The older I get, the harder it gets to put together a year-end list. Not because I’m becoming more musically discriminating in my dotage. Quite the opposite. Every year, I find countless new (and old) artists, albums and genres to add to my ever-expanding playlist — and it becomes increasingly difficult to narrow down my choices to anything approaching a reasonable number. This massive, multi-part list of 123 albums is as close as I could get this year. It’s far from definitive, but it’s the best I can do. To read more about these albums, click on the cover art or check out the Tinnitist TV page, where I interviewed plenty of these acts. See you in 2024.
Daddy Long Legs
Street Sermons
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Street Sermons is the fourth album from Daddy Long Legs, New York City’s most diabolical blues-punk street gang — and the unleashing of a wellspring of bottled-up emotions that need to be taken to the streets. Produced by Oakley Munson of The Black Lips at Old Soul Studios in Catskill, N.Y., the band expand upon a sound that’s all their own, with the help of guest appearances from U.K. new wave legend Wreckless Eric providing backing vocals on Nightmare and Silver Satin, and The Lovin’ Spoonful’s iconic frontman John Sebastian joining in on Ding-Ding Man. Over the last decade, these gentlemen have burned down houses the world over with their explosive fire ceremony, amassing a cult-like following with a tough-to-beat reputation for being one of the finest live acts on the road today. In these dark times, Daddy Long Legs continue to shine their light everywhere they go, leaving a piece of themselves on stage every night because it’s in them and it’s got to come out. Written and recorded against a backdrop of political tension, riots in the streets and a deeply uncertain future, Street Sermons is a testament to triumph over adversity.”
The Darts
Snake Oil
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “At last! The Darts return from their Bat Cave / Covid lair with Snake Oil — by far their best album to date. Snake Oil is their most accomplished full-length recording to date, with a much fuller sound than any Darts disc before — courtesy of their longtime collaborator Bob Hoag and some remote control co-production wizardry from Jello Biafra himself. Featuring the return of Nicole Laurnne on vocals, Farfisa and Hammond organs, Christina Nunez on bass and vocals, and Meliza Jackson on guitars and vocals, Snake Oil also marks the debut of new drummer Mary Rose Gonzales. The result? Snake Oil comes out smoking as if this band has been in a pressure cooker throughout the pandemic. Expect the wider sound and sparkle of Nicole and Cristina’s previous band The Love Me Nots (also recorded by the brilliant Bob Hoag) but with way more raunch. And Nicole’s voice has never sounded better. Snake Oil is for fans of agile, sultry vocals and beefy vintage rhythm sections paired with razor-tone guitars. This Snake Oil was concocted to remedy the most unaffected and stiff-legged garage rockers out there!”
Deerhoof
Miracle-Level
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Did you know that miracles happen every day? We don’t always see it that way. We look at the state of the world and think, ‘It’ll be a miracle if we make it out alive.’ But miracles are what humans do. We’re Earth’s most inventive and unpredictable species, when we’re allowed to be. Also the most destructive. Miracle-Level is Deerhoof’s mystical manifesto on creativity and trust. It celebrates the infinite small wonders of existence that spontaneously present themselves, when not obstructed by our death-driven masters. Musically, Miracle-Level is vulnerable, brave, and brimming with spicy surprises. Deerhoof’s 19th album is also their first to be recorded and mixed in a recording studio. Production was entrusted to Mike Bridavsky at No Fun Club in Winnipeg. This is also their first album written entirely in Satomi’s native language. Deerhoof once again speak in a secret code that only their fans understand, in which hooks abound, and genre is nonexistent.”
Ben de la Cour
Sweet Anhedonia
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With songs that explore life’s murky corners and shadowy characters, Ben de la Cour‘s music occupies the intersection between gothic Americana and dark, gritty folk. It’s a sound fueled by the stories and struggles of its creator, a lifelong explorer who’s never been afraid to shine a light on his own demons. “Folk music has a long tradition of darkness,” he explains, “and darkness is something I know a lot about.” That darkness takes on new dimensions with his fifth record Sweet Anhedonia, a gripping collection of Americana noir songwriting, heartland rockers, and folk ballads. He recorded the album with Jim White, a cult folksinger celebrated for his own Southern gothic sound. “Jim’s album Wrong-Eyed Jesus! helped me through a terrible time in my life,” says Ben. “I’ve always been such a big fan of his music. We worked together in Athens and Nashville, taking alternative approaches to my songs by building soundscapes and percussive patterns. The goal was to make an art record — something that was expansive but not bombastic.”
Watch my interview with Ben de la Cour HERE.
