Yesterday and the day before, Rosy Overdrive published its Top 100 Albums of 2023. There’s a good chance you’ve read it; it’s a great list, so be sure to catch up on what you missed (unless you’ve already heard all 100 albums on there, in which case, reach out for a Rosy Overdrive commemorative plaque). However, bands and labels have stubbornly continued to release new music in December, and here we are to look at some of it: a new album from Bory (which actually appeared on Rosy Overdrive’s year-end list earlier this week), a reissue of a thirty-year-old album from Common Thread, and two new compilations from WarHen Records and SPINSTER Sounds.
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. And last but not least: don’t forget to vote in the 2023 Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll!
Bory – Who’s a Good Boy
Release date: December 8th Record label: Earth Libraries/Earth Worms Genre: Fuzz rock, power pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull Track: Our New Home
Who’s a Good Boy feels like the missing piece of a certain corner of indie rock. Bory is Brenden Ramirez, a Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter and guitarist who’s established himself as a part of the exciting new wave of power pop over the past few years. He’s associated with the great Mo Troper–Ramirez has played in Troper’s band, and he contributed guitar to Domino by Diners, an album that Troper produced. All the while, he’s done this without a full-length album–the sole Bory release, until this week, had been 2021’s Sidelined EP. Troper also produced Who’s a Good Boy, and like on Domino, he plays drums–everything else you hear on this record is played by Ramirez. Although shades of Troper and Diners’ Blue Broderick can certainly be heard in this album’s songwriting, Ramirez develops a style distinct from the sharp concision of Domino and the pop explosions of the last couple of Troper records.
Who’s a Good Boy is a comparatively cooler record–it’s a bit more muted, low-key, “slacker rock”-y in parts–which, in a way, makes the giant power pop choruses that Bory nonetheless offer up throughout the record hit even harder. The album is a pleasingly asymmetrical journey–a somewhat odd but transfixing beginning, a pure power pop center, and a muted but still quite potent conclusion. Album opener “The Flake” is a fuzzed-out piece of noise pop that’s far from the most immediate song on the record, and “Five-Course Meal” is a mid-tempo lo-fi rocker that feels like a strange choice for a single, but there’s a lot to like in both of them, and their warped catchiness makes it even more thrilling when Ramirez and Troper rip through three golden, straight-up power pop songs in the middle of the record in “Our New Home”, “North Douglas”, and “We Both Won”. Even at its most euphoric, Who’s a Good Boy has a bittersweet feeling, so it’s not surprising that Bory find plenty of melancholy to accompany the pacing tones of “Sidelines” and the acoustic “Take It from Me” to close the record. Does Ramirez still write great pop hooks into these final two songs? Well, have you even been paying attention? (Bandcamp link)
Common Thread – Fountain (30th Anniversary)
Release date: December 8th Record label: Fort Lowell Genre: Noise rock, shoegaze, 90s indie rock, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Template
This year, Wilmington, North Carolina’s Fort Lowell Records have put out new music from a couple of longtime indie rockers in James Sardone and Summer Set, but for their final release of 2023, they’ve gone even further and grabbed a lost southeastern-U.S. indie rock record to hoist from relative obscurity in Common Thread’s Fountain. Common Thread originated in the late 1980s in the suburbs of Jacksonville, Florida, putting out Six Marbles and a Bowl of Mud in 1990 and following it up with Fountain, released only on cassette, in 1993. The band–guitarists Joe Parker and Travis Taylor, bassist Joey Zimmerman, and drummer Craig Parlet–toured the East Coast extensively, making an impression on the co-founders of Fort Lowell Records with their noisy but melodic mix of 1980s post-punk, noise rock, and shoegaze. The label’s James Tritten and Tracy Shedd have made it clear that this reissue campaign is especially personal for them–but, as someone who hadn’t heard of Common Thread at all before this year, I can confidently say that one didn’t have to “be there” at the time to appreciate their sophomore album.
Last month, I wrote about The Veldt, another band who was making loud, layered indie rock at the same time in the same part of the country. It’s enough to suggest that the American Southeast is an underappreciated part of this era of underground music–not the least of which is because Fountain sounds so different from The Veldt’s Cocteau Twins-indebted sound. Common Thread were certainly influenced by Sonic Youth, as they had a similar attitude with regards to wringing noise out of their guitars, but they also brought a British sense of dour melody to their music that Parker, Taylor, and Zimmerman (all singers and songwriters) hid underneath their instruments. At the same time, the prominent, rumbling bass that marks songs like “Sesame” and “Digit” feels very American noise rock–coupled with Parlet’s tireless drumming, Common Thread boasted a rhythm section that a lot of contemporary “amplifier worship” guitar-heavy bands didn’t really have. Fitting of a band with three different leaders, Fountain feels like a lot–it’s absolutely a statement worth shining some more light on after three decades. (Bandcamp link)
Various Artists – STOP MVP: Artists From WV, VA & NC Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline
Release date: December 1st Record label: WarHen Genre: Folk, country rock, bluegrass, experimental, ambient, hip hop Formats: CD, digital Pull Track: The Coal Tattoo
As if the people and environment of Appalachia have not already experienced enough destruction at the hands of extraction capitalism from the fossil fuel industry (an industry whose profits never seem to reach the people whose livelihoods are most impacted by it), the Mountain Valley Pipeline is on track to weave a trail of damage through Virginia and West Virginia by next year (with bipartisan support, mind you). As with anything with this kind of money behind it, the government is fully on the side of capital, and courts have been utilized to harass, intimidate, and imprison activists for exercising their First Amendment rights. WarHen Records, based out of Charlottesville, has curated an impressively stacked compilation with this in mind–over the course of two CDs, forty musicians from Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina offer up a wide variety of songs for a collection whose proceeds go to the Appalachian Legal Defense Fund, specifically for “bail, legal defense and defendant support”.
Although Stop MVP showcases a host of genres, those expecting to find traditional “Appalachian music” here will certainly not be disappointed–folk, bluegrass, and country feature heavily into this lineup, in the form of everything from Joe Bachman’s smoldering acoustic blues-folk “The Coal Tattoo”, Jimmy Costa’s rendition of “old railroad song” “The Dolly Womack Wreck”, and instrumental exercises like Joseph Decosimo’s banjo-heavy “Mulberry Gap” and Rosy Overdrive favorite Yasmin Williams’ joyous-sounding “Hawksbill Summit”. Other familiar faces to Pressing Concerns readers here are two WarHen artists in Dogwood Tales and Tucker Riggleman & the Cheap Dates, both of whom combine traditional country with rock and roll on their selections, the former from a new EP and the latter from an upcoming LP. STOP MVP also finds plenty of other types of music reverberating in these hills, from conscious rap (geonovah’s “STAY Alive” and Prolo’s “John Brown”) to psychedelic (Høly River’s “Spirit Riot”) and garage rock (New Boss’ “Frantic”) to experimental fare from Tallulah Cloos and Dog Scream (as well as selections from modern folk darlings Nathan Bowles and Daniel Bachman which remind us that “experimental” and “folk music” don’t have to be oppositional). I’ve really only scratched the surface of STOP MVP, a compilation full of artists who brought their best in service of a cause that merits it. (Bandcamp link)
Various Artists – Measure, Pour & Mixtape: Music for Cooking
Release date: December 1st Record label: Spinster Genre: Folk, experimental, ambient, country, bluegrass, singer-songwriter Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Whistlin’ Down the Rows
We’re two for one on loosely Appalachian/folk music-based various-artists compilations this week, as we’re also going to be looking at North Carolina/West Virginia-based SPINSTER Sounds’ Measure, Pour & Mixtape: Music for Cooking. The label refers to the cassette release as an “auditory cookbook”, made up of exclusive tracks inspired by eating, kitchen maintenance, recipes, cooking, and anything in this realm. SPINSTER has enlisted an impressive array of musicians to contribute to Measure, Pour & Mixtape, including their own Lou Turner, folk legend Michael Hurley, Texas folk experimentalists Little Mazarn, and, (somewhat oddly, albeit not in a bad way) Animal Collective’s Avery Tare (if you’re thinking “this feels like very similar territory to the WarHen compilation”, you’d be right–in fact, multiple artists have contributed a song to both albums, including SPINSTER co-founder Sally Anne Morgan).
Some of the artists on Measure, Pour & Mixtape offer up selections that are recognizably structured as folk songs, while others interpret the assignment in a more deconstructive manner, although in both cases it’s not difficult to make the connection between cooking and what they’ve put together for the compilation. The album begins with the gorgeous “Whistlin’ Down the Rows”, a deep but immediate piece of folk songwriting from Sarah Bachman and Andy McLeod that’s so striking that it’s hard to believe that it’s the first ever piece of recorded music from the former. Measure, Pour & Mixtape has plenty of music that excels in this vein–Turner and Morgan both offer up folk highlights, and Little Mazarn and Lavender Blue’s contributions keep one foot in this world while probing a bit outside of it. The leisurely pace of Hurley’s “Clatskanie” and the way it deals in repetition without ever tiring (in actuality, getting more spirited as the song crawls along) particularly feels like a capturing of the singer-songwriter’s attitude towards cooking. The second half of the cassette steps into the world of improvisation, ambient, and experimental electronic music, but comes full circle with the quiet acoustic “Folly of Tomato” by Ziona Riley as its final course. SPINSTER hit on something here by asking artists to step out of the box and into the kitchen. (Bandcamp link)
Here it is! Rosy Overdrive’s 25 favorite albums of 2023, revealed today along with albums 50 through 26, and coming a day after albums 51 through 100. This was the hardest year yet in terms of the top; specifically, the top twelve albums on the list I kept rearranging up until press time. I’m more than satisfied with what you’ll read below, however. Once again, thank you for reading, vote in the Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll, and stay tuned for upcoming EP and compilation lists as well as a few more Pressing Concerns.
Release date: February 24th Record label: Self-released Genre: Psychedelic pop, indie pop, garage rock, noise pop Formats: Digital
Shredded Sun’s members have a shared history dating back to their time in 2000s lo-fi garage punk group Fake Fictions, and they’ve also put out another album and a few EPs under their newer band over the past decade. Their time playing together assuredly is helpful in pulling off something like Each Dot and Each Line, which is a delightfully eclectic indie rock record that combines fuzz rock/shoegaze noiseness, a garage-punk edge, and power pop catchiness. They pull from several different eras of “alternative” and indie rock in a Yo La Tengo-esque, “music fan first and foremost” way, and their overall enthusiasm ensures that they pull off every genre shift. (Read more)
24. William Matheny – That Grand, Old Feeling
Release date: August 4th Record label: Hickman Holler Genre: Alt-country, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
West Virginia’s William Matheny has slowly but surely crafted a distinct world of worn-out vans, drifters, and hazy Biblical figures in his solo records for quite some time now. If you liked the sharp alt-country tunes of his last album, 2017’s, Strange Constellations, you won’t be disappointed in That Grand, Old Feeling, even as there’s a different feeling with this one–it feels like one long exhale, like Matheny’s taking a step back from the action and the movement for a moment. Just a moment, though; then it’s off to the next hole-in-the-wall for Matheny’s various narrators. (Read more)
23. Brontez Purnell – Confirmed Bachelor
Release date: November 10th Record label: Upset the Rhythm Genre: Power pop, garage rock, fuzz rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Short but incredibly potent, Confirmed Bachelor is a no-filler collection of immediate garage-rock-power-pop that picked up where Oakland’s Brontez Purnell left off on 2020’s White Boy Music EP. The former Younger Lovers frontperson tears through fuzzy, hooky rock and roll like it’s his job (which I suppose it is, at least when he’s not being an author, dancer, filmmaker, or choreographer)–we’re five songs in before we get a track longer than two minutes. The weirdest-sounding moment on Confirmed Bachelor might be the AutoTune-heavy cover of The Amps’ “Bragging Party”, although it’s arguably even weirder just how easily Purnell turns Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me” into a “Brontez Purnell song”.
22. Rust Ring – North to the Future
Release date: February 24th Record label: Knifepunch/Storm Chasers Ltd. Genre: Emo, punk rock Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Named after Alaska’s state motto, North to the Future uses the Last Frontier’s isolation as a jumping point for Rust Ring frontwoman Joram Zbichorski to write about her relationship with gender in a fantastical but still very close-hitting way. Oh, and it’s also a jumping point for a bunch of very good, very cathartic, gang-vocal-sporting emo-punk anthems. It’s a really great-sounding record, with Zbichorski and her collaborators bringing their A-game musically–North to the Future is interesting conceptually, but it wouldn’t be nearly as remarkable if Rust Ring didn’t execute it as well as they do. (Read more)
21. The Tubs – Dead Meat
Release date: January 27th Record label: Trouble in Mind Genre: Post-punk, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
The debut full-length record from The Tubs delivers on the promise of their 2021 EP Names (perhaps unsurprisingly, given Owen Williams’ work in Joanna Gruesome and Ex-Vöid). Dead Meat is an ace mix of vintage 80s post-punk and jangly indie pop, as catchy as it is chilly overall. The Tubs have a propulsive urgency to them in highlights like “Illusion Pt. II” and “Wretched Lie”, and Williams’ dark, self-lacerating songwriting gives a bite to songs like “Sniveller”, counterbalancing its massive chorus.
20. Teenage Tom Petties – Hotbox Daydreams
Release date: November 3rd Record label: Repeating Cloud/Safe Suburban Home Genre: Lo-fi power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Wiltshire, England’s Tom Brown recorded the self-titled debut Teenage Tom Petties album entirely on his own at home; a year later, the band is now a five-piece, three-guitar group that recorded their sophomore album, Hotbox Daydreams, in a real recording studio. As great as lo-fi Teenage Tom Petties sounded, I’m pleased to say that not only does Hotbox Daydreams retain that initial spark, it’s a leap forward for Brown and his collaborators in every way. It’s deeper, more energetic, more consistent, and it sounds better. Every song on Hotbox Daydreams could’ve been a single–and in a better universe, they all were. Shh, be quiet, “This One’s on You” just came on the radio. (Read more)
19. Sharp Pins – Turtle Rock
Release date: March 1st Record label: Hallogallo/Tall Texan Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, noise pop, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Sharp Pins is the solo project of Chicago’s Kai Slater, who also plays in good bands like Dwaal Troupe and Lifeguard. Sharp Pins’ latest album, Turtle Rock, hews closer to Dwaal Troupe’s lo-fi, poppy indie rock than Lifeguard’s post-hardcore sound, although Slater covers a lot of ground over the album’s thirteen songs and 35 minutes. Slater has a knack for wistful but exuberant lo-fi pop that reminds me of early Guided by Voices in a way that goes beyond aesthetics and recording styles–Sharp Pins will lapse into noisiness, but nothing can dull the impact of gems like “Bettie Wait” and “You Turned Off the Light”.
