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Conchúr White: Swirling Violets
New album: Gorgeously sensitive, intimate, uplifting, grounded but dream-like folk-pop debut by the singer-songwriter from County Armagh, with blissful but pointed songs of a mystical, spiritual, existential and relatable nature
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Sleater-Kinney: Little Rope
New album: With perhaps best yet, certainly since reforming in 2014, and 11th overall, a passionate, catchy, powerful, defiant LP by Portland-based singer-guitarists Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker with searingly brilliant postpunk, rock and pop
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Marika Hackman: Big Sigh
New album: This visceral, hypersensitive, alternative folk-pop fourth album by the Hampshire-born singer-songwriter digs deep and dark into the psyche through personal crisis and relationship trauma as one of her best to date
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Bill Ryder-Jones: lechyd Da
New album: Merseyside’s former Coral guitarist and founder returns with a peach of an LP – a warm, musical embrace of and melancholy, opulently produced in his Yawn studio in West Kirby with piano, orchestral strings and a touch of brass
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Yungatita: Shoelace & A Knot
New album: Absorbing, eclectic, strangely addictive, catchy, jangly indie shoegaze with unusual guitar timbres by the Los Angeles musician and artist Valentina Zapata and band best known for the dreamily offbeat 2021 single 7 Weeks & 3 Days
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SPRINTS: Letter To Self
New album: After many strong singles and EPs, a bold, dynamic, blistering punk and post-punk debut by the Dublin four-piece, tackling turbulent existential crises with dark passion and wit
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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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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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Oya Paya: Slumped Up
New album: Excellent, energised, pace-changing, dynamic indie debut LP by the Anglo-South East Asian, Liverpool-formed trio who also have a heady mix of British, Midwest and New York flavours, from The Lemonheads, to Blur, Red Hot Chilli Peppers to The Strokes
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Joanna Sternberg: I've Got Me
New album: Another retrieved treasure from earlier this year, released in June, of gentle, witty, melancholy intimate self-deprecatory folk numbers by the New York singer-songwriter who exudes a old-school charm
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Haiku Hands: Pleasure Beast
New album: A gloriously anarchic, energetic fusion of hip-hop, post-punk, vogue pop, electronica, bouncy 90s dance music and interwoven skits by the vibrant Australian trio of sisters Claire and Mie Nakazawa and Beatrice Lewis
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Marnie Stern: The Comeback Kid
New album: A joyously noisy return of proclamatory, zingy, explosively proggy indie-rock with the first album in 10 years since by the New York guitarist and singer, since 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia
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Sen Morimoto: Diagnosis
New album: The Chicago-based Japanese singer, rapper and jazz multi-instrumentalist’s new LP comprises a richly eclectic, dynamic selection of songs with an overriding theme of seeking the right direction in life
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Anjimile: The King
New album: A breathtaking, beautiful, powerful, intimate fifth album by the American experimental folk singer Anjimile Chithambo whose rich, rangey, deep and high voice has an alluring androgyny, somewhere between Nina Simone and Sufjan Stevens
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David Holmes: Blind On A Galloping Horse (featuring Raven Violet)
New album: After many collaborative projects, a brilliant first full solo album by the Belfast producer and musician since 2008’s The Holy Pictures, here featuring the vocals of Raven Violet throughout, this passionate, powerful, often political noir-synth pop release charts the unravelling of British society over the past decade
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Problem Patterns’ debut album: Blouse Club
New album: Belfast’s answer to Amyl & the Sniffers pull no punches and leave no prisoners with their angry, shouty, catchy, feminist, caustically sharp and witty debut LP, their fast furious songs of social critique, from the energetic Riot Grrrl punk quartet of Beverley Boal, Bethany Crooks, Ciara King and Alanah Smith
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King Creosote: I DES
New album: Fife’s Kenny Anderson returns with his first solo LP for seven years, a glorious, delicate warm, eccentric release of indie-folk, vibraphones, accordions, e-bows, samplers, ungulates, scratched records and wine glass-drones
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Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee: Los Angeles
New album: The ex-Cure drummer and the acclaimed percussionist of Siouxsie, Creatures and other bands team up with the Irish producer for a wonderfully rhythmic, sharply witty, krautrock-style/synth pop-punk fusion with guest vocalists including LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy
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FIZZ: The Secret To Life
New album: Joyously playful, colourful, flamboyant, humorous, dynamic, grandiose but also tender pop-rock by the supergroup of solo artists, Orla Gartland, dodie, Greta Isaac and Martin Luke Brown, whose vocal harmonies exude emotion, but also unsinkable joie-de-vivre
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Viji: So Vanilla
New album: Fresh, vibrant, clever, punchy indie rock and and breathily seductive shoegaze by the London-based Austrian-Brazilian artist Vanilla Jenner in this strong debut, another from talent via brilliant producer Dan Carey and on the Speedy Wunderground label
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