Dinner Music 114: The weekly lineup
The 2023 albums I discovered in 2024
This week, we’re listening to good albums from 2023 that I didn’t find until 2024. As I’ve been putting together an end-of-year list, I found that many albums I loved this year were from last year, I just missed them. So, I’m highlighting those here ahead of my own end-of-year list (coming Friday), where I’ll talk about my favorite albums from 2024 and the many older albums that have carried me through this year. If you’re a fan of looking back, as I am, here’s my post rounding up 2023, with a playlist and albums sorted by region.
We begin with an album I’ve listened to dozens of times, both on and offline (nudge, it looks like they’ve only got 3 LPs left via bandcamp). Changing Light is lush and evocative, with its tendrils in psych, jazz, chamber, library, seventies italian soundtracks, funk, soul. There is so much range here, get ready to feel. We move into another library influenced album, though in an entirely different direction, with Lords of Lounge and their self-titled debut album. “Pure vibes and inspiration straight to tape. Dad-rock, surf-pop, Meter-esque riffs, indie-strumming…all included.” The track “Indie Kids” is something special. We move into freak folk with another self-titled debut, this one from Lady Apple Tree. Recorded in an abandoned studio in the middle of some California canyons, she perfectly captures that feeling of sixties California malaise, the Manson murders, the end of the summer of love, that Joan Didion feeling of having no where to go except the doomed paradise you’re in. Next, another album that embodies and defies genre, though Isolde Lasoen takes it a step further: she wrote every song and recorded every instrument herself, building up each track from percussion to vocals to synth. The album is light, at times melancholic, but always a hint of effervescence with a cinematic quality, like the heartbreaking ending of any French film. We end with a dark, dance-forward album from Pale Blue. Plus, a few extra albums I couldn’t resist including.
Enjoy.
The (extra long) playlist
Or listen on Apple Music.
Monday
Changing Light - Ironsides (2023)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Lords of Lounge - Lords of Lounge (2023)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Lady Apple Tree - Lady Apple Tree (2023)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Oh Dear - Isolde Lasoen (2023)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / Other streaming services
Friday
Maria - Pale Blue (2023)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
A few more:
The Lahaar - The Lahaar | Spotify / Apple Music
Arte e Finanza - Popa | Spotify / Apple Music
Dear Departed - Sam Burton | Spotify / Apple Music
Quiet Music For Young People - Dana and Alden | Spotify / Apple Music
Pair with
Marry Me Chicken. Evidently this was one of NYT Cooking’s top recipes in 2023 (probably because it went viral on TikTok?). Either way, creamy and tomato-y, delicious. Make some biscuits for an extra cozy meal.
A box of wine. Seriously! It’s the holidays and there are lots of very good box wines now. Like this one (From the Tank tends to be fairly accessible, in terms of being able to buy it IRL). And this one. And this one (ok this is a bag but still). And this one. And this one.
The Details by Ia Genberg. A best book of 2023 that I’m just now reading and thank god, it’s very good!
This post on note-taking. From
, Garth Greenwell’s very good newsletter. “The whole point of being an artist—maybe the whole point of existence—is to manufacture occasions for joy.”
If I call a stone blue it is because blue is the precise word, believe me.
- Flaubert*
via
newsletterThank you, thank you. Have a great week.
*From the epigraph to the poem The Blue Stones by Raymond Carver, though otherwise I’m not sure where Flaubert wrote this. A novel? Diaries? If anyone can place it, I’d love to know.