#empty bottle

[C] 'MY' Style: Akuto K. (OC) drinks Chuckola Cola by Mast3r-Rainb0w

Much like 2016, last year felt like a turning point in American history, world history, and human history. The rich and powerful got more rich and powerful than ever, right-wing politics and media triumphed, and the climate crisis raged on. Increasingly, the albums that resonated with us turned out to reflect the ills of the world back at it, or, just as important, show that art and creativity can thrive in spite of them. Here are 10 of our favorites.

A. Savage - The Loft Sessions (Rough Trade)

While visiting Chicago on tour in 2023, A. Savage recorded four tracks at Wilco's recording studio, The Loft, three covers and a new rendition of his “Wild, Wild, Wild Horses”. The opening track, “I Can’t Shake the Stranger Out of You” is a cover of a Lavender Country song from his 1973 self-titled debut, a record famously regarded as the first ever queer country album. Savage’s version became my most played song of the year on Spotify, and somewhere in my year-end playlist is the original version. The Loft Sessions is a stellar EP, and something I proudly listen to seeing that I saw A. Savage play at the Empty Bottle only a few hours after he had recorded it. “I Can’t Shake the Stranger Out of You” focuses on odd relationships that can’t seem to progress towards anything truly substantial, whereas the closing track “Wild Horses” contains depth, history, and emotional vulnerability. The four songs on The Loft Sessions are digestible, relatable, and easy to listen to while you prepare your coffee in the morning, an activity that can cover the EP's 13 minutes, depending on your hardware. - Keith Miller

Geordie Greep - The New Sound (Rough Trade)

For his debut solo album after the dissolution of a beloved band, Black Midi frontman Geordie Greep dove headfirst into the id of society's most prurient men. The New Sound is inspired by Greep's experiences out on the town, meeting drunken strangers who revealed to him their gross escapades, and it's got the coked-out, Steely Dan-esque, Latin jazz-rock fusion aesthetic to match. But Greep's also an astute observer of the toxically masculine online culture that pervades the world, finding humor, pathos, and absurdity in it alongside the necessary disgust. The narrators of his songs are far more pathetic and narcissistic than the earnest losers of MJ Lenderman's Manning Fireworks: It's not just that they're using women, but they're obsessed with their own perspective of the world, their own suffering. "You talk about yourself in the past tense," Greep smirks on album opener "Blues", giving a voice to the poet laureate of self-importance. Ever the writer himself, though, Greep's most brilliant moments are when he twists the knife, revealing that the Casanova of "Holy, Holy" is asking the sex worker he hired to make him feel taller, that the unfaithful man in a loveless marriage on "The Magician" is hiding from both his wife and his mistress. The New Sound's final track is a cover of a song made famous by Frank Sinatra, "If You Are But a Dream"; when Greep sings, "If you're a fantasy / Then I'm content to be / In love with lovely you / And pray my dreams come true," he conveys the desperate yearning that's always been a part of men in modern Western society. Greep's self-described new sound is anything but new, even if his version has more bodily fluids. - Jordan Mainzer

Jlin - Akoma (Planet Mu)

The producer from Gary, Indiana doesn't exist on the fringes of just footwork, but of genre as a whole. On Akoma, Jlin proudly wears her influences beyond collaborating with legends like Björk and Philip Glass. Her trademark skittering, journeying percussion gives way to more propulsive beats and layers. On "Summon", Jlin's strings form a gestalt beat that never actually drops, as minimalist as Steve Reich. "Challenge (To Be Continued II)"'s hand drums blanket booming hip hop bass and rolls inspired by HBCU marching bands. Kronos Quartet offer their chopped strings on "Sodalite"; when Jlin speeds them up, it almost sounds like a fiddle tune. Akoma exemplifies her uncanny ability to tell a story with varying textures of abstract music, each song its own symphony. - JM

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flight b741 (p(doom))

Across its ten tracks and roughly 40-minute runtime, King Gizzard delivers an enticing album that’ll pair well with cookouts, yard work, parties at a lake house, and all around busy and sweaty times outdoors. From its harmonic vocals and borderline goofy lyrics down to the various instrumentation of clanging pianos, bumping bass beats, and uplifting guitars, my biggest complaint about Flight b741 is that it didn’t come out sooner. Grab your sunglasses and put on a pair of jorts–anyone who’s claimed to like “Dad Rock,” this album is for you.

Read the rest of our review of Flight b741 here.

