Welcome to part two (of four) of Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2023! For any and all background info, see part one.
See also:
Part One (100-76)
Part Three (50-26)
Part Four (25-1)
Playlist with all albums (Spotify link) (Tidal link)
75. Helpful People – Brokenblossom Threats
Release date: August 27th
Record label: Tall Texan/Burundi Cloud
Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
As if Glenn Donaldson didn’t have enough going on with the near-continuous stream of new music he’s releasing as The Reds, Pinks & Purples, he’s teamed up with Carly Putnam of The Ollies and The Mantles to form Helpful People. Brokenblossom Threats is a seamless, smooth collaboration–Putnam sings lead vocals throughout the album but she and Donaldson split music and lyric writing, and I hear a lot of the fuzzy side of The Reds, Pinks & Purples’ guitar pop all over these twelve songs. (Read more)
74. Florry – The Holey Bible
Release date: August 4th
Record label: Dear Life
Genre: Alt-country, country rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Philadelphia’s Francie Medosch has been making music as Florry since at least 2018, but the third full-length from the alt-country group is the work of a massive seven-piece lineup. Medosch is still the songwriter on The Holey Bible, but the rest of the band’s performance on her songs is impressive and essential–balanced throughout, equally likely to lean into their rock and roll instincts as their earnest country side. It takes craftsmanship to make a record that feels as laid-back and loose as The Holey Bible does. (Read more)
73. Tee Vee Repairmann – What’s on TV?
Release date: February 4th
Record label: Total Punk
Genre: Garage punk, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
The debut full-length from Sydney’s Tee Vee Repairmann follows a couple of EPs over the past two years, and their take on Australian garage rock-y power pop is quite compelling on What’s on TV? The group cut through a dozen songs in 24 minutes, although tracks like “Out of Order”, “Time 2 Kill”, and “Bus Stop” don’t need any more than their 1-2 minutes to make their marks. What’s on TV? is an energetic and occasionally less-than-polished album, but Tee Vee Repairmann are a pop group at their core, and the entirety of the record reflects this.
72. Worriers – Trust Your Gut
Release date: September 15th
Record label: Ernest Jenning Record Co.
Genre: Power pop, pop punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
The second Worriers album of 2023 steps back from the low-key, bedroom-pop-ish aura of Warm Blanket to return Lauren Denitzio and their collaborators (including members of The Hold Steady and Against Me!) back into the world of sharp indie-pop-punk from which they originated. Denitzio’s songwriting has always been the main draw of Worriers, rather than the clothes in which their songs are dressed, and Trust Your Gut is a reminder that their lyrics can resonate and echo just as effectively in a “polished” pop context as in “intimate” bedroom rock. (Read more)
71. Lonesome Joan – On North Pond
Release date: October 23rd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Folk rock, singer-songwriter, lo-fi indie rock
Formats: Cassette, digital
On North Pond is explicitly a concept album about the North Pond Hermit, a recluse who lived in the titular area of Maine with virtually no direct human contact for 27 years until 2013. Lonesome Joan’s Amanda Lozada clearly found something resonant in this figure, channeling it into a quietly impressive collection of folk rock with a depth that reveals itself to me more and more on repeat listens. For a mostly self-recorded folk album, On North Pond is pleasingly dynamic–frequently hushed and intimate, yes, but also rousing and rocking in more places than one would expect. (Read more)
70. Royal Ottawa – Carcosa
Release date: October 17th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: College rock, folk rock, psychedelic rock, Paisley Underground
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Royal Ottawa are an elusive Canadian band whose members have been sporadically releasing and playing music since the 1980s (originally as the early punk/post-punk band Bugs Harvey Oswald). For a band that’s existed under the radar for so long, Royal Ottawa are pretty good at selling themselves–they describe Carcosa as “sand-blasted through time to create a sonic experience that is at once familiar and hauntingly alien”. Listening to the album, it’s clear that Royal Ottawa have been playing the long game, following a unique, winding path to arrive here in the form of a nineteen-song, eighty-minute behemoth of desert rock, folk music, and psychedelia. (Read more)
69. Slaughter Beach, Dog – Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling
Release date: September 22nd
Record label: Lame-O
Genre: Singer-songwriter, alt-country, folk rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling, the fifth Slaughter Beach, Dog album, is a laid-back folk rock record that finds bandleader Jake Ewald completely in his element. It’s an album made by someone who’s always had a knack for songwriting–he’s cultivated a folk-indebted, earnest, and distinctly hand-drawn style over several Slaughter Beach, Dog releases–but who’s continued to grow and become more comfortable and trusting in his work (and in his band, who, having been given more room to explore than in past Slaughter Beach records, more than do these songs justice). (Read more)
68. Lydia Loveless – Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again
Release date: September 22nd
Record label: Bloodshot
Genre: Country rock, alt-country, singer-songwriter
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Lydia Loveless is back at the rebooted Bloodshot Records for Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again, and with it comes more of a return to the country rock from which Loveless had stepped away with 2020’s Daughter’s more “atmospheric indie rock” sound. Songs like “Runaway” and “Feel” suggest that it’s not an entirely clean break (nor should it be; Daughter was very good), although it’s always invigorating to hear Loveless rip through material like “Poor Boy” and “Toothache”, or wander their way through the heady but catchy maze of “Sex and Money”.
