Albums of the year 2023

2023 was a very good year for music!

As always, I'm sure other end of year lists will lead me to discovering music released in 2023 that passed me by at the time. However, at the time of writing, here are my 10 favourite albums from 2023 with 15 more bubbling under.

Three of my favourite albums find artists in their 50's pouring their hearts out about love, loss and moving  forward, while others by David Holmes and Eyes of Others set controls for the heart of the sun to burn as brightly and vividly as they possibly can, 

Melodies, hooks, storytelling and invention are spread throughout. Whether through pure euphoric pop, or dreamy melancholia. There are glorious grooves, gorgeous guitars, sublime synths and brilliant beats.

Enjoy. 

2023 Albums of the year

The Ballad of Darren by Blur

What is it like to suffer a major break-up in your 50's? Damon Albarn makes it sound heartbreaking, yet beautiful as he pours his heart our across the album. There is reflection, memories, realisation, thoughts of good times, confession (the frank I fucked up starts St. Charles Square ...) and pure heartfelt honesty.

The singles The Narcissist and Barbaric are fantastic, then album cuts like Russian Strings and Goodbye Albert are utterly gorgeous. Albarn is an exceptional talent, in the enviable position of doing whatever he likes with Blur, Gorillaz, solo and in collobaration.

Review

Barbaric - official visualiser

Nothing Lasts Forever by Teenage Fanclub

Nothing Lasts Forever, the 12th Teenage Fanclub album, is a beautiful album containing 10 songs of love, life, loss, hope and light. If Everything Arcade was reflective, then this new album is looking forward, with Norman heading Back to the Light.

Have your tissues ready for Raymond's beautiful I Will Love You that closes the album. The slow burning, near 2-minute, intro is beautifully dreamy, leading to McGinley singing about how his love will last through all that is wrong in the world. Until the end of time. Norman's harmonies on the chorus are gorgeous.

This is Teenage Fanclub at their best - heartfelt emotion, love and hope in the face of racisim, bigotry, pollution, capitalism ... the grim reality of modern day life. Love can help. Love can win

Review 

I Will Love You

Blind on a Galloping Horse by David Holmes featuring Raven Violet

David Holmes takes us on a beautiful journey on his latest album. Over 14 songs, Holmes creates wonderful sounds; dreamy, dubby, clubby, psychedelic, electro with gorgeous melodic riffs and layers. Raven Violet adds super cool vocals. Love In the Upside Down immediately became one of my favourite songs of the year. 

Love In The Upside Down

It's Over If We Run Out Of Love

Sugar Honey by Carla J Easton

My sister has written and released 7 albums since the 2016 release of her debut album Homemade Lemonade. Sugar Honey is her 4th solo album and Carla has also released 2 albums with TeenCanteen and last years Poster Paints LP.

That's pretty prolific by any artist's standards, particularly one who is DIY. Sugar Honey was funded by a fanclub crowdfunder and I'm positive that everyone who generously signed up will be super happy with the results on display.

Self-produced, there is a lovely feel to the whole album with layers of melodic vocals and heartfelt lyrics delivered with bite, humour and soul. The title track talks of feeling scared while walking home at night, You Made Us is a beautiful love letter to Glasgow, One Week is a song about how love can quickly go wrong and Sleepyhead is a gorgeous dreamy lullaby

You Made Us

Sleepyhead

Heavy Heavy by Young Fathers

Young Fathers Heavy Heavy explodes into action with the opening track Rice. The bass is heavy ... heavy, the beats are tribal, the melodies flow and there is a gospel choir.

I Saw has a powerful urgency, the bass is reminiscent of Massive Attack, the groove allowing so much to go on over the top of it. There is a lot going on and it's f**king magical. The layers, the production, the hooks and harmonies. 

Heavy Heavy is 10 songs in under 33-minutes. It delivers so much but leaves you wanting more.

Review

I Saw (live at Glastonbury)

Eyes of Others by Eyes of Others

'Post pub, couldn't get in the club music' is how John Bryden describes his Eyes of Others project and on this evidence I wouldn't mind going back to his place!

Eyes of Others debut album is a joyful, refreshing, delightful and playful melting pot of electronica, dreamy psychedelic melodies, grooves, riffs, humour, synth sounds, effects, beats, lyrics and melodies.

Review

New Hair, New Me 

Brothers and Sisters by Steve Mason

Steve Mason keeps on keepin' on, creating psychedelic and political grooves to move you - on your feet and in your soul. Mason has a natural sing-song voice that comes out on songs like I'm On My Way and he also has an uncanny ability to find a melody and groove, often creating dreamy mantra like chants in the process.
Mason and his band veer from Stones-y, Gospel vibes (check the London Gospel Choir on All Over Again) to the modern day blues title track where Mason pines for nights out, dancing, dealers and DJ's, urging brothers and sisters to pump up the volume.

