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Part 1 selection of 2023 favourite albums
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
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A second album of 2023 by The National
New album: A surprise release, the 10th overall and second LP of 2023 after First Two Pages of Frankenstein by Matt Berninger, the Dessner brothers and co, minimalist, darkly existential, vivid, poetic and engagingly nihilistic
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The National’s ninth LP: First Two Pages of Frankenstein
New album: The ninth studio LP by the Brooklyn-based Ohio five-piece of the Dessner brothers co, is slow, reflective and beautifully poetic, capturing singer Matt Berninger’s hopefully winning battle with depression, and includes includes guest Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens
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Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus together as boygenius
New album: After 2018’s EP, a fabulous LP debut of folk, Americana and indie combining the talents of American singer-songwriter trio of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus, who have each also released three successful solo LPs
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Lucy Dacus
New album: Supremely sharp, personal and candid, this third solo album by the Virginia singer-songwriter and Boygenius member is a series of brilliant detailed diary entries with a dark, homicidal twist, and filled with ironic, killer lines
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Julien Baker: ‘There’s no glory in love, only the gore of our hearts’
Album review: The Tennessee indie artist’s third LP is an impassioned, raw emotion narrative of life falling apart in lockdown, her at times fractured voice and powerful instrumentation capturing a self-excoriating autobiography, stormy chaotic emotions, observations and experiences
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Great albums of 2020: clockwise from top: Agnes Obel, Phoebe Bridgers, Bob Dylan and Sault’s Untitled (Rise)
Albums of 2020 roundup: Out of crisis comes great art. A year of lockdowns, no gigs, alternative sounds, experimentation and surprises. This is the second half of our roundup of favourite albums of 2020. Part 1 was here
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This week’s picture puzzle starts with Phoebe Bridgers, top right
This week’s selection includes albums of marvellous melancholy and mellowness from Phoebe Bridgers and Norah Jones, topical disco, genre-benders Jockstrap and older material newly released from Neil Young and Bessie Jones
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Dawn Richard - spreading her musical wings
From an experimental album by New Orleans artist DAWN to a collaboration between Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers, as well as a return by 90s shoegazers Swervedriver, this week’s roundup has plenty of surprises
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Liela Moss
It’s indie week in every way, including solo projects by singers from Dinosaur Jr., The Duke Spirit, and Against Me!, plus Muse doing a full-on dystopia, Part Time, and German post-punk compilation
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Anna Calvi - Hunter
Beautiful and blistering new albums from, respectively, the big-voiced singer-guitarist and the Bristol punk rock band, plus a collaboration between Bon Iver and The National and more
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