Steve Albini RIP

Bandleader, writer, audio engineer, producer and cantankerous music critic Steve Albini passed away at 61 of a heart attack. He was a member of the influential post-hardcore bands Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac. He was doing music in the mid-80’s that no one else was doing that my ears were craving for.  Steve was part of many of the bands that shaped my early music history and his philosophy about music and life always resonated with me. Shellac releases a new album “To All Trains” on 5.17 after a 10 year hiatus.

“The bands that have been the most important to me, and the records that have been the most important to me as a fan, have been records that surprised me for one reason or another.” – Steve Albini

Let’s play one of my favorite songs from Jesus Lizard’s brilliant GOAT which Albini produced as loud as your speakers can handle.

Favorite Albums of 2023

 10. Genesis Owusu – Struggler

 

 9. Indigo de Souza – All Of This Will End

 

 8. Blu & Real Bad Man – Bad News

 

 7. Slow Pulp – Yard

 

 6. Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

 

 5. Caroline Palochek – Desire, I  Want To Turn Into You

 

 4. The Japanese House – In the End It Always Does

 

 3. Wednesday – Rat Saw God

 

 2. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin

 

 1. Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We

My Favorite Songs of 2023

1. “Sad to Breathe” – The Japanese House
2. “Bug Like an Angel” – Mitski
3. “Honey” – Samia
4. “Hollywood Baby” – 100 Gecs
5. “Wet” – Claud
6. “Tears” – Shrillex, Joker, Sleepnet
7. “$20” – Boygenius
8. “LLYLM” – ROSALÍA
9. “String Theory” – Lanterns on the Lake
10. “Baby again..” – Fred again.., Skrillex, Four Set
11. “Dancer” – IDLES
12. “Smog” – Indigo De Souza
13. “Caution to the Wind” – Everything But The Girl
14. “From The Morning” – Let’s Eat Grandma
15. “A&W” – Lana Del Rey
16. “February” – Complete Mountain Almanac
17. “Shit Talk” – Sufjan Stevens
18. “Fold” – Bonobo, Jacques Greene
19. “Feel Good” – Slow Thai
20. “Soccer Mommy” – Shalom

Listen to the rest of the top 101 songs here on Spotify

Here’s another playlist of all the amazing tunes I also absolutely loved
More from 2023

As always, thanks for listening

2023 Music Stats

Some interesting data from my 2 music platforms that I primarily use besides Bandcamp. I always feel the data is a bit off when it comes to specific tracks. Songs that I know were on massive repeat don’t show up, while other do. That’s why my end of year lists are always excruciatingly manual, compiled across 3 platforms. Nevertheless, always interesting to see what a computer thinks of my music habits.

2023

19,616 total minutes

1,422 different artists

 

New Slowdive

New Slowdive album out on Nov 1. We had to wait less for this one than the 22 years for the self-titled gem that came out in 2017. The single “Kisses” makes this release quite promising.