boygenius, the record and the parting glass (2023)

 

By Jack Rafferty

I had my eye on this project for a good bit now, as I enjoy Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dakus. While I think the record is a beautiful, tender, and wonderful album, their rendition of “The Parting Glass” with Ye Vagabonds as a tribute to Sinéad O’Connor is what really solidified my appreciation for this band. It is one of, if not the best, version of the song I’ve heard, which is high praise. I think it is hard to weigh against something like the Clancy Brothers, or The Pogues version, because they are not comparable. In terms of their debut album, I think it really highlights the best parts of each artist, and their vocal harmonies are gorgeous. In spirit, but not so much in sound, it reminds me a lot of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt, in the sense that, perhaps by mistake or perhaps by design, they found lightning in a bottle with their dynamics and how they meld. 

Outer Heaven, Infinite Psychic Depths (2023)

 By Jack Rafferty

Outer Heaven’s Realms of Eternal Decay was a masterful debut, as they really came out of the gates ready to fuck shit up on that one. Five years later, we get what is essentially a conceptual prequel to that album. I’ve never really cared much for the concept aspect behind their work, as it struck me as overly lofty for what they go for. Regardless of that, though, Infinite Psychic Depths finds Outer Heaven pushing the boundaries even further. While maintaining a sound that is firmly rooted in old school death metal, like their contemporaries Tomb Mold, they add enough new spices to keep it fresh and to keep its distance from being derivative or reveling in nostalgia. The cover art is kind of silly to me this time around, which I usually wouldn’t mind, but it doesn’t really seem to mesh with the demeanor that Outer Heaven is going for. At the end of the day, though, you just really can’t fuck with the riffs, grooves, and earth-splitting sound here. Frankly, this just kicks all sorts of ass and I’m here for it. I do think the album is rather front-loaded, with the back half leaving a bit to be desired.

KEN Mode, VOID (2023)

 

By Jack Rafferty

Deranged as ever, KEN Mode always comes out swinging. VOID, however, notably does have some slower, brooding moments. There is a greater emphasis on despair here, apart from the typical feelings of rage and dread. AMG put it well in their review, calling it “an unwelcome nostalgia for pain.” There is a melancholy backdrop to everything, and a hopeless yearning. The excellent bass work on this one also stands out. It has such a forefront and menacing presence; it reminds me a lot of the best work by Jesus Lizard. I’ve always enjoyed KEN Mode, but I felt that I had a hard time resonating with them deeply. The chaos and agony of their previous work was excellent, but VOID has taken things a step further and has a deeper emotional resonance. 

Julie Byrne, The Greater Wings (2023)

 

By Jack Rafferty

The lyrics on The Greater Wings are too good, and I can’t even begin to pick some to share here. While I do think the music is gorgeous, the writing is the highlight here. The songs themselves can be a bit repetitive, but they function well as the vehicle to deliver incredible lyrics. There are spectacular melodies and atmospheres, but it is nearly spoken-word poetry throughout. Essentially, in order to review this in any way that does it justice, I just need to share some of Julie’s words and let them speak for themselves.

From “Summer Glass”:

One day the skin that holds me will be dust

And I’ll be ready to travel again

For now, I want to go further in….

That’s not the same as being new forever

The shape of your hand left in the dust of summer glass

I want to be whole enough to risk again.

From “Lightning Comes Up from the Ground”:

That look is the most vivid image I have of you

The voices in my blood alive with longing

I tell you now what for so long I did not say

That if I have no right to want you

I want you anyway.

From “Hope’s Return”:

If I were young I’d be unbridled with my words

Not yet a statue, a rough break seeking hope’s return

It is so like me to dream you, to be lost to desire

Your image comes to me like terrains of fire.

There are many other examples I’d like to share, but I’ll refrain for the sake of space. Please go check out the album just to read such beautiful poetry alone. 

Ulthar, Anthronomicon (2023)

 

By Jack Rafferty

One of the more exciting and boundary-defying blackened death groups of recent years, Ulthar has consistently refined a sound that is as unmistakable as it is winding and stygian. While they released two albums in 2023, not a double album, but two albums in similar theme and style, it would be expected of me to check both out. But I only have so many hours in the day, so I chose Anthronomicon. I’ll visit the other some other time, but not now. As for Anthronomicon, as with other Ulthar works, you can very much judge a book by its cover. The frayed, dark, eldritch phantasmagoria of the cover intuits what the listener is to experience sonically. Dense, sporadic, wretched, menace beyond human knowledge. It is hard to describe Ulthar without simply providing a litany of vague descriptions, because the experience is one that needs to be felt, more than explained. What I can say is that Ulthar is at their most focused here. There is so much going on second to second, it can be hard to keep track of the sheer complexity among the brutal, abstract domain that is this album. However, it would be a disservice to the band, as their best songwriting to date is here. They have really gone beyond what initially caught everyone’s attention, and they have moved on to the particularity of what will maintain that attention, and more importantly captivate.

Ahab, The Coral Tombs (2023)

 

By Jack Rafferty

Last year was dense with great doom releases. Ahab’s The Coral Tombs was probably my favorite. When it comes to funeral doom, I’m less versed than most. I love Bell Witch, that’s for sure, but I do think that it is a subgenre that requires a lot to stand out to me. It is otherwise too drawn out and similar for me to spend time with. 

Ahab does a spectacular job of staying fresh and interesting, while also never losing grasp of the atmosphere they build over tracks. What better theme to explore with the stretched-out heaviness and forlorn sound of funeral doom than the lightless, oppressive depths of the sea?

Ahab’s proclivity for including prog aspects in their sound accommodates their theme well, as there is a feeling of intrigue that courses through their obsession with the ocean and its unknowable vastness. Inspired by classic literary works such as Twenty Thousand Leagues and Moby Dick, there is a tinge of the scientific, of the yearning to know and understand this world. Coupled with the trudging melancholy and hopelessness that composes the remainder of their sound, it informs the listener of a very satisfying sonic narrative regarding the futility of human hubris when faced with something so beyond them, so alien, so unconquerable. It is the foolish inclination toward arrogance in the presence of something so dark and mighty, more mysterious than the black eternities of the cosmos, that is ultimately crushed beneath the immeasurable weight of it, crumpled by the pressure like sniveling billionaire tourists eclipsed in a dark and quiet oblivion, indifferent and colossal. This is a massive album that requires patience and attention, but it is worthy of it.