18. Onesie – Liminal Hiss
Release date: August 18th Record label: Totally Real/Pillow Sail/Kool Kat Musik Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, psych pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Brooklyn power pop quartet Onesie have a rock edge to them, although they deploy it strategically on Liminal Hiss, their third album. Sometimes the ornate touches let the band’s love of 60s/70s studio-based pop rock come through, while some of the looser moments on Liminal Hiss imagine The Chills as a more freewheeling, 90s indie rock-inspired group (like if the Flying Nun bands had taken influence from Pavement and Guided by Voices, instead of the other way around). Bandleader Ben Haberland puts together a barrage of warped, proggy pop hooks; nevertheless, they come through loud and clear and are nothing but joys to listen to. (Read more)
17. Coventry – Our Lady of Perpetual Health
Release date: September 19th Record label: Septic Jukebox Genre: Folk rock Formats: CD, digital
Chicago’s Coventry is a new collaboration between Jon Massey (Silo’s Choice) and Mike Fox (Arthhur, Flesh of the Stars). Their debut CD together, Our Lady of Perpetual Health, is an accessible but decidedly offbeat collection of excellently-penned pop songs and ornery folk rock. Judging by the sheen of Our Lady of Perpetual Health, Massey and Fox certainly have spent plenty of time with classic folk rock and “studio pop” from the 1960s and 70s, but it’s also a very Chicago record, channeling the spirit of both Drag City iconoclastic troubadours and Thrill Jockey jazz-fusion scientists. (Read more)
16. Norm Archer – Splitting the Bill
Release date: September 28th Record label: Panda Koala Genre: Power pop, 90s indie rock, pop punk, psych pop Formats: Digital
Unlike 2022’s Flying Cloud Terrace, Splitting the Bill was recorded with all live drums, allowing the music of Norm Archer to catch up just a little bit to bandleader Will Pearce’s kinetic energy. Splitting the Bill is still a pop record, but the edges of Norm Archer are as sharp as ever, merging power pop with Archers wqof Loaf-style 90s indie rock. Every facet of Pearce’s pop songwriting skills is on full display on Splitting the Bill, from grandiose, Pollard-esque multi-part suites to humbler, Westerbergian power-pop-punk. Splitting the Bill is an ornate work, one in which a closer inspection of even its less showy moments reveals exquisite detail. (Read more)
15. Washer – Improved Means to Deteriorated Ends
Release date: April 28th Record label: Exploding in Sound Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Washer’s long-awaited third album has been one of my most anticipated records since 2017’s All Aboard–six years later, we finally have Improved Means to Deteriorated Ends, and from the first seconds of opening track “King Insignificant”, the band instantly bridges the long gap. Washer haven’t abandoned their core sound (a barebones blend of punk, post-punk, post-hardcore, and noise rock), but what they’ve been working on, it seems like, is packing it with as much as possible. The record’s fifteen songs grapple with thoughts on the passage of time, difficulties in holding on to motivation, and failing to meet one’s own expectations and live up to one’s self-image, all over their spirited music. (Read more)
14. Taking Meds – Dial M for Meds
Release date: September 1st Record label: Smartpunk Genre: 90s indie rock, power pop, indie punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
In my small circle of the music world, Dial M for Meds qualifies as a genuine breakout record. The New York four-piece really put the “power” in power pop on their fourth full-length album–there are shades of Superchunk and Archers of Loaf all over the record, and it’s not not heavy, but Taking Meds take these tools and aim for massive and polished hooks and choruses with a straightforwardness rarely seen in 90s indie rock/punk revivalists. Listening to the melodic squall of “Outside”, it’s hard to believe nobody saw the potential in making something like Dial M for Meds–it just sounds so self-evident.
13. Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band – Dancing on the Edge
Release date: October 27th Record label: Sophomore Lounge/ever/never Genre: Alt-country, folk rock, country rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
On Ryan Davis’ first solo-ish album and first “song” record since the last album from his country rock group State Champion in 2018, the Louisville singer-songwriter is as sprawling and as “country” as ever. Davis’ unbothered Kentucky tones and the Roadhouse Band’s post-post-country rock-and-roll both sound brilliant across Dancing on the Edge, expanding Davis’ songs into seven-plus-minute behemoths. Closer inspection of the record only yields more and more impressive results, as Davis’ characteristically winding but sharp writing is as strong as ever. (Read more)
12. Whitney’s Playland – Sunset Sea Breeze
Release date: March 17th Record label: Paisley Shirt/Meritorio Genre: Power pop, indie pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
The debut record from the Bay Area’s Whitney’s Playland is a strong opening statement. The band’s sound fits in with the sleepy, dreamy side of jangle pop, but Sunset Sea Breeze is also one of the straight-up catchiest records I’ve heard this year–it’s a lo-fi power pop record first and foremost. The four-piece band offer up the transcendent indie pop of the title track, the big-electric-guitar-wielding “Mercy”, and a host of other hits; Sunset Sea Breeze offers enough strong hooks for several records’ worth of indie pop. (Read more)
11. Spirit Night – Bury the Dead
Release date: August 4th Record label: Self-released Genre: Emo-y indie rock Formats: Digital
There’s a moment in “Country Roads”, a song about Dylan Balliett’s complicated and activating relationship with his home state of West Virginia, where the Spirit Night frontman sings “Now I’m carrying with me / The rapid river / And the people it claimed / Who I can’t forget”. In perhaps the single most illustrative moment on Bury the Dead, Balliett directly hovers over still-sharp memories of the people he’s outlived and the places he’s outran. Trailing out from this state of mind are the ten songs of Bury the Dead, an album that navigates this complicated tightrope soundtracked by the sounds of classic, spirited, emo and punk-informed indie rock. (Read more)
10. Curling – No Guitar
Release date: August 11th Record label: Self-released Genre: Prog-pop, power pop, math rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Curling’s third album, No Guitar, was assembled slowly but surely, “bit by bit”, over the past five years. The two Pacific Ocean-separated members of the band, Jojo Brandel and Bernie Gelman ended up building an album that reflects their love of vintage 60s-esque, heavily-tinkered-with studio pop rock, without straying too far from the sound of their previous, more math rock-indebted music. No Guitar is a wholly unique combination of Game Theory, XTC, Jon Brion, progressive pop, power pop, and math rock (with, yes, a little bit of emo in there too); Brandel and Gelman’s influences are apparent here, but they also completely transcend them. (Read more)
9. Poppy Patica – Black Cat Back Stage
Release date: May 5th Record label: House of Joy Genre: Power pop, 90s indie rock, indie pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
After a string of self-recorded and -released records, Poppy Patica’s Peter Hartmann takes advantage of a full band backing on his latest album, Black Cat Back Stage. Although these recordings place Hartmann’s songwriting front and center, the songs are dressed up with a style that combines Hartmann’s 90s indie rock influences with deep, layered synths and organs brought forward by the other members. It’s a charming but weighty sheen for Black Cat Back Stage, which deals with Hartmann’s original home of Washington, D.C. over the course of its ten songs. (Read more)
8. Vista House – Oregon III
Release date: February 10th Record label: Anything Bagel Genre: Alt-country Formats: Cassette, digital
Portland, Oregon’s Tim Howe first appeared on my radar last year as one half of First Rodeo, but he also fronts the country rock group Vista House. The newest Vista House album, Oregon III, contains plenty of the twangy sound found in Howe’s contributions to First Rodeo, but it also accentuates Howe’s fuzzier and rockier sides. The album achieves a full-band indie rock sound in places, although it also has a bedroom pop charm in others. Howe’s voice is the main constant throughout Oregon III, a comforting and deep-felt presence throughout the record. (Read more)
7. Blues Lawyer – All in Good Time
Release date: February 17th Record label: Dark Entries Genre: Indie pop, power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Blues Lawyer has expanded from the founding duo of Rob I. Miller and Elyse Schrock to a quartet on All in Good Time, their third full-length album. Subsequently, it’s a full-sounding power pop album, containing traces of dreamy jangle pop but shaken awake and enlisted into the service of making big indie pop anthems. Miller and Shrock are intriguing songwriters beyond their pop instincts: All in Good Time’s songs are full of hard-earned realizations about interpersonal relationships, but as uncomfortable or desperate as things get on the album, it always sounds fantastic. (Read more)
6. Pacing – Real poetry is always about plants and birds and trees and the animals and milk and honey breathing in the pink but real life is behind a screen
Release date: October 13th Record label: Totally Real Genre: Anti-folk, bedroom pop, singer-songwriter, indie folk Formats: CD, cassette, digital
Real Poetry… is an album well-served by its title. Pacing’s Katie McTigue wriggles back and forth in her writing between stubbornly conversational and surprisingly poetic throughout the record’s twelve tracks. Pacing has been tagged “anti-folk”, which is partially true, but Really Poetry…’s indie pop structures (while frequently acoustic guitar-based, yes) range from sketched sparsely to keenly orchestrated, dramatic, intimate, and experimental and more in under thirty minutes. The questions and musings about art, legitimacy, and presentation of concepts at the core of the album only come clearer into focus the more chaotic Real Poetry… gets, however. (Read more)
5. Buddie – Agitator
Release date: April 21st Record label: Crafted Sounds Genre: 90s indie rock, fuzz rock, power pop Formats: Cassette, digital
On their second full-length album (and first since lead singer/songwriter Dan Forrest relocated to Vancouver from Philadelphia), Buddie deliver eleven deep, fulfilling, and sharply-realized indie rock songs. Forrest remains a towering but approachable songwriter on Agitator, thinking in big-picture terms but never losing sight of the day-to-day and direct interpersonal minutia of his grand topics. Forrest’s gentle vocals are juxtaposed by the sweeping music that accompanies them, encompassing Built to Spill-esque 90s indie rock, fuzz rock, and power pop–delivered with an earnestness from the band that matches their frontperson. (Read more)
4. Connections – Cool Change
Release date: March 24th Record label: Trouble in Mind Genre: Lo-fi power pop Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Connections’ sixth album, Cool Change, took five years to come out (an eternity for a band who started off putting out multiple records in the same year), but it’s anything but a soft relaunch for the Columbus band. The new album has a bit of everything–a massive, five-minute opening statement of purpose with “In Space”, smooth power pop in “Slow Ride” and “Unsolved Mysteries”, and subtlety with “I Confess” and “You Are All I Need”. With a half-dozen records and a decade together under their belt, Connections remain at their peak. (Read more)
3. Soft on Crime – New Suite
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Eats It Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, psychedelic pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Soft on Crime eagerly explore guitar pop of several stripes on their debut record, New Suite. The trio toss off excellent tunes in the vein of retro psychedelia, fuzzy lo-fi indie rock, and starry-eyed college rock across the album’s runtime–the pitch-perfect “Telex Eyes”, the giddily melodic “Crying Pool”, the crunchy “Splendid Life”. Soft on Crime jam these dozen songs with as many instrumental and vocals hooks as possible per track, even when they’re putting together numbers that reflect their less overtly poppy influences, like the jerky, Devo-ish “Pretty Purgatory”. (Read more)
2. Star 99 – Bitch Unlimited
Release date: August 4th Record label: Lauren Genre: Power pop, pop punk, twee Formats: Vinyl, digital
Bitch Unlimited is ten songs and 26 minutes long, and just about every second of it is crammed with hooks. Although it’s the San Jose band’s debut album, its members have played in Bay Area bands for a while–perhaps explaining how Bitch Unlimited so effortlessly pulls off that unmistakable sound of early 2010s indie-pop-punk bands like P.S. Eliot, Chumped, and Gladie. Star 99’s philosophy seems to be that there’s nothing that can’t be made into excellent, catchy, fizzy, and quite memorable power pop, with every wrinkle on the record (the shared lead vocal duties, the slightly buried but still noticeable big synth hooks, and, of course, plenty of power chords) defending this thesis admirably. (Read more)
1. Upper Wilds – Jupiter
Release date: July 21st Record label: Thrill Jockey Genre: Fuzz rock, space rock, noise pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Upper Wilds continue to storm through our Solar System loudly and grandly with their fourth album, and third in their series of planetary-based albums that began with 2018’s Mars and continued with 2021’s Venus. The Brooklyn trio have always been ambitious, so it’s no surprise that their album based upon the largest planet in Earth’s neighborhood rises to the challenge, and then some. The band’s loud, catchy, and massive-sounding fuzz rock is perfect for the scale, and for bandleader Dan Friel’s writing, which uses the titular planet to explore fascinating subjects both terrestrial and extra- as the band white-knuckles through the cosmos. With Jupiter, Upper Wilds have finally found a muse that’s gigantic enough to match them. It’s their best album yet, and it’s my favorite album of 2023. (Read more)
Hello! Welcome back (or just welcome) to Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2023! Today reveals the top 50 albums on the list. Yesterday unveiled numbers 100 through 51, so be sure to check those out as well if you haven’t yet.
Release date: October 20th Record label: Big Scary Monsters Genre: Indie pop, synthpop, folk rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
ME REX have already been in a class of their own, but that hasn’t stopped the London trio from continuing to evolve and push themselves. Giant Elk is their first “normal” album after a bunch of EPs and the experimental Megabear; surprising no one, the band can absolutely hold their own in an eleven-song, 40-minute format. Myles McCabe continues to be one of the most underappreciated songwriters in indie rock, and the band sounds as loud, polished, and confident as ever as they find new and exciting new hidden depths to McCabe’s already substantial songs.
