Words by Trav
I’m Trav, and this is a top ten list where I talk about my ten favorite releases of the year, beginning with New Year’s Day in January 2021 [ed note: this is a reference to All Your Thoughts on Pod, a podcast he cohosts]. I also sometimes play music in Lawnmower, Natural Monuments, and Rapid Eye Movement, one of southeast Michigan’s finest R.E.M. tribute bands. Here are his top ten albums in descending order.
10. 100 gecs – 10,000 gecs (Atlantic Records)
10,000 gecs, the third album by 100 gecs is my first gecsperience with these St. Louis weirdos. Whatever terms like hyperpop that get used to describe them never seemed like something that would appeal to me. For whatever reason, I was feeling frisky enough to check this out one morning in Spring and I just had a really good time. It was a great lesson for me to remember that sometimes music doesn’t have to be “good” in a conventional way to be enjoyable.
9. Speedy Ortiz – Rabbit Rabbit (Wax Nine)
I haven’t spent significant time with Speedy Ortiz since 2015’s Foil Deer, one of my favorite indie rock records of that era. I’d been hoping for a follow up that offers more of the same and it finally arrived in Rabbit Rabbit. As it did on Foil Deer, Sadie Dupuis’ guitar playing feels like a perfect balance of adventurous boundary-pushing and listening for what best serves the song. Her lyrics are always encoded just enough and feel just far enough out of reach to keep me chasing after their meanings. Happy to reconnect with them.
8. Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here. (Motown Records / Quality Control Music)
For much of the year, this didn’t seem like an album that would end up being one of my ten favorites. I never wore it out or got to the point of being overly familiar with it, yet I always came back to it. It’s consistently been heartening to be reminded of seeing someone follow their muse and create something so individualistic. From the Pink Floyd fanfic of “the BLACK seminole.” to the stoner philosophizing of “(failure:(“ to the immaculate r&b/modern indie vibes of “running out of time” and “drive ME crazy!,” Yachty created an alluring world that I’m fascinated enough with to keep checking in on.
7. Joanna Sternberg – I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum Records)
I was immediately and thoroughly charmed by this quiet, wonderful album. The title track contains the most exciting examples of Sternberg’s songwriting gifts: the auteurist approach to simplistic sentimentality, and the way in which they convey those simple sentiments so magically and convincingly. Despite the seemingly uncomplicated folk arrangements, the songs are also sneakily musical in their complex transitions. One of the great accomplishments of the album is that it feels so familiar, yet it’s never boring. The piano melody on a song like “Mountains High” seems like it’s existed for a hundred years. It’s a timeless album that I would’ve loved twenty years ago and expect to still love twenty years from now.
6. Bully – Lucky For You (Sub Pop)
Somehow I completely lost track of Bully after enjoying their debut album eight years ago. I’m not sure what made me check this out – to be honest, it might’ve been the album artwork, which looks like a 2001-era mainstream alternative VH1 artist. This colored the content of the album for me and made it feel distinctive in a way that it otherwise wouldn’t have. Seeing shades of sophisticated Michelle Branch-style pop songwriting laid over the grungy heart of Alicia Bognanno’s songs has been an invigorating way to shake up 90s-style alt-rock.
5. Hotline TNT – Cartwheel (Third Man Records)
You can give any ol’ dickhead a fuzz pedal and a whammy bar and call it shoegaze – this is craftsmanship. What I appreciate so much about Cartwheel is that it’s never lazy; the band never relies on the sound of the genre to carry them. So much of this album sounds thought out and considered and intentional. Although they have golden era indie rock bands like Teenage Fanclub in their DNA, they’re never content to stick to the blueprint, and they’re never afraid to color outside the lines.
4. Citizen – Calling the Dogs (Run For Cover Records)
I thought this was supposed to be a bunch of dickheads with fuzz pedals and whammy bars? Every time I’ve sampled Citizen prior to this album, they sounded to me like the kind of shoegaze Hotline TNT was transcending. On Calling the Dogs, Citizen tries on a more streamlined approach to rock and roll, and they’re sooo good at it. They allow dynamics to guide the structures and every song bursts with energy because of it. There are hints of late era Bob Mould and Militarie Gun. Even though it’s decidedly “rock” music, the band does a fantastic job of walking a fine line between being tuff and tasteful.
3. TV Girl – Grapes on the Vine (self-released)
One of my favorite concert performances of the last few years came when my 40 year old dad ass went to see TV Girl, stars of the popular social media application Tik-Tok. While I don’t understand how they’ve cultivated the following that they have through fifteen second sound clips on social media, I completely understand why they’re so beloved. They’re a great sample-based bedroom act with a unique artistic voice that understands how to make a pop song. Thematically, Gs on the V is a cohesive gospel version of their style, and it’s executed extremely well. TV Girl has several perfect songs in their catalogue, and this album opens with maybe their best – “I’ll Be Faithful,” a jazzy new wave three chord ode to unconditional loyalty regardless of damage. Like and subscribe!
2. Angel Du$t – BRAND NEW SOUL (Pop Wig)
It was such a trip skimming BRAND NEW SOUL for the first time. I heard “Space Jam” first and recognized similarities to Turnstile in the riffs – okay cool, good enough, I’m in. Then I heard “Love Slam” and though it was similarly heavy, I thought I could hear an acoustic guitar buried in the background. Then I heard “Racecar” and all bets were off. I still haven’t figured out what this album is, but I’ve always been in love with the inspired chaotic energy of it all. In so many ways this is an ideal album – a band making what they love, defying rules and expectations, and still somehow impressively tying it all together in an unexpectedly unified package. Taken as a whole, I’ve never heard anything like it – one of my favorite feelings that music I love can offer me.
1. Double Wish – Light Split Sparkle (Expanded) (Hit The North Records)
Every once in a while, an artist comes out of nowhere to unassumingly check every box of what you’re looking for in new music. While I wouldn’t have really known how to describe what I’ve been searching for recently, Light Split Sparkle satisfied in every way. It’s gently psychedelic modest California indie pop a la post-chillwave Toro Y Moi that conjures visions of cresting ocean waves. I honestly don’t really know anything about these guys and I’m trying to keep it that way. Every moment of this release feels exhilarating and simultaneously comforting, like breathing in air so refreshing it makes you feel butterflies in your chest – the ethereal falsetto melodies, the thunderous foundation of the low end that lies in contrast to the breezy instrumentation that rests above it, the guitar-last approach to composition. A most chill companion for 2023.