after taking a week-and-a-half to work through the third batch of albums, i decided to fire off the last ten all in the same day. i am so fucking good at music criticism!!
Colder Streams by The Sadies
i’ve seen these guys at Folk Fest a few times and thought they were simply “OK” each time. never really looked into their studio discography because i didn’t see a compelling reason to do so. then one of their members died last year, making this their last album that he was involved in recording. so this puts a touch of extra pressure on me to think that it’s good, or to at least blunt any negative thoughts i have about it, out of respect for the dead.
so, yeah. this was fine. the production had this spacey quality that was likely meant to sound as if the songs were being performed live outdoors, but which mostly just ended up sounding muddled and washed-out. the songs started to run together as an indistinct country-rock blur after about three of the damn things. a couple songs hit for me and the harmonies were satisfyingly “on-point,” but all in all, it didn’t leave strong enough of an impression for me to reassess my priors about The Sadies. i still regard them as “OK.” i’m sure i’ll happen across a concert or workshop of theirs whenever they next get invited to Folk Fest & have an acceptable, unremarkable time.
highlights: “Stop and Start,” “Better Yet.”
3 stars out of 5.
Water & Tools by Jairus Sharif
hell yeah! now this is what i’m talking about!! spooky free-improv sax, paired with drums, bells, droning bass, and field recordings of birds. since i am obligated to throw in a comparison here, i’ll say that if you like Sun Ra Arkestra, Colin Stetson, or The Comet Is Coming, you’ll like this guy. this is some of the most innovative jazz to come out of Canada since, i don’t know, Glenn Gould? (and i don’t know if Gould can be described as “innovative,” per se, unless being extremely fucking good at the piano can be considered an innovation unto itself. and i’m not super familiar with many Canadian jazz musicians, so perhaps i’m not the best judge of what’s been going on in that space. but speaking of Glenn Gould, you should go listen to Bach: The Goldberg Variations if you haven’t already. it’s good, in my opinion. jazz is so cool, dude.)
highlights: “Humility,” “Ra Com 43,” “Ra Com 10.”
4.5 stars out of 5.
Norm by Andy Shauf
this is in album-of-the-year territory for me. another masterpiece by one of Canada’s most emotionally perceptive songwriters. i could do a track-by-track analysis if i wanted to, but i will definitely be writing about it again when i do the year-end review of my favourite albums. how’s that for a cliffhanger, eh? “always leave ’em wanting more.”
highlights: the entire album, from start to finish. i would advise listening to it from the beginning, in track order, because it tells a continuous story. (it’s what the kids these days call “a concept album.”) but if you must listen to a song or two just to get a taste, i’d recommend “Telephone” and “Halloween Store.” the second verse of the latter had me chuckling the first time i heard it.
4.75 stars out of 5.
No Longer in the Suburbs by Dylan Sinclair
this went in one ear and out the other. the most i can say to recommend this album is that it’s only like 28, 29 minutes long, so that’s not at all an insufferable amount of time to spend listening to paint-by-numbers R&B. this is almost the perfect music for doing archival work – some mildly pleasant sound to fill my ears, but which never threatens to distract me with an interesting melody or turn-of-phrase.
2.75 stars out of 5.
I’m Good, HBU? by Snotty Nose Rez Kids
i captured my full thoughts, more or less, on SNRK last year, so i’ll just reiterate: wish i liked ’em more! they’re socially conscious and clever lyricists, but trap just isn’t a genre that resonates much with me. although i’m pretty sure i preferred this album to their last one. i dug the crispness of the production and sampling this time around.
highlight: “TRENDSETTER.”
3.25 stars out of 5.
Néo-Romance by Alexandra Stréliski
ahhh. now that’s some soothing piano.
and that is all i have to say about the album, which consists entirely of piano instrumentals.
3.5 stars out of 5.