67. Aux Caroling – Hydrogen Bonds
Release date: October 27th
Record label: Half a Person
Genre: Singer-songwriter, folk rock
Formats: CD, digital
Hydrogen Bonds is a reluctant indie pop record made by North Carolina’s Scott Deaver, finally seeing the light of day after resting in a Dropbox folder for several years. The first (non-holiday-themed) album from his project Aux Caroling is a collection of songs preoccupied with the passing of time and what that means for its narrators, albeit in a subtle and gradually-revealing way. Deaver and collaborator Mike Albanese give these thirteen songs a polished indie rock sheen, but they don’t get in the way of the compelling songwriting that helps Hydrogen Bonds stand out in a crowded field. (Read more)
66. Sparklehorse – Bird Machine
Release date: November 3rd
Record label: Anti-
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, power pop, psych pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
I did not expect to be listening to an entire new Sparklehorse album in 2023, but Bird Machine is here, and it’s full of delicately beautiful songs that remind us all just how impossibly gifted the late Mark Linkous was at all of this. These fourteen songs are notably less fussed-over than the four previous Sparklehorse records–supposedly Linkous intended to make a record this way, though one wonders if he would’ve continued tinkering with Bird Machine had he not passed away a year after its recording. Regardless, I’m grateful for this album, which contains several instant Sparklehorse classics and a few songs that ask for a bit more time and leeway before fully revealing themselves.
65. The Smashing Times – This Sporting Life
Release date: November 3rd
Record label: K/Perennial
Genre: Jangle pop, psychedelic pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
This Sporting Life, the fourth Smashing Times album since 2019, might be the most fully-realized that the Baltimore quintet have sounded yet. It’s their most pop-forward offering, even as they haven’t abandoned the exploratory streak that made them stick out in the first place. The Smashing Times’ music is a warped wonderland where vintage jangle pop and folk rock take strange and unknowable twists and turns all over–there’s unsurprisingly a lot to get lost in on This Sporting Life, but there are also several memorable signposts in the form of sneakily brilliant pop songs. (Read more)
64. En Attendant Ana – Principia
Release date: February 24th
Record label: Trouble in Mind
Genre: Jangle pop, post-punk, dream pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
En Attendant Ana eagerly slide pop song after pop song out toward the listener on Principia, the French band’s third album. Margaux Bouchaudon remains the band’s primary singer and songwriter, but the whole band give Principia its sound–the rhythm section keeps one foot of the record firmly rooted in post-punk, while the vocals, trumpets, saxophones, and shimmering guitars help push Principia into dreamy indie pop territory. En Attendant Ana are operating at a high level on Principia–it feels like the work of a band who we can expect to be a reliable source of good indie rock for a long time. (Read more)
63. Dusk – Glass Pastures
Release date: October 20th
Record label: Don Giovanni
Genre: Country rock, alt-country, roots rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Glass Pastures is the first proper Dusk album in a half-decade, although it finds the Appleton, Wisconsin sextet in just as rare a form as they were on 2018’s Dusk. It’s a timeless-sounding collection of vintage pop music in the form of enjoyable country rock and roll, and there’s also a somewhat surprising depth to songs like the rambling “At the Roadside” that feels like a new facet of Dusk. On the whole, Glass Pasture’s vibes are immaculate, just begging to be played with the windows down in the summer–but it’s certainly sturdy enough to be enjoyed in all weather and terrain.
