Andrew McSorley

Let’s get right to it!

Honorable Mention:

• Geese – Getting Killed
  • Maybe I just didn’t listen to this one enough? I always have to stop and remind myself how young this group is and how I can be fooled by sky high expectations. After their album 3D Country, a near flawless alt rock experience, I came into this project expecting much of the same. I found much of the arrangement and production here forced, an attempt at sounding like a Geese album instead of just being one. It lacked an authenticity, but also a grittiness that was present in Cameron Winter’s solo album. It’s a good ass record, but not quite top 10.

10.)

• Counting Crows – Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!
  • Okay, wait wait wait hear me out. I was surprised on this one too, but sometimes at the end of a long day you just want a good old fashioned rock and roll record that doesn’t try to do anything fancy or new. That’s this one. Counting Crows is a mainstay in American rock music, but this record is special because lately the old heads haven’t quite sounded like themselves. Counting Crows today sounds like the Counting Crows of the past. Maybe it’s nostalgia ferrying me away in my old age, but I like jumping into a project every once in a while in which I know exactly where it’s taking me. Butter Miracle doesn’t break new ground, but it’s solid, reliable, and puts out the occasional ear worm.

9.) Viagra Boys – Viagr Aboys

• This record is a disgusting act. but in the best way! It’s grungy, grimy, full of strange lyrics, bits of unpunctuated spoken word, but through it all there’s lines of punk influence and big gooey gobs of brilliant song writing. It’s not quite right to call Viagra Boys experimental because they know how to make a traditional song with a verse, a bridge, and a hook. But, the content can throw you for a loop. Part of what makes this record so awesome is how much you feel accompanied by the music but surprised by the lyricism and its lack of coherence. Trust me, it’s a good thing.

8.) The Beths – Straight Line was a Lie

• I love everything about The Beths. They write catchy shit and this album is no short on bops. “Metal” in particular is hard not to tap your toe to. At the same time, unlike previous records that I’ve really loved like Expert in a Dying Field there’s a depth of emotion here that used to be missing. “Mother Pray for Me” is such a simple composition, but it’s powerful in its stark contrast to the rest of the album’s homages to alternative rock. I think this is their best album yet, not because it has the best songs but because the whole is so much greater than the parts. It paints a picture of a young person coming to terms with an evolving world, trying to understand existence and the body. All at once, in every song, there’s a bit of hurt and the faintest lilt of hope.

7.) Dear Silas – Cadillac Leather in July Deluxe: NO TINT

• Oh man, I loved this album so much. I don’t think Dear Silas is getting nearly enough attention as he should. The lyricism here isn’t always the greatest, but he has a style and flow influenced by Kendrick and JID. More importantly though, he’s playing with a vibe that comes straight out of the Anthony Hamilton playbook. This is hip hop but it’s R&B too, it’s soul, touched by gospel and the deep south way beyond the country production roots (see: Nelly) that rappers like Denzel Curry have tried to tap into. Dear Silas doesn’t have to tap into it or pay homage to it, it’s right there within him. He’s from Mississippi and he knows what’s up. These songs are sexy, sweaty, and overconfident. What’s not to like.

6.) Cheekface – Middle Spoon

• Do you ever wish that there were more than 20 They Might Be Giants albums? Cheekface is right smack in the middle of that tradition. This is nerd rock, but, like They Might Be Giants, there are sometimes sound experiments, surreal moments and a lot of humor. In the case of Cheekface, the humor often comes in making fun of capitalism, bemoaning the state of current society, and grappling with the problems of modern friendship and technology. Greg Katz has a simple vocal style but it sure is recognizable and unique. This is the perfect album if you ever asked yourself “what if The National wrote simple songs and didn’t take anything seriously?”

5.) Guerilla Toss – You’re Weird Now

• This one has only been out for about a month but it’s shot up my list and it’s in heavy rotation right now. This is really a musical show-off album in a lot of ways. It’s post-punk, but also prog a bit, a little bit jam band, a little bit funk, sometimes a little disco even. You can tell these guys just listen to everything and take influence from anywhere and any time period. I feel the same way listening to Guerilla Toss that I do The Go! Team or Lucius (especially Wildewoman), in that I listen and just feel thankful that there’s music in the world.

4.) JID – God Does Like Ugly

• I’m not gonna lie, I’ve come to just expect greatness from JID. Even during the Dreamville days it never really seemed as though he was going to stay in the shadow of J. Cole for very long. The Forever Story really cemented him as a powerhouse and it was handily my record of the year for 2022. JID is a special talent in that he could rap the entire dictionary seemingly off the top of his head and there would be a compelling pattern to it. He doesn’t have to go that far on this album, but I kind of wish he would have. The first half I see a lot of production that seems to be influenced by folks like JPEGMafia, analog percussion, and lots of verbal twists and turns. The second half eases up off the gas a bit, leaning into melancholic arrangements and a lot more singing tracks than I’m used to hearing on a JID record. The first half of this album, however, easily puts it in the top 5 and “Glory” is an early candidate for my track of the year.

3.) Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong

• Call me a hypocrite, but right now I think I like BCNR MORE since Isaac Wood has left the group. There’s a clarity to this project that I really like. It feels like a proper album. Some of the songs are pretty slow burns, sure, but they’re worth it, they’re telling you a story and this feels less like a musical experiment than Ants from Up There did. I liked that album, but I didn’t “love” listening to it. Sometimes it felt like a chore, like reading good literature. This record doesn’t have machinations to make something haughty and I’m keen to just ride out the music wherever it takes me.

2.) Ben Kweller – Cover the Mirrors

• If it weren’t for how just absolutely brutally incredible the number one album on my list is, Kweller’s album would be an easy number one. I didn’t know anything about Ben Kweller until he was in The Bens and did a collab with Guster. Since then, for the last twenty years, he’s been a consistent force of indie and Americana-adjacent rock for me. Sha Sha is a crazy good debut and his self-titled album is what the Garden State soundtrack wishes it was. This album is beautiful but born out of tragedy. In 2023, Kweller’s 16 year old son, Dorian, died in a car crash. This album comes from that grieving and that empty space. When he asks “Oh, Dorian, where did you go?” you can’t help but take it seriously. There’s a mystery to a sudden death that’s strangely poignant and real. This album perfectly covers the anger, confusion, isolation, and strange moments of insightful happiness that come with losing a loved one. Even if you don’t know the story, this is just a solid indie record with absolutely no skips and fabulous collabs with Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, The Flaming Lips, and Coconut Records. But, nobody makes art in a vacuum, and knowing the inspiration behind this project makes it all the more compelling, powerful, and difficult to bear.

1.) Clipse – Let God Sort ‘Em Out

• Whoooowee. Hell Hath No Fury, nearly 20 years old, was already a masterpiece. This album is just plain better. A perfect 10. Awesome rhymes and word play, effortlessly. Incredible features. Better production. Pusha and Malice have never sounded better and they’re soooo in sync on this record. What’s amazing is they’re not trying to do anything fancy or change up the game. It’s just good beat after good beat, solid bar after solid bar. The recipe (pardon the pun) is easy, but the execution usually isn’t. They absolutely nail it on this one. In the next two months something will almost certainly change for me on this list, but this album sitting at number one won’t be that thing.