49. Patio – Collection
Release date: September 22nd Record label: Fire Talk Genre: Post-punk, art punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Patio’s second album has something for everyone; musically, Collection is a collection of quite aurally pleasing indie rock and art-punk, dealing in both garage-y bluntness and more restrained melodicism. At the same time, there’s plenty of unexpected and exciting instrumental moments, and Collection’s lyrics are attention-grabbing too, both when Loren DiBlasi and Lindsey-Paige McCloy decide to be straightforward and when they’re a bit cagey. It’s a record that prompts one to listen a bit more actively, rewarding any such attention bestowed upon it more and more with each pass. (Read more)
48. Local Drags – Mess of Everything
Release date: March 17th Record label: Stardumb Genre: Power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Local Drags is a power pop group from Springfield, Illinois, and their latest record, Mess of Everything, represents the best of the genre–big, catchy hooks abound on it. There’s just no other way of saying it; these songs are timeless. It’s another no-fat release on this list–twenty-four minutes, ten songs, and endless fun. It starts off with a few massive hits, but Local Drags also do the Midwestern thing of hiding the best couple of tracks (the note-perfect “Aloe” and the massive “Better Now”) at the end.
47. Nicole Yun – Matter
Release date: April 14th Record label: Kanine Genre: Indie pop, dream pop, power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Nicole Yun led the 2010s Richmond dreamy indie rock group Eternal Summers, but in recent years she’s turned her attention to a solo career. Her second album, Matter, is a breezy collection of fluffy but meaty pop rock songs that are aided in no small part due to Yun’s front-and-center, charismatic vocals. There’s a Guided by Voices-esque effortless catchiness to a lot of Matter (interestingly enough, Yun has collaborated with GBV’s Doug Gillard before, but not on this record), although it takes a seasoned songwriter to offer up this many hooks.
46. Fust – Genevieve
Release date: June 16th Record label: Dear Life Genre: Alt-country, folk rock, country rock Formats: Vinyl, cassette, CD, digital
I really loved Fust’s 2021 album Evil Joyand its pensive but confident take on alt-country, and it’s been exciting to see the North Carolina band turn a few heads with their follow-up, Genevieve. The differences between Evil Joy and Genevieve are subtle but noticeable–the expanded lineup (MJ Lenderman and Indigo De Souza, among others, guest on the album) and sound (recorded in a proper studio) don’t overwhelm bandleader Aaron Dowdy’s songwriting, and in fact enhance it–an appropriate addition for a collection of tracks that, even for Fust, feels particularly ruminative. (Read more)
45. Total Downer – Caretaker
Release date: January 27th Record label: Just Because Genre: Power pop, pop punk, emo Formats: Cassette, digital
Total Downer’s debut full-length album is an excellent collection of punk-y power pop tunes that establishes bandleader Andy Schumann as both a catchy and weighty songwriter. Caretaker is a brief record, coming in at about 26 minutes, but Total Downer tear through thirteen fiery tracks that find Schumann covering lyrical subjects that can be as wide-ranging as they are hard-hitting. Total Downer wield big choruses in the service of pure catharsis, tackling everything from childhood trauma to shitty bosses to the loss of a close friend with good and loud alt-rock. (Read more)
44. The Bug Club – Rare Birds: Hour of Song
Release date: October 18th Record label: We Are Busy Bodies Genre: Power pop, pop punk, twee Formats: Vinyl, digital
It’s been a whirlwind of a 2023 for Welsh trio The Bug Club–reissuing their first two records, a live album composed entirely of new material, and, capping it all off, a beast of a double LP. Interspersed with brief spoken word reprieves, Rare Birds: Hour of Song is, indeed, sixty-plus minutes of The Bug Club at their garage-rock-power-pop best. High-octane rock and roll tunes like “Fully Clothed”, “Samuel Was Beautiful Tonight”, and “Can Ya Change a Thing Like This?” would be centerpieces for most bands; on Rare Birds: Hour of Song, you’d best grab onto them before The Bug Club move on to the next bird.
43. Timeout Room – Tight-Ass Goku Pictures
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Tough Gum Genre: Power pop, lo-fi pop, jangle pop Formats: Cassette, digital
The first release from S.T. McCrary’s solo project Timeout Room (fascinatingly called Tight-Ass Goku Pictures) is a guitar pop album with personality and hooks to spare in its thirty minutes. McCrary’s home recording style is lo-fi but clear-sounding, in a way that reminds me of The Cleaners from Venus, and his influences range from bright indie pop groups like those on Flying Nun’s roster to more punk bands like the Wipers. Tight-Ass Goku Pictures ends up a unique mix that doesn’t quite sound like either of those extremes, offering up groovy punk-pop bangers and off-kilter and swerving songs in spades. (Read more)
42. Rob I. Miller – Companion Piece
Release date: May 12th Record label: Vacant Stare Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, jangle pop, singer-songwriter, power pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Rob I. Miler’s debut solo album came out mere months after an excellent record from his main band, Blues Lawyer (which is also on this list somewhere). One listen to Companion Piece makes one hear why these songs fit more under Miller’s own name. For one, it’s a full-on breakup album, with the album’s eleven songs focusing intently on a disintegrating relationship. And, befitting of the solo nature, Companion Piece is a lot more humble-sounding than All in Good Time’s relative polish, mostly recorded at home by Miller himself–but Miller is still the same songwriter, and his pop instincts are no less potent on Companion Piece. (Read more)
41. The World Famous – Totally Famous
Release date: October 13th Record label: Lauren Genre: Power pop, pop punk Formats: Cassette, digital
Los Angeles’ The World Famous are one the most exciting new guitar pop groups to debut this year. the Massachusetts-originating band pulls from both coasts on Totally Famous–I hear Weezer-y surf-pop song construction, the lazy darkness of The Lemonheads, the suburban wandering pop of Fountains of Wayne, and the wide-eyed California as inhabited by Jason Lytle on their debut album. It all adds up to an incredibly inviting and promising power pop debut (and one that is surprisingly back-loaded–side two is just about perfect in its overabundance of chorus-worthy hooks). (Read more)
40. Diners – Domino
Release date: August 18th Record label: Bar None Genre: Power pop, indie pop Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Domino is the prolific Blue Broderick’s seventh full-length album as Diners, and the first since she moved from Phoenix to Los Angeles. With help from producer and power pop scholar Mo Troper, Broderick takes a turn for the louder, rockier, and full-band-embracing on this one, but the Diners of Domino consistently put together songs that don’t abandon the project’s previous sound (that of lo-fi, casual bedroom pop) so much as punch it up. Breezy but with the band (Troper, Broderick, and Bory‘s Brenden Ramirez) alert and at the ready, Domino is power pop in its hookiest, sturdiest, purest form. (Read more)
39. Interbellum – Our House Is Very Beautiful at Night
Release date: April 7th Record label: Self-released Genre: Folk rock, experimental folk, psychedelia Formats: Digital
Beirut’s Interbellum is the project of Karl Mattar, and it’s quite impressive that he made the bulk of Our House Is Very Beautiful at Night himself, given how intricate and involved the album is as a whole. It’s a beautiful and frequently head-spinning indie-folk-rock-noise record, encompassing everything from charming and straightforward pop rock to acoustic folk songs to fuzzy, layered psychedelia. Early 2000s-era Microphones and Elephant 6 feel like touchstones for this album, but Mattar is at the helm for all of Our House Is Very Beautiful at Night, and his vision is a unique one. (Read more)
38. Teenage Halloween – Till You Return
Release date: October 20th Record label: Don Giovanni Genre: Pop punk, power pop, emo Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
It took Teenage Halloween three years to follow up their excellent self-titled debut album, but I’m happy to report that Till You Return is every bit that album’s equal in terms of massive power pop hooks and electric punk rock energy. The Asbury Park group offer up a murderer’s row of emo-punk songs–just about every track here reaches “anthem” status. They’ve slimmed down to a quartet since their last album, and it feels like the four of them have a lot of chemistry together here–although it takes a bit of time before the initial sugar rush wears off and one can even start to think about intraband dynamics.
37. Leor Miller’s Fear of Her Own Desire – Eternal Bliss Now!
Release date: May 19th Record label: Candlepin Genre: Experimental pop, lo-fi indie rock, dream pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Leor Miller is a New Haven-based singer-songwriter who’s been making noisy, hazy rock music on her own for several years now. Her latest, Eternal Bliss Now!, is mostly a guitar-based album, but it’s not one that lives entirely in the world of indie rock. I can hear how Miller has been inspired by non-rock genres (hip hop, electronica, and hyperpop, per her bio) in presenting these songs, even as she approaches them from an indie rock perspective. As disparate as the influences are, Miller remains laser-focused on interpersonal connectivity and other big but interconnected subjects throughout the record. (Read more)
36. The High Water Marks – Your Next Wolf
Release date: June 23rd Record label: Minty Fresh Genre: Lo-fi power pop, psych pop Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
The High Water Marks are on their third album since 2020, and they’re only getting better. Your Next Wolf just might be their strongest front-to-back record yet, with founding Apples in Stereo/Elephant 6 member Hilarie Sidney and her partner Per Ole Bratset continuing their mission to combine 60s psychedelic pop with messier indie rock to incredible ends–it’s seventeen songs and forty minutes of loud, fuzzy pop music with a full-band bite and a characteristic High Water Marks catchiness. (Read more)
35. Mo Troper – Troper Sings Brion
Release date: November 17th Record label: Lame-O Genre: Lo-fi power pop, art pop Formats: Digital
We’ve gotten (at least one) Mo Troper full-length everyyearsince2020, and while this year is no different, the Portland power pop hero has taken a different tack with Troper Sings Brion. The concept–Troper records fleshed-out, full-band versions of cast-off songs that the legendary behind-the-scenes popsmith Jon Brion didn’t include on his sole solo “pop” album Meaningless–is brilliant, and Troper is just the ringer for the job. Intricate construction, lethal melodies, bizarre musical turns–it’s hard to tell exactly where Brion ends and Troper begins throughout the record, but Troper Sings Brion is too much fun to be concerned with such matters.
34. Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World
Release date: February 10th Record label: Matador Genre: 90s indie rock, experimental rock, noise pop Formats: Vinyl, CD digital
As usual, I like the new Yo La Tengo album, and this time it seems a lot of other music writers did, too! I’m less interested in doing the “Yo La Tengo’s best album since ___” game and more apt to just appreciate This Stupid World for being a very good Yo La Tengo album (a commodity that maybe had been undervalued in recent years). Nine fairly disparate but all classic Yo La Tengo songs here–the beautifully empty “Apology Letter”, the transcendent noisiness of “Brain Capers”, hit single “Fallout”, that opening track. Okay, maybe This Stupid World is the best front-to-back Yo La Tengo album since–
33. Ther – A Horrid Whisper Echoes in a Palace of Endless Joy
Release date: April 14th Record label: Dead Definition Genre: Indie folk, slowcore Formats: Cassette, digital
Coming fourteen months after their latest album, Ther’s A Horrid Whisper Echoes in a Palace of Endless Joy takes a turn towards quiet and sparse but quite spirited-sounding indie folk. A Horrid Whisper… is a stark-sounding, vulnerable album that’s guided by Heather Jones’ unwavering, central vocals, but Ther find shades within their folk sound, like the prominent pedal steel in the country-tinged “Impossible Things”, the acoustic-picked slowcore of “Love Is Always”, and the soaring, crescendoing folk rock of “Big Papi Lassos the Moon”. (Read more)
32. Gaadge – Somewhere Down Below
Release date: August 4th Record label: Crafted Sounds/Michi Tapes Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
If 2021’s Yeah? was the sound of Gaadge moving from the solo project of Mitch Delong into a real-live band, then their sophomore album, Somewhere Down Below, is the sound of the Pittsburgh quartet embracing it. The album’s fourteen songs feel like largely group efforts, with the varied-sounding record equally taking influence from Guided by Voices’ hooky lo-fi basement pop, heavy-duty shoegaze like Lilys and My Bloody Valentine, and the more electronic and experimental version of shoegaze practiced by their present-day peers. Somewhere Down Below is the best kind of record from a creative team–one that’s full of ideas, where one can find something new and great with each listen. (Read more)
31. Telehealth – Content Oscillator
Release date: March 31st Record label: Very Famous Genre: New wave, synthpunk, egg punk, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Telehealth’s debut record, Content Oscillator, is an incredibly fun-sounding synthpop/egg punk record, devoting just as much time to jamming lead singer Alex Attitude’s societal observations, sketches, and satirical portrayals into its songs as it devotes to making them as enjoyable and entertaining as possible. Telehealth sound a lot like Devo on Content Oscillator–and, befitting of its subject matter, Attitude and collaborator Kendra Cox accomplish this by embracing much more than surface-level “Devo-core” aesthetics, going further and dedicating themselves to developing an entire worldview over the course of the record. (Read more)
30. Empty Country – II
Release date: August 4th Record label: Get Better/Tough Love Genre: 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
I’ve long been an open fan of the dearly departed Cymbals Eat Guitars, and while I enjoyed frontman Joseph D’Agostino’s 2020 self-titled debut as Empty Country, the project’s second album is a huge and somewhat dizzying leap forward. D’Agostino has put together a dark but fascinating world in Empty Country II, pulling from industrial horror and mythology to create an unsettling parallel universe to ours (the album comes with an accompanying short story). Musically, Empty Country is up to the gargantuan task at hand, creating a massive tangle of indie rock that feels distinct (but not removed) from D’Agostino’s previous band.
