Hello and welcome.

For our 27th edition of Deluxe Newspaper - the world’s foremost free-press periodical concerned with record shop culture - we’ve taken our annual retrospective jaunt back through the year, chronologically revisiting each calendar month and discussing what records we were most listening to. When we first sat down this Autumn to compile this edition, we had a long list of over 350 albums that had been part of our year. If nothing else, the physical music landscape is broad and plentiful so looking backwards is becoming an essential exercise in not missing out. We spent hours playing records and making notes, we refined. This is it.

The wheels at the record shop just keep spinning faster and faster, with perpetual announcements, editions and ephemera. This issue is intended to be an almanac for the slow browsers, a long read that might trigger some album reappraisals and will hopefully help you find something new for your stereo.

So, for your consideration, please find eleven months’ worth of new music and our most choice reissues. Each album made us feel something, and it might do the same for you.

The Murder Capital
Gigi’s Recovery
Human Season Records

Our first Record of the Month for 2023 was the huge second album from Dublin post-punks, The Murder Capital. So the first thing is, although this album and the band themselves very much fall into the post-punk canon (with pounding drums, scratching guitars, direct vocal delivery), there is something very different going on here. Gigi’s Recovery is produced and mixed by Grammy®-winning John Congleton and there are some gloriously off-kilter production choices, with flashes of shoegaze and pop really taking this new set somewhere else. Backdropped by grief and recovery, this album took the band two years to write and record, a time that was needed to balance out the rush with which they released their debut. Tense, urgent and full of ideas drawn from its wide-reaching influences. A great album and quite the way to kick off 2023.

Meg Baird
Furling
Drag City

The first solo album in eight years from San Francisco-based singer, multi-instrumentalist and high-siren Meg Baird. Furling has flashes of her work in both Espers and Heron Oblivion, but there is something altogether more intimate about this latest set. A hypnotic set of songs that swell around her beautiful voice with layers of dense psychedelic warmth.

Fucked Up
One Day
Merge Records

The return of Canadian hardcore-band Fucked Up and it really is superb. Written and recorded in the confines of one literal day (hence the title), it is full of spontaneity and unbridled euphoria. It is hard and driving, but also contains some of their most melodic sounds to date. Damian screams like an army, and that still never fails to make the chest pound.

Kenny Beats
LOUIE
XL Recordings

The long-awaited debut record from American hip-hop and R&B producer, Kenny Beats. It plays out like a sonic tapestry, diverse yet with such an organic flow. The album pays homage to Kenny’s father - a former broadcaster - through radio DJ-style transitions and old recordings of his voice, a celebration of his passion and influence.

Oozing Wound
We Cater To Cowards
Thrill Jockey

We Cater To Cowards is the explosive fifth album from Chicago metal band Oozing Wound and it is a proper riot. Hard, gnarled and ever-driving with absolutely brilliant handbrake changes of direction, it’s as exploratory and experimental as ever. They’ve hinted that this could be the last LP. We sure hope not, this slaps!

Rozi Plain
Prize
Memphis Industries

A genuinely mesmerising collection, her hypnotic and calming vocals are instantly recognisable, sitting at the top of dense layers of sonics. Created with a vast and varied set of contributors, it’s testament to her creative vision that it all sounds so focused. A great listen, with plenty to discover each time you get lost in its haze.

John Cale
Mercy
Domino Recording Co.

The 17th studio album - not counting his many soundtracks, collaborations with Terry Riley and Brian Eno amongst others, and the small matter of The Velvet Underground! - from absolute and bonafide icon John Cale. There is such a wonderful ambience; hugely evocative production that's neither modern or reminiscent of any specific time period, with his enthralling vocals right in the middle.

abracadabra
shapes & colors
Melodic Records

A real jaunt from the Californian duo, with timbres and tones that recall a whole myriad of aural outsiders from no-wave through disco. Recorded with access to the Emeryville Synthesizer Museum, it has ESG, Lizzie Mercier or Tom Tom Club vibes, but way wonkier with super-smart pop and wild use of dub sonics.

Ghost Woman
Anne, If
Full Time Hobby

The second album from multi-instrumentalist Evan Uschenko under his Ghost Woman name, with 30 years of rock and roll influence channelled in a richly analogue set of stompers. Landing somewhere between the bedroom and the stadium, he avoids pastiche and hits some riffs - it’s got a real vibe to it.

Yo La Tengo
This Stupid World
Matador

Our second Record of the Month for 2023 was This Stupid World, the sprawling and euphoric new LP from Hoboken's finest, Yo La Tengo. We became instantly and absolutely besotted with this wonderful album, which is proudly our 2023 Record of the Year Now anyone who has shopped with us in the last 20 odd years will categorically know this already, but Drift are, always have been and always will be, massive Yo La Tengo fans. The New Jersey trio sound little like anyone else, with slow building epics, woozed-out motoriks and beautiful sonic asides to get totally lost in Entirely self-produced, This Stupid World - the band's seventeenth studio album - is such a peach. At just under an hour, it's one of the more concise in their immaculate discography and really plays to their pop sensibilities. Full of live energy, it is a dreamy set with sweet moments and sunshine melancholia. Georgia and Ira swap vocal leads to delicious effect, keeping it all bubbling along. Very few bands manage to sound unmistakably like themselves and even fewer manage to consistently make that sound fresh and engaging. Living legends they are!

M(h)aol
Attachment Styles
TULLE

The debut LP from the Irish intersectional feminist five piece M(h)aol. It’s about “social connection, queerness and healing”; a tense, provoking and driving set that isn’t without humour and has some gorgeous changes of pace and ambience. A fine debut from one of the most arresting young bands around.

