Len Damico

Better late than never, right? Here’s a playlist, available on Apple Music, Spotify and Last.fm

My very favorites

Once again, I’m calling out a few albums and singles I thought were especially good. They’re presented alphabetically because I’ve chosen to ditch the “best of” framing I often go with; I’m not writing music criticism here, and I have no editor telling me what to do.

Album: all under heaven - what lies ahead ✅

Saw these guys blow up a suburban Wilmington skate shop in May (yes, I am serious). If you even dabble in shoegaze a little bit, they have the goods.

Album: Chat Pile - Cool World

Melodic, but heavy as hell.

Song: Clairo - Sexy To Someone

An absolute bop. Could see any number of pop stars having a huge hit with this song.

Album: The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World ✅

This album was released 4 days before the presidential election and 7 days before I got laid off. Suffice it to say that the timing of this release worked out well for me. The fact that it’s a late career classic was just a bonus.

Song: Dr. Dog - Talk is Cheap

Has that lilting, late-summer feeling that permeates all of their best stuff. An unexpected treat.

Album: Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More ✅

Spent a lot of 2023 and 2024 getting really really into early Breeders records like Last Splash and Pod, so this really hit the spot for me. Kim Deal is massively, massively underrated as a songwriter and pivotal figure of the past 40 years of music.

Album: Ekko Astral - Pink Balloons ✅

Song: Ekko Astral - Pomegranate Tree

Saw them open up for Ted Leo in June and to say they blew my fucking hair back would be a massive understatement. Bought this record at the show and it’s been burrowing into my head ever since. And somehow, “Pomegranate Tree” manages to reach and maybe exceed the highs of Pink Balloons. Ekko Astral might be the most important American band going right now, whatever that means.

Song: Father John Misty - Screamland

I generally have to take FJM in very small doses, but this track is absolutely haunting.

Song: Robert Glasper - Prototype (feat. Norah Jones)

Sounds like it was actually written for Norah Jones to sing. (This unfortunately appears to be an Apple Music exclusive.)

Album: Good Looks - Lived Here For A While ✅

The good Farmer Jones has been carrying on about these guys for a minute, so I took him up on seeing live them at Johnny Brenda’s in August and I sure am glad I did! Nice guys, chops for days, and they have the tunes to back it all up.

Album: Sarah Jarosz - Polaroid Lovers

We’ve always known Sarah Jarosz is a musical prodigy, but now we know what it sounds like when she finally decides to write an actual “pop” record.

Song: Billy Joel - Turn The Lights Back On

Unexpectedly beautiful and poignant.

Album: Katy Kirby - Blue Raspberry ✅

One of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint. Saw her and her band play most of this record at Johnny Brenda’s in March and they were transcendent.

Song/Video: Not Like Us - Kendrick Lamar

Ubiquitous (complimentary).

Album: MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks ✅

Like many others, my houseboat has remained docked at the Himbo Dome for much of the fall and winter.

Album: Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven ✅

We first heard the ferocious title track last August, so it feels like this one has been around forever (in a good way, of course).

Album: The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis ✅

The Messthetics include Joe Lally and Brendon Canty, formerly of Fugazi’s rhythm section. This record absolutely rips.

Song: Peter Cat Recording Co. - People Never Change

A delightful little ditty from “the last band remaining in India.”

Song: Maggie Rogers - Don’t Forget Me

What a song, what a performance. Heart-rending.

Song/Video: Sunny Day Real Estate - Novum Vetus ✅

Seeing the band perform Diary front to back in May was a bucket-list item for me. The band closed the encore with a lumbering, triumphant version of this song, fitting for the victory lap they took 30 years after redefining emotional, melodic guitar rock with Diary.

Album: Mary Timony - Untame The Tiger ✅

Never really got that deep into Timony or her various projects before this record and god damn it, I’ve been missing out. She’s a treasure.

Album: Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood ✅

Song: Waxahatchee - Much Ado About Nothin'

Katie Crutchfield has been on an absolute heater. Tigers Blood beautifully expands the world built on 2020’s Saint Cloud… and then she has the audacity to toss off maybe the best song she’s ever written as a loosie single? The nerve.

(✅ indicates that I've purchased the album on vinyl, for accountability's sake. Support the musicians you love, folks!)

Lots of good stuff this year. Here’s a playlist:

My very favorites

Additionally, here are a few albums and singles I wanted to call special attention to. They’re presented alphabetically becasue I’ve choosen to ditch the “best of” framing I often go with; I’m not writing music criticism here, and I have no editor telling me what to do. I don’t even know how many things I called out, so this isn’t a top-ten list, either! It’s just What I Loved in 2023. Mostly captured for me, but if others get something out if it, all the better.

Album: Animal Collective: Time Skiffs ✅

Their best group of songs since MPP, for my money.

Album: Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You ✅

A rare double record that never overstays it’s welcome, but rather creates a world I want to live inside, not unlike the White Album or Wildflowers.

Album: Destroyer: Labyrinths ✅

After nearly two decades of dabbling, I have finally become fully Bejar-pilled.

Song: Gabriels: Remember Me

If you’re not moved when the full strings kick in at about 2:30, I don’t know what to tell you.

Song/Video: Ghost: Spillways

I have no commentary on this band or their schtick, but I do know a well-written sugary pop-metal jam when I hear it.

Song: Goose: Dripfield

The vapors of this song have seeped into my bones.

Song: Hammered Hulls: Abstract City

We all need a bit of classic Dischord sound in our lives, and this tune checks that box with authority.

