Tag: Canadian indie

Categories
Albums

Best albums of 2023: Five honourable mentions

Happy Friday! And happy first day of December!

It’s now officially the last month of the year and you know what that means… the start of the infamous end of the year extravaganza.

I’ve been doing this thing, counting down my favourite albums of the year for every year that this blog has been in existence. Indeed, I’ve even been doing it for longer if you count the years that I was ranking my favourite annual releases on my old blog, Music Insanity.

This additional post I’ve allowed myself, though, kicking things off and sharing some additional great albums that didn’t quite make the top ten is something I started last year and have decided to carry it forward into this year. As you might’ve guessed by now, I do enjoy making lists but sometimes I find my own rules constricting and worry that they result in some excellent releases not getting their due on these pages.

So… these five albums are just some of the great ones that deserve some honourable mention, ones that if you haven’t listened to them yet, I highly recommend you do. They are not ranked but listed alphabetically. The ranking will start with the next post.

Emma Anderson “Pearlies”:  Emma Anderson was a founding member and principal songwriter of 90s shoegaze icons Lush and then, one half of indie pop duo Sing Sing in the 2000s, and here in 2023, we’re finally getting her debut solo album and it’s just as fantastic as you’d suspect.
Check out: “The presence”

Nation of Language “Strange disciple”:  The third album by the Brooklyn-based indie pop trio sees the group building upon their OMD-influenced sound, moving in slightly different directions, but just enough to keep their tight, synth pop tunes fresh.
Check out: “Weak in your light”

The National “First two pages of Frankenstein”:  It’s been four years since their last record and members of The National had themselves admitted to finding the well a bit dry. However, 2023 has seen them release two new albums*, though in my opinion, “First two pages of Frankenstein” is the more compelling of the two.
Check out: “New Order T-shirt”

Postdata “Run wild”:  Wintersleep frontman Paul Murphy started Postdata as a side project in 2010 and “Run wild” is the fourth in a string of very excellent introspective and atmospheric albums that he has released since.
Check out: “Try”

The Rural Alberta Advantage “The rise & the fall”: To put together their first full-length album since 2017, the Toronto-based indie folk rock trio added an additional seven tracks to the six already released as an EP last year and the results are more of the frenetically told tales of Canadian minutiae that we know and love.
Check out: “Real life”

*The other is “Laugh track”, released in mid-September.

I’ll be back very soon with albums #10 through #6 for my Best albums of 2023 list. In the meantime, you can check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: No Joy “Wait to pleasure”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: No Joy
Album Title: Wait to pleasure
Year released: 2013
Year reissued: 2023
Details: 10th anniversary, tan vinyl

The skinny: Here’s another great shoegaze album celebrating an anniversary this year and while this one is not quite widely recognized as a classic, it certainly is held as such in some circles. No Joy’s sophomore album “Wait to pleasure” was my introduction to the Montreal-based outfit led by Jasamine White-Gluz. They came up on my Facebook feed one day in 2013 from a group about shoegaze that I had forgotten that I’d joined. When I checked out the album and its mix of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth crunch with Cocteau Twins and early Lush gauze-y goodness, this fan was sold. Ten years later, their Canadian label Hand Drawn Dracula* has reissued and repressed one hundred copies of the album to translucent tan vinyl to celebrate its anniversary. I pulled the trigger on Bandcamp as soon as I saw it there, which also happened to be a Bandcamp Friday. So win-win-win all around.

Standout track: “Hare tarot lies”

*Quite possibly my favourite indie label of the moment.

Categories
Playlists

Playlist: New tunes from 2023, part three

Ok. Fine. I’m really late with this one. I typically try to post my quarterly updates to my ongoing playlist featuring new tunes of the year within a couple of weeks of the end of the quarter. We’re getting near the middle of November and it’s already starting to feel like winter. Summer would normally be a distant memory… except…

Except it was an excellent summer.