The People Say

Brothers and Sisters

Council Skies by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

After 3 High Flying Birds albums in 6-years, Noel Gallagher took 6-years to release his 4th. Recorded in his own Lone Star Studio, there is a lovely relaxed and dreamy vibe spread throughout the album. Interviews around release had Noel in typically great form, highlighting how he didn't have to clock watch. 

Like Albarn and Blake, Gallagher has also recently gone through a break up in his mid-50's and Noel talked of Council Skies as being like 'Going back to the beginning. Daydreaming, looking up at the sky and wondering about what life could be ...'

Noel, from the very early days of Oasis, has talked of his love for Burt Bacharach and I think that shines on this album. It's his strongest post-Oasis collection of songs. Noel's voice still has that aching, soulful and melodic quality. But on these songs, backed by sublime string arrangements and melancholic horns, it really comes out.

Gallagher can still write a sky scraping chorus, like he does on Open The Door, See What You Find, but also beautiful daydream songs like Trying To Find A World That's Been And Gone.

Open The Door, See What You Find (Live on Later)

We're Gonna Get Their In The End

Guts by Olivia Rodrigo

My daughters got me into Olivia Rodrigo this year through sensational modern pop songs like Get Him Back and Vampire. Rodrigo is only 20-years old and is clearly a precocious talent with a delightful and exceptional ability to use swear words!

Rodrigo can fly from talking through verses to huge pop choruses with enough hooks to floor Rocky in seconds. Her lyrics are clever, observational and confessional like diary entries with hints of a Taylor Swift influence, but Rodrigo is an absolute star in her own right. 

Get Him Back

Vampire (Live Lounge)

Salvage Enterprise by The Polyphonic Spree

Released in mid-November, this album caught me at just the right time. I'd had a particularly full on day at work and set out for an evening walk with my headphones on, ready to be transported into the world of Tim DeLaughter and his incredible band. The music in my head was like a warm hug. The lyrics were full of warmth and empathy. There is hope out there, through all the despair. 

DeLaughter wears his heart and soul on his sleeve. You can see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. He feels it, he means it. 

Galloping Seas

Shadows On The Hillside

Bubbling under

The Record by Boygenius

Everything Harmony by The Lemon Twigs

Parallel Lights by Andrew Wasylyk

Javelin by Sufjan Stevens

I Don't Know by bdrmm

Happy Ending by Hifi Sean & David McAlmont

Consciousology by Dot Allison

Hit Parade by Roisin Murphy

For That Beautiful Feeling by The Chemical Brothers

Sea Of Mirrors - The Coral

Tear The Place Up by The Allergies

LaVette! by Betty LaVette

Come Around and Love Me by Jalen Ngonda

Late Developers by Belle and Sebastian

Turn The Car Around by Gaz Coombes

The Polyphonic Spree at SWG3 Glasgow

OK - where on earth do I start?

Is there any way I can even begin to convey the love and enjoyment that The Polyphonic Spree created through their performance in Glasgow last night? It was joyful, soulful, pure and true - like a dream.

My blog on The Beginning Stages Of gave you an indication of the warmth and wonder that The Polyphonic Spree are capable of creating on record (although hopefully you were already aware!). Watching them live for the first time in 12-years or so at the SWG3 last night - you could multiply that x 100.

Singer Tim DeLaughter had tears in his eyes and was left speechless by the response from the crowd, I had to wipe away some from mine and my sister burst out crying during and after the show. It was a life affirming, heart warming, heartfelt and euphoric performance.

13 members of the Spree took to the stage; 2 on horns, 2 guitarists, bass, drums, keys, percussion, 4 girls in the choir, 1 on cello....they started the gorgeous opening of Have A Day and then Tim DeLaughter strolled on to the stage to be greeted by a true Glasgow welcome. He began to sing but the crowd took over and Tim just gazed at his band in amazement and had tears in his eyes.

Tim led his band through their debut The Beginning Stages Of. You didn't have to be a mind reader to tell what this was meaning to him. Write and play good songs, give us a performance and the Glasgow crowd will respond like no other.

Hands were in the air from the off as my sister and I danced down the front, jumped up and down like loonies and sang our hearts out a-long with Tim, the choir, the band and the rest of the crowd.

If only you could bottle the magic and love that was created at SWG3 last night!

It's The Sun was utterly euphoric, Days Like These was gorgeous with Tim conducting his band, La La was brilliant fun, Middle Of The Day like a strange psychedelic lullaby, before the incredible run of Hanging Around , Soldier Girl both ecstatic and euphoric, Light and Day was simply beautiful - that gorgeous extended bubbling intro, before A Long Day brought us back down to earth.