Young Fathers
Heavy Heavy
Ninja Tune

Heavy Heavy is seriously striking stuff, mostly served at a jacked up and frenetic pace of beats, tones and whoops. There are a few tracks in the middle of the album that bring things down to a more brooding tempo, before the euphoria bubbles over again in a palpable sense of joyous release.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
Land Of Sleeper
Rocket Recordings

The Newcastle metal band have long been one of our favourites, but there is something about their might and power here that made every hair on our bodies stand up. Their fourth album really is something to behold, heavy and loud, and the way they bring elements of psychedelia and roots into the stoner metal is inventive and totally thrilling.

U.S Girls
Bless This Mess
4AD

Eighth LP from pop-experimentalist Meg Remy and the production is fantastic; her voice just sounds amazing, which has an interesting aside as apparently the album was tracked with her twin babies in utero! Not sure if they get a credit. Full of confidence and a tightly wound euphoria.

Sweet Baboo
The Wreckage
Amazing Tapes From Canton

A proper swooner from musical polymath and all-round Welsh hero Stephen Black as Sweet Baboo. A wonderfully characterful album that is wistful, funny, sweet and delivered with such intimacy, it’s almost like you have the man himself singing directly into your ear. Full of graceful collaboration and very smart songs.

Kelela
Raven
Warp

Her voice is amazing, a sweet but poised hush. The songwriting is vital, never repeating itself. The production is crisp and full of life. Individually, its core components are all impressive, but in unison it really is something special. A commanding album of R&B and low tempo electronic beats, it is just so assured.

En Attendant Ana
Principia
Trouble In Mind

Shimmering guitars, indie-pop drive, bending strings, tons of melancholy, a nonchalant breeze… The French rock band really are dans notre rue! Bandleader Margaux Bouchaudon really has it all and this collection of knotty songs crackle and pop. Gorgeous flashes of brass, floods of organ and waves of vocal harmony against some of the year’s most jangling jangle.

H Hawkline
Milk For Flowers
Heavenly Recordings

On his fifth album, songwriter Huw Evans delivers a masterclass in subtlety, craft and understated performance. His finest work yet and our March Record of the Month. Produced with long-time collaborator and celebrated solo artist Cate Le Bon, Milk For Flowers is sad, but certainly not without hope. Many of the songs are fragile - and his voice throughout is sublime in its vulnerability - but the album is entirely void of sentimentality; plaintive and honest, some of the most enthralling we've heard in ages. Rich in collaboration - the album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, with contributions from Davey Newington (Boy Azooga) on drums, Paul Jones (Group Listening) on piano, Tim Presley (White Fence) on guitar, Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo) and Euan Hinshelwood (Younghusband) on sax, Harry Bohay (Aldous Harding) on pedal steel and John Parish (PJ Harvey) on "infrequent bongo" - everyone does an impeccable job of framing Huw's voice. Less is more, and the warmth is wonderful. It is a fantastic album, full of sweetly-honest moments and the sort of delivery that takes a few albums in your career to get to.

Shana Cleveland
Manzanita
Hardly Art

The third solo LP from Shana Cleveland (of La Luz) is an absolute peach. Her vocals are gorgeous, graceful and sedate. The arrangements also frame her beautifully, a sort of low tempo baroque psych pop that creates a ravishing haze. The delivery is so deft, with plenty of magic to behold in her melodies too.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra
V
Jagjaguwar

Clocking in at around the hour mark, V flows through various psychedelic flavours whilst thematically looking at Nielson’s roots and these last few weird years of dislocation and isolation. The production is slick, with each song warbling through complex and tangled chord structures whilst still floating anthemically. He is a fantastic writer and this double set is enthralling throughout.

Heartworms
A Comforting Notion EP
Speedy Wunderground

The debut EP from Heartworms marks the arrival of a very special talent indeed. Under the guise of its architect Jojo Orme, Heartworms is a richly gothic-sounding adventure in post-rock and punk. Produced with Dan Carey, it’s a mesmerising set of dark and driving dystopian bangers. We can’t rave about Jojo and Heartworms enough.

Lankum
False Lankum
Rough Trade Records

The radically futuristic-sounding return of folk traditionalists. Remarkably intense, but nuanced and flowing between loud and quiet like the ebb and flow of the raging seas. Essential listening for both folk heads and also more casual listeners, as it uses generationally established shapes and tones and then goes somewhere completely different. This one is something special.

James Holden
Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities
Border Community

His first solo venture in a little while and it is very much centred around how he builds and swoops through his production, with organic dance music that’s steeped in folklore as much as it is in rave culture. The tones bleep and squelch to rousing effect and the way he can lock in your attention is particularly mesmeric. A true one off.

Eddie Chacon
Sundown
Stones Throw Records

2020’s delicious Pleasure, Joy and Happiness LP was intended to be a swan song for the cult singer, but thankfully the experience was so revelatory that he decamped to Ibiza for two weeks with John Carroll Kirby to produce this sublime new set. A new age soul record that doesn’t sound much like anything else.

Kate NV
WOW
RVNG Intl.

An album of technicolour sounds from the Russian producer, full of bleeps and pops and high sonic invention. She really is one of the most interesting producers out there and this is designed to thrill. A sensory experience of electronic maximalism that, without necessarily going anywhere, is a proper trip from start to finish.

Fever Ray
Radical Romantics
Rabid

The ambitious third full-length solo release for The Knife's Karin Dreijer. The production is fantastic, like, absolutely wild! With contributions from their brother Olof, also Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Vessel, it moves from glacial and almost ambient, to pounding and euphoric. It feels like it changes each time you listen to it, both accomplished and thrillingly inventive.