I started off July at Ottawa’s Bluesfest and saw some excellent sets of music over the course of its just over a week and a half duration. Then, a road trip at the end of that month brought new experiences, beaches, a hike on a mountain ridge, great food, and craft beer. In August, there was a hiking trip in Algonquin park and in September, a quick getaway to squeeze in the last dregs of summer. Definitely one to remember, especially with all the other craziness going on in the world.

Musically, there wasn’t a lot of new music that came across my desk that caught my ears and attentions. However, and as you will see below, what there was was all very excellent and in fact, many of the albums in which these songs appear will likely find their way on my on to my year end best albums list*.

If you want, you can check parts one and two of the playlist before you peruse further or you can just skip to the new songs below. If you’re one of those that find twenty-five tracks overwhelming and you just want some highlights, you could do worse than start with these:

      • Canadian singer/songwriter, Colter Wall, and his deep, deep voice are back with a new album and “Corralling the blues” is just a tumbleweed blowing across the deserted highway
      • “The narcissist” by one of my all-time favourite bands, Blur, spearheads a surprising new twist and turn for the band on its latest reunion album
      • Speaking of returns of favourite bands, the eight and half minutes of “Fables of the silverlink” shouts The Clientele from far and away and allows the echoes and reverb speak for themselves
      • Drab Majesty recently toured with Slowdive while supporting their new EP of dark and shadowy dream pop, of which “The skin and the glove” is the most upbeat and accessible
      • “Simmering” by Pale Blue Eyes is anything but – boiling over is more like it and like it a lot I do
      • Canadian indie pop quartet The Beaches invoke a lot of memories and laughs with “Shower beer”, just one of the many fun tracks on their latest
      • Soccer Mommy has released an EP of great covers by bands like R.E.M. and Slowdive but I am really digging her version of Sheryl Crow’s “Soak up the sun”

Here is the entire playlist as I’ve created it:

1. “Portrait of a clear day” Julie Byrne (from the album The greater wings)

2. “Independence day” Palehound (from the album Eye on the bat)

3. “Corralling the blues” Colter Wall (from the album Little songs.)

4. “The narcissist” Blur (from the album The ballad of Darren)

5. “Fables of the silverlink” The Clientele (from the album I am not there anymore)

6. “Close to the clouds” Art School Girlfriend (from the album Soft landing)

7. “Jaws” Dizzy (from the album Dizzy)

8. “Too far gone” Islands (from the album And that’s why dolphins lost their legs)

9. “The skin and the glove” Drab Majesty (from the EP An object in motion)

10. “Home” Hannah Georgas (from the album I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care)

11. “Morning zoo” Ratboys (from the album The window)

12. “Kisses” Slowdive (from the album Everything is alive)

13. “Simmering” Pale Blue Eyes (from the album This house)

14. “What’s the point in life” Coach Party (from the album Killjoy)

15. “Weak in your light” Nation Of Language (from the album Strange disciple)

16. “Between the past” Woods (from the album Perennial)

17. “Shower beer” The Beaches (from the album Blame my ex)

18. “Bug like an angel” Mitski (from the album The land is inhospitable and so are we)

19. “Stop talking” Will Butler + Sister Squares (from the album Will Butler + Sister Squares)

20. “Soak up the sun” Soccer Mommy (from the EP Karaoke night)

21. “Foreign land” Teenage Fanclub (from the album Nothing lasts forever)

22. “Dead man” Postdata (from the album Run wild)

23. “Everything at once” Bleach Lab (from the album Lost in a rush of emptiness)

24. “Cramps” Slow Pulp (from the album Yard)

25. “Snowman” Blonde Redhead (from the album Sit down for dinner)

Apple initiates  can click here to sample the above tracks as a whole playlist.

And as always, wherever you are in the world, I hope you continue to be well. Above all, enjoy the tunes.

*If I ever get it pulled together and drafted…

If you’re interested in checking out any of the other playlists I’ve created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.