29. Annie Hart – The Weight of a Wave
Release date: August 4th Record label: Uninhabitable Mansions Genre: Synthpop, indie pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
New York’s Annie Hart was part of synthpop trio Au Revoir Simone, and in recent years has moved into the world of film scores and instrumental composition; Hart’s fourth solo album, The Weight of a Wave, makes it clear that the singer-songwriter is still in touch with her synthpop roots. The record’s ten indie pop tunes sound sharply-written and -recorded but not overly labored-on–Hart cites krautrock as an influence, and the minimal presentation of these pieces of synthesizer-driven songs bear this out. Gigantic hooks abound nonetheless, and The Weight of a Wave is a full-realized pop record regardless of how busy it is at any given moment. (Read more)
28. Bell and the Ringers – Bell and the Ringers
Release date: March 10th Record label: Self-released Genre: Pop punk, power pop, emo Formats: Digital
Bell and the Ringers are a long-distance duo made up of Melbourne’s Lucas Bell and Toronto’s Brent Vipond, and their self-titled debut record evokes a very specific kind of 2000s-era indie-pop-punk. Bell and the Ringers has some heft to it–the balance that Vipond and Bell walk throughout the album is keeping the pop punk energy up while still developing the tracks (and, to be clear, they are successful in delivering an incredibly energetic record). What the duo put together here is enough to sell an intriguing, promising under-the-radar band. (Read more)
27. Sunshine Convention – The Sunshine Convention
Release date: July 21st Record label: Cardinal Telephone Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, power pop, fuzz rock Formats: CD, digital
As Sunshine Convention, Brooklyn’s Jake Whitener has a familiar and pleasing sound–fuzzy, lo-fi, loud, but above all massively pop-friendly. Nevertheless, The Sunshine Convention doesn’t feel played out at all due to Whitener’s sharp songwriting skills, the album’s excitable energy, and the fact that there’s still plenty of room to explore in the space of these genre labels. Whitener is fluent in everything from lo-fi Guided by Voices to early Elephant 6 to Sparklehorse to Yo La Tengo, and he can turn any of these starting points into loud, hooky indie rock anthems with ease over the course of a debut record that hits the ground running. (Read more)
26. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Weathervanes
Release date: June 9th Record label: Southeastern/Thirty Tigers Genre: Alt-country, country rock, folk rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
We all know Jason Isbell is a great songwriter. It’s not surprising that Weathervanes is a good album. Still, after Reunions, I may have been too quick to put him in the “twilight” phase–he’d show up every few years and release an unobjectionable album that nonetheless wouldn’t surprise me at all. Weathervanes is not that–it’s the work of an artist who’s absolutely still at their peak. It’s full of shooting-star songs, snagging lines and scenarios that other writers could try forever to approach, and it does it while taking the most tedious kind of album format possible (thirteen songs, 60 minutes) and making it seem like the perfect length.
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)
We’re finally here! Welcome to the fourth annual (and third annual ranked version of) Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of the Year. Today, albums 51 through 100 are being posted, and tomorrow (Wednesday, December 6th), the top 50 will be revealed. Wow! So much great music!
Thank you to anyone reading this list, anyone who has shared Rosy Overdrive with others, or anyone who even just makes it a part of their music life in some way. I am truly grateful. 2023 was the biggest year for the blog yet, and I am fully planning on bringing that energy with us into 2024 (plus, I’m aware that if I don’t keep Rosy Overdrive at 200% annual growth indefinitely, my shareholders will fire me and replace me with AI).
Here is a playlist featuring all of the records from this list that are available on streaming services: on Spotify, on Tidal. As with last year, separate lists for EPs and compilations/reissues will go up over the next couple of weeks. To read about more music beyond what’s on this list, check out the site directory, and if you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. This year, we’re doing a Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll as well, so if you haven’t filled that out, get on it and be a part of all this, too! Okay, okay, let’s get to the important stuff!!
Release date: March 27th Record label: Bee Side Cassettes Genre: Indie pop, indie folk, experimental pop Formats: CD, cassette, digital
DJ Silky Smooth (aka Jacob Schwartz) has been making music under the name since at least 2017, and his latest full-length record I’m Glad for Life is full of bright, shiny, guitar-based indie pop songs. Instead of just sticking to the more pure folk-y/baroque indie rock of bands like his labelmates Another Michael and Blue Ranger, however, Schwartz throws in some interesting electronic additions, the occasional vocal effect, and prominent drum machines. “Offbeat” touches aside, however, I’m Glad for Life is an indie pop record first and foremost. (Read more)
99. Living Dream – Living Dream
Release date: January 20th Record label: Long Gone Sound System Genre: Psychedelia, jangle pop, dream pop, experimental rock Formats: Cassette, digital
We’re reaching all the way back to January for this one, but it’s worth it. Living Dream are a four-piece group from Indianapolis whose self-titled debut record is an intriguing, fascinating album of lo-fi, hazy, but frequently accessible indie rock which also features a surprising amount of flute. Living Dream wanders around unpredictably, more often than not in the same song–charming, jangly electric guitars give way to psychedelic, flute-led passages, and then it’s back to indie rock all over again.
98. Upchuck – Bite the Hand That Feeds
Release date: October 13th Record label: Famous Class Genre: Garage punk, noise rock, hardcore punk, garage rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
I always appreciate a band that strikes while the iron is hot, and that’s exactly what Atlanta’s Upchuck have done on Bite the HandThat Feeds. Barely a year after Sense Yourself (one of my favorite albums of 2022), the garage punk quintet have returned with their Ty Segall-produced sophomore album. It doesn’t abandon what worked from their debut–hardcore punk ferocity balanced with plenty of undeniably “pop” moments–but it does find the band honing their skills and songs even further down into short, sweet daggers.
97. Six Flags Guy – And Nothing Did So What
Release date: July 14th Record label: 329 Genre: Post-rock, noise rock, 90s indie rock, post-hardcore, slowcore Formats: Digital
Columbus, Ohio’s Six Flags Guy are a post-rock trio–specifically, they’re practitioners of the Slint-Unwound-Touch & Go-Quarterstick vein of the genre, the version with roots in post-hardcore and American 90s indie rock. The band find plenty of new and exciting ground in these old haunts; And Nothing Did So What’s eight songs prowl through smoky, dingy soundscapes unmoored from recognizable structure, with subtle vocals and guitar work both ready to launch into a frenzy of noise at any given moment. (Read more)
96. Bory – Who’s a Good Boy
Release date: December 8th Record label: Earth Libraries/Earth Worms Genre: Fuzz rock, power pop Formats: CD, digital
Bory is Brenden Ramirez, a Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter and guitarist who’s played with power pop ringers Diners and Mo Troper, the latter of whom produced Who’s a Good Boy. Although shades of Troper and Diners’ Blue Broderick can certainly be heard in the album’s songwriting, Ramirez develops a style distinct from either of them on the debut Bory full-length. Who’s a Good Boy is a comparatively cooler record–it’s a bit more muted, low-key, “slacker rock”-y in parts–which, in a way, makes the giant power pop choruses that Bory nonetheless offer up throughout the record hit even harder. (Read more)
95. The Reds, Pinks & Purples – The Town That Cursed Your Name
Release date: March 24th Record label: Slumberland/Tough Love Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
The Town That Cursed Your Name offers up plenty of the hallmarks that the prolific Glenn Donaldson has established as leader of The Reds, Pinks & Purples–gently-strummed chord progressions, generous melodies, and a wistful, melancholic voice overseeing it all. That being said, Donaldson sounds a bit louder, more electric, and fuzzier than he has of late on this one–not that he needs a reason to turn the amps up a bit, but it feels appropriate for The Town That Cursed Your Name’s subject matter, which deals with the familiar plight of many fledgling bands and musicians. (Read more)
94. Podcasts – Podcasts
Release date: August 4th Record label: Prefect Genre: Indie pop, post-punk, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
The annoyingly-named Podcasts are an Oslo-originating four-piece (Kyle Devine, Tore Størvold, Emil Kraugerud, and Trust Fund’s Ellis Jones) who’ve been working on their debut record since 2019. Although it’s only their first album, Podcasts clearly shows the band has gelled as a four-piece–loosely speaking, the record recalls vintage British-inspired guitar-based indie pop groups, although there’s a trickiness to it as well, displaying the band’s fondness for unexpected twists and turns in their pop songs, which they pull off with confidence. (Read more)
93. Your Heart Breaks – The Wrack Line
Release date: July 7th Record label: Kill Rock Stars Genre: Folk rock, power pop, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Seattle’s Clyde Peterson has been helming Your Heart Breaks for over two decades now–their peers include John K. Samson, Kimya Dawson, and Nana Grizol, all of whom appear over the course of The Wrack Line’s nineteen songs and 64 minutes. Peterson’s latest is a lot to take in, but it’s more than worth giving Your Heart Breaks all the leeway that The Wrack Line asks of us. The album boasts gorgeous folk songs, toe-tapping indie rockers, and a host of insights and observations that are completely unique to its creator.
92. Advertisement – Escorts
Release date: September 15th Record label: Feel It Genre: Garage rock, psychedelic rock, post-punk, krautrock Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Seattle-originating sextet Advertisement have spent the last half-decade cultivating a singular sound, a freewheeling, adventurous take on rock-and-roll that evokes everything from Lou Reed to Creedence Clearwater Revival to The Men to heavy psychedelia. Escorts is fairly uncategorizable–it’s a jammy album made by a band that doesn’t really sound like a “jam band”, it feels indebted to classic rock but is quite liberal with synths, and it frequently wanders but always feels on its way to somewhere. (Read more)
91. Patches – Scenic Route
Release date: April 14th Record label: Self-released Genre: Post-punk, jangle pop, college rock Formats: Digital
I wasn’t expecting Patches to return so soon after last year’s superb Tales We Heard from the Fields, but Scenic Route was certainly a welcome surprise. The sophomore Patches album picks up where their debut left off, but represents a sonic evolution for the remote-collaborative trio as well–instead of splitting the difference between darker and lighter material on a track-by-track basis, the songs on Scenic Route combine them individually, with just about every one of them containing a mix of both bright, poppy jangle pop and clanging post-punk. (Read more)
90. Daily Worker – Autofiction
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Bobo Integral Genre: Lo-fi power pop, psychedelic pop Formats: Digital
Harold Whit Williams has played guitar with Austin jangle pop group Cotton Mather since the early 1990s, but the Alabama native also makes music on his own as Daily Worker. Autofiction, my favorite of the four 2023 Daily Worker records (two LPs, two EPs), is an album of lo-fi, home-recorded power pop whose ramshackle charms only enhance his songwriting. Williams presents his songs casually, but not enough so to diminish their power–it reaches the level of many “big” psychedelic pop records, with only a fraction of the excess production those albums possess. (Read more)
89. The Hold Steady – The Price of Progress
Release date: March 31st Record label: Positive Jams/Thirty Tigers Genre: The Hold Steady Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Unlike the past couple of Hold Steady records, The Price of Progress wasn’t an immediate “hit” for me. I’ve warmed on it throughout the year–seeing them live undoubtedly helped–to the point where I’m finally, belatedly, fully on board with this one. Yes, the band sounds a bit more subdued on this album, but that slowly reveals itself as an essential part of The Price of Progress’ structure–Craig Finn is on fire here as a writer, and something like the powerfully self-contained “Sixers” undoubtedly couldn’t have been pulled off by the band in 2004.
88. Eyelids – A Colossal Waste of Light
Release date: March 10th Record label: Jealous Butcher Genre: Jangle pop, college rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
The fourth Eyelids full-length (five if you count the half-live, half-odds-and-ends Maybe More) contains plenty of the massive, blissful, timeless-sounding pop rock we’ve come to expect from Chris Slusarenko and John Moen (“Crawling Off Your Pages” kicks things off with an all-timer), although A Colossal Waste of Light feels a little exploratory as well. Songs like the title track and “Runaway, Yeah” feature some of Eyelids’ best choruses, but they take relatively unexpected paths to get there, suggesting there’s still plenty of fruit in the band’s core collaboration.
87. The Mountain Goats – Jenny from Thebes
Release date: October 27th Record label: Merge Genre: Folk rock, piano rock, indie pop, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Jenny from Thebes is the first Mountain Goats studio album under 45 minutes long since 2012’s Transcendental Youth, but it feels like the quartet pack even more into this one than they did in some of their more rambling recent material. It’s something of a sequel to John Darnielle’s boombox swan song All Hail West Texas (those sons of bitches made a Hold Steady album, didn’t they?), but the band has evolved pretty far from the early lo-fi days. No tolerance of tape hiss or knowledge of these characters’ lore is required to enjoy the Mountain Goats’ ever-more polished pop rock here.
86. Hurry – Don’t Look Back
Release date: August 11th Record label: Lame-O Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop, power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Don’t Look Back is the fifth Hurry album, and it contains plenty of what’s made Philadelphia’s Matt Scottoline such a reliably great songwriter–heart-on-sleeve, bittersweet melodies, gorgeous guitar work, middling tempos and four-minute runtimes galore, and, of course, undeniable hooks. Scottoline doesn’t favor the louder, more distorted end of the power pop spectrum, instead trending towards intricate, deliberate song structure. Don’t Look Back is both a subtle record and an immediate one; it never passes up an instant-gratification chorus, but it’s full of tracks built to last for the long haul. (Read more)
85. Misophone – A Floodplain Mind
Release date: December 1st Record label: Another Record/Galaxy Train Genre: Chamber pop, folk rock, psych pop Formats: CD, cassette, digital
The English band Misophone (led by the songwriting duo of S. Herbert and M.A.) arose in the mid-2000s, releasing at least seven albums between 2007 and 2013. After a decade off, the massive A Floodplain Mind more than bridges the interstitial gap. The album is overwhelmingly long (thirty songs and 120 minutes), adventurous in its arrangements, but friendly and welcoming at its core. It’s just about as “digestible” as something of this size can be, with its sprawling but pleasing mix of chamber pop, orchestral psych pop, and earnest folk rock never growing stale or tedious. (Read more)
84. Glow in the Dark Flowers – Glow in the Dark Flowers
Release date: April 14th Record label: Born Yesterday Genre: Dream pop, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Glow in the Dark Flowers is the duo of Jessee Rose Crane and Philip Lesicko, who gained notoriety over the past decade for their work in Chicago group The Funs. The self-titled Glow in the Dark Flowers album is some very good sleepy, distorted late-night indie rock, with elements of slowcore, post-rock, fuzz rock, and dream pop, but without slotting neatly into any of those. The songs on Glow in the Dark Flowers glide forward and the vocals are right in the middle of it all, creating an album that’s immediate but one that rewards digging under the surface as well.
83. Silicone Prairie – Vol. II
Release date: July 28th Record label: Feel It Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, punk rock, power pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Although My Life on the Silicone Prairie Vol. II still very much feels like a bedroom rock record, it’s polished in comparison to the first album from Kansas City lo-fi punk musician Ian Teeple. The success of Vol. II comes first and foremost due to Teeple’s songwriting, which is wide-ranging beyond the vast majority of lo-fi garage rockers; underneath the Tascam-recorded sheen is a vintage college rock-inspired record, one that reminds me of a more off-the-cuff version of early Game Theory, and there’s plenty of bizarre psychedelic pop moments on Vol II. as well. (Read more)
82. Madder Rose – No One Gets Hurt Ever
Release date: August 4th Record label: Trome Genre: Dream pop, psych pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Billy Coté and Mary Lorson went through the pandemic differently–the latter “didn’t feel much music”, while the former wrote an album’s worth of songs. Luckily the Madder Rose co-leaders have each other–with Lorson on lead vocals, the two have made a great record of dreamy, lightly psych-y, lightly slowcore-y indie rock with No One Gets Hurt Ever that holds up quite well against the group’s canonical 1990s albums. Made with the patience of musicians who have been at it for three decades, No One Gets Hurt Ever is pop music at its most substantial.
