Continuing our avoidance of year-end lists to, instead, highlight our favorite 2023 releases from labels we like…
This column focuses on London’s Tough Love label, which put out much that wasn’t difficult to enjoy in 2023, including these (particular) favorites:
Rat Columns, Babydoll. Yes, Virginia, the year 2023 saw the return of Rat Columns, the currently Perth-based musical project helmed by David West, with Babydoll – the band’s first output for 2 years. The new long-player showcases Rat Columns’ languorous, jangly side familiar to those (like us) who drooled over 2019’s Candle Power, while also layering in tighter, more muscular tracks, all the while maintaining West’s ear for melody. The shoegaze swoop of beguiling opener, ‘Cerulean Blue’, sets a high bar, reminiscent of early EPs MBV or a distorted Lemonheads. Elsewhere, strings and heavily strummed acoustics add tints of psych to should be future classics like the achingly lovely ‘December’. Just for kicks, the band sprinkles in some crystalline synthpop over the feedback rushes of ‘Bees Make Honey’. Well worth the wait.
Highlights include: ‘Cerulean Blue’; ‘December’; ‘Heavenly Assault’.
Empty Country, Empty Country II. This album was my introduction to Empty Country, for me, having somehow missed their first album. No matter – it’s been enjoyable making up for lost time, and II has quickly become a favorite. Even for one not typically attracted to big, heart on sleeve (dare I say, at times even Springsteenian) rock, the sheer, wrought righteousness of this set could not be denied. Fronted by Joseph D’Agostino (formerly of Cymbals Without Guitars), the band is an absolute powerhouse. The middle trio of ‘David’, ‘Dustine’ (personal favorite) and ‘Syd’ are hair-raisingly good. It’s a fantastic ride, both cozily familiar and novelly exciting, with strains of Bowie, Patty Smith, Television, The Replacements. Who the fuck is Jeff, indeed.
Highlights include: ‘Dustine’; ‘Pearl’; ‘Bootsie’.
Cindy, Why Not Now?. San Francisco’s Cindy has quietly been releasing some of the best lo-fi, jangley indie pop around these past few years, but may have reached a new apex with April’s Why Not Now? A key word here (hear?) is quiet – though decidedly urban in character and phrase (check the description of the commuter – heels in hand, carrying a Victoria’s Secret bag – in the opening, title track), each song has a hushed, muted quality. It’s like you’re with the band in the middle of city park – an unusually secluded space where you can sit and really listen, but that can’t keep out the buzz and hum from the madding crowds (‘Wednesday’’s fire truck and car alarms, off in the distance). Velvet Underground comparisons seem perhaps overly obvious, but useful as a starting point, as is a band like The Clientele (particularly, their early output). Brilliantly crafted and worthy of close attention.
Highlights include: ‘Wednesday’; ‘A Trumpet on the Hillside’; ‘Et Surtout’.
Index for Working Musik, Dragging the Needlework for the Kids at Uphole. I’m always here for it when a band comes from out of nowhere, taps me on the shoulder, and invites me in. Enter Index for Working Musik, who kindly (and, surely, unknowingly) did just that with February’s excellent Dragging the Needlework for the Kids at Uphole. If that title has you thinking lysergic moodscapes, hushed vocals, gently menacing guitar work and, here and there, jabs of inspired noise – well, you’re in luck. Deftly languid, but never sleepy, it’s kind of like one of those cartoon scenes where the main character is drawn along a visual aroma wave, though what’s at the end of this particular trail may not be pie or a roast chicken. Highly recommended.
Highlights include: ‘Ambiguous Fauna’; ‘1871’; ‘Athletes of Exile’.
Tough Love links: website; fbook; twitter (still don’t care); insta; bandcamp.
First things first: I count myself a massive Cocteau Twins fan. So much so that when I read/hear bands compared sonically or otherwise with them, it’s met with a healthy skepticism. Few, either during the contemporaneous rise of dream pop and shoegaze or during their more recent revivals, seem to match the visceral thrill, the desolate euphoria, gleaned from the original. While I grew to like many of these bands over time it was in spite of, rather than due to, their supposed level of “Cocteausiness”.
