Image: Victoria– supplied.
Author: Melody Menu and Friends
This end-of-year summary in the form of album reviews by friends has always been a favourite part of doing this blog. It is so easy to stay in your bubble with music and art through algorithms and a lack of time/energy/motivation, or else not knowing how to find and listen to new music. By learning about what other people are listening to and engaging with, we open ourselves up to different genres and experiences. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the year and its creative output. A simple Wikipedia search shows a staggering number of albums were made this year, and there are so many that for me, seemed to have fallen through the cracks. There are so many albums I need to go away and listen to, before making space for 2024.
A common theme with some of the albums listed here is a sense of place. Music is intangible, and setting can bring an inherently grounding element to something that is otherwise felt and experienced in the individual’s own mind. Whether it is the suburbs of Sydney or a more ephemeral and meditative internal space, our internal and external scenery is tapped into for context and clarity. We hope the following albums afford you some space to listen, reflect, learn, and rock.
Y La Bamba – Lucha
It sounds to my ears like the album Lucha by Y La Bamba could only have been summoned into existence by incantations performed in a secret garden at dawn. It has surely been simmering in a syrupy cauldron of mystery. There’s magic in it.
The Spanish title ‘Lucha’ translates into English as ‘fight’ or ‘struggle.’ Songwriter Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos has intimated that this 2023 album echoes her personal struggle with the demons of her own life. They may not have been vanquished but at the very least they have been sublimated into a work of great beauty.
Inspiration for Lucha also came in the form of Luz’s relocation from the USA to Mexico, the country of her parent’s birth. The record is bilingual, with lyrics in English and Spanish and additional Latin elements in the percussion and the brass. I can’t identify exactly where these 11 songs fit in a spectrum that encompasses Latin Pop, English Pop, World Music and Art Rock. However, the collection is generously packed full of yearning, melancholy, sweetness, and a masterful array of sonic textures. – Paul Watling
RVG – Brain Worms
It can’t be a coincidence that the same year that Brain Worms is released, an actual live worm was found in a woman’s brain in NSW. Nor is it a stretch to remember how during the depths of covid lockdowns, many of us were plagued with dreams of worms and burrowing bugs as a means to process and cope with the strange new changes we were dealing with. Romy Vager’s lyrics have frequently delved into the fantastical while still managing to be relatable or otherwise grounded in real-world issues, and in her hands covid becomes a canvas where online funerals and losing our collective minds becomes imminently stranger than fiction. The stark and surreal ‘Squid’ takes this further with the repeated chant ‘Don’t go back in time / It’s not worth it.’ With Brain Worms, RVG have exorcised the parasitic past of covid lockdowns. – Melody Menu
7038634357 – Neo Seven
The latest album Neoseven by Neo Gibson, under the alias 7038634357, uses ambient music as a vehicle to play with boundaries. Just as hyper-pop plays with conventional pop or vaporwave plays with Musak, going through a genre can deepen its exploration and synthesise into the new. The album begins with a gentle, repetitive, and slow wave of synths that sweep over you, reminiscent of William Bansinksi’s disintegration loops. However, these slow changes then morph into an abrupt distortion of harsh noise. Vocals drift in and out, which feels like sentences from a language you’re learning but can’t yet totally grasp. The distance the album provides is relaxing at a time when so much music demands you to know the story or tells you exactly how to feel. While Neoseven is an album of place; it’s just that I don’t exactly know where I am, nor do I want to. – Chris Panagiotaros
Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12
Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music has always rallied against overstimulation. Blessedly gentle, 12 gives rather than takes, which is becoming rare in an increasingly commodified world. It allows you to breathe rather than dominating your attention, offering sensory soundscapes you can practically trace with your fingertips. This is electronic music that sounds wholly organic and stemming from the natural world. Particularly album closer ‘20220304’, with its startling tickle of glass and bells, seemingly signifying the end of a deep meditation. However, this calm becomes cruel in the context of Sakamoto’s passing, not long after 12 was released on his 70th birthday. While the world has lost yet another incredible artist, Sakamoto will be remembered as a prolific composer, producer, artist and activist and his indelible influence on electronic and ambient music will remain in any new sounds that escape their speakers with a sigh. – Melody Menu
Róisín Murphy and DJ Koze – Hit Parade
I start my day with a strong coffee and boogie and repeat this cycle throughout the day, so Hit Parade has been the much-welcomed soundtrack to my year. This album transcends conventional boundaries and seamlessly blends Murphy’s distinctive vocals with Koze’s innovative electronic production. Hit Parade is a journey through a variety of emotions. ‘CooCool’ is a musical personification of having a big fat crush. ‘Hurtz So Bad’ is the end of that big fat crush. ‘The House’ feels like you have just had the best day in the sun with your closest friends, your cup is so damn full and you want to dance to this song to celebrate how beautiful your life is. ‘Two Ways’ has the album’s similar house feeling sprinkled with your favourite slow RNB. It feels sexy. The album showcases the versatility of the artists but also brings the exact fun that made me fall in love with them in the first place. – Zoe Panagiotaros
Gorillaz – Cracker Island; and Blur – The Ballad of Darren
In 2023, Damon Albarn presented an eclectic music odyssey with Gorillaz and Blur. Cracker Island delivered tried-and-true synth-pop, marked with exciting collaborations from the get go with Thundercat’s funk bass on the title track. Bootie Brown (The Pharcyde) drops verses, against Kevin Parker’s dreamy processed vocals in ‘New Gold’, with the occasional political jab – we see you X. Cracker Island’s connecting thread is made all the more obvious with the closing duo ‘Skinny Ape’ and ‘Possession Island’ momentarily pivoting away from unravelling conspiracies to directly acknowledge Albarn’s contemplation of Gorillaz’ virtual realm.
