37 Best Rock Albums Of 2023

Wednesday: the mouse saw god

This is the Asheville Quartet’s fifth album. the mouse saw god It feels like a debut. Singer Carly Hartsman mines his own turbulent teenage years to form both an origin story and a portrait of dead-end small-town life. A sex shop off the main road, a Sunday school class being taught while getting fucked up, and an angry friend. The last few scenes are from his country-rock love song “Chosen to Deserve,” in which Hartsman conveys his toughest moments: “We were meant to be for each other.” I sing as a means. But the album’s most memorable moment is “Bull Believer.” It’s a song that Hartsman hums as if he was feeling disappointed after watching someone else play it. mortal kombat The first part of the eight-and-a-half-minute song featured only the second half shouting out the game’s catchphrase, “Finish him!”upon the mouse saw god, the band reaches shoegaze transcendence, screamo heaven, and a kind of catharsis that wears you out in the most glorious of ways. – Jill Mapes

Yule: soft scar

During the pandemic, Yule turned to the poppy guitar rock of her childhood iPod for solace. soft scar Melting down a decade’s worth of alt-rock touchstones, washes of candy-red blood alternate with nectar, honey, and glitter, creating an ethereal space of tones and textures. In the lyrics, Yule turns wide-eyed gazes onto the alien landscape of their bodies, offering both the promise of intimacy (“You’re never alone”) and the threat of endless surveillance (“I’m not yours”). “I’m on the phone”). , in one song he vows to “keep you safe” and in another he vows to “eat your face.” It’s a neurochemical ocean not unlike her 2023 online life, but in “xwx” yeule lets out the gleeful screams of someone surfing its shores. –Jason Green

Yo La Tengo: this stupid world

Yo La Tengo’s 17th album does nothing to shake their reputation as indie rock’s most reliable purveyors of sonic therapy. The gorgeous ‘Aselstine’ is delivered like a prayer whispered on an autumn walk, while ‘Fallout’ rushes in with a heartfelt plea to drop. out of our fast-paced timeline. But from the rumbling guitar solo that introduces “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” to Georgia Hubley’s relentless rhythm on the title track, this urgent, self-produced collection threatens to raise a little hell out of the band’s New Jersey studio space. doing. It may sound comfortable, but it doesn’t mean you’re satisfied. –Sam Sodomsky

Youth Lagoon: Heaven is a junkyard

Youth Lagoon’s great songs have a miniature majesty, while the songs on Trevor Powers’ comeback album play like a small village of empty Victorian houses. The sound of a lonely piano flourishes like the spire of a turret. Sam KS’s drums click together with precision like roofs coming together at seams. A tilted sample emerges and climbs the wall like a vine. And Powers’ voice is as quiet as ever, the voice of a ghost striding through the halls screaming stories of family disintegration. Heaven is a junkyardThe celestial wasteland of is a sad scene, but its aftertaste is joyful and long-lasting. –Stephen Arroyo

Eve tumor: Praise the Lord who chews but does not eat. (or simply, hot between worlds)

Eve the Tumor God is a very teasing character. His eyes wide open as he stares at creation and pecks at us like a cat tapping a half-dead quarry. As a rock and roll mystic, Tumor sifts through grime in search of divine brilliance. If their lyrics seem like they’re circling down a half-filled drain, you’re listening correctly. Amid breathtaking guitars and volcanic drum sounds, praise the lord Lift the tumor’s obstructed hymn higher than ever. God is out of reach. All we have here is a conflict about what we mean to each other. –Sasha Geffen

37 Best Rock Albums of 2023

Wednesday: the mouse saw god

Yule: soft scar

Yo La Tengo: this stupid world

Youth Lagoon: Heaven is a junkyard

Eve tumor: Praise the Lord who chews but does not eat. (or simply, hot between worlds)

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