Nothing Is Most Honorable Than You
The Top 25 Albums Of 2023: Honorable Mention Edition
Is it just me, or was this a slow year for good music?
Long gone are the days I could consider writing about my 100 favorite albums released in a calendar year. I would be hard pressed to find 50 albums released in 2023 worthy of consideration for my annual “Best Of…” list. After 362 days, my running document of favorite new releases this year only has 32 entries.
The Top 25 list will be a for-paid-subscribers post, but the honorable mentions (of which there are 7) will be free for all to view. As I navigate the world of Substack over the next few months this will likely be how Swan Fungus operates. There will be shorter posts for unpaid subscribers, and the longer or more media-heavy posts will be behind a paywall (perhaps with short free previews). Hopefully that’s a fair system for all.
In no particular order, here are the albums from 2023 that just missed the cut for my Top 25 list. Feel free to leave a comment or start a discussion with your own favorites. I’ll try to post the full Top 25 this weekend, but sometimes life gets in the way…
The Top 25 Albums Of 2023 Honorable Mention
Nas - Magic 2 & Magic 3 (Mass Appeal) - The Queens rap legend is far-enough removed from his mid-90s masterpieces that the soulful beats that permeate his two releases this year feel like a natural progression. Less “He’s changed! He got old!” and more like a confident, down-to-earth 50 (!) year old. Nas does a really good job of melding old-school technique with some new school production tricks. Magic 3 is what really carries this honorable mention, but I want to pay some respect to its predecessor as well. “Earvin Magic Johnson” is the standout on Magic 2. Those middle tracks on Magic 3? “Based On True Events” and “Sitting With My Thoughts”? With the exception of his rapping over Timmy Trumpet on King’s Disease III it’s probably the most excitement I’ve felt listening to Nas since…I don’t know… Nasir? [Listen on Apple Music]
Wayfarer - American Gothic (Profound Lore) - It’s great to discover more artists who are blending metal with other genres. The success (and awesomeness) of Panopticon is evidence enough that the world of Americana/Bluegrass/Country is a perfect pairing with extreme metal. As much as I love black metal, sometimes I find myself longing for a less idiosyncratic sound. Especially when it comes to listening to full albums. Wayfarer’s sprinkling of western vibes atop their sludgy black metal is quite satisfying. American Gothic certainly recalls the aforementioned Panopticon, but I’m also picking up on Burning World-era Swans mixed with Angeles of Light, and maybe even some 16 Horsepower? They don’t lose sight of the heaviness, it acts as a foundation upon which to experiment. The result is both punishing and pretty in equal measure. [Listen on Bandcamp]
Philip Jeck & Chris Watson – Oxmardyke (Touch) - Anyone who’s been following these lists since the old days knows of my fondness for Jeck, dating back to Sand, which appeared on my Top 100 Albums Of 2008 list. When he passed in 2022 I thought that might be it for his recorded output, so stumbling upon Oxmardyke has, for the time being, satiated my thirst for his totally singular sonic creations. The basic gist is, Watson made field recordings near the Oxmardyke rail crossing (different bird calls and metallic screeches of passing freight trains), and Jeck – when his health allowed — manipulated and played with them, turning them into what we hear on the finished project. It’s natural, and creepy, and lovely, and cinematic. I can only hope there are more projects like Oxmardyke in the pipeline. [Listen on Bandcamp]
Robert Forster - The Candle And The Flame (Tapete) - I went back and forth on including this album even as an honorable mention, because as much as I want to love and support Forster at first blush it felt like a half-baked concept to me. You can read words on a page and know that Forster wrote them, he’s that attuned to his craft. But I heard his voice on “She’s A Fighter” and I desperately wanted that familiar blindingly bright, jangly pop I fell in love with when I first heard 16 Lovers Lane. The Candle And The Flame is quieter, more assured, and steady. What it lacks in hyperactivity it makes up for in warmth. Any Go-Betweens fan should easily connect with something like “The Roads,” which would feel at home on pretty much any of those records. Moments like that are what inevitably led me to fall in love with the record. [Listen On Bandcamp]
Danny Brown - Quaranta (Warp) - This is not your Atrocity Exhibition or uknowhatimsayin¿ Danny Brown. Hell, this isn’t even earlier this year, Scaring The Hoes Danny Brown. Dude sounds downright depressed as he opines about his life. Gone is the the customary high-pitched nasal whine spitting darkly comedic rhymes. This is contemplative, somber, un-affected Danny Brown getting deeply personal and ruminating on life as he enters his 40s. That said, “Jenn’s Terrific Vacation” certainly feels like classic Danny. It’s just the other 10 tracks that serve to soften the edge of that track. I found a lot more to like than dislike here. It’ll be fascinating to see how he follows up Quaranta. My hope is he can navigate both the psychedelic frenetic style fans fell in love with and this introspective version of himself. There’s certainly room for both, and a well-balanced combo might just be a recipe for continued success. [Listen on Bandcamp]
Bill Orcutt – The Anxiety Of Symmetry (Fake Estates) - If your an old NYC/Brooklyn head and your favorite Oneida song is “Sheets of Easter,” you’ll love The Anxiety Of Symmetry. This album consists of two 15-minute-long improvisations, featuring just six samples of female voices singing the number of the corresponding note value in the first six pitches of a major scale. Then it’s looped and layered. As the loops combine in multiple permutations and cycles, their uneven lengths create polyrhythms and syncopations as well as harmonies. It sounds dumb and simplistic but it’s cool as hell. In the same way the word “light” and the repeated notes of “Sheets of Easter” mutated and shifted glacially to become something wilder and weirder, so to do these compositions. But these are even prettier. Charmingly cracked, I like to call it. [Listen on Bandcamp]
Mary Lattimore – Goodbye, Hotel Arkada (Ghostly International) - Shout out to one of the few LA-based artists I follow, whose wonderful new record filled my work cubicle, car, and cool down walks after morning runs with much warmth this year. Would I deign to call it the best harp-centric record since Pat Gubler’s Music From The Sherman Box Series And Other Works? Why yes, I would. Because I don’t listen to a lot of harp music. Lattimore’s latest effort features contributions from Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, Rachel Goswell, Meg Baird and others. These appearances can be quite minimal — barely perceptible in some instances — but the end result is a dream-like voyage through landscapes both real and imagined. It might be the most evocative wordless recording of the year. [Listen on Bandcamp]
As always…