So when you ask me if I'm a feminist - I say why the hell would I not be?

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

#48 : Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die (World War) - Jaimie Branch

In August, Branch’s death, aged 39, left the US jazz scene without one of its most forthright trumpeters and composers, heralded for both her fiendish intricacy and bright, big-hearted themes. This posthumous album is a stunning final statement spanning country songs, hip-hop breakbeats, free improv sketches, Latin funk, organ-backed balladry and beyond, united by Branch’s zesty pronouncements and gorgeous trumpet tone.

Hmmm - I can't say me and modern jazz albums generally get on all that well, but I generally admire the virtuosity involved, so let's see what we have here...

Well, just as it's very reductive of me to say I don't like modern jazz, it feels equally simplistic to call this "just" jazz - it has jazz elements to it, but there's all sorts on there.  It all feels very "composed" - it certainly doesn't seem like it was thrown together in two minutes (although I suspect a fair amount of it is also improvised).  I can assure you'll I'll never listen to it again, but it was an interesting and not unenjoyable experience - there's certainly a lot of skill on display here.  I'd say some of the tracks go on slightly longer than I felt the need for, but things could have been far worse.

Wikipedia tells me the album was completed posthumously after her death at the age of 39 - she died on 22nd August and the album was released on 25th August, so they obviously got a move on.  The critics loved it and demanded we don't view it as a requiem but a cruel glimpse as to what more she could have done - OK guys, if you insist!  It didn't make the main chart over here, but did get to #20 in the independent albums chart, which feels like quite the achievement for what is certainly a pretty niche listen.

"Customers also listened to" Pascal Le Boeuf, Anemosa, Danial Villareal and Darius Jones - it probably won't surprise you to hear that I can tell you absolutely nothing about any of them.  As would also have been the case for Jaimie before yesterday, but I'm pleased I know a bit more about her and I enjoyed listening to this, even if I don't know quite what to do with it.

#47 : I Play My Bass Loud - Gina Birch

A highlight of walking around London this winter has been seeing Gina Birch’s face everywhere, screaming out of posters for the Tate’s Women in Revolt! exhibition. The still came from a Super 8 video Birch made in 1977, the year that the visual artist also formed punk radicals the Raincoats with Ana da Silva. Forty-six years later, Birch’s spindly, dub and funk-flecked debut album proves just as vital, just as attuned to scream-inducing injustice and, maybe most miraculously, just as playful as those formative works. The song I Am Rage makes classic girl-group sweetness unbearable, with Birch adopting a deathly child’s voice. In the coolly anthemic title track, the force of her bass playing has “rumbled your secrets”. At the same time, it’s full of the kind of wisdom you only get from ageing: “One day I stopped caring / On and on it went,” she sings on And Then It Happened, casual as you like – though the impact of her thought lingers like a scream.

Many, many moons ago, I was forced to listen to The Raincoats album and let's just say I didn't quite love it - so my expectations aren't sky high here.  However, 1979 was a loooooong time ago and people can change, so not all hope is lost!

Well, well, well - I really didn't mind this at all.  Gina comes across as a very cross mum who'd had a bad day with the kids.  I like to think she was out drinking with the other mums from the PTA when one of them said "where did our youthful spirit and rage go?" - and the very next day she was on GarageBand proving to herself it hadn't gone anywhere.  I came to this expecting an incoherant and tuneless scream of rage, but it's pretty musical with some nice funk and reggae elements to it and the lyrics are clear and a nice combination of quirky and intelligent.  I'm not going to be rushing back to it, but all in all it was a very pleasant surprise.

There's no Wikipedia entry for the album, but her entry is quite interesting - the woman is a whirlwind of artistic creation involving music, painting and filmmaking and I imagine it's tiring just being in the same room as her!  I also learned that The Raincoats were invited to tour with Nirvana - Kurt Cobain was a big fan.

"Customers also listened to" Arena B Savage, Tolerance, Lael Neale and Cory Hanson - I'm unsurprised I know nothing about any of these.  However, I'm very much surprised how much I enjoyed this - it was a very enjoyable (and tuneful) howl of rage.

So, to sum up, a pair of surprisingly enjoyable albums - both are unlikely to experience revisits but I'm pleased I listened to them both.

#50/49 - Fine, but inessential
#46/45 - Well, I definitely like one of them