William Tyler & The Impossible Truth
Secret Stratosphere
Merge Records

William Tyler joins forces with psychedelic dreamers The Impossible Truth (Jack Lawrence of Raconteurs / Dead Weather, Brian Kotzur of Silver Jews and pedal wizard Luke Schneider) for a live album that displays absurd levels of flex. Recorded live, there is such energy between the players as they weave and knot together, from the driving to the pastoral. Proper jams.

Altın Gün
Aşk
Glitterbeat

Amsterdam-based sextet Altın Gün return with a ripping new set of psychedelic takes on Turkish folk. Stylistically it is just so damn good, rhythmic and exuberant as they lock into hypnotic drives. They can and do change each song’s direction with the most subtle of gestures, an album of live takes from a band in full flow.

Italia 90
Living Human Treasure
Brace Yourself Records

The dark and sneering debut from the London punk band. It has some new wave moments, where they whirl a sinister and leering energy that in turn boils over into the more clattering punk, with axes grinding and adrenaline flying through the veins. Textural, atmospheric and full of attitude.

Ulrika Spacek
Compact Trauma
Tough Love

Close to five years on from their last transmissions, Ulrika Spacek resurface with gorgeous torrents of psychedelic reverberations. Throughout there is a smoky energy, with ambitious and complicated instrumentation and production, all brought together into a cracking and popping sonic fug. It’s really quite a thrill in that way.

North Americans
Long Cool World
Third Man Records

Our fourth Record of the Month for 2023 was Long Cool World, the beautiful and transcendental new album from North Americans. Broadly, North Americans is the nom de plume of guitarist Patrick McDermott and a project that has slowly evolved into a duo to include the pedal steel player Barry Walker. But that is just the personnel, North Americans is all about the vibe and floating away into sonic pastorals. Whereas the previous Roped In album was constructed in forced isolation, the collaboration on Long Cool World is entirely more spontaneous, recorded together in person, and there is a strong human sense of interaction here. They create a mesmerising haze throughout, McDermott's fingerpicking is bright and inspiring and Walker's pedal steel does an amazing job of creating a swooning dynamic blanket. There is so much subtlety, it really is a rewarding listen.

Wednesday
Rat Saw God
Dead Oceans

North Carolina’s Wednesday, a fuzzed-out quartet who might very well be your new favourite band! It’s a hard one to articulate - as they don’t exactly sound much like anyone else, and it’s not like they have reinvented the wheel - it’s just got such great energy. Really strong melodic and direct songs, bristling with country hues, indie rock zing, and intricate but never over-fussy production.

Yaeji
With A Hammer
XL Recordings

The full debut LP from NYC-via-Seoul artist Yaeji. She really has pulled so much into the mix here, with sonic cues from pop, indie and bass music from the last 20 odd years, but it whirls up into her own shimmering sound. Such slick production and her sugar-sweet vocals are really hypnotic. Hugely impressive stuff.

Rose City Band
Garden Party
Thrill Jockey

The new free-flowing psychedelic country set from Rose City Band, the sound of pure feel-good light; old country tones, new country tones and different shades of kaleidoscopic sonics. The performance and production are amazing, but it’s the subtle changes of pace that make this one such a peach.

Yves Tumor
Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
Warp

The spectacular return of art-rock-pop visionary Yves Tumor with the year’s snappiest title! Their fifth album is just mint, a swirling and hugely imaginative new space between alt-rock, electronics and sound design. The production is dazzling, every single second feels meticulously placed whilst still flowing with real pop sensibility. Absolutely 100% the real deal.

Nabihah Iqbal
Dreamer
Ninja Tune

The long-awaited second album from London based musician, producer, DJ and broadcaster Nabihah Iqbal. Primarily built from acoustic timbres, she uses different tones and styles to create a beautiful haze. Layers of chorals that feel very much like we've been invited into the dream(er) headspace of its creator.

El Michels Affair & Black Thought
Glorious Game
Big Crown Records

A collaborative LP from El Michels Affair and rapper Black Thought. The bottom-heavy and sun-tinged production from Leon Michels is impeccable, a tapestry of funk and soul. Up front, Roots founder Black Thought sounds amazing, his flow acting as the beating heart to the songs. Sonically, it is an absolute joy throughout: old, new, borrowed and blue (sleeve).

Spencer Cullum
Spencer Cullum Coin Collection 2
Full Time Hobby

Coin Collection 2 is the expansive second instalment of pastoral folk songs from pedal steel extraordinaire, Spencer Cullum. The production here is mint, a loving nod to 1970s hues, and done in such a way that it doesn’t feel hackneyed. A beautiful sounding record to get lost in, with much to find on repeat listens.

deathcrash
Less
untitled (recs)

The eagerly-anticipated new LP from London slowcore band deathcrash. The illusion is that playing sparsely and slower is somehow easier - it really isn’t. Less is a masterclass in delivery, they really know when to hold back (which is pretty much entirely to be honest), keeping the mood hanging low like dimpsy lighting across track to track.

Overmono
Good Lies
XL Recordings

Our fifth Record of the Month for 2023 was Good Lies, the debut LP from electronic duo Overmono. Not necessarily the album from a duo called Tom and Ed making electronic music that we were expecting at the start of the year, but Welsh brothers Tom and Ed Russell have taken up the mantle to become our new favourite brotherly duo and their full debut - Good Lies - is absolutely fantastic. They have been making music separately and together for the last decade (most notably as Truss,Tessela and in collaboration with Joy Orbison), but this rousing debut feels very much like their moment, a brilliantly produced and fully-formed LP. There are plenty of familiar-sounding club textures across the record, but it feels really fresh. Changes of pace, guest vocals and crazy ear-worms; it's way more than just bangers, but these were our summer bangers!