Alabaster DePlume
Come With Fierce Grace
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In order to record the compositions in his critically acclaimed 2022 release Gold, Alabaster DePlume instilled a culture of creativity by leading his ensembles in spontaneous composition and development. To allow them to be present, he kept the musicians constantly creating across weeks of sessions at London creative hub Total Refreshment Centre. This process resulted in an abundance of material, much more than he could fit onto the initial double LP. After spending most of 2022 touring in support of Gold, Alabaster spent much of early 2023 revisiting the additional material from those Total Refreshment Centre sessions — adding, subtracting, producing and arranging — resulting in an entirely new album Come With Fierce Grace. This is an album made of authentic and unstipulated — yet welcomed — human interaction. It is for the most part an album of instrumentals, with exception of a few vocal features by Momoko Gill (aka MettaShiba), Falle Nioke and Donna Thompson. However, the instrumentals on this album are much more embryonic and unfiltered than the lush orchestrations heard on Alabaster’s breakout 2020 album To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1.”
Dictator Ship
Electric Jihad
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dictator Ship are back! In 2020, the band released their excellent debut Your Favorites, winning praise from fans and media alike. Now the Swedish foursome have launched their second studio album Electric Jihad. Blending energetic and raw rock ’n’ roll with exquisite multi-layered vocal harmonies and melodies inspired by ’60s soul and doo-wop, the band have carved out their very own niche in the rock landscape, perfectly displayed throughout the whole album. In many ways, the album is the natural progression of their debut. The band explain: “This is a step up from our first album in every single way. We knew from the start that we wanted more harmonies in the vocals and more structure in the guitars than we had on Your Favorites and we are very satisfied with the end result. It’s also a reflection of how we as a group feel about the society we live in. The true frustration that a capitalist pig power structure plants in you may not bring out the best solutions to the problem, but it’s true and honest and should be taken seriously either way.”
Divine Horsemen
Bitter End Of A Sweet Night
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The renaissance of Divine Horsemen — which began in 2021 with the release of Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix, the legendary Los Angeles band’s first release in 33 years — continues with a thrilling new album for In The Red Records, Bitter End Of A Sweet Night. The new 16-track collection again features the band’s co-founding members, singer-songwriters Chris Desjardins (better known as Chris D.) and Julie Christensen, and the core members of the ferocious Hot Rise band — guitarist/co-writer Peter Andrus (a member of the group’s late-’80s lineup), bassist Bobby Permanent and X’s nonpareil drummer DJ Bonebrake (who won’t be doing live dates). The sound is filled out by Green On Red and Dream Syndicate keyboardist Chris Cacavas (who appeared on 1984’s Time Stands Still) and classically trained violinist Elizabeth Wilson. Desjardins produced the album.”
Watch my interview with Chris D. HERE.
Johnny Dowd
Is Heaven Real? How Would I Know?
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I never wanted to be a songwriter,” recalls singer-guitarist Johnny Dowd. It’s a strange confession from one of America’s most evocative wordsmiths. But when it became a matter of sink or swim, back around 1988, he dove in the deep end. “I was in a Memphis/Texas swamp blues band,” he says, “but then the singer quit — and he was the only one who was enough of a musician to learn a song off a record and show it to us. I couldn’t figure out how to do that! So I said, ‘Fuck it’ and started writing songs — just so we could play.” Now, as he releases his 25th studio album Is Heaven Real? How Would I Know?, two things from that time still resonate today: His uncanny way with a haunting song, and the city of Memphis. “I lived there from the time I was one to the time I was three or four,” Dowd says, “and I lived there again during high school.” The sounds of Memphis stayed with him through life, even as he grew up in Oklahoma and finally settled in upstate New York. And so, in 2022, he returned to the Bluff City to make what may be his most personal album to date. “I’ve always had a bunch of good bands,” he says. “But the kind of band that I had in Memphis for this album, sounding like something off Stax/Volt records? That’s the stuff that I grew up with, but I never recorded in that context at all. So it was like, ‘OK… This is it!’ ”
Gord Downie & Bob Rock
Lustre Parfait
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lustre Parfait, the long-mythologized collaboration between Gord Downie, the iconic frontman of The Tragically Hip, and Bob Rock, the legendary producer perhaps best known for Metallica’s Black Album, has finally arrived after more than a decade in the making. Inspired by their brotherhood in rock ’n’ roll, the 14 songs that make up this album are electrified and resplendent, a deep dedication of reverence to the magnitude of music itself. Downie and Rock’s collaboration began when they first worked together on The Tragically Hip’s World Container (2006) and We Are The Same (2009). It was after the second outing that Downie asked if Rock had music he could write lyrics for. The sonic spaces that Rock would provide led Downie into the depths of his notebooks, armed with the musical clues to find the brilliance mapped therein. On Lustre Parfait, charged with the full strength of his spirit and the magic of collaboration, Gord tugs on the heartstrings of the mind, with such perfection: ‘All I want / All I wish / Is for a heart I can give/ First word / To final wish / A heart I can give.’ ”
Watch my interview with Bob Rock HERE.