MGMT - Loss Of Life (Mom + Pop)

MGMT’s fifth studio album (6th album if you count 2022’s 11​•​11​•​11) is a fantastic addition to the psychedelic duo’s sound. Each song brings something new to the table, ranging from 90’s nostalgia in “Bubblegum Dog” to Meddle-style slow burn on “People In The Streets.” Band members Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser began writing each song on an acoustic guitar, which gives the album a slight singer-songwriter feel that isn’t as present on their past albums, especially not on their previous record, 2018’s Little Dark Age. MGMT have proven once again that they are a band with staying power. - KM

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Fu##in' Up (Warner/Reprise)

One of the most ass-ripping recordings of last year came from when a classic rocker with a likely net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars played at a birthday party for one of the richest men in Canada. A cynic could call this a prescient glimpse into a future ruled by technocrats, but I choose to marvel at how Neil Young & Crazy Horse can just up and transform some of their most beloved material into something even grungier and more distorted, and not care what billionaire Dani Reiss or his friends think. Fu##in' Up is, essentially, a live version of their classic 1990 record Ragged Glory, each track newly titled from a lyric from its respective track, save for the cover of Don and Dewey's "Farmer John". ("Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)", Ragged Glory's final track, is also absent.) Young presents it warts and all, his shaky voice and the ramshackle band stumbling through "City Life" as if they gave their instruments to the members of Pavement. Nonetheless, Nils Lofgren's guitars shriek with impunity, and Young's riffs clang throughout "Broken Circle". The band adds some new features to the Ragged Glory originals, namely Micah Nelson banging away on piano on "Feels Like a Railroad (River of Pride)" and "Walkin' in my Place (Road of Tears)". Above it all, though, Young remains in control, leading the band through a 50% longer "A Chance on Love" and a particularly patient "Valley of Hearts", Ralph Molina's crisp snares thwacking with might, sounding like the only thing dragging the rest of the players through a river of molasses. Without much crowd noise or stage banter on the record, you can easily listen to Fu##in' Up and picture the band jamming in the practice room. - JM

Pa Salieu - Afrikan Alien (Warner UK)

"I been gone for a while, but I still make it back to you," British rapper Pa Salieu sings on "Belly", the first single he released after serving 21 months in prison. He's talking to music listeners, fans, even the world, but most importantly, he's talking to his family, paying tribute to the loving act of helping provide. The song's Afropop grooves are subdued, but confident, subtleties that remarkably pervade Afrikan Alien, his second mixtape. Whether it's the cool shuffle of "Soda", cooing vocals, scraping guitars, and dexterous hand drums of "Round & Round", or the string, horn, and chorus-laden "YGF"--standing for "young, great, and free"--the highlights of Afrikan Alien forego bombast in favor of quiet boldness. "Afrikan di alien, moving like he's nomadic," Salieu raps on the title track, referring to the past two years of his life when he was moving from jail to jail. It contextualizes the release, and what he now appreciates: that home is precious and irreplaceable. - JM

Porridge Radio - Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me (Secretly Canadian)

Dana Margolin has come out the other side of exhausting touring, a breakup, and a debilitating sense of “What now?” with Porridge Radio’s best record yet. For the Brighton quartet’s fourth studio album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me, Margolin returned to her roots as a writer and performer to alleviate burnout, embracing poetry and workshopping the songs solo like she used to do at open mic nights. She dove headfirst into not-yet fully formed material via the rawness of her emotions. It allowed her, the band (keyboardist/backing vocalist Georgie Stott, drummer/keyboardist Sam Yardley, bassist Dan Hutchins) and indie rock producer du jour Dom Monks to foster a live recording environment that allowed for intimacy and intense vulnerability.

Read the rest of our review of Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me here.

Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood (Anti-)

More than ever, Waxahatchee’s songs are easy to sing along to; despite complex turns of phrase, Katie Crutchfield keeps her words metaphorical enough to stand out, abstract enough to be relatable, direct enough to be iconic. The qualities, in conjunction with her and her backing band’s performance, lead to some breathtaking moments. “You drive like you’re wanted in four states / In a busted truck in Opelika,” she sings over Spencer Tweedy’s drum roll on the rolling “3 Sisters”, right before the song’s forbearing beat drops. On “Bored”, she belts the song’s chorus–“I can get along / My spine’s a rotted two by four / Barely hanging on / My benevolence just hits the floor / I get bored”–alongside MJ Lenderman’s sharp riffs, Tweedy’s pummeling drums, and Nick Bockrath’s wincing pedal steel. In context of the song’s inspiration–a friendship that ended badly–Crutchfield’s admissions hit harder.

Read the rest of our review of Tigers Blood here.

Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us (Columbia)

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