62. Flat Worms – Witness Marks
Release date: September 22nd
Record label: GOD?/Drag City
Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, fuzz rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Los Angeles’ Flat Worms have always been one of my favorite modern bands who loiter at the corner in between post-punk and garage rock. Stuff like the Into the Iris EP and Antarctica take a no-nonsense, song-first, “workmanlike” approach to the genre, and on their first record in three years, they haven’t lost a step. Even for a band that excels at making music like this, Witness Marks particularly has a “back in the saddle” feeling, even more focused on rolling through sharp garage rock as a single, in-lockstep unit. Frontperson Will Ivy’s writing is heavier than ever this time around, and Flat Worms don’t soften their blows as they take his material on. (Read more)
61. Noah Roth – Florida
Release date: October 6th
Record label: Rocket to Heaven
Genre: Singer-songwriter, folk
Formats: Digital
The third Noah Roth solo album in a year and change is a departure for the Chicago/Philadelphia singer-songwriter. After the studio-friendly folk rock of Breakfast of Champions and the noisy experiments of Don’t Forget to Remember, Florida is almost entirely drawn from Roth’s vocals and an acoustic guitar, recorded alone over a couple of days during a stay in the titular state. Roth remains an ornate pop songwriter, and the skeletal nature of the record does nothing to dampen the musical personality they’ve honed in on as of late. (Read more)
60. Screaming Females – Desire Pathway
Release date: February 17th
Record label: Don Giovanni
Genre: Alt-rock, punk, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Five years after the last Screaming Females record (2018’s All at Once), the immediately-hitting Desire Pathway makes it feel like they were never gone. The trio sound as tight and laser-focused as ever on the new one–it’s a little surprising that they’ve returned with something this concise compared to All at Once’s sprawl, but Screaming Females sound so alive while playing songs like “Desert Train”, “Mourning Dove”, and “Ornament” that it’s clear that they’re exactly where they should be on Desire Pathway.
59. The Cowboys – Sultan of Squat
Release date: August 25th
Record label: Feel It
Genre: Power pop, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
On their sixth album and first in three years, Bloomington, Indiana’s The Cowboys dive further into polished, gleaming power pop over thirteen songs of rock-and-roll rave-ups and dramatic cascades of hooks. Sultan of Squat’s opening title track and “Raining Sour Grapes” are some of the best pop moments of the year, bar none, and The Cowboys keep things full steam ahead with an exuberance and energy that reflects their garage rock roots, even as they sound as refined as ever. (Read more)
58. Frog – Grog
Release date: November 17th
Record label: Audio Antihero
Genre: Experimental pop, folk rock, psychedelic rock, freak folk, prog-pop
Formats: Digital
The fifth album from Frog, the Queens duo of brothers Danny & Steve Bateman, is a pleasingly divergent record. Nearly every song on Grog takes a different tack than the track coming before it, even as the Batemans hold it together with shaky but intact pop hooks and Dan’s timeless-sounding, surprisingly versatile voice. Listening to Grog kind of feels like an alternate-universe oldies station in how it picks and chooses sounds from throughout the past to create a new listening experience. (Read more)
57. Guided by Voices – Welshpool Frillies
Release date: July 21st
Record label: GBV, Inc.
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, 90s indie rock, power pop, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
The current lineup of Guided by Voices has developed a reputation for slow-burners, for intricate prog-indebted records that take a few listens to soak in (the three or records before this one really seemed to cement this). In contrast, Welshpool Frillies, the group’s varied and limber second album of 2023, feels like the most immediate they’ve allowed themselves to be in at least a dozen records, rolling out vintage post-punk-pop Robert Pollard hits like “Why Won’t You Kiss Me” and even allowing some lo-fi acoustic highlights to sneak in with “Mother Mirth” and “Chain Dance”.