Modern Cosmology
What Will You Grow Now?
Duophonic Super 45s

The second collaborative album from Laetitia Sadier (of Stereolab and other wonderful output) and Brazil's Mombojó. Melodic, flowing and tropical pop songs. The players are skilled without sounding over-thought, and Sadier flows in and out of them with an effortless grace. Bright and just such an energising listen.

Lemon Twigs
Everything Harmony
Captured Tracks

Without ever flying too close to the sun, there is a real Brian Wilson-shaped shadow over proceedings here: baroque pop with quite stunning vocal deliveries and more than a healthy dose of melancholia. They are such smart songwriters, you have to marvel at the complexity and knack for a hook.

BC Camplight
The Last Rotation Of Earth
Bella Union

An album born out of trauma, it’s a set of confessionals via pop radio nuggets; some beautiful melancholy. The delivery is right about between Jim O’Rourke and Randy Newman; these are structured songs of the highest order, funny, smart and sad in each line. This really is a hugely impressive album.

Craven Faults
Standers
The Leaf Label

The six pieces that comprise Standers - the second full album from Craven Faults - ebb, flow and unfold to create the most evocative sonic landscapes through pulses and bleeps. It’s one of those rare ones that feels evolving and hugely impressionistic whilst also being meticulously constructed. It is extraordinary.

James Ellis Ford
The Hum
Warp

The debut LP from super-producer James Ellis Ford, which naturally sounds amazing as it squelches and phases through analogue hues of outsider pop and woozing synths. This is no idle vanity project from the guy behind the desk, the songs are gloriously weird, recalling Robert Wyatt as the pace runs from pensive through to a more Can-esque motorik.

MEMORIALS
Music For Film: Tramps! & Women Against The Bomb
The state51 Conspiracy

The debut (double) long player from MEMORIALS, the multi-instrumental duo of Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire). They have used all their experience to create an album here that flies out the traps; with searing drones, weird clunks, pop melodies and psychedelic freakouts. A real thriller.

Gia Margaret
Romantic Piano
Jagjaguwar

We went totally wild for the Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist’s There's Always Glimmer debut and the following ambient synth meditations of Mia Gargaret, produced as a result of losing her exquisite voice. Her third set remains instrumental, constructed on the piano with layers of stunning motifs and atmospherics. It is fragile, but deliberately so, and it is just sublime.

Pozi
Smiling Pools
Prah Recordings

A really intelligent set from the London trio, that sees them venture into some pretty wonky spaces on the very knife-edge of post-punk. Their instrumentation - bass, percussion and violin - always makes them unique and here It’s direct and uplifting, with joyous and surreal little flashes throughout.

Guardian Singles
Feed Me To The Doves
Trouble In Mind Records

The clattering and urgent return of New Zealand post-punk group Guardian Singles. Lusher and fuller than their debut (recorded at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios in Auckland), they offer the odd meander into darker guitar jangles, but mostly a thrashing document of a band that really brings it full tilt.

Water From Your Eyes
Everyone's Crushed
Matador

The fifth album from the Brooklyn duo and their first with Matador Records. There is a lot of pop sensibility, made complex with neoclassical plucks and drones to create a brooding energy that flips into a pounding DIY electro punk. They produce an ever-propulsive cacophony that’s both perplexing and deeply enthralling.

bar italia
Tracey Denim
Matador

Third LP from the prolific London trio. There is plenty of morose energy as they change tempo and wade through the darkness with both clatter and ghostly floats. Tracey Denim is enthralling and seductive without feeling like it’s overly clever. Industrious as we say, their fourth LP - The Twits - lands in November.

The Orielles
The Goyt Method
Heavenly Recordings

An experimental new EP from the ever-restless Halifax trio. It’s both hugely ambitious and really captivating; disconnecting then reforming the pieces of the band’s excellent Tableau LP into something totally unexpected. Experimental but focused, with gorgeous vocal haze and pounding dubs. Feels very much like they are about to fully open their wings and just fly.

Cory Hanson
Western Cum
Drag City

Our sixth Record of the Month for 2023 was Western Cum, a country-tinged scorcher from Cory Hanson. Western Cum is the third solo LP from Hanson, the inimitable vocalist and leader of the excellent LA psychedelic rock band Wand. Whereas his first two solo efforts felt like estranged Wand cousins, he has taken a big old bold step into country psych pastures on this new solo set. There is a real Jim O’Rourke-esque sparkle to the guitar riffs (a label mate on Drag City of course), and dynamically the songs are as engaging when they are whispered and cooed as when they are rocked and wailed. The way he leans on the country tones is just fantastic, a sort of loose frame to jump off into some gorgeously melodic balladeering and trippy walls of cruising guitars. A great set of songs that sit together impeccably and highlight what a fantastic vocalist he is. Subtle but arresting, this one will get you hooked, it certainly has us!

Squid
O Monolith
Warp

If you loved the first record, you’ll love this. If you don’t know them yet, you'll still love this! O Monolith is hugely ambitious, almost entirely devoid of any notion of genre as it moves between wide-eyed and angst-ridden. Traditional tones, bucolic fills and crashes of distortion that erupt into full-throated freakouts. A great band.

Decisive Pink
Ticket to Fame
Fire Records

Decisive Pink is the new collaborative project from Kate NV and Angel Deradoorian and it is an absolute pop dream! It bubbles from start to stop; breakneck speeds, pops and clicks, squelching beats and two amazing voices that sound like something from anywhere between 1981 and 2029! It really is ludicrously good fun.