81. Brian Mietz – Wow!
Release date: April 21st Record label: Sludge People Genre: Power pop, indie pop, lo-fi pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Brian Mietz is a subtly great pop songwriter–he’s one of the best modern practitioners of “bummer” power pop, as seen on his underrated 2020 album Panzarotti. On the follow-up to that record, Wow!, Mietz remains skilled in pop songcraft–these ten songs sound laid-back but emotional, and Mietz keeps the melodies simple, but he isn’t opposed to building around them a little bit, with several songs on the record sounding surprisingly busy. Songs like “Caller” and “Buried Alive (Too Tired)” sound incredibly effortless, but “Cranefly” and “Steal Some Time” lose nothing in their relative complexity. (Read more)
80. The Unknowns – East Coast Low
Release date: March 10th Record label: Bargain Bin Genre: Garage punk, power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
The Unknowns are yet another excellent Australian garage rock/power pop band, a subset that really shone in 2023. The Brisbane group have been around for awhile and are associated with Aussie punk superstars The Chats, although their second album, East Coast Low, is a lot more indebted into classic punk-adjacent power pop than the bigger band’s pure punk rock. Songs like “Shot Down”, “Thinking About You”, and “Crying” are pure rock and roll with massive hooks and plenty of shout-along moments.
79. Deep State – Diary of a Nobody
Release date: April 15th Record label: Self-released Genre: Alt-country Formats: Digital
I hadn’t heard of Athens, Georgia’s Deep State before stumbling upon Diary of a Nobody, which, according to their Bandcamp page, seems to be their final album. Diary of a Nobody is a comfortable, rootsy sounding garage rock album led by singer-songwriter Taylor Chmura and also featuring Rosy Overdrive favorite Christian “Smokey” DeRoeck (Blunt Bangs, Little Gold). Deep State sound just as adept barreling through rockers like “Young People” and “Tired Medium” as they do in the laid-back “Secret Freezer”.
78. Vulture Feather – Liminal Fields
Release date: June 2nd Record label: Felte Genre: Post-punk, art rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Vulture Feather have risen from the ashes of Wilderness, a Baltimore-based 2000s indie rock band that seemed to disappear at the end of that decade. Half of the band (guitarist Colin McCann and bassist Brian Gossman) have recently reemerged in the tiny northern California town of Hayfork, added drummer Eric Fiscus, and picked up where their last band left off, making a slow, deliberate, Lungfish-esque version of guitar-heavy post-punk on their debut together. The rhythm section lumbers, McCann’s guitar chimes and drones, and his vocals sound focused but emotive, gamely supplying Liminal Fields with the final ingredient in turning these songs into unlikely anthems. (Read more)
77. Fixtures – Hollywood Dog
Release date: February 24th Record label: Naturally/Bobo Integral Genre: Power pop, 90s indie rock, post-punk, “noir pop” Formats: Vinyl, digital
Brooklyn’s Fixtures were a six-piece band who stuck around for a half-decade, just long enough to put out their first, last, and only full-length album. On Hollywood Dog, Fixtures commit fully to a familiar-feeling but nevertheless distinct sound–they start off with the foundation of sturdy, guitar-forward 90s indie rock and blow it up with a 2000s indie-esque love of big choruses, auxiliary musicians, and several vocal contributions from various members. Fixtures contained multiple full-time horn players (trumpet player Riley Cooke and saxophonist Jules Block), and neither’s prominence feels out of place throughout the album. They’ll certainly be missed by me, and, after you listen to HollywoodDog, you as well. (Read more)
76. Guided by Voices – La La Land
Release date: January 20th Record label: GBV, Inc. Genre: 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Sixteen albums into their “new lineup”, this iteration of Guided by Voices still have a ton left in the tank, as their trio of 2023 releases has demonstrated. La La Land kicked off the band’s 2023 in January with the lineup’s fourteenth full-length, and it feels like a departure from GBV’s twin 2022 releases–a bit less muscular than Trembler and Goggles by Rank and Crystal Nuns Cathedral and a little more ornate and regal. Really, though, listen to the stretch from “Ballroom Etiquette” to “Slowly on the Wheel”–four completely different-sounding songs, all classic, all recognizably Guided by Voices.
It’s a Monday in December, and we’re kicking the week off with a good, old-fashioned classic edition of Pressing Concerns. New albums from Pespi and Joe Ziffer, a live album from Cime, and an EP from Otis Shanty are featured in this edition. This is the last Pressing Concerns before Rosy Overdrive’s Year-End List season begins, but far from the last Pressing Concerns of 2023, so stay tuned for both of those in the coming days and weeks.
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Pespi – Salt Pepper Catshit
Release date: December 1st Record label: Chemical Plant Genre: Emo, punk Formats: Digital Pull Track: Rats Don’t Dance
The memorably-named Pespi are a new New York-based emo-rock trio, although their roots stretch back to Connecticut a decade ago. The band’s lead singer and guitarist Harrison Watters has been releasing solo material for the past ten years, and brothers Rob and Matt Falcone have played bass and drums (respectively) in the band Blonde Otter since 2017. However, before that, the three played together in a high school band, and after reuniting to play a Modest Mouse cover set for Halloween last year, they found that a spark was still there, and Pespi was born. Salt Pepper Catshit, the debut Pespi release, is an odd record earning its curious name–Watters is clearly a striking and driven emo frontperson, and while his compositions form the backbone of the record, the Falcones’ rhythm section turns them into something else entirely, interspersing Watters’ ruminations and soul-pourings with lengthy instrumental passages that owe more to noisy, kinetic post-punk than the expected Midwest emo.
The inaugural Pespi album comes in at under a half-hour and only seven songs in length, a couple of which don’t seem to have actual titles–Salt Pepper Catshit sounds anything but incomplete or half-assed, though. Although the Falcones are largely responsible for blowing these songs wide open, Watters’ guitar playing is more than game to rise to what they lay in front of him, either chugging alongside the bass and drums when necessary or adding strange, memorable moments of melodies to the instrumentals (I mentioned that Pespi started by playing Modest Mouse covers, right?). Pespi holds out for over a minute in opening track “Rats Don’t Dance” before letting the vocals step onto the instrumental treadmill they created, while “Woes” finds time for both Dischord-y post-punk and emo-rock textures in about ninety seconds. With “Pespi_10”, it feels like Pespi is finally going to bust out a no-strings-attached emo anthem (“Overthinking everything / Underfeeling nothing,” Watters roars over a soaring instrumental), but they spend the second half of the song circling back and deconstructing it. This combination by and large works–listening to something like “Cereal”, it’s remarkable how Pespi toggles from Watters’ earnest indie-emo to sleek, instrumental math rock like it’s completely normal. (Bandcamp link)
Cime – Frida and the Filibusters Bid Farewell and Fall Asunder
Release date: December 1st Record label: Syzygy/Skyline Tapes/BSDJ/Reasonable Genre: Art punk, jazz punk, post-hardcore, noise rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Compay (Independencia)
Back in August, I wrote about the latest EP from Honduras-originating, California-based musician Monty Cime. Laurels of the End of History is a torrent of Latin music-influenced noise rock and art punk which I called “one of the most unique-sounding records I’ve heard this year”. Although the project bears Cime’s name, the credits of her latest EP reveal that it’s far from a “solo” endeavor–and several of those collaborators are responsible for Cime’s whirlwind live show, as well. Frida and the Filibusters Bid Farewell and Fall Asunder was recorded live at the FTG Warehouse in Santa Ana, CA on Laurels’ release date (August 18th), and features a seven-piece Monty Cime band tearing through songs from the new EP as well as last year’s The Independence of Central America Remains an Unfinished Experiment.
Frida and the Filibusters… serves to introduce a new player to the band (alto saxophonist Sean Hoss), wave goodbye to a few older members (drummer Aron Farkas and guitarist Diego Gonzalez, as well as Jack von Bloeker V, who couldn’t appear on the record), and capture the energy of all of them together (bassist Jay Ingram, guitarist Rowan Collins, and multi-instrumentalist Ian Dennis round out the live band here). The band truly is a unique experience that merits this recording–it’s a pummeling, horn-laden, unique punk-noise-jazz-Latin-rock-experimental-hardcore experience led by Cime haranguing the audience both in her full-throated performances of the songs and in the space between them (memorably, she threatens to kill anyone who leaves before the next band’s set multiple times).
The interludes and between-song banter (particularly Cime’s discussion of Honduran music legend Guillermo Anderson before covering his “Por Esa Negra” and discussing how she and Farkas met through “a very silly and dumb website called Rate Your Music”) don’t derail any of the band’s momentum–they’re contextual strengtheners that sharpen the subsequent performances of older tunes and new ones (one can tell that they’ve been playing the year-old songs together for a while, although new ones “Yoro” and “City Upon a Hill” are integrated seamlessly into the set). The big conclusion is a frantic, hurricane-like version of Laurels… closing track “The Lost Last Man”, a song that feels destined to be a set-capper. It’s certainly a fitting curtain-drawing for this era of Cime, but I think we’d better to stick around to see the next band–or else. (Bandcamp link)
Joe Ziffer – Long Shadows
Release date: November 24th Record label: Tenth Court Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, folk rock, psychedelia, indie pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Master of Ceremonies
I’ve covered plenty of Australian rock music this year on Pressing Concerns, although I do believe that Joe Ziffer has facilitated Rosy Overdrive’s first foray into what’s going on in Adelaide. There’s been a lot of music from the continent as of late that combines guitar pop (in some form) with a lo-fi indie rock sensibility, but the debut Joe Ziffer album stakes out a uniquely memorable position in the field. Out on Tenth Court (Spice World, Mope City, The Sprouts), Long Shadows moves at a snail’s pace through ten deliberate pieces of unmarked pop music, with our guide creating a lovingly-crafted if not wobbly world of twilight rock music as he plays nearly everything on the record himself. The core tenet of Ziffer and his guitar is never toppled throughout Long Shadows–he’s clearly inspired by lost-sounding 1960s psychedelic folk, but while organs and keyboards add tallies to the psychedelic side of the equation, Ziffer stubbornly remains a molasses-moving troubadour throughout the album.
Joe Ziffer buries a good deal of pop melodies throughout Long Shadows–you’ll have to go digging for some of them, but that’s part of the appeal of Ziffer’s writing to me. The slow-breaking waves of opening track “Seaside” recall some of the lighter moments from labelmates Mope City, and the flute-aided “Master of Ceremonies” is a Flying Nun pop tune carefully traversing a gravel road. If one makes it through the sparsely hypnotic “Wishing Well”, Long Shadows rewards the listener with its version of “rock-and roll” in the form of “Waves”, “Mayday”, and “Ouroboros”, which lean on full band arrangements to take the record in some surprising directions (particularly the latter of the three, which rises to the level of “fluttering psychedelic pop” quite gamely). Along with Lucy May’s flute and vocals on “Mayday”, Elusive Radar’s bass on “Ouroboros” is one of the few outside contributions to Long Shadows–another one from Radar, organ on “Jet Streams”, is scarcely different from Ziffer’s own key-playing. Something like Long Shadows evokes an incidental, random air, but its pieces don’t fit together this well by accident. (Bandcamp link)
Otis Shanty – Early Birds
Release date: October 6th Record label: Boston Street Genre: Indie pop, jangle pop, folk rock, dream pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Parting Ways
Otis Shanty are an intriguing quartet who formed in upstate New York in the late 2010s and are currently based in Somerville. They appear to be named for the town in western Massachusetts where they rented a cabin to record their debut EP, Space for Good Things, which came out in 2019; the Suite 33 full-length followed two years later. The band’s second EP and third overall record, Early Birds, is a four-song record that portrays the confidence and skill of a band who’s making something special together. The group (vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Sadye Bobbette, guitarist Ryan DiLello, bassist Julian Snyder, and drummer Jono Quinn) take their time letting these sparkling pieces of indie rock develop–the EP reaches nearly twenty minutes in length, and no individual song is under four. DiLello’s guitar playing is incredibly laid-back, sketching plenty of hazy, Real Estate-esque dreamy, jangly melodies as the rest of the band wander through sprawling, timeless-sounding folk and indie rock.
The opening title track to Early Birds is a workmanlike piece of guitar pop, with hooks baked into the song’s structure but not coming off as overly showy (in the same way that Bobbette’s vocals, which hover between conversational and wistful, are sneakily very impressive). “Early Birds” eventually builds to an impressive conclusion, while “Inch Away” takes much of the same ingredients and shows a bit more restraint in its more subdued finale. “Daylight Savings” lets Snyder’s bass dominate the opening half of the song, crawling along slowly but steadily before the big, horn-featuring conclusion that perhaps functions as the climax of the EP takes shape. “Parting Ways” closes Early Birds out with another slow-build, although it’s DiLello’s shimmering guitar that both comprises the bulk of the foundation and becomes the instrument of its Yo La Tengo-esque torching in the last minute. It’s a lot of space to traverse, but Otis Shanty are locked-in enough that it feels like a breeze. (Bandcamp link)
December is upon us, and before we dive into year-end list season, the first Friday of the last month of the year has a surprisingly stacked line-up of new releases for our collective consideration. I’ll be highlighting four of them below: new albums from Misophone, The Brights, and Gabby’s World, and a new EP from Get Wrong. This busy week has also featured the November 2023 Playlist/Round-Up and a Monday Pressing Concerns (featuring Neighboring Sounds, Dot Dash, Flat Mary Road, and Colt Wave), so check those too if you missed them earlier. And last but not least: don’t forget to vote in the 2023 Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll!