56. Greg Mendez – Greg Mendez
Release date: May 5th
Record label: Forged Artifacts/Devil Town Tapes
Genre: Indie folk, slowcore
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Greg Mendez is, loosely, an indie folk record with some classical pop touches and some moments (like the organ-and-vocals “Sweetie”) that sound a little Jeff Mangum-influenced–but mainly, the album sounds like whatever Greg Mendez thinks serves the songs best. It’s subtle, quiet, and not openly concerned with being immediately liked, but it’s undeniably captivating. Mendez’s blunt assessments of thorny and complex interpersonal situations are where his songwriting shines–there are a lot of good songs about sad subject matter, but Greg Mendez is a truly masterful example of spinning ugliness into prettiness. (Read more)
55. Hammer No More the Fingers – Silver Zebra
Release date: October 20th
Record label: Trinity House/Defend Vinyl
Genre: Math rock, power pop, prog-pop, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
A great new-to-me discovery in the waning hours of 2023, North Carolina’s Hammer No More the Fingers have returned after a decade of inactivity with the all-hits, no-filler 22-minute Silver Zebra. J. Robbins recorded this, and the trio certainly trend towards the hooky end of Dischord Records (and of modern Dischord-influenced bands like Mister Goblin, through whom I found this band), although they’re also just straight-up prog-pop “XTC-core” on songs like “Afterlife”. Immediate, hard-hitting, interesting, and exploratory guitar music.
54. Parister – Here’s What You Wonder
Release date: May 11th
Record label: Candlepin
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, alt-country
Formats: Cassette, digital
The humble presentation of Here’s What You Wonder’s songs, in addition to Parister’s not-infrequent use of 90s indie rock distortion, helps them fit in with other bands on their label, Candlepin Records. There’s an obvious twang in the playing of the Louisville band and in the songwriting of guitarist/vocalist Jake Tapley that also puts them in the realm of modern fuzz-country (“country-gaze”, perhaps) groups. Here’s What You Wonder is a generous album, with its thirteen songs all feeling full and complete, unfolding with Tapley’s unassuming but steady vocals guiding them, and the band play as polished or as loud as any one track requires. (Read more)
53. Subsonic Eye – All Around You
Release date: September 13th
Record label: Topshelf
Genre: Dream pop, indie pop, fuzz pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
On their third full-length record, Singapore’s Subsonic Eye pick up where 2021’s underrated Nature of Things left off–it’s an album of wide-eyed, big-sky indie rock marked by lead singer Nur Wahidah’s compelling, expressive vocals and hooks that work well with All Around You’s grandiose ambitions. All Around You feels fuller and bigger than its 29 minutes, with the band packing a lot into a lot of these songs’ relatively brief runtimes. As Subsonic Eye probe guitar-driven dream pop, amp-cranked fuzz-pop, and sparkling heartland rock, Wahidah holds them together, always ensuring the band’s personality shines through. (Read more)
52. The Pretty Flowers – A Company Sleeve
Release date: July 14th
Record label: Double Helix
Genre: Power pop, alt-rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Although it took a half-decade for the second full-length album from Los Angeles’ The Pretty Flowers to finally materialize, A Company Sleeve is more than worth this wait–it’s a very strong collection of earnest guitar rock that incorporates bits of slacker rock, jangle pop, college rock, power pop, pop punk, and heartland rock, all led charismatically by frontperson Noah Green’s clear, everyman vocals. The whole record is stuffed with hits, with Green really tapping into a rich vein of later Replacements-indebted, big-chorus-featuring power-pop-punk again and again without wearing out their tools. (Read more)
51. Tough Age – Waiting Here
Release date: June 16th
Record label: We Are Time/Bobo Integral
Genre: Indie pop, jangle pop, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
For a certain subset of guitar pop fans, you’re not going to find a more satisfying record in 2023 than the latest from Vancouver’s Tough Age. The trio tear through ten spirited tracks of Flying Nun-inspired indie rock music on Waiting Here, the band’s fifth album–frontman Jarrett Evan Samson is a gifted pop songwriter who captures a range of emotions with a relatively barebones setup, and rhythm section Lauren Smith and Jesse Locke enthusiastically give these songs a full-band energy that’s missing from a lot of modern Dunedin-inspired bands. (Read more)
Click here for:
Part One (100-76)
Part Three (50-26)
Part Four (25-1)
Rosy Overdrive 