Protomartyr
Formal Growth In The Desert
Domino Recording Co.

The richly euphoric return of Detroit's Protomartyr. Much like their esteemed previous releases, there is a darkness to the timbre and such energy to the production that it’s easy to get lost in the gratification. But, Protomartyr remain one of the most fascinating contemporary rock bands: mysterious, funny, aloof, bleak and constantly in such high contrast.

WITCH
Zango
Desert Daze Sound

The first LP in some 39 years from the Zamrock icons and we absolutely LOVE it over here. WITCH (an acronym for We Intend to Cause Havoc) trade in a hot and heady mix of psychedelic funk and African influences, rich in grooves but also with fresh rhythmic and melodic flourishes. A joyous groover.

Bdrmm
I Don't Know
Rock Action

The shuddering return of Hull four-piece Bdrmm really has a lot going on. Their shoegazed, whacked-out and fuzzy debut was epic, but there are numerous sonic and stylistic shifts on this second LP that take them somewhere else. Ghostly hues to the vocals, all sorts of beats and riffs that singe the ears before warping into fugged out post-MBV goodness.

Grian Chatten
Chaos For The Fly
Partisan Records

The solo debut from Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. Really strong songs and sensitive production, but the huge victory is his voice. He has such an inimitable style with his powerful but battered drawl. His phrasing is something to behold, a mesmerising experience. There is something a bit special with this one.

Angelo De Augustine
Toil and Trouble
Asthmatic Kitty

Absolutely one of our favourite voices. For the vast majority, the album is acoustic meditations and his fragile yet alluring vocal, and the magic he casts really is captivating. His Sufjan-esque whisper is heartbreaking, but there is a confidence in there that makes him pretty irresistible. It has to be said too, Daniel Anum Jasper’s artwork is astonishing.

Boom Pam
Royal
Batov Records

Such. Good. Fun! The scorching fifth album from the Tel Aviv-based band, and we went mad for it. A sort of end-of-the-pier meets voodoo rock and roll opus. If you’re not interested in an exotic take on Middle Eastern spaghetti western, you’re not gonna like this and you’re not our friend. A belter.

Blue Lake
Sun Arcs
Tonal Union

The musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based artist Jason Dungan. Written in isolation, there is an entirely otherworldly vibe to the ambient, hugely evocative and natural sounding sonic landscapes that slowly unfold. Created using a self-built hybrid 48-string zither, it has quite a traditional tone whilst also floating into inspiring and meditative spaces. This one really is beautiful.

Shida Shahabi
Living Circle
130701

Stockholm-based composer Shida Shahabi returns with her sophomore album on FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint. Moving away from the piano meditations of her debut, Living Circle is slow and building with often mournful orchestrations. But that's not to suggest it is depressing, there are some really stirring moments as it evolves. It's one to get lost in.

Django Django
Off Planet
Because Music

The production here is impeccable, looking backwards through 40 years of dance music tones like magpies and creating a vivid and euphoric set of 2023 bangers. Their fifth album is a 21 track goliath in four parts, but it absolutely flies by. Ambitious and consistently flowing, with warped takes on afrobeat, hip hop and psychedelia against the beats.

King Krule
Space Heavy
XL Recordings

The fourth LP from Archy Marshall under his King Krule alias. The production is genuinely masterful, weird and epic sonics that wrap around the knotty nuances of each unexpected change in direction. His gnarled baritone still rattles through, but the way he sings some lines so sweetly is a discombobulating treat.

Georgia
Euphoric
Domino Recording Co.

Our seventh Record of the Month for 2023 was Euphoric, a proper joyous set of bangers from Georgia. Euphoric follows 2020's absolutely huge Seeking Thrills LP, an album that cemented her as one of the UK's finest emerging producers and earned her a Mercury Prize nomination. This dynamite new album marks the first time that she has worked alongside an outside producer on her own music, co-producing with Rostam (pop superstar producer and founding member of Vampire Weekend). That new facet definitely pushes her to somehow give more of herself, focusing solely on her delivery, which is revelatory. Not without introspection and quite a wry humour, it's an album that positively bubbles with big summer pop energy. It's a different type of dance-floor to her first releases, but it remains one that you very much want to stay on all the same.

PJ Harvey
I Inside the Old Year Dying
Partisan Records

Much like everything she has put her name to, PJ Harvey’s tenth LP is absolutely fantastic. There is a stately quality to the album, without sounding dull or overly grandiose. Vocally she has again changed in timbre, and her delivery is full of an unforced confidence. Both entirely different to anything she has ever released, but also so unmistakably her, too. A generational talent.

Julie Byrne
The Greater Wings
Ghostly International

The production sweeps and bubbles, never overcrowding or taking space away from Julie's voice, which sounds incredible and very much leads the album. There is a sedate and gentle quality and the pacing throughout is pensive, but as an album it is spiritually uplifting without ever feeling overly sad.

ANOHNI and the Johnsons
My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
Rough Trade Records

A first new studio album in seven years from ANOHNI and the Johnsons, and her voice sounds just amazing. A rich whispered timbre that explodes into yearning and emotionally rich wails. Dramatic without feeling over-jacked, and there is a gorgeous soul energy to many of the tracks too, a really wonderful counterweight to her voice.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
KGLW

The most overtly thrash-metal rooted LP to date (and what are we saying, album no.24?) from King Giz. If you are up for a genuine thrasher, this is relentless and hugely gratifying. It’s way more than metal cosplay, there is a real density to the arrangements and they have genuinely taken up the challenge and gone somewhere with it.