Meanwhile, Blur revisited their Brit-pop roots in The Ballad of Darren. ‘The Narcissist’ carries an anthemic aura of self-assuredness wrapped in contemplative ambiance, while ‘St. Charles Square’ jumps right in with a bold confessional tone ‘I fucked up, and I’m not the first to do it’ – both ooze confidence, yet sit in contemplation. Surprising moments linger with ‘The Ballad’ and ‘Russian Strings,’ echoing Arctic Monkeys’ lounge-pop and Radiohead’s Baroque Pop exploration. The Ballad of Darren is a welcome return to form, offering an introspective look into self-worth blended with down-to-earth mid-life narratives. – Sean Lees
Adam Newling – Dorothy Painted Portraits
Late to the party of 2023 is the release of Adam Newling’s third EP (let’s call it a mini album for the sake of this list) Dorothy Painted Portraits. From launching his solo endeavours a couple of years back, there’s an infectious quality to Newling’s songs that can elicit a gamut of emotions from wistful and burdened to invigorated and enlightened. Even when things can feel emotionally heavy in what Newling is trying to convey, the sun is always peering through the windscreen of these indie-folk rock songs. Bookended by acoustic ballads and featuring the rollicking ‘Barmy’, the anthemic ‘Ocean’ and the timely ‘Difference of Opinion’, it’s an album full of diverse layers and lyrics with that Australian raspy drawl of his at the forefront to anchor it all together as one cohesive piece.
Newling’s authentic storytelling shows a songwriter who isn’t afraid of sharing his vulnerability and it gives us a little more insight into our own inner workings as a result. – Bradley Cork
Empty Country – Empty Country II
Joe D’Agostino has been delivering the type of indie rock that skirts between the likes of pioneers such as Pavement or Modest Mouse. Etched deep however into his DNA will always be a heartland spectacle that conjures up classic song writing akin to the likes Bruce Springsteen or Lou Reed. The former Cymbals Eat Guitars front man has delivered the second offering under his solo project Empty Country and it is a cathartic, visceral, damning piece of work.
Songs like ‘Earlking’ and ‘Dustine’ show an almost theatrical element in both arrangement and delivery, with the former making proclamations of being ‘well and truly fucked’ in a most matter of fact way. Meanwhile ‘Bootsie’ has a disco romping, seedy quality that brings the protagonist of the song back to the 80’s underground club scene of NYC. Album highlight ‘FLA’ is a piano ballad that truly kicks into gear with what seems to be the most ear-piercing harmonica solo ever recorded…It sounds so wrong that it works. Album closer ‘Cool S’ shows off the magic of D’Agostino’s band with former CEG drummer Anne Dole included to hold down fort with a looping pulse. This John Agnello produced affair is one of 2023’s best kept secrets and anyone in the know is all the better for it. – Bradley Cork
Victoria – Treats
Bands with multiple songwriters are nothing new. But it’s the bands with multiple songwriters that manage to sound seamless, each song belonging to the same album and artist without clashing that really makes an impact. Victoria are a supergroup of sorts, with each member hailing from another band or two, featuring three songwriters in Cameron Emerson-Elliott (Youth Group), Max Doyle (Songs), and Patrick Matthews (The Vines, Youth Group) with Alison Galloway (Smudge) holding it all together on drums. Selected harmonies between the three singers complement each songwriter’s distinctive style, echoing an interplay of warm and angular guitars that meet thoughtful beats and flourishes on the snare and the ride that consistently serve the song. This cohesive creativity encapsulates that feeling of accumulative inspiration as you link in with the right people, where collaboration is practically inevitable. Delicate and weird, sunny and joyous, Victoria are sonically Sydney. – Melody Menu
Shoutouts to the albums and EPs we have already featured through interviews, premieres and other collaborations:
Melody Menu 