Sourhouse Tunes of the Year 2023

Oh, hello once again to IDLES. A warm welcome home to one of the greatest bands on Earth. Never too far away from these lists, and now on their first true comeback. Being honest, I did think their hiatus would be a little longer. Not that I’m complaining when ‘Dancer’ has had me trying to recreate the video every time I’ve walked through anything close to resembling a multi-storey carpark. No less honed and brutish than when we last heard from them, but given new levity courtesy of an LCD Soundsystem feature (God we really are being blessed aren’t we?) and a laser-sharp lead guitar riff that twangles along with total apprehension.

It certainly makes you want to dance, that’s for sure, but more than that, it glows with the band’s classic appeal. Talbot’s chunky delivery of “CHEEK TO CHEEK” is far too good for me not to be excited for their new album next year.

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In stark contrast to the hollowness that can often accompany a singer and their piano these days, the heartbreak in ‘Are You Awake?’ is so genuine that it stings. It didn’t hit for me at first – I found it too on the nose. But it didn’t take long for the penny to drop, and as soon as you let this into your life at 11:32pm on a rainy autumn weeknight, it speaks for itself. The CHVRCHES singer depicts loneliness with bruising accuracy, her voice bringing both vulnerability and conviction, delivering lyrics that are wondrously effective in their simplicity, yet also rich with gut-punching imagery.

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One of my favourite new discoveries of the year, and even better for the fact they’re from Cardiff, Slate bring an already advanced understanding of what makes Noise Rock work. ‘Tabernacl’ wastes no time in showing off its undulating lead melody, draping it across both its vocals and guitars. That break at the halfway point is truly the icing on the cake, arriving into a stripped back extended coda that pitters out so majestically. Lead singer Jack Shepard’s baritone voice is ideal for this sort of sound – brooding and bassy, but done with crispness too – and not far off a certain Thurston Moore.

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It’s one thing for one of your favourite bands to have ever walked this earth to be still making outstanding material 30 years after they first peaked, but it’s another when said material is so in touch with the chronological distance between then and now. ‘Alife’ is tight, but conveys a starkness that the band have always had a mastery of delivering in their darker moments. The arrival of those drums kicks the legs off your chair and send you floating. The cut swirls in a calming way, but one that bares an intensity courtesy of that massive chorus. Halstead sings with sincerity and hindsight-fused warning, balancing Goswell’s near-angelic tone on the verses. Where their early material seemed to look out on life, ‘Alife’ is a summation, a recollection, an assessment.

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Bdrmm may not have access to any vowels, but they certainly have a heady supply of theatrics. The structure of ‘It’s Just A Bit Of Blood’, especially its patience, is masterful. A patience that gives way to a sky-filling gale of noise, hinted at in those early bursts in the first minute, and so, so worth it every time you make it to the two minute mark. Ryan Smith is one of the best vocalists in the country right now, not just because his register is so unexpected, but because he neatly matches the rush created by the band’s instrumentation. His lyrics here really are something to behold; delicate, beguiling imagery conjured with the slightest of intonations. “Two steps forward, three years back” has had me in a chokehold since I first heard it, whilst his delivery of “Where do you get off?” coarses across the sky like a comet, and I’ve had the gall to try coming within a mile of imitating him more than once this year.

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One of the most exciting upcoming bands in the country right now, The Last Dinner Party have arrived with a style and conviction that is instantly captivating. ‘Nothing Matters’ not only has one of the catchiest choruses of the year, but bears all the shame-cum-pride in its complicated love story with a towering passion. Messy as it may be for its protagonists, the band aren’t holding back on the instrumentation, with strings, horns and more filling the air by the end. Who’s that on production? You bet your ass it’s James Ford – just listen to the cool punch of those drums and the depths of those textures – and with his credits on many of the songs for their debut album next year, we all might just be about to find our new favourite band. Their debut, Prelude To Ecstasy, arrives on 2nd February 2024.

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Still reeling from what was frankly one of the most out of body experiences I’ve ever had without the assistance of drugs, SCALER’s collaboration with the immutable Daniel Avery is a true mind-melter. ‘Loam’s pulsating nature blends the very best of the band’s starkly industrial feel with a trancey, rave-ready packaging that shoves the listening experience even deeper into the basement club you imagine it emerging from. Sweat, grime and all manner of metallic goo drips from the walls, especially on that claustrophobic bridge, whilst its ethereal lead vocal hook ensures things don’t leave the human realm entirely. Fuck me do they work hard to take you out of it though; like much of their material, ‘Loam’ is both massive in scale and in narrative, plunging you into pools of smoke and murkiness. Every listen is a journey in itself.

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Whether intended or not, it is quite remarkable how much a song can come to represent an artist. ‘Show Me How’ will always, first and foremost, be a track dedicated to Dave Grohl’s late mother Virginia. But in the wake of the inconsolable passing of Taylor Hawkins, the song’s soft lament takes on an almost radical form. It’s the gorgeous vocal additions of Grohl’s daughter Violet that truly make it; not only does she possess a rich voice, the harmonies with her father add a vulnerability we’ve never seen before from the band.

Given that they are one of the most beloved rock acts of all time, it’s been warming to see this new sound described as ‘Foogaze’. Whether or not they wanted to employ the airy machinations of Shoegaze and Dream Pop, it communicates their sentiments with splendid, tender beauty. Those slow, delicate guitar strums in the intro and throughout force things to pause their motion, neither mourning nor moving, letting time stand still.

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I love Confidence Man in their satirical yet serious regular configuration, but they’re at their strongest when they want to be out-and-out House artists. What a way to continue the hype of last year’s Tilt this is then. ‘On & On’ is a massive, cavernous experience. A cathedral filled with dry-ice and lasers, into which Daniel Avery’s transcendental beat fires you through at light speed. Seriously, that first chorus feels like hitting the warp speed button. So easily does everything blend into each other that the effect is constant motion, begging to be played at 200 dB to truly deprive you of any other senses. I won’t find true happiness until I’ve let this thing levitate me the next time I see them live (and hint hint, you should definitely see them if you get the chance).

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On their stunning 2023 album Heavy Heavy, the Glaswegian trio rely on every cut building and building upwards. Rely they should; they have a tenacious ability to do so, and nowhere is it stronger on the thumping, floor-breaking, Earth-moving ‘I Saw’. Bigger and bigger with every passing second, climbing and climbing to that monumental breakthrough of “BRUSH YOUR TEETH, WASH YOUR FACE” (lyrics that sound a little less silly in practice than when written here, trust me), the power it possesses takes over your body. It’s so astonishingly cathartic as a cut that is has the ability to clear your entire mind within a matter of minutes, a spiritual spring clean that has you throwing every limb you can to the sky.

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