Not gonna bullshit us any further with Spotify Wrapped and rambles, before we dive in to my top 25 tracks of 2023, here’s my 2024 watchlist for Best New Artists™️
James Ivy
In January a guitar hook got stuck in my head. For the life of me I couldn’t remember where is it from till James came out with a new single a month later—it was a James Ivy hook.
Frankly, I studied this man’s ratio (lmao), his follower count in relation to his listener count on Spotify simply doesn’t make any commercial sense. Kaz and I have crowned him “an artists’ artist”: his fans are fellow musicians, and most of them have no fucking clue how James Ivy is making the things he’s making.
Favorite song of James’ from this year: “The Last Place You’d Ever Look”
Honorables: “Involved” (great fucking song) + “Under Tongue” (became my personal theme song by October)
dba James
*holding back the need to joke about two James’ in a row*
I hold every single this man releases in my palms as if they are the most treasured little gems. There’s nothing complicated about his songwriting, production (well, perhaps just a little in this realm but I love the bare bone-ness of it all), yet there is still something so deeply philosophical about his brand of NYC indie.
Two years in a row now James closes the year out with a bang. “Birthday Smoke” is still my favorite song from him, but “Tourist” literally belongs in my Spotify Wrapped if Spotify isn’t lame and would include November data.
Honorable: “Comeback” (practically slapped me in the face when he told me this was just a little something he put together during his Bad Bunny obsession from 2020)
bixby
HOW do you even write these melodies??
I like praising my favorite songs like this: they sound like falling in love. Well, almost every bixby song hits that agenda. Definitely reminiscent of late 90s r&b, with a lot of modern pop writing but also? Minor chords tuned to such a bright sonic palette? My love for minor progression needs to be studied but that’s for next year.
If all music sounds like bixby I’d be happy. This is also a good time to bring up how proud I am to have so many artists with Asian heritage in my music library nowadays—imagine growing up in an America like this, how I wish.
Favorite bixby this year is the one song he put out other than the EP (lmao): “don’t make me”
Honorables: “are you sleeping alone again?” + “dying to see you” (even though it technically was released as a single last year, one of the greatest songs in recent years)
Postcard Boy
(I love you)
He does everything I wish I can do—maybe one day. I think I keep Postcard Boy at #4 only because I need more people to pay attention to the first 3. In a sense this isn’t the most innovative, never-heard-before music—Postcard Boy isn’t even as innovative as Garrett’s other projects, but no one does anti-pop/bedroom pop/alt rock infusion like Postcard Boy. No one is capable of creating such a dense narrative that feels light and liberating like Postcard Boy all while prioritizing the cohesiveness of sound.
Full album of the year blurb on LUNA soon, don’t want to repeat myself too much but will not be surprised if I one day get a tattoo for Somewhere On A Hillside.
Favorite song: uh, how do I pick? I think as we close out the year, thematically I love “when tomorrow comes, we'll be nothing but a fading feeling” the most but “Shepherd,” “Horizon” or even “Polka-dot” are all equal favorites
Honorables: literally the rest of the entire album
aldrch
What a weird little guy. I can never get enough of ft. aldrch because sure, he’s the “feature” but he’s going to take over all the flavors of the track. If you like a certain very specific sound (neo-NYC indie rock), you can’t escape him. I don’t bother trying.
I think what seals the deal for me to have Sam on this list is the EP with poptropicaslutz!—I don’t think I’ve ever had my mind blown by an EP like that given that I’m a wholeheartedly album person.
Don’t really know what to say about the musicality of it all, frankly I admit, I don’t understand any of it, that’s why it’s so cool.
Favorite song this year: “kaleidoscope” ft. poptropicaslutz!
Honorable mentions: “ready set go” ft. poptropicaslutz! + “tongues” ft. Curtis Waters + “COMEDOWN” ft. Stevie Bill
WATCHLIST HONORABLES - 5 more really cool artists but I just want to give it another year first ;)
The Life - listen to this shit (“Grace” - The Life)
Blonder - listen to this shit *reprise* (Knoxville House)
Cry Baby - gimme more new music I literally know for fact what you got up your sleeves (“Hollister” is the best return single ever)
Monet Ngo - you really just gave me one song this year wow (“Tarantula Queen”)
Creative Differences - I almost ran away from the boys at Nothing Fest to watch your set bruv (latest single is so cool)
As you can see, a year away (more like 8 months) from music journalism had me waving white flag at a very, very specific sound—I like neo-indie rock, the type that indie sleazy, quintessentially NYC. Reverbs that would deliver an imminent heart attack to anyone above the age of 40. Thrashing guitar that is mostly just noise at that point and a beat that I definitely heard a million time since I was a toddler.
Worth mentioning that this year I also started listening to Portishead, Talking Heads, Beck, Sonic Youth, y’know, all the pretentious “older” music and really, really like them. I’m sure my love for the current NYC indie fuels the love for all the prior scenes that had come along in that city, it’s really cool, music history is really fucking cool.
Without further bullshit, here are my top 25 tracks—in chronological order of releases—of the year (*each artist only qualifies once, so a lot of the favorites mentioned above will not be included again*)
(this list includes some Nashville artists, but I kept Nashville acts out of my artist watchlist because frankly I’ve lost the plot. I don’t trust my objectivity with this scene anymore, or at the moment, so it’s probably best that way)
“are you sleeping alone again?” - bixby
“patmos” - BEAN.
“Grace” - The Life
“Liar” - Paramore
“Euphoria” - Stello
“RITUAL” - Waterparks (Awsten Knight you are still the soundtrack to my mental breakdowns and you are still one of the most genius songwriters of our generation)
“Comeback” - dba James
“The Last Place You’d Ever Look” - James Ivy
“newlyweds” - poptropicaslutz!, aldrch
“Play Pretend” - Manic.
“Maria Store” - Blonder
“when tomorrow comes, we’ll be nothing but a fading feeling” - Postcard Boy
“All We Ever Do Is Talk” - Del Water Gap
“Sunset” - Gus Dapperton (this song. this song. THIS SONG. reminds me why I love Gus so much and he’s one of my personal favorite songwriters of all time)
“Sunburn” - Dominic Fike
“Hollister” - Cry Baby
“Once In a Lifetime (Live) - 2023 Remaster” - Talking Heads (I have to include this in here somewhere. This documentary is life changing and this particular segment of the film is a religious awakening)
“Just Got Clean” - Edgehill
“When You Were Bored” - The Hails
“New Skin” - DBMK
“ifshitfuq” - Meg Elsier (one of my favorite live acts in Nashville. you can make it out of this town girl.)
“Ice Slippin” - Omar Apollo (got my heart ripped out this year and it came out at a perfect time)
“NOS SOLTAMOS chillado” - Divino Nino, Inner Wave, Pablo Sotelo (don’t let Pablo find out when I texted him the night this came out I was fucking brawling my eyes out)
“HOMEWRECKER” - Ryan Hall
“Tarantula Queen” - Monet Ngo
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You’ll hear from me maybe just a few more times in the next few days (how fun! how unusual!) as my gallery is 6 days away (stab me now) so I am very proud of myself for keeping this brief.
Happy listening. Be a nerd. It’s really fun.