Thom’s EOY roundup: wait, what just happened?
Thom “interviewing” Max and Josh from Kite Thief at this year’s Misery Loves Company festival.
This time last year if you asked me what I would be doing in 2023, starting a radio show and online magazine would not have been an answer. Yet, here we are, with you reading The Scene. Sometimes it feels like I'm back in 2008, gushing about Los Camp's WAB WAD on a Blogger page. But nope, this is real.
From securing press access to 2000trees before our website even launched, to interviewing some of my faves, such as Sincere Engineer, Proper., and ME REX, saying 2023 has been a whirlwind is an understatement.
A personal highlight has to be the amazingly surreal moment when Rich and Myles from ME REX serenaded us with OPM's "Heaven Is Half Pipe" at the end of an interview, just before they ripped up Bristol's Exchange.
This year saw a deluge of phenomenal releases, each one demanding our ears and reviews. With such a killer year it was hard to whittle my list down to just 5 LPs and 5 EPs. So in the spirit of my radio ramblings, this is Thom with an ‘H’, and here are my picks for the year.
Top 5 LPs
1. Cheap Grills, Sincere Engineer
Cheap Grills being my number-one album of the year has been one of the worst-kept secrets since we launched this publication. In my review of the album, I predicted that it would be hard for anything to displace it from my top spot, and my prophecy has come to pass.
The album is the epitome of everything I love about Sincere Engineer and Deanna Belos' songwriting – it's introspective, sprinkled with dry wit, and packed with emotional punk hooks. There's pretty much a song to match any mood you're in, and it's an album I find myself returning to time and time again
2. Giant Elk, ME REX
ME REX have been my find of the year a band I feel embarrassed I came across so late. Sonically, ME REX are everything I love – a fusion of the most captivating elements of indie and emo, infused with soaring gang vocals and emotionally resonant songwriting.
After making bold predictions about Cheap Grills in its review, I was amazed by how close I came to putting Giant Elk at the top of my list. In any other year, Giant Elk would have clinched the top spot, but ME REX will have to settle for this year's silver medal. It is a phenomenal album and one where there isn't a moment of filler. Its construction draws you in to listen over and over again, each time deeper than the last, as the band's vivid storytelling touches all your senses. (Read my recent interview)
3. The Great Overgrowth, SUDS
SUDS have the potential to be massive, and their debut album, The Great Overgrowth, fully delivers on this promise. It might only be nine-track long but the album showcases everything that makes SUDS so captivating. Their beautifully intricate yet subtly powerful musicality, interwoven with lyrics teeming with metaphor, blossoms in full bloom. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them gracing the top tiers of festival lineups in the coming years. (Read Kelly’s review and interview at Trees)
4. What Still Gets Me, Shit Present
Shit Present’s debut What Still Gets Me was my very first review for the scene, and it's an album I continue to adore, even after all this time. It's a treasure trove of energy and emotion, sonically channelling the essence of Sarah Records but played at breakneck speed, by a band that grew up idolising the emo/pop-punk bands of the mid-2000s.
5. PAWS, PAWS
Rounding out my top five is PAWS' self-titled offering. This album is a complete banger. It's gritty, it's angry, and it perfectly captures the zeitgeist of contemporary UK society. Musically, the album draws from the finest elements of shoegaze and DIY punk. It's steeped in nostalgia yet feels distinctly of the moment.
Honourable mentions
Gusher, Just Friends - Party album of the year, just put it on and have a good time (read my review and recent interview)
Find Out, Filth is Eternal - Non-stop heavy hardcore bangers, can’t stop playing tracks from it on the radio show (read Nics review and interview)
Destroyer, M.A.G.S. - Another artist that I feel late to the party about, this LP is stacked with amazing songs, like title-track “Destroyer”.
Top 5 EPs
1. Part-Timer, Proper.
Proper.'s Part-Timer is my absolute favourite release of the year. While clocking in at just over 12 minutes, it inspired me to churn out over 1000 words of my pretentious waffle in my initial draft review. If that's not a ringing endorsement of my adoration for the EP, I don't know what is.
Part-Timer is a triumph of introspection, and it finds Proper. at the peak of their creative powers. The EP weaves a tale of a band examining their inner selves and their achievements to date, pondering the lengths they're willing to go to fulfil their aspirations and their resolute determination to achieve their dreams on their terms. (Also read my interview)
2. Pool Kids // POOL, Pool Kids // POOL
The Pool Kids // POOL split EP landed like a godsend amidst personal turmoil, which had propelled me to work full-time on scene-related pursuits for the better part of the summer.
While a band releasing a split EP with their own alter egos often risks teetering into gimmicky territory, Pool Kids // POOL defied expectations. The EP masterfully juxtaposes two distinct musical personas, and I fount it mirroring my mental state at the time when contrasting inner voices clashed like waves against unforgiving rocks.
3. Wildflower, Slow Joy
The best music has a habit of finding you, and often not via the most conventional routes. I would have entirely missed out on one of my favourite releases of the year if not for a friend of our serendipitously connecting us with an acquaintance of his from his days as a touring musician.
With Wildflower, Slow Joy has crafted one of the year's most emotionally raw and devastating releases. It chronicles an artist grappling with the tragic loss of their mother due to a drug overdose. The vocal delivery is so raw and honest with its pain that at times, you can feel the artist teetering on the brink of breaking down. This breathtaking release is a testament to the raw power of music as a vessel for processing grief. (Read Kelly’s interview)
4. You’re Welcome, Lambrini Girls
My notepad for this EP only needed three words: bangin' contemporary punk. That's exactly what the Lambrini Girls' debut EP is. It's up there with the best I've heard, packed with political and ethical smarts in every chord. Like any proper punk band, they're not afraid to blast their opinions and call out BS when they see it.
5. Get Wrong, Get Wrong
When I heard that Martha's Naomi Griffin and The Spook School's Adam Todd were collaborating, I knew it was bound to be good. As two of the most talented writers in the DIY scene, Naomi and Adam don't disappoint on their self-titled debut.
Sonically, it's a perfect blend of indie-pop's best qualities with shimmering synth-pop influences. It even brought to mind Nixon, the low-fi synth-pop project of Roger Gunnarsson - an artist I think deserves more ears. The songs are catchy earworms, yet they're infused with a melancholic charm that's the hallmark of great indie-pop.
Honourable mentions
The Masochist, Lloyd’s House - Everything indie should be in 2023. (Read my review)
Go To Hell, Felicette - Perfect slice of 90’s inspired alt-rock.
Ambiviolent, Kite Thief - One of the first bands we ever interviewed produced a great debut EP, standout track Judge Judy & Executioner is a total banger. (Read Nic’s review, and Kelly’s interviews at MLC and Trees)
