Over the past few weeks, our most active record reviewers have had the task of choosing their 5 favorite recordings of 2023, and here they are. This selection is unique and quite different of all you can find on the web or through traditional medias.
The hazy cadence of vocalist Sean Bowie (Yves Tumor) is sometimes a bit Bloc Party or Gorillaz, but it’s the mutating instrumentation on Praise a Lord … that keeps your attention. Yves Tumor’s sound is like a shapeshifting mass, a darkened collapsing star that jumps from the sounds of earworm proto-punk basslines to the current R&B hip hop world, to the obscure shoegaze minor-keyed guitar world of My Bloody Valentine. Though the slower numbers are still good and interesting, they do drop off in intensity, but perhaps purposefully so, because that’s only two tracks of the 12. And then “Ebony Eye” bursts out with its organ-synth phrase and dark orchestral disco chorus — easily one of the best album closers I’ve heard in recent memory. This will be a hard one to follow up, but I have no doubt Yves Tumor is happy to oblige.
To see the complete list, click here!