Kevin Drew
Aging
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “While many Kevin Drew songs throughout his vast catalog — both with Broken Social Scene and as a solo artist — lean into the exuberant fist-pump of being alive, Aging is an album best played at the end of the night; a collection for the stragglers left when the bar is about to close; a serenade for those who are coming down; songs that are quietly sad but ultimately ruminative and comforting. Influenced by the passing of friends and mentors, as well as health scares of friends and family, Aging brings together songs written over a decade marked by the signifiers of midlife — love, loss, and illness — all while wrestling with the hard truths of aging: How do you deal with the blunt-force impact of loss? What does it mean to look and feel different than you did before?”
Watch my interview with Kevin Drew HERE.
El Michels Affair & Black Thought
Glorious Game
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their first record Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for the multi-instrumentalist and his then-introduced, now-patented “cinematic soul” sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later — all while producing for and working with some of the biggest names in the industry — Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew.”
Fall Out Boy
So Much (For) Stardust
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “To record So Much (For) Stardust — their eighth studio album and first release since 2018’s Mania — Fall Out Boy reunited with producer Neil Avron, who worked on their iconic three-record run of From Under the Cork Tree, Infinity on High and Folie à Deux. Unsurprisingly, So Much (For) Stardust finds the Chicago veterans returning to a more guitar-driven, rockier soundscape, with vocalist Patrick Stump’s smooth vocals soaring atop energetic pop-punk fare and seriously danceable rhythms. Speaking about the creation of So Much (For) Stardust, Stump confirms that Fall Out Boy took a bit of a throwback approach. “Technology has made it really easy to make records much more quickly these days. There’s nothing wrong with that, and that spontaneity can be exciting, but we wanted to get back to the way we used to work. We wanted to make a record that was really lovingly crafted and deliberate and patiently guided — like someone cooked you a delicate meal. I’m not a very proud guy, but I’m pretty proud of this record.”
Family Worship Center
Kicked Out Of The Garden
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Family Worship Center specialize in a strain of redemptive, 1970s-styled rock ’n’ roll that recalls The Rolling Stones, Leon Russell, The Band and Delaney & Bonnie. The band formed in 2017 in Nashville, founded by prophetic visionary, singer-songwriter and keyboardist Andy Krissberg, but it has since relocated to Portland, Oregon. In 2020, Family Worship Center released the EP Sunday A.M., recorded by Grammy-winning producer Eddie Spear (Rival Sons, Blackberry Smoke, Lukas Nelson), and featuring musicians associated/who have played with The Band, Deer Tick, Ringo Starr, James Brown, Keith Richards and Foxygen, among others. The Family’s latest offering and first long player, Kicked Out Of The Garden features a core band of devoted musicians, and was produced by Portland go-to producer Cameron Spies (Spoon Benders, Shivas), who specializes in what he calls “mid-fi.” Kicked Out Of The Garden was tracked in Portland with additional recording done in Philadelphia and Ukraine.”
The Far Outs
The Far Outs
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Far Outs began as a side project to Brisbane’s Grand Atlantic — as an outlet for songs that didn’t quite fit the band’s format but still desperately needed a place to party. With influences ranging from the likes of The Kinks, The Sonics and The Easybeats, the group are quickly establishing a reputation for their ’60s-influenced garage-rock — featuring blistering riffs, catchy choruses and drums akimbo. The Far Outs played their first show in Fortitude Valley on Oct. 5, 2020 and have since performed at most live music venues in Brisbane — including your favourite bar — and are probably there right now drinking your beers. Drummer Jonny Pickvance (Blonde On Blonde, Fingerless, etc.) has been a part of Brisbane’s music scene for long enough to know better. He joins singer-guitarist Phil Usher (Sacred Shrines, Hillsborough, etc.) to complete the ultimate party equation.”
