Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Twenty-Two
Hey, glad you made it back…
Well, we are nearly there folks, that being the very end of my year-long coping mechanism through which I can distract myself with an absurd amount of music listened, re-listened and rated.
Honestly, it says something about how atrocious the outside world has been these past eleven months that I have seen fit to listen to over 1000 albums in an effort to stave off doom-spiralling into soul-crushing dissonance.
Still, I will take any minor victory that I can get behind, like Aqua finally getting their due with no less than three Grammy nominations this year, because twenty-six years was how long it needed to take for “Barbie Girl” to be appreciated for the piece of iconic, futurepop-pioneering bubblegum nonsense that it always has been by the Recording Academy.
But I will link “Turn Back Time” below instead, because it is still effing beautiful…
Enough lollygagging though, let’s get to the business at hand, shall we?
Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Twenty Two
Autopoiética – Mon Laferte
Taking its name from Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana‘s theory on cellular mitosis (because why not?), the ninth studio album from Mon Laferte finds the artist in a most reflective mood, one that uses their previous work as a springboard to broaden their musical horizons, dabbling in flamenco, bossa nova and reggaeton to deliver a head-turning set of alternative Latin pop.
Bright Light A Joyous Celebration – Paul Dunmall
On the cusp of enjoying a career that can claim to span over five decades, saxophonist/composer Paul Dunmall’s reputation as one of the most revered contemporary jazz-persons is further solidified with this new longform of compositions and improvisations, Dunmall leading a band of equally celebrated players in superlative examples of freeform, single-take mastery.
Cartwheel – Hotline TNT
The second album from musician/writer Will Anderson’s indie-rock project is its first on Jack White‘s Third Man Records label and quite the statement of bittersweet intent, awash with shoegaze vibes, dreamy power-pop and insouciant decadence that will do well to make any alternative music fan’s heart melt.
CYRM – ØXN
Clearly not content with delivering one of the best albums of the year so far with her other musical project, Lankum‘s female lead singer Radie Peat continues to soundtrack your most bucolically beautiful nightmares with another set of gorgeously modulated doom folk, only lesser than her previous entry in this series in terms of scale, but certainly not in quality.
Empty Country II – Empty Country
The full-length sequel to former Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Jospeh D’Agostino’s alternative rock outfit’s eponymous debut, entry number two of the Empty Country saga is an iconoclastic delight reminiscent of American psychedelic hard rock’s ’70s heyday that offers ribald celebration and deconstruction via powerful storytelling vignettes.
I DES – King Creosote
Reaching a milestone that most music acts can only dream of attaining, Scottish folk singer/songwriter Kenny Anderson uses his fiftieth album (yes, FIVE OH-MY) to draw inspiration from his voluminous catalogue of swoonery, dedicating this ambitious behemoth, which includes a 30-minute-plus drone-improv closer, to his writing and production partner Derek O’Neill.
Integrated Tech Solutions – Aesop Rock
Another sonic journeyman saunters into the proceedings now, that being one Ian Bavitz with his self-produced ninth LP which sees the MC and producer take aim at capitalist political frameworks and the social alienation it engenders with equal amounts caustic humour and livewire honesty, ultimately giving us one of the better alternative hip hop albums of the year.
Nekkuja – Marina Herlop
Seemingly enjoying something of a creative growth spurt in releasing her fourth longform little more than a year after her well-received third, Catalan electronic music producer Herlop’s latest project is one that finds beauty and splendour that comes from revelling in experimentation and expunging self-doubt and recrimination in the process.
Ravel: Piano Concertos – Alexandre Tharaud with Louis Langrée and Orchestre National de France
For this edition’s classical entry, we have the stalwart pianist Tharaud’s newly recorded renditions of Maurice Ravel‘s concertos, which finds the eccentrically-gifted on fine-fingered form as he essays the composer’s intimidating works, aided in no small effort by France’s national orchestra as led by conductor Louis Langrée.
There Is No End – New Age Doom & Tuvaband
And to finish up, we have a somewhat-ironically-titled collaborative album courtesy of the experimental Canadian production duo and Norwegian singer/songwriter, which manages to disturbingly enchant throughout courtesy of a particularly potent sense of dread and chaos, which given the time we are living in seems particularly appropriate, right?
Another module wrapped up before the dusk of 2023 ceases, and it turns out I may have room for one more before we can finally take a break for December and let the lists speak for themselves.
See you soon, and take care until the next one…
xxxo