Ruth Mascelli
Non-Stop Healing Frequency
Disciples

The new solo LP from Ruth Mascelli of the excellent New Orleans band Special Interest. Moody electronic washes with little gestures that dip and spike into industrial noises and hallucinogenic meditations. The low tempo beats give it something of a celestial energy, and we’ve floated into the night many times to this one.

Snõõper
Super Snõõper
Third Man Records

The ripping debut LP from Snõõper, a positive tirade of riffs and high adrenaline punk bangers. The Nashville-based group rattle through 16 tracks in about 8 minutes, with the songs flowing through punk, surf rock and garage, with the exception of the bonkers last track that we’ll let you discover for yourself. Really good fun and a proper rush.

Miss Tiny
DEN7 (EP)
Speedy Wunderground

A brand new project from acclaimed record producer and Speedy Wunderground label founder Dan Carey, with Ben Romans-Hopcraft of Warmduscher / Insecure Men / Childhood. The arrangements and instrumentations are fairly simple, loose slacker grooves that sway and ooze with the threat of something sinister in the background. Hypnotic stuff.

Jessy Lanza
Love Hallucination
Hyperdub

The return of pop maverick Jessy Lanza. There is such a breezy club-ready energy, the production really shimmers and makes for an enthralling listen, a real lightness of touch. Vocally she floats, a sort of yearning and very human centre point to the whirling pops and bangs.

blur
The Ballad of Darren
Parlophone

A tenth studio album from the iconic blur and they sound invigorated, bright, like older versions of themselves and very much playing to their strengths. It’s funny, quite cutting, honest and full of the kind of riffs and production oddities that have always made them stand out. When it soars, it really soars!

Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
Domino Recording Co.

Our eighth Record of the Month for 2023 was the gorgeous new long player from all-time Drift icon, Bonnie “Prince” Billy. We'll have to carefully check the records, but (Superwolves aside) this might very well be the first time that Will Oldham has been a Drift Record of the Month, and guys, it's a peach! One of his fullest albums in ages, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was recorded in Louisville by Nick Roeder, featuring Sara Louise Callaway on violin, Kendall Carter on keys, Elisabeth Fuchsia on viola and violin, Dave Howard on mandolin, Drew Miller on saxophone and Dane Waters’ voice. BPB's voice sounds amazing. Properly amazing. Even as far back as his Palace Music era it has always been one of the main features of his work, but from wild crooning through gnarled whispers, he has arrived in the last few years as something of a honey-voiced balladeer. Musically it feels like the ensemble ebb and flow around him, the subtlety really is beautiful. Tender, funny, warm and full of life, this is such a treat of an album.

Fran Lobo
Burning It Feels Like
Heavenly Recordings

The debut LP from London singer, songwriter and producer Fran Lobo. It is a sonic treat with so many different styles and drives all coherently wound together. From dreamlike to hot and heavy, it is such a visceral album. Her voice is wonderful, assured and seductive but with plenty of vulnerability too. Dense and rich, this is one to really get lost in.

OSEES
Intercepted Message
In The Red

John Dwyer has jacked up the synths and it’s a proper riot, a Suicide-esque trip with all the darkness and pop crackle you might expect. From the first beat to the last, they are locked in and this one sure gets the blood pumping. They never miss, but this one is particularly good fun.

Be Your Own Pet
Mommy
Third Man Records

Partially at the behest of Jack White - and long after they burned out way too fast - Mommy finds a totally revitalised BYOP back with a lot of bristle and angst. A progression from the adolescence of their first two albums into a garage rock gnarler for 2023, with Jemina Pearl sounding just astonishing in the eye of the storm.

Willie J Healey
Bunny
Yala! Music

Willie J Healey has always shown himself to be a sharp songwriter, which allows his stylistic direction to roam, and on this occasion it’s a squelching funk and soul pop record. Dense and sonically abundant, the production and arrangement are excellent, avoiding a messy listen and instead bringing flashes of euphoria in and out of the mix.

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan
Building a New Town
Castles In Space

Over the last couple of years, Gordon Chapman-Fox has built a strong sonic identity (including May’s stark and striking The Nation’s Most Central Location) of cement distopias, so this pastoral and bucolic release was a gorgeous sidestep. Full of autumnal analogue bloops, hypnotic plucked strings and folk roots.

Blonde Redhead
Sit Down For Dinner
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Our ninth Record of the Month for 2023 was Sit Down For Dinner, the splendid and highly anticipated new LP from Blonde Redhead. What a treat! NYC icons (they really are) Blonde Redhead return for the first new LP in seven years, and the trio have evolved again. From their punk roots, through shoegaze and all sorts else, they have always brought in lush timbres and styles to take their sound somewhere unique. Sit Down For Dinner is just so hypnotic. Many of the songs lock into grooves, seemingly fading in and out, like perfectly formed little dreams. Kazu Makino sounds amazing, hazy and alluring but still direct with her voice. The brothers Pace weave around one another too, with complex and knotty layers; a multiplex of sounds made to sound like indie pop. Now that takes smarts! Sit Down For Dinner is a brilliantly considered album. It is full of lush little hooks, and sounds exactly like it was made by a trio who have been doing this since the mid 1990s. Sounds exactly like a band who’ve created and evolved together since the mid 1990s.

P.G. Six
Murmurs & Whispers
Drag City

Rejoice! A new LP from New York songwriter P.G. Six. Mostly rooted in acoustic instruments (plucked guitars, stirring drones and plenty of harp, which is truly transcendental), there is a strong sense of the traditional and the pastoral. That said, this is a fascinatingly crafted set with weird and unpredictable turns, truly flowing through weirder psychedelic country. Just wait until that burned-out electric guitar pops through, it’s all thrills and chills.