Bless This Mess by U.S. Girls
hang on! if these are U.S. girls, how come they’re eligible for the Polaris Prize? what the hell! something’s not adding up here…
and, scene.
hope you liked my new character – “guy who is under the mistaken impression that a band’s name is usually an accurate description of its member(s) personally and also doesn’t know that ‘U.S. Girls’ refers to just the one musician, but is familiar with the Polaris Prize criteria somehow (?)”. what an idiot, huh? where’d they even get that idea in the first place?
the album’s fine. Meg Remy has a slight propensity for corny lyricism, if you ask me, but she’s a talented composer. there’s enough variation in musical style from track to track that i was rarely 100% bored, even if only a few of the songs registered with me at the time as being “observably enjoyable.”
this is clearly a Pandemic Album™, but i’m not sure how much meat’s left on that bone in 2023, as opposed to, like, two years ago. take the song “Screen Face,” for example. three-plus years into the novel coronavirus pandemic, how much is there to say about how digital teleconferencing can’t adequately replace getting together in-person with your loved ones? i feel like everybody internalized that by Christmas 2020 at the very latest, so that song was a bit of a whiff. now, i’m sure that part of the delay in getting the album out had to do with the fact that Remy had twin sons in 2021… and now i look like a huge jerk for complaining about how the album’s themes are out-of-date. “what, you can’t manage the stresses of new motherhood concurrently with releasing timely music that appeals to my specific taste? get the fuck outta here, ya loser!!!”
you know what? fine. this album was good, actually. what do you want me to say?
2.75 stars out of 5.
Gateway Experience by Witch Prophet
gotta say, i think i preferred her last album. there are a few tracks here where the most prominent musical accompaniment to Ayo Leilani’s vocals are a chintzy drum loop and maybe a touch of synthesizer. the occasional inclusions of jazz guitar and trumpet tie everything together. really should’ve used those more, imo. still, though, i’m seeing her perform live at Folk Fest in a couple days, where she’ll presumably be backed by a full band. should be fun!
highlight: “Aura.”
3 stars out of 5.
A Murmur, Boundless to the East by Yoo Doo Right
if you want to get me on board with your band from the very second i pull up your latest album on Apple Music, one easy way to do that is to make it have only five songs that run for a combined 40+ minutes. that’s extremely my shit right there – extended post-rock riffing in the vein of GY!BE and Do Make Say Think. i’ve always thought that what this country needs is a few more DMSTs running around. and you can quote me on that.
highlights: “Feet Together, Face Up, on the Front Lawn.” i could realistically cite any given song from this album as a highlight, but if i were to include even a second one, that’d be 40% of the tracklist right there, at which point the word would lose its meaning. and i absolutely can’t have that, in this blog post where i have full control over what to write! that’d be ridiculous.
4.5 stars out of 5.
Bekka Ma’iingan by Zoon
eagle-eyed readers will note that we have finally reached the last of this year’s 40 albums. maybe you’ve been counting the number of entries in this post, maybe you saw that the above artist’s name starts with “Zo-” and concluded that there were unlikely to be any more nominees subsequent to it in alphabetical order, or maybe you clicked on this page by accident and scrolled all the way down to the bottom for fun. either way, thanks for reading & i love you!
Daniel Monkman is very good at shoegaze. you got your distorted, reverbed guitars, you got your mournful but indistinct vocals, you got eerie noises of uncertain origin thrown into the mix occasionally. the whole thing kinda sounds like your neighbour is running their vacuum cleaner over an extremely matted patch of carpet while humming in a minor key. you know… the classic hallmarks of shoegaze (or “moccasin-gaze,” in Monkman’s cheeky formulation). i ended the 2021 list with Zoon, i’m ending 2023 with them, and i look forward to ending 2025 with more of the same – that is, unless someone snipes Monkman’s usual position on the list by adopting the moniker “Zuun” or “Zydeco Enjoyers” or whatever the fuck.
highlights: “All Around You,” “Dodem,” “Manitou.”
3.75 stars out of 5.
“the mags shortlist”
you know the deal. it’s the part of the post where i say what my 10 favourite longlisted albums were:
- Norm by Andy Shauf
- Water & Tools by Jairus Sharif
- A Murmur, Boundless to the East by Yoo Doo Right
- Blue Rev by Alvvays
- Slingshot by JayWood
- Once Upon a Time in Montréal by Murray A. Lightburn
- “Darling the Dawn” by ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT
- Never Enough by Daniel Caesar
- Good Luck by Debby Friday
- L’eau et les rêves by N NAO
ok. see you at the same time next year! unless some terrible misfortune befalls me in the interim, which i no longer hope it does!
ruminations of a sad oaf. 