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Misophone – A Floodplain Mind
Release date: December 1st Record label: Another Record/Galaxy Train Genre: Chamber pop, folk rock, psych pop Formats: CD, cassette, digital Pull Track: All the Ghosts of Evening
Around Christmastime 2017, I discovered The Machine That Made Us by Flotation Toy Warning because somebody (I believe it was Trust the Wizards) had put it on their year-end list. The sophomore album from the cult chamber pop group was like nothing I’d heard before at the time, a collection of grandiose pop statements that seemed to materialize out of nothing and hover around in the ether indefinitely. I bring this up because I’m about to suggest you spend time with a two-hour-long album called A Floodplain Mind that checks a lot of the same boxes that those two Flotation Toy Warning albums do for me. The English band Misophone (led by the songwriting duo of S. Herbert and M.A. Welsh and featuring a host of other instrumental contributors) arose in the mid-2000s, releasing at least seven albums between 2007 and 2013. However, their only release in the past decade has been the archival And So Sinks the Sun on a Burning Sea–but the massive, ten-years-in-the-making A Floodplain Mind more than bridges that gap. The album–being offered as a double CD or double cassette–is as overwhelming in its composition (thirty songs and, as stated previously, 120 minutes) and adventurous in its arrangements as it is friendly and welcoming at its core.
A Floodplain Mind is certainly a lot to take in at once, but Misophone’s sense of pop songwriting makes it just about as “digestible” as something of this size can be. “All the Ghosts of Evening” and “Heart for Hills” ease us all into the album with a pleasing mix of chamber pop, orchestral psych pop, and earnest folk rock–they cite Elephant 6 as an influence, and the record comes off as something like a more-put-together older sibling to that scene’s scattered psychedelia. Featuring over a dozen guest musicians, A Floodplain Mind is more prone to surprise the listener in discrete moments throughout the record than throw everything at you at once–yes, there’s harp and bassoon and hurdy gurdy strewn throughout the album, but the core of Welsh and Herbert’s sprawling but accessible folk-pop writing is rarely flooded. Picking favorite songs from this one is difficult because just about the entire album is made up of legitimately well-crafted pop music and can strike at any given listen, but I will say to make sure you stick around for the second half of the album, because plenty of the most immediate numbers (“Night Comes Early”, “Strange and Sombre”, “Flickering Lights”) come after the break. To every band that’s been away for a decade–the bar for their returns has been set incredibly high with A Floodplain Mind. (Bandcamp link)
The Brights – Oyster Rock!
Release date: December 1st Record label: Meritorio/Stable Genre: Folk rock, indie pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Everyone in Town
Between Spice World, The Small Intestines, and Wurld Series, Meritorio Records has dug up plenty of odd but captivating indie pop from the edge of the world this year. Their latest foray Down Under comes in the form of the debut record from Sydney quintet The Brights, who’ve put out a couple of EPs since their origin in the late 2010s. Oyster Rock! contains plenty of the jangly guitars that are a hallmark for their label, but the band (vocalist/guitarist Sunny Blayney, vocalist/bassist Samuel Morris, drummer Cooper Anderson, guitarist Dylan Ferguson, and keyboardist Will Maddock) dress up these dozen tracks in laid-back, wandering folk rock skins that lead to this album sounding even more timeless and stateless than those of their peers. Oyster Rock! is (for the most part) slow-moving, but it’s not exactly “minimal”, with Maddock’s keys and Blayney and Ferguson’s six-strings frequently stacking on top of each other to make an album that’s either on the “ornate” side of “plain” or vice versa.
“Waiting”, the track with which Oyster Rock! opens, feels aptly named. It manages to sound joyous while opting for a hold music level of quietness–we’re almost in Belle & Sebastian territory here. The Brights shift into gear a song later on “Enough of You”, which that takes its time getting to the meat of the track and borrows a bit of drone-y guitar pop charm from their neighbors over in New Zealand. There’s a rainy and melancholy streak that turns up throughout the record–it really comes into focus on the shimmering “Quiet as a Cloud” and the folk strumming of “You Know That I’m Wrong”, but these aren’t the only instances (for example, there’s a song called “Overcast Hangover” on here, and it sounds like it). The swaggering power pop of “Everyone in Town” is the one true rocker on Oyster Rock!, although some of the more hushed moments are also broken up by the country-rock groove of “River Dogs” (which might be one of the most “early Wilco”-sounding songs I’ve ever heard come out of Australia) and the slow-building dream-psych-pop conclusion of “Detour Sign”. The Brights’ primary mode is more casual and subtle than these louder moments, but when taken as a single piece of relaxed but developed guitar pop, everything makes sense. (Bandcamp link)
Gabby’s World – Gabby Sword
Release date: December 1st Record label: Carrot All Genre: Indie pop, synthpop, indie folk, singer-songwriter Formats: Digital Pull Track: Just for You to Hear
Gabby’s World is the project of Gabby Smith, a New York singer-songwriter who initially came up during the bedroom pop/indie folk boom in the mid-2010s alongside acts like Told Slant, Florist, Bellows, and Free Cake for Every Creature. A handful of records and singles led to 2015’s Double Double Whammy-released O.K., a stunning, dexterous album that remains one of my favorites to come out of that entire era, and the just-as-good Year of the Rabbit EP the following year. Smith’s songs could range from delicate folk constructions to grandiose, sweeping indie rock, something that remained true with O.K.’s full-length follow-up, 2018’s Beast on Beast. That album was underappreciated in its time, and preceded a half decade of silence from Gabby Smith the musician. Gabby’s World went on ice for a half-decade as Smith took a break from music, until inspiration from their now-wife, fellow musician Barrie Lindsay, led to Gabby Sword. Released song by song over 2023’s twelve months, the album reflects Lindsay and Smith’s romantic and creative partnerships in the music (which probes new territory for Gabby’s World) and in the subject matter (dealing with Smith’s newfound queer identity and the partner they found in Lindsay).
The thirteen tracks of Gabby Sword embrace the “pop” end of bedroom pop–although it’s not exactly a “studio as instrument” reinvention of their entire style, the indie folk of past Gabby’s World records is largely superseded by a wider-ranging, synth-driven indie pop rock sound. I’d still consider it on the more minimal side of synthpop, and though the prominent drum machine beats of songs like “Just for You to Hear”, “Powerful”, and “Open the Door” are certainly stark, there are plenty of moments more reflecting of their previous output, like the quiet “33” and the electric folk rock of “Restore”. Even as the music changes, however, Smith remains the focal point, and their writing is recognizable even as it covers some different ground. The question that hangs at the end of “Just for You to Hear” feels like a look into their mind as they stepped away from music while at the same time sounding like vintage Gabby’s World, and the piano pop of “Fabby” lets Smith deliver a straight (well, er…) love song in a way I don’t think they’ve gotten to do as of yet. Smith and Lindsay balance the new and familiar on Gabby Sword in a way that makes for a welcome return. (Bandcamp link)
Get Wrong – Get Wrong
Release date: December 1st Record label: Father/Daughter/Alcopop! Genre: Synthpop, indie pop Formats: CD, digital Pull Track: Too Late to Hide
Get Wrong is a new project that brings together two underground indie rock ringers in Naomi Griffin of Martha and Adam Todd of The Spook School–although the duo take a turn away from the fizzy British power-pop-punk that’s defined both of them in my mind on their debut EP as a group. The five-song Get Wrong EP was recorded and produced by Peter Brewis of Field Music, and finds Griffin and Todd diving headfirst into full-on 1980s-inspired synthpop. It’s a bit surprising that these DIY indie rockers have committed so completely to their new sound on the EP, but given that their backgrounds are nevertheless in pop music (whenever Martha comes up, I simply must mention that 2016’s Blisters in the Pit of My Heart is one of the best albums of any kind from the past decade), it’s not a shock to see them excel at it as well.
Although Get Wrong isn’t a lush, oversaturated work of electronic music, it’s not rudimentary either, displaying Griffin and Todd’s intent to actually explore the various new doors and openings that synthpop affords them rather than just plugging in keyboards where guitars would’ve been. Synth accents and flourishes color these five songs, adding to a rich pop canvas that’s already quite strong due to the singers’ emotional, full vocals bursting through the music. Griffin’s hooks on “Something to Tell You” (“…I don’t wanna hurt you, but keeping it in would hurt you too”) and “Crying My Eyes Out” (“…for hours, thinking of you”) are as tangible and potent as anything she’s done with Martha, and while the music is a bit subtler on these slightly rawer ones, it’s still just as polished an exploration of synthpop as the more straight-up anthems found earlier in the EP (although as massive as something like “Too Late to Hide” sounds, there’s still plenty going on under the surface of that one, too). All told, it’s more than enough to make Get Wrong an intriguing starting point. (Bandcamp link)
Rosy Overdrive is rolling full steam ahead into December, but first, a look back at a bunch of songs I’ve enjoyed over this past month. Plenty of miscellaneous 2023 releases in here as I put together the blog’s various year-end lists and give everything I’ve meant to give a listen a little bit of attention before closing the curtains on the year (this will continue into December, don’t worry). Also, we had a Pressing Concerns go up yesterday (featuring Neighboring Sounds, Dot Dash, Flat Mary Road, and Colt Wave), so check that out too if you missed it. Plus, the Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll opened up yesterday–go vote!!!
Mo Troper, Teenage Tom Petties, and These Estates have multiple songs on this playlist.
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR. Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one, or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
“Ona”, Hammer No More the Fingers From Silver Zebra (2023, Trinity House/Defend Vinyl)
I hadn’t heard of Durham, North Carolina’s Hammer No More the Fingers until recently, when I read a Talkhouse interview between the band’s Duncan Webster and Sam Goblin of Mister Goblin. That’s an A-tier cosign, so I checked out Silver Zebra–their first release since 2012, as it turns out–and it’s very good! To me, this is “XTC-core”; you could get away with calling this “power pop”, you might be able to sneak “math rock” in there mostly due to the band’s name, but what stuff like “Ona” is more than anything else is immediate, hard-hitting, interesting, and exploratory guitar music.
“Citgo Sign”, Mo Troper From Troper Sings Brion (2023, Lame-O)
Mo Troper! We’ve gotten (at least one) Mo Troper full-length everyyearsince2020, and while this year is no different, the Portland power pop hero has taken a different tack with Troper Sings Brion. The concept–Troper records fleshed-out, full-band versions of cast-off songs that the legendary behind-the-scenes popsmith Jon Brion didn’t include on his sole solo “pop” album Meaningless–is brilliant, and Troper is just the ringer for the job. I hadn’t heard most of these songs before, including “Citgo Sign”, so I don’t know how much of its jangly instrumental and incredibly tight chorus are the creation of Brion versus Troper (I hear a ton of both in all aspects of this song); honestly, it doesn’t matter, it’s a killer single regardless.
“This One’s on You”, Teenage Tom Petties From Hotbox Daydreams (2023, Repeating Cloud/Safe Suburban Home)
Hotbox Daydreams is the second album from Wiltshire’s Teenage Tom Petties in as many years, and the first with a full-on backing band. I’m pleased to say that not only does Hotbox Daydreams retain the spark of last year’s self-titled debut, it’s a leap forward for frontperson Tom Brown and his collaborators in every way. It’s deeper, more energetic, more consistent, and it sounds better. The crunchy power chords, giant chorus, and “slacker rock anthem” vibes of “This One’s on You” maybe make it the best song on the album, although this is a record where every song could’ve been a single, so it’s hard to speak definitively on that. Read more about Hotbox Daydreams here.
“Love, If It Is So”, Maria Elena Silva From Dulce (2023, Astral Spirits/Big Ego)
On Dulce, Wichita/Chicago’s Maria Elena Silva and her collaborators dive headfirst into the realm of experimental rock and jazz; plenty of empty space is here, although a surprising amount of Dulce is quiet yet probing pop music at its core. The slow-burning, blistering psychedelic rock of “Love, If It Is So” opens Dulce in particularly striking fashion–in under three minutes, Silva and her band go from delicately building its precarious structure to burning it down in an excitingly PJ Harvey-esque fashion. Read more about Dulce here.
“Pillbox”, Seablite From Grass Stains and Novocaine (2019, Emotional Response/Dandy Boy)
Between their brand-new sophomore album Lemon Lights and their even-more-brand-new remastered reissue of their debut album, Grass Stains and Novocaine, 2023 is a great year to be San Francisco’s Seablite. Compared to Lemon Lights’ more straight-up shoegaze textures, Grass Stains and Novocaine is more recognizably inspired by indie pop and power pop; songs like early highlight “Pillbox” come off more than anything else as louder versions of vintage guitar pop in the vein of K, Slumberland, and Sarah Records. Read more about Grass Stains and Novocaine here.
“Like Skin”, These Estates From The Dignity of Man (2014, Comedy Minus One)
I discovered Regina, Saskatchewan’s These Estates thanks to Comedy Minus One digitally reissuing their entire discography (two full-lengths and a single) earlier this year; it’s a great fit, as these Canadians bear more than a passing similarity to Comedy Minus One’s flagship group, Silkworm. These Estates get what makes that band so great, though–songs like the cavernous, edge-of-the-earth manifesto that is “Like Skin” would hardly work if the executors of it were just interested in rote copying of their influences.
“Rude Life”, Brontez Purnell From Confirmed Bachelor (2023, Upset the Rhythm)
We checked in on Brontez Purnell back in September, when the lead single from his then-just-announced upcoming solo album, Confirmed Bachelor, was just released. The album is now out in full, and though it’s short, it’s full of moments that deliver on the single’s ambitious but immediate garage-rock-power-pop promise. “Rude Life” is a second-half highlight of the record–I hear what sounds like a violin underneath the classically-Purnell fuzzy rock and roll guitars. Its mid-tempo first half is a bit more subtle than some of Purnell’s other songs, although it eventually kicks into gear and delivers the pure sugar loud guitar pop we’ve all come to expect from him.
“Six Day Sunday”, Model Shop From Check the Forecast (2023, Meritorio)
In hindsight, “Lucky” by Model Shop was probably one of my favorite songs of 2022. The Seattle band really delivered an arresting reminder of just how high the ceiling is for well-executed guitar pop music with that song, and “Six Day Sunday”, while being just a little more low-key and less overtly sweeping than “Lucky”, continues to showcase the best of the band. The song opens up the four-song Check the Forecast EP with the kind of wistful exuberance that the band do very well; I don’t think I want to hear anyone other than them attempt to pull off lines like “Thursday, tied up in office drama / And I lost my grip at happy hour again,” in the middle of a verse that upstages its own chorus in terms of melody.