Sparklehorse
Bird Machine
ANTI‐

Bird Machine was recorded before Mark Linkous’ tragic death in 2010, and has finally been released to much surprise a decade-plus later. In that it is posthumous, there is a sense of melancholy, but it actually rattles along as one of his most vibrant releases. The first few times he slows it down, and his voice - at a whisper - disappears into the chorus of mellotrons and glockenspiels, is overwhelming. He was and remains inimitable.

Jalen Ngonda
Come Around and Love Me
Daptone

The exceptional debut LP from rising soul star Jalen Ngonda. Having a nice voice doesn't always make for a banging record, but this one really is a banging record. Just enough of a throwback to vintage soul sounds whilst suitably experimental enough to stand out as one of the year's most impressive debuts.

Mitski
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
Dead Oceans

The truly grandiose seventh album from Mitski. Her fluidity to move between the intimate and sad, through to the epic and driving (and still sad), is both ambitious and graceful. Her voice is gripping in either mode, she is completely enthralling and this is an album to really spend time with, it is a journey.

Sven Wunder
Late Again
Piano Piano

The Stockholm-based producer has been one of our most go-to artists over the last few years and this new set is another gorgeous voyage through jazz, soundtrack and library shades. It’s the most nocturnal-sounding yet, with sunset through to starlight goodness. Quite sublime and one to soak in.

Say She She
Silver
Karma Chief Records

Silver is the new LP from NYC-based disco soul three-piece Say She She. The vibe is rich analogue disco soul, entirely written and recorded live to tape for that timeless sound. It has a really nice groove to it, ethereal floats through to steppin’ out disco grooves. When they hit the big harmonies, it’s almost too joyous to take!

Delmer Darion
Tall Vision-of-the-Voyage
Practise Music

An expansive new LP from the duo. Thematically it is about exploration, with a real sense of that in the sonics and searching production, which moves from the micro to the maximal with little clicks and beeps and sweeping sounds. There is not one moment where something engaging isn’t happening, the detail is astonishing.

Slowdive
everything is alive
Dead Oceans

A graceful and thoughtfully constructed return from the dream pop icons. There are a few shoegazing crackles (and just enough to show anyone who has seemingly picked up the mantle in their wake, exactly how it’s done), but in this latest version, Slowdive show that they can take you on a trip without the walls of guitar.

Loraine James
Gentle Confrontation
Hyperdub

The third LP from electronic vanguard Loraine James on Hyperdub and it really is a special one. She pulls in so many textures and tones, an ebbing and flowing soundscape that moves from beats right through to ambience. It has such amazing energy, an immersive headspace without sounding fugged.

Deeper
Careful
Sub Pop

Third LP from the Chicago quartet and it’s a proper belter. Broadly, they are very much part of the 2023 post-punk landscape, but there is such straight playing legitimacy to the delivery that they sound more like one of the pioneers of 40 years back. It is unfussy, nothing feels over tweaked or produced.

Laurel Halo 
Atlas
Awe

The new piano-led album from Laurel Halo and it’s gorgeous stuff, absolutely one of the year's most transcendental headspaces. Hazy, ambient meditations with flashes of saxophone and strings. The production is masterful - ornate, dense, and occasionally sinister. This one really is essential listening.

JOHN
A Life Diagrammatic
Brace Yourself Records

Noisy noisy duo JOHN return with an absolute slab, a rockin’ and writhing beast of unbridled energy and lashing vitriol. They make such an impressive din. It’s a muscular record, powerful rhythms and that frenetic intensity they bring. Guest appearances include Simon Pegg (yeah!) and Barry Adamson, who both add to the drive on an album that cements them as one of the best bands out there doing it right now.

Black Pumas
Chronicles of a Diamond
ATO Records

Our tenth Record of the Month for 2023 was Chronicles of a Diamond, the highly anticipated second studio LP from the Grammy-nominated duo, Black Pumas. They are one of those acts where something just clicked. Only five or six years back, musician, producer and songwriter Adrian Quesada was put in touch with singer and songwriter Eric Burton, and it just worked. Their self-titled debut - a rich tapestry of rock and roll, soul and gospel - fast went on to pick up fans around the globe, plus critical acclaim and six Grammy nominations too. Chronicles of a Diamond is a fantastic evolution of that superb debut. Their strength is how well they work together, that said, you will be knocked back pretty hard and fast by Eric Burton's voice. He can equally coo, purr and wail, a classic soul voice with so much dynamism. But as we say, the strength is the sense of partnership. These are great songs and Quesada's production is deft too, they sound like cuts you know and love already. After just a few plays, you will know and love them...

Colleen
Le jour et la nuit du réel
Thrill Jockey

Crafted on an all-analogue setup, French artist Cécile Schott returns as Colleen, and it is just delightful. Few people can make electronic music that connects so emotionally, but Le jour et la nuit du réel (The day and night of reality) moves between minute textures and vast sonic landscapes with such heart, it’s an entire world.

Mary Lattimore
Goodbye, Hotel Arkada
Ghostly International

The American harpist and composer has always created otherworldly bliss, but this latest is her most spiritual to date and really something to behold. With a cast of guests including Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski and Walt McClements, there is a remarkable fragility. This album is exceptional, a sonic soother and a place to just float in.

Sufjan Stevens
Javelin
Asthmatic Kitty

The ambitious, enthralling and deeply moving return of Sufjan Stevens. It is inescapably him, but it pulls from many different directions and gestures from his entire career. Each song builds from a pluck, a strum or a whisper to create bewitching songs that wrap around every inch of the stereo. It really is masterful - both euphoric and utterly heartbreaking.