Robert Connely Farr
Pandora Sessions
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This album is dedicated to the great Mississippi Big Blues Mane — RL Boyce, a friend and mentor,” says Vancouver singer-guitarist Robert Connely Farr. “He recently passed away after a bout with cancer. May he rest in peace. “These sessions were modeled after our time down in Bentonia playing with Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and RL Boyce — you set up, start playing and the songs come. Sure, there’s covers and traditionals, but the magical part of those nights are the grooves that show up that weren’t written yet. That’s what this album is, all unwritten / unrehearsed material that originated from us just sitting down to play. We are very interested in capturing the song at its point of origin. We didn’t have much, just some vintage mics / amps — we did the best we could with what we had at the time. This ain’t no big time studio / record label / lots of money kind of album. This is a show up at the juke joint, plug the f^*k in & get to work kind of album.”
Watch my interview with Robert Connely Farr HERE.
54•40
West Coast Band
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “54•40 have been telling Canada where they came from and where they’re going for the last 40 years. But Neil, Brad, Dave and Matt couldn’t make it any clearer than they do on their autobiographical new album West Coast Band. In this collection of tales taken straight from the band’s long career, 54•40 celebrate bizarre shenanigans, odd dynamics, colourful characters and personalities of its members. Simply put: If the career of 54•40 was turned into a Broadway musical, this record would be the original score.”
Watch my interview with Neil Osborne HERE.
Robert Finley
Black Bayou
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “A song should tell a good story,” says Robert Finley. “By the time you hear it beginning to end, it should be like reading a short story or a novel. It should be more than just a laugh. It should leave some kind of impression on whoever’s listening to it. And it should stay as close to the truth as possible.” He’s a masterful storyteller, and Black Bayou has the richness of detail, the depth of character, the tragedy of betrayal, the promise of forgiveness — in short, the immense complexity of emotion and humanity — that defines great southern literature. Finley recorded the album up at producer Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville. It’s the fourth time the duo have worked together, although for this record they did things a little differently. Rather than write songs beforehand, they devised everything in the studio, with Auerbach leading a band of some of the finest players around: drummers Patrick Carney (aka Auerbach’s Black Keys bandmate) and Jeffrey Clemens, bassist Eric Deaton, guitarist Kenny Brown and vocalists Christy Johnson and LaQuindrelyn McMahon. “I started singing, and they started playing,” Finley explains. “That’s how we made the album. It wasn’t written out. Nobody used a pencil and paper. We just sang and played together in the studio.”
Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton
Death Wish Blues
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The first collaborative album from Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton, Death Wish Blues is a body of work born from a shared passion for pushing the limits of blues music. As one of the most dynamic forces in the blues world, Fish has made her name as a multi-award-winning festival headliner who captivates crowds with her explosive yet elegant guitar work, delivering an unbridled form of blues-rock that defies all genre boundaries. Dayton, meanwhile, boasts an extraordinary background that includes recording with the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, touring as a guitarist for seminal punk band X, working with Rob Zombie on the soundtracks for his iconic horror films, and releasing a series of acclaimed solo albums. Produced by the legendary Jon Spencer of Blues Explosion, Death Wish Blues ultimately melds their eclectic sensibilities into a batch of songs both emotionally potent and wildly combustible.”
Watch my interview with Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton HERE.
Foo Fighters
But Here We Are
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following a year of staggering losses, personal introspection and bittersweet remembrances, Foo Fighters return with But Here We Are. A brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything Dave Grohl and co. have endured over the last year, But Here We Are is a testament to the healing powers of music, friendship and family. Courageous, damaged and unflinchingly authentic, But Here We Are opens with the single Rescued, the first of 10 songs that run the emotional gamut from rage and sorrow to serenity and acceptance, and myriad points in between. Produced by Greg Kurstin and the band, But Here We Are is in nearly equal measure the 11th Foo Fighters album and the first chapter of their new life. Sonically channeling the naiveté of Foo Fighters’ 1995 debut, informed by decades of maturity and depth, But Here We Are is the sound of brothers finding refuge in the music that brought them together in the first place 28 years ago, a process that was as therapeutic as it was about a continuation of life.”
Frankie & The Witch Fingers
Data Doom
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “There’s long been a growl festering in the West, an earthen rumble fed by tectonic tension, acrid smoke, and sun-parched air. The brew has boiled over lately, a pressure-cooked chaos that can no longer be contained. The growl has grown to a howl… and the howl is at the door. Few are as ready to meet the madness head on as Frankie And The Witch Fingers. On the upcoming Data Doom the band hurtle the listener head first into the wood-chipper of technological dystopia, systemic rot, creeping fascism, the military-industrial profit mill, and a near-constant erosion of humanity that peels away the soul bit by bit. With a fuse lit by these modern-day monstrosities, the band seek salvation through a 1,000-watt wake-up of rock ’n’ roll exfoliation.”