The band looked resplendent in their robes, Tim was singing his heart out - this is what it is all about. It can't be easy or cheap to tour as the Polyphonic Spree. I hope that the response from Glasgow left Tim and his band in no doubt about how much love there is for them.

A quick break and a change of robes - with Tim coming back on in his tartan robe that someone had made him for T in the Park in 2003 - and the party continued with a short best of set.

New song Popular By Design was superb, psychedelic lights added to the electro disco feel, but it is still definitely the Spree with a huge soaring chorus. I had also forgotten how uplifting and euphoric Hold Me Now is.

A stunning cover of The Monkees Porpoise Song was like going into some kind of 60's happening. The lights, costumes, smiles and music - it was sensational.

Tim took someone's phone and held it up to his face so the crowd could see it through the phone, he shook hands, bounded around the stage and then towards the end there was a great moment where the band just stopped as if they had frozen and he wandered around mucking about with their instruments and creating all kinds of sounds.

My sister and I met Tim afterwards. He was literally speechless. We both thanked him profusely for his music and vision. I sincerely hope the band can return to the UK in the next few years.

The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree

The Polyphonic Spree burst on to the music scene in 2002 with their debut album The Beginning Stages Of... 

The ambition, scale, enjoyment, wonder, talent and sonic adventure displayed on the album captured the imagination of many, including David Bowie who invited them to play the Meltdown Festival he was curating.

Polyphonic Spree rose from the ashes of leader Tim DeLaughter's previous band - Tripping Daisy. DeLaughter quickly recruited 12 friends and within 2-weeks the band had a 30-minute set of 9- songs - or sections as they like to call them.

They promptly recruited another 12-members and wrote a tenth song! Could they encapsulate the sounds DeLaughter was creating in his head - could he get them on record?

The answer was a euphoric yes. The Beginning Stages... is an absolutely sensational album that I am currently enjoying revisiting ahead of the band returning to Glasgow to play SWG3 on 11th September, playing the Liquid Room in Edinburgh the night before.

The band blew me away back in 2002 and 2003. It was my sister Carla who discovered them and she ended up speaking to De Laughter online. Their show at Glasgow's QMU around that time was like nothing I had ever seen before. DeLaughter led his 24-piece band through the crowd, dressed in robes, singing their hearts out, up to the stage, where they proceeded to produce one of the most soulful, heartfelt, heartwarming, fun and euphoric performances I have ever seen.

The Beginning Stages... is a life affirming album, born out of tragedy (DeLaughter's friend and bandmate in Tripping Daisy died of a drug overdose in 1999), Have A Day/Celebratory builds to a huge choir singing/echoing DeLaughter's thoughts/hopes.

Soon, you'll find the answer

It's The Sun is like a signature tune for the Polyphonic Spree - bursting with positivity in sound and chorus, yet with sadness, reflection and hope in the verses. This is sensational when they play it live.

Sun

Suicide is a same

Sun

Soon you'll find your own way

Sun

Hope has come you are saved

And the chorus, so simple, so effective;

Hey now it's the sun, and it makes me shine

Days Like This Keep Me Warm is gorgeous, like a blanket, soothing, melancholy, blissful and soulful. The instrumentation, melodies and variations are sublime.

La La is experimental, noisy and brash in comparison to the other songs on the album and Middle Of The Day is subdued; perhaps both are reflections of DeLaughter's state of mind when creating them.

Out of the noise and uncertainty comes hope and looking forwards in the shape of Hanging Around the Day Part 1 as DeLaughter gives himself a good talking to.

You're hanging around the day

You're filling yourself with blame

God only knows what you're missing

Soldier Girl has a kind of urgency from the start, that only increases as the song goes on - the choir kick in behind DeLaugher and the chorus is repeated again and again. The alternative version on the album is even more urgent and even more euphoric.

Light and Day is the sound of sunshine, hope and love, of a band truly finding a remarkable moment, soaring high and indeed - reaching for the sun. It bubbles into life sounding like the most delicious thing you could ever hear.

DeLaughter is singing his heart out and his band join in after he urges everyone to follow the day and reach for the sun. The song explodes in a glorious frenzy. Listening back is a joy.

Photo by Dana Donovan

The album closes with A Long Day, a collage of noise, bringing the listener back down to earth.

DeLaughter himself has said that The Beginning Stages... was essentially a demo album that took on a life of its own, the band went back to rerecord several of the songs for singles and most albums contain bonus versions of Soldier Girl, a combined Hanging Around, Light and Day and It's The Sun.

The original demos are gorgeous but DeLaughter and his band take them to a new level on the new versions. I can't wait to see them again at the SWG3. It has been too long - not that it is easy or cheap to take a 24-piece band and choir on the road!

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

20-years of T in the Park

There is a show coming on BBC2 later on tonight that will celebrate 20-years of Scotland's largest music festival - T in the Park.