Ethan P. Flynn
Abandon All Hope
Young

The hugely accomplished debut LP from Ethan P. Flynn, an eclectic and brilliantly crafted set. There is a distinctly vintage hue to it, a sort of classic 1970s singer-songwriter vibe with flashes of the more contemporary. He’s really captivating - there are lots of ideas to keep this one moving along.

Goat
Medicine
Rocket Recordings

From the wilds return the Swedish experimentalists, and Medicine is very them! Swirling and mystic psychedelia, but a shade darker than before with folk and roots adding to the swampy mix. Lots of little weird gestures and whispers too as you zone out to their shamanic crunch.

L'Rain
I Killed Your Dog
Mexican Summer

Stylistically, Brooklyn native Taja Cheek has pulled a lot into the mix, all with a murky and hazy bend to it, like it’s covered in fingerprints somehow. It's pretty surreal, you’ll catch the odd line and whilst it’s still ruminating, the pulsing bass turns into a wailing guitar, or a siren, or something backwards. It’s so sensory.

Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter
SAVED!
Perpetual Flame Ministries

The debut from the ordained Kristin Hayter after retiring her Lingua Ignota moniker. It really is one to behold, a slightly terrifying but thoroughly gripping album based around her startling voice and words. Interestingly, she recorded the stark music in high fidelity, before degrading it through old tape machines to give everything its distinct, otherworldly sound.

Forest Swords
Bolted
Ninja Tune

The first album in six years from producer Forest Swords is a dark treasure. The beats and tones positively writhe around one another, a swirling vortex of industrial clunks and siren-like samples. The sound design is quite masterful, it feels very much like you’re slowly being drawn deeper and deeper into the speakers.

CASisDEAD
Famous Last Words
XL Recordings

The long-awaited debut album from the mysterious and elusive rapper. He has been releasing music for over a decade, but his full-length debut is brilliantly formed and very worthy of the hype. The 1980s-inspired synth soundscapes give it a strong sci-fi vibe, rich modern dystopia. Engaging and very funny too with plenty of guests (including Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant!).

Hotline TNT
Cartwheel
Third Man Records

Our eleventh Record of the Month for 2023 is Cartwheel, the firebrand new LP from Hotline TNT. The Brooklyn-based band are led by singer-songwriter Will Anderson - who actually recorded the vast majority of the album himself - and on their second LP have continued to find new spaces in crackling shoegaze. Most of the album's boisterous tracks hover around the two minute mark, melancholic radio bangers that fizz to life from a blur of warm guitars and snapping drums. Each song appears to convey a feeling, then fades back into the ether without overstaying or losing spontaneity. It leaves you wanting ever more. A real workout for every inch of your speakers, Cartwheel abounds with frothing shoegaze, a full stereo of vintage tones and brittle guitars colliding. Although the production is epic and sweeping, it’s the mood of shimmering optimism which the album creates that leaves the longest impact.

“It’s about breaking hearts and being heartbroken.”
- Will Anderson

Beirut
Hadsel
Pompeii Records

A sumptuous and rousing new LP from Zach Condon as Beirut, his first in four years. It was recorded in isolation in the remote Hadsel municipality in Northern Norway. It’s mostly structured around a church organ, with other baroque instrumentation creating the warmest of swells, and his splendorous voice truly swoons like no one else.

Marnie Stern
The Comeback Kid
Joyful Noise Recordings

The first release in a decade from the mercurial Marnie Stern and she remains one of the most supreme shredders we’ve ever heard, a fast and furious dance up and down the fretboard with yelps and screams. So few people manage to create something entirely different via the six string, but Marnie does, and her tapping boils the endorphins. A proper thriller.

David Holmes
Blind On A Galloping Horse
Heavenly Recordings

A politically charged return from the enigmatic Northern Irish producer and composer. The undercurrent is the last few years and crumbling descent of the UK, a vibrant call to arms to change and celebrate rather than succumb to division. Raven Violet guest vocals almost throughout to hugely alluring effect.

Actress
LXXXVIII
Ninja Tune

The return of Darren Cunningham as Actress really is one to behold. The album is inspired by game theory, a form of mathematics frequently associated with economics and chess, with each track named for a particular piece. Meticulously constructed experimental techno with so much mystery and subtlety, masterful stuff.

Tirzah
trip9love…???
Domino Recording Company

Produced by long-time musical collaborator Mica Levi, Tirzah’s third LP is a tender and bruised experimental set with amazing intimacy. Her voice is graceful and full of understated confidence. Sonically there are some really lush reverbs to create space, and the way the guitars crackle into a rain-like fuzz is superbly evocative.

Jaakko Eino Kalevi
Chaos Magic
Weird World

A shimmering and celestial pop excursion from the now Athens-based Finnish musician Jaakko Eino Kalevi. Exotic electropop moods with jazz flashes and positively sumptuous analogue hues. Smartly avoiding sentimentalism, it sounds old, vibrant and imaginative outsider synth pop from sometime and somewhere in the last 40 odd years.

Sunwatchers
Music Is Victory Over Time
Trouble In Mind

Another set of brain-blastin’ smashers from the New York experimental quartet. Like a pack of magpies, they grab glimmering inspiration from jazz, punk, psychedelia, krautrock, noise and Saharan blues, but the way they create feverish musical whirlwinds with all those tones is entirely them and really gripping stuff. High vibes guaranteed.

Caroline Polachek
Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
Perpetual Novice

The highly anticipated return of the pop polymath and former half of Chairlift. The production is fantastic, an absolute pop odyssey with amazing tones and dazzling styles whirled into an epic but never bloated sound. She uses her voice brilliantly, which gives the whole album such an alluring vibe.