a cool sound - not at all what you'd expect as a backing track, but Billy makes it work effortlessly.  And whilst I wouldn't say I was "thralled to his metre", he does have a very cool style both in terms of the rhythms and lyrics (it's considerably more intelligent than a lot of other stuff out there).  None of this is really my sort of thing, but it's an interesting listen and I found my head pleasingly nodding along to it.  It's also an amusingly bizarre album cover.

Wikipedia tells me the album is focussed around travel, with Billy being inspired to write it during a crowded touring schedule after the pandemic.  The critics liked it a lot and it made several end-of-year lists, but had minimal commercial success - although it pleasingly got to #31 on the indie albums chart, which is exactly the same level of success that Yves Tumor achieved.

"Customers also listened to" Armand Hammer, JPEGMAFIA, Navy Blue and Nourished By Time (cool name!).  As I said, this isn't my sort of thing but it was interesting and Billy certainly has a fine turn of phrase.

Despite my complete inability to revisit it, boygenius is definitely the album most up my street here with the other two being way out of my comfort zone - but not unpleasantly so.

#18/17 - Two ladies doing their thang well
#13/12 - Not so great