“Riding with Paul”, The Exbats From Song Machine (2023, Goner)
I’ve been aware of The Exbats for a while–the Arizona group has been making their sunny pop rock since at least 2015, relatively recently sliding onto garage rock kingpins Goner Records’ roster to continue to do so. “Riding with Paul”, a single and the opening track from their latest full-length, Song Machine, caught my attention as I was trawling through new releases–it’s an absolutely perfect piece of retro jangle pop, informed by 60s pop rock but sounding incredibly fresh thanks to everything from the exuberant opening riff to the cheerful backing vocals to the infectious confidence of Inez McLain’s lead vocals.
“Cavalcade of Faces”, Dan Koshute From Intravolve (2023, Magna Person)
Dan Koshute recorded Intravolve entirely on his own in “a secret recording studio in the back of a Pittsburgh yoga studio”–all things considered, it’s a great-sounding collection of power pop/garage rock tunes delivered with an all-in attitude. Koshute (who has also contributed to Jennifer Baron’s Garment District project) is a direct and urgent performer on his fourth solo album and first since 2018–opening track “Cavalcade of Faces” is a cavalcade of energy, gleefully hanging on one chord before the rest of the band (I mean, Koshute on different instruments) kicks out a garage-pop anthem. Read more about Intravolve here.
“La Modelo de Mis Fantasias”, Sandy Pylos From Notas de Voz (2023)
Ana Diaz has previously made music in the Paraguyan psychedelic power pop band EEEKS, but they’ve taken a confident step away from that sound on their new solo project Sandy Pylos, which embraces an atmospheric synthpop sound on their debut record. Nota de Voz’s track “La Modelo de Mis Fantasias” gets off to a sprinting start with its bouncy, EEEKS-ish power pop. However, almost as if to assert that this is Sandy Pylos, the song then deconstructs itself, shifting into a more low-key but still catchy pop rock tune in its midsection, and ending with a sound collage of hushed music from the song, bird sounds, and ambient noises. Read more about Nota de Voz here.
“Lord of Shelves”, Wurld Series From The Giant’s Lawn (2023, Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream)
The third album from New Zealand’s Wurld Series feels like the full realization of their always-apparent promise and talent–on The Giant’s Lawn, they meander through a patchwork sound for seventeen songs, displaying themselves as masters of delicate pop music, indie guitar jams, and spacey acoustic psych-folk detours. Early highlight “Lord of Shelves” is an impressive piece of power pop, giving off an especially Guided by Voices-y air of shit-kicking melancholy that definitely falls on the more immediate end of the record’s spectrum. Read more about The Giant’s Lawn here.
“Old Death – 12” version”, Car Colors From Old Death (2023, Absolutely Kosher)
Instead of the fourth Wrens album that so many of us waited for for over twenty years, we have instead gotten a public break-up, Kevin Whelan’s Aeon Station, and Charles Bissell’s Car Colors (and, in what should register as more than a footnote in all of this, the revival of stalwart California independent label Absolutely Kosher). Aeon Station put out a full-length back in 2021; Car Colors have moved at their own pace, but, finally, the three-song Old Death EP is out into the world. Two of these songs will appear on a Car Colors full-length…eventually…but there’s more than enough to chew on right now with this single, particularly the title track and A-side. “Old Death” is pretty damn close to what I imagined a fourth Wrens album would sound like–seven minutes, intricate and emotional, surprising and familiar. Looking forward to hearing more of this.
“Willow Springs”, Tristan Dolce From Medium True (2024, I Love Camping!)
Who’s ready for 2024? Not me–I still have a bunch of music from this year I want to explore before 2023 closes its doors. Still, if the new year brings more music that’s as good as the lead single from Tristan Dolce’s upcoming Medium True–well, it’ll be another year to remember. “Willow Springs” is an excellent piece of wistful, ornate-but-lo-fi power pop, with Dolce’s high and conversational, Ben Gibbard-ringer vocals leading a memorable lyric and several excellent moments of pure melody.
“Giddy Up!”, Molly O’Malley From Noise Beyond the Mantle: A Mixtape (2023, Mollywhop Record Shop)
The eight-song Noise Beyond the Mantle “mixtape” is the most we’ve heard from Cleveland’s Molly O’Malley in one sitting thus far, and what we get with it is a blurry but undeniably recognizable snapshot of a talented pop singer-songwriter helming a catchy, messy collection of material with a center that feels sharper and fuller than ever in the midst of it all. The mixtape’s second song, “Giddy Up!”, chugs along, its dreamy, reverb-y rock slightly obscuring but unable to hide some of the most interesting writing I’ve heard from O’Malley yet (everything in that second verse could be the line that sticks with you on any given day). Read more about Noise Beyond the Mantle: A Mixtape here.
“Can I Borrow Your Lighter?”, Spiritual Cramp From Spiritual Cramp (2023, Blue Grape)
Ooh, boy. Spiritual Cramp. I heard 2021’s Here Comes More Bad News EP and enjoyed it, although I definitely didn’t see Spiritual Cramp coming based off of those four songs. I admit, I didn’t listen to these (quite catchy!) Bay Area punks and think they had a British-buzz-band-bait album in them, but their self-titled album is full of completely nuts, overdriven dance-post-punk-rock-and-roll-pop-whatever stuff. I have to say, the weird stutter that the main guy is doing in the verses completely works for me–it might even be catchier than the big, all-out gang-vocal chorus.
“Bang”, Melenas From Ahora (2023, Trouble in Mind)
I’m not sure if there’s that much to say about Pamplona, Spain’s Melenas, their third album, Ahora, or single and highlight “Bang”. It’s just good pop music! Trouble in Mind Records is, of course, one of the most respectable outlets for rock music today, so it’s hardly surprising that I found something worth sharing on Ahora, but “Bang” is truly a breath of fresh air every time I hear it. The sparkling and droning synths and organs, the simple but transfixing vocals, the solid, slow-moving five-minute structure–this is continental European indie rock at its finest.
“Renter Not a Buyer”, Dead Gowns From How (2022, VMP)
Geneviève Beaudoin is a Portland, Maine-based folk-country singer-songwriter who self-released the four-song How EP last year. I first heard it thanks to an expanded vinyl reissue that it got this month, although “Renter Not a Buyer” is a track that’d appeared on the original version as well. It’s an excellent piece of electric, sauntering country rock that kicks off the EP in pleasing fashion, featuring some notable New Englanders in the band (Pretty Purgatory’s Peter McLaughlin on drums, Nat Baldwin on bass) but, to be clear, this song is Beaudoin’s show and she’s great in its starring role.
“Junk Drawer Heart”, Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band From Dancing on the Edge (2023, Sophomore Lounge)
On Ryan Davis’ first solo-ish album and first “song” record since the last album from his country rock group State Champion in 2018, the Louisville singer-songwriter is as sprawling and as “country” as ever. On the surface, both Davis’ unbothered Kentucky tones and the Roadhouse Band’s post-post-country rock and roll sound brilliant, but the core of album highlight “Junk Drawer Heart” is equally striking. The chorus (“Maybe there’s something of use deep down in the matchbox bottom of my junk drawer heart / Maybe there’s nothing there but joker cards and keychains”) is obviously a headliner, but the lines about chewing on an apple in an archery range and the “Sultans of Swing”-stuck jukebox should be up there as well. Read more about Dancing on the Edge here.
“Oh No!”, Physical Congas From Oh No! (2023, Stress Test)
Late November? Doesn’t matter. I’m still hearing good new-to-me music daily out here. Allow me to introduce you to Physical Congas, a pair of Montreal pop weirdos (Adrian Popovich and Alexander Ortiz) who just put out their debut release, the all-too-brief four-song Oh No! EP. These tracks zip by with a lo-fi, offbeat pop charm–the opening title track is a little over two minutes long, but it still finds time to offer up bizarrely memorable synth bursts, a pleasingly plodding bass guitar part, and surprisingly all-in lead vocals.
“Into the Atlantic”, Mo Troper From Troper Sings Brion (2023, Lame-O)
Another selection from Troper Sings Brion, because, Jesus Christ, it’s Mo Troper singing Jon Brion. “Into the Atlantic” is the first proper song on the album after the forty-five second “Heart of Dysfunction (Excerpt)”, and it sets up a lot of what makes Brion a great songwriter (and what makes Troper a great translator for him, as well)–intricate construction, lethal melodies, bizarre turns both musically and lyrically (leave it to Troper-Brion to make “raw sewage and seagull excrement” sound brilliant), and above all a striking determination–we are going into the Atlantic. We’re going down.
“Away from the Castle”, Video Age From Away from the Castle (2023, Winspear)
Away from the Castle is my first full-length experience with the laid-back, dreamy indie pop of New Orleans’ Video Age, although I’ve encountered Ross Farbe (who is half of the band, along with Ray Micarelli) before due to his recording work. The gorgeous title track to Away from the Castle certainly sounds like the work of a couple of musicians who know their way around the studio, although Farbe and Micarelli also know that, when they have a brilliant pop song on their hands, some targeted streamlining is the best course of action with regards to presenting it. It’s kind of an odd place to hear one of the best jangle pop songs of the year, but that’s exactly what “Away from the Castle” is.
“Chance Occurrence”, Postal Blue (2023)
“Postal Blue” is a great name for a dreamy jangly indie pop group; I’m surprised nobody had claimed it before. Not that they’re a new act, mind you–I was surprised to learn that Brazil-based Adriano do Couto has been making music under the name since 1998 (first as a full band, eventually as a solo project), and “Chance Occurrence” is actually the first new Postal Blue material in eight years. For a comeback single, it’s a bullseye–it starts off fairly low-key, then shifts into gear for a giant indie pop chorus indicating that do Couto is certainly a veteran at making this kind of music.
“Turquoise”, Jon Winslow From I’m Here Now (2023, Shiny Boy Press)
Jon Winslow is not a guy, but it is the project of a guy–specifically, Baltimore-based folk singer Taylor DeBoer, who just released I’m Here Now on cassette. He seems linked to experimental pop group Surf Harp–he contributed layout and design to their latest album, four out of five Surf Harp members play on I’m Here Now, and both records are out through Shiny Boy Press. Some of Surf Harp’s offbeat art pop shows up on DeBoer’s album, although in the catchy slow-folk-rock of “Turquoise”, it’s more of a tamped-down undercurrent to DeBoer’s acoustic foundation.
“Hiding in My Home”, Uni Boys From Buy This Now! (2023, Curation)
It’s just good pop music, you know? The Uni Boys’ latest, Buy This Now!, has a bunch of effortless-sounding power pop hooks, but I decided to go with the introvert anthem “Hiding in My Home” as the highlight. Singing about how they absolutely don’t want to go outside–now that’s how you prove that you’re true power pop fans. Handclaps, soaring lead guitars, slick keyboards–despite all of this, “Hiding in My Home” is still able to sound as laid-back as a night staying in should sound. Ordering takeout food is the maximum level of social interaction booked for the evening!
“Baciami”, Mel Stone From Princess (2023, Honey Machiine)
There’s a lot of music in this world, and it can provide the listener with an infinite possibility of experiences. For example, sometimes you want to listen to a trans woman absolutely sing her heart out for an entire album’s worth of music–if you find yourself in this cohort, Princess by Mel Stone is certainly for you. Princess (initially released as a pair of EPs in 2021 and 2022) is a ton of maximal rock and roll anthems in a row–Stone’s Bandcamp bio mentions Ezra Furman, who I absolutely hear in my favorite song on the album, “Baciami”. As bold as that title (as well as the subsequent English translation of it in the chorus) is, Stone more than backs it up in this song’s performance.
“Center of Attention”, Summer Set From Summer Set (2023, Fort Lowell)
The members of Wilmington, North Carolina’s Summer Set have played together in some form for over twenty years, although this self-titled album is the first full-length to have surfaced yet under the Summer Set name. It’s a breezy, timeless collection of indie rock of several stripes–some heavier and spacier than others, but consistently interesting. Opening track “Center of Attention” sets a high bar with its deft rendition of alt-country, folk rock, jangle pop, and power pop–a bunch of ingredients to make a song that sounds incredibly simple and incredibly catchy.
“Rain”, The Chills From Brave Words (1987/2023, Flying Nun/Fire)
The Chills! Statistically speaking, you probably like The Chills, or at least some Chills-inspired bands (Lord knows I’ve covered plenty of them on this website). Despite their beloved status in this particular corner of indie rock, the New Zealand band’s first album, 1987’s Brave Words, has been long overdue for a remastered reissue–thankfully, their recent home of Fire Records has finally done so. There’s plenty on this album I could highlight here, but “Rain” is a great picture of early The Chills–almost perfect pop magicians, but still holding onto a Flying Nun-ish oddball, “zany” streak in the song’s presentation.
“Blue Shadows”, Lower Plenty From No Poets (2023, Bedroom Suck)
I hadn’t heard of Melbourne’s Lower Plenty before the release of their most recent album, but apparently the band has been around since 2010 and features members of a bunch of notable Australian groups (Dick Diver, Total Control, Deaf Wish, UV Race). The quartet has actually been on something of a hiatus as of late; their fifth album, No Poets, is actually their first since 2016 (busy with all their other bands, I’d imagine). “Blue Shadows” is a nice, representative track from early on in the record–it’s got that enjoyable casual Aussie folk-pop sound, informed by Flying Nun but with a more open, straightforward twist.
“Put the Poison in My Body”, These Estates From Triumph, Reign (2014, Comedy Minus One)
I’m not sure which These Estates album I like more–The Dignity of Man probably has more “hits”, but the darker Triumph, Reign has a pleasing amount of meat on its bones. The upsettingly-relevant “Stolen Blues” nearly made this playlist, but opening track “Put the Poison in My Body” is such an incredible indie rock anthem that I had to get this one on the playlist somewhere. The title line is a wrecking ball–as is the absolutely boundless guitar solo that the band let loose halfway through the track.
