The Enduring Spirit Of Calamity

Swan Fungus' Top 25 Albums of 2023

I don’t know why I’m more nervous about this year’s list than any other I’ve ever written. Something about switching to a new platform is making me incredibly self-conscious. Be it my unfamiliarity with the nitty gritty details of its backend, or simply being out-of-practice when it comes to writing, I find myself doubting pretty much every word I type.

This will be my third post here. It gets easier, right?

Say hello to the first post of the new Swan Fungus that will be behind a paywall. If I’m doing this right, free subscribers will receive a preview. If I’m doing this wrong, free subscribers will see the whole thing and I’ll be financially ruined. With that said…

Please seek these records out and buy them directly from the artists if you can. If you can’t, stream them someplace other than Spotify. Just make sure you respect these folks enough to pay for their art. I’ll post Bandcamp links where available, as most of these are available to stream there and proceeds should go to the band.

Please don’t point out any typos. I don’t want to hear it. Please do let me know about broken links.

It goes like this. Ranking #. Artist – Title (Record Label). I’ve written blurbs for all of this year’s entries, but they vary in length and content because a few of them have been written about elsewhere far more in-depth.

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25. Slowdive - Everything Is Alive (Dead Oceans) - Post-reformation Slowdive has been an absolute revelation. Their 2014 North American tour stop in Los Angeles at the Ace teased a couple tracks that would eventually appear on 2017's eponymous record, but I honestly could not have predicted the sheer brilliance of that record, or its follow-up this year. "Shanty" and "Alfie" are fantastically krautrock-y, "Prayer Remembered" sounds like a Pygmalion outtake, and then on multiple songs they sound like the Cure? Slowdive could have cruised through that reunion tour and put out a cash grab album and I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash. Instead they put out two killer records and I'm starting to wonder if they're the zenith of the whole Shoegaze movement. [Listen on Bandcamp]

24. Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit (20 Buck Spin) - It's old school death metal...but prog? I think back in 2018 I called Manor of Infinite Forms "space horror metal," but this is much more refined. Much more sophisticated. Which is hilarious to write because, well, it's Tomb Mold. The balance between brutal and dreamy is so deft, the movement from destructive to jazzy so natural, it's hard to find any flaws. If any death metal album could be described as smart and meticulous, it's this one. "Will Of Whispers" is a perfect example. There is no limit to the styles or motifs they might incorporate, but the whole thing remains grounded. It's death metal... evolved. [Listen on Bandcamp]

23. PJ Harvey - I Inside The Old Year Dying (Partisan) - Boy are you lucky. I had the new Spirit Adrift album in the running for this list until "All Souls" started playing on a daily mix, and I remembered there was a new Polly Jean record this year. Now I don't have to pretend to have liked that Spirit Adrift record! Yay! if you like White Chalk I think you'll dig this one. Instead of sparse piano elegies the spaces in these new songs are filled with field recordings, electronic embellishments, and soft folk instruments. Songs pass like short vignettes, quiet but always wonderfully textured. The most notable difference between this and White Chalk would be it's not so bleak. She sounds refreshed, confident, and serene now than she was 15 years ago. Let’s hope the next PJ record doesn’t take seven years. [Listen on Bandcamp]

22. Lamp of Murmuur – Saturnian Bloodstorm (Argento/Not Kvit) - Saturnian Bloodstorm feels like a throwback to early '90s Norwegian black metal. Which isn't a bad thing. At least in my world, I don't hear a lot of current artists channeling Immortal or Emperor. The other metal artists on this list should clue you into the styles I more commonly encounter. That said, it's as fun a jaunt through the bleak, unforgiving Scandinavian hinterlands as one could possibly have. What it lacks in individuality to makes up for in execution, and sometimes that's all that matters. [Listen on Bandcamp]