2023 Year End - Amanda's List

It has been a solid year of music - a first time in a while I struggled to get everything that I wanted to share with folks in a list of twenty. Ragana’s Desolation’s Flower is a gut punch. It transcends genre - I like to think of them as post-black metal doom. Fuzzy. Heavy. Chaos. Calm. Desolation’s Flower is the epitome of this year for me - full of strife and heartache and yet the calm is the reprieve from it all - the much needed self-care as resistance to get through the drone of the sick sad world. I had the honor of seeing them this summer at the House of Blues in Chicago. It was the hottest day of the year, the kind of day where either you want your clothes to melt off or become one with them. Walking into the show with the oppressive heat, the chaos of a late babysitter - I felt the end of days was near. Ragana’s show, their music, affirmed all the emotions swirling around in my head and yet gave peace and acceptance for what the day threw my way and for what is to come. The yin and yang of their instrumentation and voices is a call for community, togetherness, and finding your people.

  1. RAGANA - Desolation's Flower

  2. XWEAPONX/WORLD OF PLEASURE - Weapon of Pleasure

  3. JEFF ROSENSTOCK - Hellmode

  4. MALE TEARS - Krypt

  5. SINCERE ENGINEER - Cheap Grills

  6. JANELLE MONÁE - The Age Pleasure

  7. SOFT KILL - Metta World Peace

  8. BLOOD RUNS COLD - s/t

  9. MAC DEMARCO - Five Easy Hot Dogs

  10. SUNAMI - s/t (LP)

  11. ICE SPICE - Like..?

  12. CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN - Obession Destruction

  13. BIG BOY - Spring Promo 2023

  14. FIDDLEHEAD - Death is Nothing to Us

  15. MOVE BHC - Black Radical Love

  16. POWER ALONE - Nothingness

  17. KILLER MIKE - Michael

  18. MILITARIE GUN - Life Under the Gun

  19. DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE - Systemic

  20. YAYA BEY- Exodus the North Star

Year in Review 2022 - Amanda’s List

We have past the point of saying happy new year (per Larry David) so it is about time that I get my year in review list out. The end of year list brings me much joy as I get to relive the first time I heard or skipped through an album. This year there were some solid albums put out and even more great albums that could have used an edit of 3-4 songs. It feels as if we are back in the days of filling a double cd. There is just no need for that anymore. With the vinyl resurgence and ability to stream anything - why put out long albums? Like do you think every song is worthy - unafraid to cut something? I don’t get it. My most valuable assets in my life are my time and attention. When an album gets so deep into the time spent listening to it that you cannot remember how it started - I feel like my time is wasted. A short, concise album or even a longer album that can hold you attention and feel like a valuable use of time - that is for me. XWEAPONX pulls a hard number 2 for me this year - probably my most listened to album and clocks in around 8 minutes. Raw emotion, rage, power and a message - A fucking men. Each of CLOAKROOM’s albums gets better and better. It is my winter music and Dissolution Wave is about 37 minutes or so but completely immersive and visceral. Their mix of doomy stoner metal and shoegaze gets me every time. The album hits hard on the global catastrophe and getting through it with what we know - survival and well music. It’s the parallel story that I need to listen through to get through some days. Here’s to a brighter 2023 - hoping that you get to spend your time and attention on those things that fulfill you in life. I know changes are a’ coming for me in that department.

Be well, eat well, & enjoy. XOXO, a

1:CLOAKROOM - Dissolution Wave

2:XWEAPONX - WeaponX Demo

3:MARTHA - Please Don't Take Me Back

4:THICK - Happy Now

5:AUTHOR & PUNISHER - Kruller

6:BEYONCÉ - Renaissance

7:COME TO GRIEF - When the World Dies

8:SHOOTING DAGGERS - Athames

9:ENACT - s/t

10:NINE OF SWORDS - Beyond the Swords

11:WHITE LUNG - Premonition

12:M!R!M - Time Traitor

13:SOFT KILL - Canary Yellow

14:RLYR - s/t

15:KENDRICK LAMAR - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

16:END IT - Unpleasant Living

17:SOUL GLO - Diaspora Problems

18:BLOOD INCANTATION - Timewave Zero

19:BODY FARM - Living Hell

20:STANDARDS - Fruit Town

2019 in Review (Amanda's List)

2019.

A year full of uncertainty and polarizing issues & actions - most things (ideas, politics, people) have fallen to the middle. The middle is easy and it feels safe. I found this year to be that same way with music. 2019 was not the best year in music nor the worst - I found it hard to make a list this year as compared with years in the past. In difficult, uncertain times (and this year was challenging at times for us - new parents, new jobs, change after change!), I tend to turn to music that is dynamic, captivating, and emotive. Many bands put out good albums that are just continuations of past releases. I found Cloud Rat’s Do Not Let Me off the Cliff to be a unique output from them - soft yet brazen. It does parallel last year’s number one (Thou’s Inconsolable) but has a different emotional path - towards embracing change and continuing on. This year, there were some new additions to the list for me personally - Necking, Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Ithaca that do what they do well - they have put themselves out into the world and deserve to be on a list. And now, its onto 2020 - here is to a year full of albums that push boundaries and encourage the move out of the middle into something new. This is almost my hope for Stille - look for more to come this year.

Cheers,

ab

  1. Cloud Rat - Do Not Let Me off the Cliff

  2. Crumb - Jinx

  3. Ragana - We Know that the Heavens are Empty

  4. Necking - Cut your Teeth

  5. Temple of the Fuzz Witch - s/t

  6. Boy Harsher - Careful

  7. Superlynx - New Moon

  8. Venom Prison - Samsara

  9. Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror

  10. No Men - Hell Was Full So We Came Back

  11. DIIV - Deceiver

  12. Cloud Rat - Pollinator

  13. Big Brave - A Gaze Among Them

  14. The Well - Death and Consolation

  15. Rhye - Spirit

  16. Mac DeMarco - Here Comes The Cowboy

  17. Jamila Woods - Legacy! Legacy!

  18. Frail Body - A Brief Memoriam

  19. Earth - Full Upon her Burning Lips

  20. Dowsing - Sky Coffin

  21. Ithaca - The Language of Inquiry

  22. Solange - When I Get Home

  23. Brutus - Nest

  24. Immortal Bird - Thrive on Neglect

  25. The Regrettes - How Do You Love?