“Dandy”, The Smashing Times From This Sporting Life (2023, K/Perennial)
This Sporting Life might be the most fully-released The Smashing Times have sounded yet. It’s the Baltimore jangle-psych group’s most pop-forward material to date, even as they haven’t abandoned the exploratory streak that made them stick out in the first place. The sparkling “Dandy” is a hidden gem that This Sporting Life saves towards the near conclusion of the record–the first half is uncharacteristically repetitive for the nonlinear popsters, but it does switch into a different (but no less catchy) kind of pop song in its second half. Read more about This Sporting Life here.
“Til It’s Over”, Marnie Stern From The Comeback Kid (2023, Joyful Noise)
We’ve been waiting for this one for a while. Marnie Stern took a decade-long break from releasing music after 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia (but not from music as a whole, as she’s been a longtime member of The Late Show with Seth Myers’ band), and the aptly-titled The Comeback Kid does not disappoint. Stern’s all-over-the-place, math-y-pop-rock guitar hero stuff was part of a mini-scene in the late 2000s, but I’ve always seen plenty of substance in those albums outside of that context, and the success of a Marnie Stern album in 2023 serves to confirm this. “Til It’s Over” is low-key…for a Marnie Stern song, which means it’s still a pretty intense rocker, just in a less confrontational way than one might expect.
“All into the Day”, Forestlike From Forestlike (2023, Patsy Presents)
Joshua Wayne Hensley will probably be most familiar to Rosy Overdrive readers as one half of undersung northern Indiana indie rockers The Rutabega, a band that released a solid album last year. Hensley also self-releases music under his own name, and now he’s started a new band with a long-time acquaintance in Jared Myers (of Daytime Volume). With Forestlike, the duo explore folk rock music of several stripes, including the delicate but fully-developed “heartland” indie rock of opening track “All into the Day” whose deliberate pace and wandering melody hew true to the project’s woodsy title.
“Dipshit”, Teenage Tom Petties From Hotbox Daydreams (2023, Repeating Cloud/Safe Suburban Home)
I’ll say it yet again, because it bears repeating: everything on Hotbox Daydreams is a hit. Just massive power pop success after success from Tom Brown and his gang of Teenage Tome Petties. Is “Dipshit” the best of all of them? Perhaps–it’s an instantly memorable lo-fi showtune with one hell of a chorus hook, and the only thing stopping it from dominating the airwaves is probably its title. Read more about Hotbox Daydreams here.
“Maybelline”, Frog From Grog (2023, Audio Antihero)
Listening to Grog, the fifth album from Queens-based sibling duo Frog, kind of feels like dropping in on an alternate-universe oldies station. It picks and chooses sounds from throughout the past to create a new listening experience, pulling from freak folk, piano pop rock, space-y psych rock, power pop, and scuzzy lo-fi indie rock. “Maybelline”, towards the middle of Grog, is a vintage Frog experience–its power pop is perhaps more sped up than some of the record’s more exploratory fare, but it’s no less intricate. Read more about Grog here.
“Hey, Useless”, Quitter From Monument Road (2023, GoldMold/Heavenly Creature)
Kenny Bates is a Glasgow-based lo-fi indie rocker who’s been making downcast pop as Quitter (an appropriately glass-half-empty name) since 2016. I believe that Monument Road is the third Quitter full-length, and Bates is joined by a full band for a good portion of this one, giving an extra kick to Bates’ songwriting. “Hey, Useless” is my favorite song here–it’s an undeniable power pop single that’s as chilly as it is catchy. The first verse of the song is about having a rough emotional moment in an ice cream parlor, which feels just about right.
“W”, Handturner From Works and Shoots (2023, Steno Pool)
Somebody needs to do one of those in-depth scene reports to figure out just what’s happening in Kalamazoo, Michigan these days. Handturner is led by the duo of Franki Hand and Ike Turner, who also play together in the experimental krautrock group Wowza in Kalamazooand the Kalamazoo Drone Society. At the same time, three Handturner albums have turned up since last December, the latest of which, Works and Shoots, is a thorny collection of experimental, almost-industrial crossed-wires rock music. “W” is the only thing on the record that’s even sort of a pop song, with Hand’s sung-spoken vocals balancing precariously over a warped noise rock/post-punk instrumental.
Hello, Rosy Overdrive readers! Rosy Overdrive’s year-end lists are just around the corner (just as soon as I, you know, make them), but first I wanted to ask y’all what you thought the best of 2023 is. So, this year I’m trying out doing a Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll! Wow! The question I’m most interested in is: What are your ten favorite albums from 2023? This is the only question that you’re required to answer in order to submit (please, choose at least five), but I’ve also included questions for your favorite songs, EP, and record label of 2023 that are optional but encouraged to be filled out as well.
If you need help remembering what came out in 2023, here’s a list of everything that Rosy Overdrive wrote about in Pressing Concerns this year. Obviously, it’s a not comprehensive list of the year’s best (and you’re more than welcome to vote for albums I haven’t covered), but it’s a starting point!
The deadline to submit your choices will be atmidnight (EST) on Christmas Day, and the results will be compiled by the end of that week. And remember: this is the most important election of our lifetimes.
I’m hoping all U.S.-based Rosy Overdrive readers had a nice holiday weekend. Since I’m guessing a lot of you missed the second post from last week (it went up the day before Thanksgiving and featured The Veldt, Feeling Figures, The Ground Is Lava, and The Anderson Tapes), I’ll go ahead and re-share it before we dive into today’s Pressing Concerns. Caught up? Great–now it’s time to look at some great new albums from Neighboring Sounds, Flat Mary Road, and Colt Wave, as well as a compilation from Dot Dash.
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
Neighboring Sounds – Cold in the Smart City
Release date: October 13th Record label: Friend of Mine/Adagio 830/Friend Club/Lilla Himmel/Sound Fiction/BCore/strictly no capital letters Genre: Emo-y indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Grandhotel
Cold in the Smart City is the first full-length record to bear the name of Neighboring Sounds, but the roots of this Bergen, Norway-based emo-indie rock band go back more than twenty years. The band formed as Crash (n) in 2000 and were then known as The First Cut for a few years afterwards, releasing at least one album under each name. After a lengthy hiatus, the band (vocalist/guitarist Arild Eriksen, guitarist Kristian Gundersen, and drummer Thomas Milford) reconvened as Neighboring Sounds in 2014, putting out a few singles before finally (after adding Flight Mode’s Anders Blom on bass) getting their debut album out last month. In what I’m certain is a Pressing Concerns record, Cold in the Smart City is being put out by seven different labels across various nationalities–between this fact and its long gestation time, there’s a certain weight attached to Cold in the Smart City. Thankfully, Neighboring Sounds have put together an album more than up to the task of bearing it.
Norway has been a fertile ground for emo-tinged anthemic indie rock bands in recent years (Blom’s other band being but one prominent example), and Cold in the Smart City similarly falls along an “early Death Cab for Cutie to 90s emo-punk” axis. Although they’re clearly inspired by it, I’d hesitate to call Neighboring Sounds “punk” here–there’s energy here, to be sure, but they’re refined in a way that comes back as relatively slick (but still emotional and not cheap-sounding) alternative rock. The quartet gives these ten songs a gravitas that makes it feel much grander than its 30-minute runtime–from the chilly opening title track to the fast-paced “No Commons” to the giant chorus of “Grandhotel” to the steady-building crescend-emo of “Of the Woods”, Cold in the Smart City establishes itself as an animated and all-in record. An incredibly tight album, its only true breather is the 90-second interlude “Moss/Pine”, after which Neighboring Sounds gear up for another side of rockers. “Polis” is the band at their most blistering, and the one song where their hardcore roots really show (although it’s more in the form of fiery post-hardcore). No steam is lost as Cold in the Smart City chugs to its conclusion, although “Sleepercar” does end things on a somewhat pensive note. Leave it to Neighboring Sounds to sound purposeful and inspired singing about sleep, though. (Bandcamp link)
Dot Dash – 16 Again
Release date: October 13th Record label: Country Mile Genre: Power pop, college rock, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Holly Garland
I received my introduction to Washington, D.C.’s Dot Dash last year in the form of Madman in the Rain, a brilliant collection of jangly power pop that nevertheless contained a bit of post-punk ruminations on death and mortality and would probably be even higher on my year-end list if I redid it today. Even though they were new to me, however, Dot Dash (vocalist/guitarist Terry Banks, drummer Danny Ingram, and bassist Hunter Bennett) have been amassing a pretty impressive back catalog over the past decade or so–Madman in the Rain was actually preceded by six other full-length records since 2011. All seven Dot Dash full-length albums received CD releases through The Beautiful Music, but they’ve never put out a vinyl record, which seems like a major missing piece for a band that so deftly makes music that sounds straight out of the vinyl era. Thankfully, Country Mile Records has rectified this with 16 Again, a compilation of fifteen songs selected from across Dot Dash’s discography (plus one new cover)–the band calls it “a ‘greatest hits’ album by a band with no hits”, which is, frankly, the best kind.
16 Again makes the intriguing decision to go in reverse chronological order, which means that it starts with four selections from Madman in the Rain. I won’t go too much into them since I already covered that one (I might’ve found room here for “Dead Gone”, but it’s already the most well-represented album so I can’t complain), but the band keep the quality consistent as they plow further backwards. The three songs from 2018’s Proto Retro are all ace (particularly the soaring New Order-jangle pop “Unfair Weather”), and the one song from Searchlights (“Holly Garland”) packs enough energy for three. By the time we get to the selections from Half-Remembered Dream, we’re a decade back, showing that the band was always fully capable of delivering transcendent pop rock anthems (“(Here’s to) the Ghosts of the Past”) and slightly weirder but still hooky pieces of guitar pop (“The Sound in Shells”). If you stick around to hear the two songs from their 2011 debut spark>flame>ember>ash, you get to hear the only “rough-around-the-edges” moments on the record, with the garage-mod “The Color and the Sound” and the somewhat pained post-punk of “There and Back Again Lane” being curious but still worthwhile offerings. The whirlwind tour complete, Dot Dash end with a new cover of Television Personalities’ “Jackanory Stories”, which is an appropriate sendoff to this summary of Dot Dash–not shy about their debt to the past, but nevertheless continuing to offer something new. (Bandcamp link)
Flat Mary Road – Little Realities
Release date: September 22nd Record label: Whatever’s Clever Genre: Folk rock, college rock, psychedelic rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: The Grifter
Flat Mary Road is a quartet from Philadelphia, led by guitarist/vocalist Steve Teare and also featuring a pair of Alexes (Alex Irwin on drums, Alex Lewis on guitar) and bassist Dan Papa. The band has been around since the early 2010s–their latest album, Little Realities, is at least their fourth full-length. Little Realities showed up earlier this year on Whatever’s Clever (Dave Scanlon, Keen Dreams, Office Culture), and while there isn’t exactly a shortage of indie rock records coming out of Philly these days, Flat Mary Road have an interesting and striking sound that helps them stick out from the pack. Some of Little Realities‘ ingredients are familiar–one part folk rock and alt-country, another part jangly power pop–but there’s also an almost-psychedelic, Paisley Underground-like fullness to the album, and Teare’s distinct vocals help the band land somewhere in the midst of Miracle Legion-like college rock as well.
Little Realities cheerily rejects a “band record” versus “singer-songwriter” record dichotomy–it clearly builds itself around Teare’s writing across its eleven songs and 45 minutes, but it also devotes plenty of time to lengthy instrumental passages and lets the musicians wander on plenty of occasions (even two entire songs’ worth in “Running the Tape Back” and “A Lofting Song”). Busy opening track “The Announcement” gets mileage out of Papa’s plodding, prominent bass, Irwin’s brisk drumbeat, and Teare’s strangely-veering but no less effective melodies. It feels like a more contemporary indie rock single, while the song that follows it (the laid-back, relatively more straightforward “The Grifter”) is more of a vintage college rock radio hit. “Friends” balances simplicity and intricacy, and sides one and two are buffered by two of the strongest choruses on the record (the surprisingly urgent-sounding “The Gardener and I” and the starry power pop of “Change Is Not Enough”). These are some of the more immediate ones, but the other end of Little Realities–best exemplified by the record’s final two songs, which combine to reach over twelve minutes in length–contains plenty to enjoy as well. Once the melodic guitar solo kicks in about halfway through closing track “Landscape”, it becomes clear that there isn’t so much daylight in between them, anyway. (Bandcamp link)
Colt Wave – On Call
Release date: November 3rd Record label: Too Deluxe Genre: Lo-fi pop, jangle pop, post-punk, dream pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Deep Regret
Colt Wave is the California-based project of Colby Mancasola (best known as the drummer for Knapsack) and Ken Lovgren (who is occasionally a touring member for The Wind-Ups). The two of them are longtime musical acquaintances–they apparently first played together before Knapsack even emerged in the mid-90s, and with On Call (which appears to be the fourth Colt Wave album since 2021), the duo confidently take on a genre of music very different from the emo-punk of Mancasola’s other band–lo-fi, dreamy, jangly guitar pop. It’s a casual but nonetheless substantial-feeling album–Mancasola and Lovgren float through eleven songs in twenty-two minutes, declining to add too many bells and whistles to any of them but displaying a knack for writing memorable pop hooks which are more than enough to carry On Call.
“Dark Night Soul” opens up the album by sounding just a tad offbeat–there’s just a bit of 60s psychedelia in here, even as Colt Wave still keep the song barebones enough to let the melodies reverberate completely. The folk-y undertones of “Cold Cold Heart” back up On Call’s strong start, while the lo-fi basement pop of “Deep Regret” feels like a more West Coast version of early Guided by Voices’ hidden retro-pop. On Call breezes by, not spending too much time overthinking any of its offerings, but there are certainly plenty of moments that stick out on the quick but unhurried journey–the upbeat “Shaking You” is Colt Wave mustering up just enough zeal to nail their version of power pop, “Survive You” balances handclaps and hovering guitar lines to marry “dream” and “pop”, and “CALL U” feels just a bit more “full” than the rest of the record as Mancasola and Lovgren add a bit of Western desert rock to it. Colt Wave wrap it up with the 75-second “Only Night”, which goes from the “Be My Baby” drum intro to a piece of hazy jangle pop and then ends with a chorus of crickets. In spite (or perhaps because) of how low-key On Call is, it remains engrossing right up to its close. (Bandcamp link)
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