The journey of the festival and the people behind it has been truly remarkable in that time. While I've not been every year, I have certainly been to my fair share. Looking back at the line-ups, I think I went the first 7-years to start with.

It is almost a right of passage for teenagers to head to Balado for a weekend of music.

I thought I would write a blog with 20 memories of my own journey's to T in the Park;

Oasis at T in the Park, 1994
Still one of my all-time fave gigs, only it wasn't a gig, it was a cup final with Liam and Noel even playing football on stage. They were on the crest of an unstoppable wave, a tsunami, they were incredible. I would LOVE to see a video of this.

Rage Against The Machine and Cypress Hill turn up, 1994
Back in 1994 we didn't have mobiles or the internet, so festival rumours swept like wildfire. Back in 1994 we also couldn't believe that someone had booked some of the biggest and coolest bands in the world to come and play in a field in Hamilton!

With announcements that the bands were held up, things were not looking good. However they both played and even jammed a couple of songs together. Both had massive hits back in 1994 and remain cult bands to this day.

A human pyramid to Crowded House, 1994
I popped my festival cherry in 1994 and have a lot of fond memories. People building a human pyramid to a huge cheer during Crowded House in glorious sunshine was just a real festival moment that brought everyone together. Neil Finn egged them on and it was pretty impressive!

Pulling a Levellers fan!, 1994
Yeah I pulled a crusty. She was from Manchester and she was gorgeous!

Kylie Minogue, 1995
Kylie played in glorious sunshine and i was determined to get near the stage. I ended up leading a conga and snaking my way through the crowd to see her in the flesh. Poptastic!

Black Grape, 1995
Quite a few memories from this year as it was just so glorious. Black Grape kicked up a dust storm with their party set. A crowd of us were right down the front and it was brilliant.

The Charlatans, 1995
One of my fave bands who have played T in the Park on countless occasions. The Charlatans have a lot of love up in Scotland and it was displayed in full. Their brilliant singles from The Charlatans album were perfect for the sunshine.

Someone over turning a portaloo at the campsite, 1995
Funny but quite sickening at the same time. Especially when the person came out - eeuuggghh!

Going to see the Bluetones instead of Radiohead, 1996
Not my best memory of T - totally the wrong choice, as much as I love The Bluetones.

Camping - 97
Another sunny year - the first one at Balado. Their was a huge crowd of us that went up from Carluke and we got there really early to set up camp and drink some beers. Then some lads challenged us to a game of football. It was brilliant, that year was just really special. Lots of friends, sunshine and good music.

The campsite cheer, 1997
A cheer started going around the campsite, everyone started joining in. It was incredible, building and building, getting louder and louder, it was tribal. Then everyone started heading in one direction to congregate near a tent with a huge soundsystem and started dancing. If only we had had phones to record the footage. The guys tent got trashed!

Natalie Imburglia, 1998
I was in love with Natalie and in love with 'Torn' - still a stunning piece of pop music that sounds fresh to this day. Natalie wowed the crowd and me. I was maybe a little easier than others!

Echo & the Bunnymen, 2003
Skipping a few years as we head to 2003. The Bunnymen were first or second on the Main Stage, where my sister Carla had just texted to say she was rather ill after drinking a bit too much the night before. The sun was out and The Bunnymen blasted through their back catalogue.

Polyphonic Spree, 2003
Talking of my sister, she introduced me to a rather special band that year; the technicolour explosion that is the Polyphonic Spree. They were absolutely superb, that debut album was brilliant. Wearing tartan robes had the crowd in the palm of their hands from the off.

Underworld, 2003
One of the best live acts I have ever had the pleasure of watching; ranging from the Barrowlands to Benicassim with T in the Park in between. On this occasion they closed the NME stage and they closed it in epic fashion with Karl Hyde really getting the crowd going.

Orbital, 2004
What a show this was. One of the brothers last before they called it a day, only to come back again. We were down the front, 'Belfast' and 'Chime' were just perfect. And did they drop Bon Jovi or Belinda Carlisle - or both? Good times.

Chemical Brothers, 2004
We hot footed it over to the Slam Tent after Orbital where the Chemical Brothers blew the place away with hit after hit. Tim Burgess joined them on stage looking rather worse for wear but the romp through 'Life Is Sweet' was a hit with me.

The Magic Numbers, 2006
How could the sun not shine for a band like The Magic Numbers. Their debut album was the sound of summer for me that year and they attracted a huge crowd to the main stage.

The Charlatans, 2006
The Charlatans again. I've seen them more than any other band. This show was one of the best I have ever seen them at.

Vigo Thieves, 2012
And so to last year when Vigo Thieves played the BBC Introducing Stage - I say played, they tore it apart with a euphoric set that showcased exactly how big their songs are. Check this incredible fan footage for 'Heartbeats'.