Albums: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s entire 2022 output, specifically Omnium Gatherum and Changes

I am intimidated by this band. They are very Extra in the best sense of the word.

Song: Steve Lacy: Bad Habit

R&B from another planet. I dig. A lot.

Album: The Mountain Goats: Bleed Out

John Darnielle is a national treasure.

Album: Aofie O’Donovan: Age of Apathy ✅

I’ve really been enjoying Aofie’s work since I fell down a deep Live From Here well several years ago. She truly brings all of her unique talents as a songwriter, vocalist, arranger and guitarist together on this record. (Related: this Tiny Desk concert is delightful.)

Song: Angel Olsen: Go Home

Haunting.

Album: Beth Orton: Weather Alive

Haunting, but in a different way. So great to have new music from Beth Orton.

Album: Plains: I Walked With You A Ways

This record gave me a lot of reminders of my mom’s early-90s pop country radio phase. (I mean this as a compliment, obviously.)

Song: Maggie Rogers: That’s Where I Am

Another single that grabbed me by the lapels and demanded my full attention from its first notes.

Album: Will Sheff: Nothing Special

I couldn’t describe this record better than Sheff himself did in this wonderful interview with Fluxblog’s Matthew Perpetua:

My experience of art is like the wind in the trees. You blink and you miss it. A little bit of it is like “Did you guys hear what I heard?” It’s a very quiet, subtle thing that gets under your skin.

Album: Sister Ray: Communion ✅

If I had to pick a “favorite” record of 2022, it would probably be this. Those that know me and my tastes will have no problem figuring out why.

Album: Soccer Mommy: Sometimes Forever ✅

A nearly perfect distillation of my late-90s record collection. I mean this as a high, high compliment. Truly another one of my absolute faves on the year.

Album: Spoon: Lucifer On The Sofa

Their best since probably 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. All killer, no filler.

Song: SRSQ: Winter, Slowly

The first time I heard that little whammy-bar vocal effect on the chorus (starts around 0:50), something in my brain slipped loose and my thoughts still aren’t thinking right.

Album: Bartees Strange: Farm to Table ✅

This is truly an Important Record, a call-to-arms, a statement of purpose.

Song: Tenci: Two Cups

Tenci came onto my radar after seeing them open for Hop Along in 2021, and I’m really glad they did.

Album: Sharon Van Etten: We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong ✅

Much like the Destroyer record, this was the one that converted me from “hey, SVE is pretty cool” to a full-fledged fan.

Album: Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand ✅

A gifted arranger who can still layer sheets of sound with the best of them.

(✅ indicates that I’ve purchased the album on vinyl, for accountability’s sake. Support the musicians you love, folks!)

Playlist available on Apple Music, Spotify and Last.fm.

Once again, I pushed myself to listen to lots of new music this year. A full six of my top ten records were by artists who are either new or new to me… seven if you count Aeon Station, who are technically a “new” band. That’s pretty good, I think!

10. Dan Campbell: Other People’s Lives

I had foolishly dismissed The Wonder Years as kiddie emo that Wasn’t For Me (I was wrong!) until I read this piece on Campbell’s reasons for writing and releasing this record. Campbell has that rare gift for making the extremely specific feel universal.

9. Ani DiFranco: Revolutionary Love

I always have and probably will always have a soft spot for Ani DiFranco, and this record’s “Ani as funk bandleader” vibes really agree with me.

8. Julien Baker: Little Oblivions

She still manages to bring the same level of emotional devastation, even with full band arrangements on many tracks and a more produced sound.

7. Lunar Vacation: Inside Every Fig is a Dead Wasp

Right in my sweet spot: vaguely shoegazy indie with female lead vocals. (See also: Snarls from last year’s list.)

6. Grace Vonderkuhn: Pleasure Pain

An absolute ripper of a rock-and-roll record from my favorite Wilmington, DE-based power trio, and a huge leap forward from their last record.

5. Geese: Projector

There’s no way a bunch of teenagers made this record, right? Either way, Geese have spent a bunch of time with their dad’s Talking Heads records and their older sister’s Strokes records and turned out this impossibly tight, ambitious and mature record.

4. Aeon Station: Observatory

I could write a book about this record, which I’ve been waiting for, in a roundabout way, for about 15 years. I hate that it came out under these circumstances but I’m glad this record is finally available to the public, because it is a triumph. (I am still very eager to hear the Charles Bissell portion of what was to be the follow-up to The Meadowlands, of course.)

3. William The Conqueror: Maverick Thinker

An incredible Scottish swamp-blues record that sounds like a lot of things I love but also not quite like anything I’ve ever heard before.

2. Katy Kirby: Cool Dry Place

Hard to overstate how much this record came out of nowhere and smacked me right between the eyes. It has an emotional resonance for me unlike any record since maybe Bark Your Head Off, Dog.

1. Japanese Breakfast: Jubilee

Reading Crying in H Mart this summer was… a lot, but it helped me understand this record for the celebratory masterpiece it truly is. If joy truly is an act of resistance, this record is as punk as it gets.

Honorable Mentions:

• Floatie: Voyage Out
• Flock of Dimes: Head of Roses
• Hiss Golden Messenger: Quietly Blowing It
• Olivia Kaplan: Tonight Turns to Nothing
• Arlo Parks: Collapsed in Sunbeams
• Anna Fox Rochinski: Cherry
• Rosali: No Medium
• Snail Mail: Valentine
• Adia Victoria: A Southern Gothic
• Ryley Walker: Course In Fable
• The War On Drugs: I Don’t Live Here Anymore
• Yasmin Williams: Urban Driftwood

Playlist available on Apple Music and Spotify.