A Rather Hectic 2023
by Jasper Willems
Long story short, 2023 was a year of keeping plates spinning and dousing fires left and right. One giant sprawl basically, which made it hard for me to really connect to music on the same level I did in previous years. A byproduct of that was not being able to see as many shows, enjoy as many new releases or do as much music writing in the spare time I did manage to eke out. I was mostly just too exhausted. Simmering beneath the daily concerns and responsibilities was a sadness for not being able to contribute to Beats Per Minute as much as I would have liked. I did, however, cheer my fellow BPM-heads on from the sidelines, sharing their amazing work and being proud to see the site enriched by such devoted music fanatics.
As for me, I kept wanting to review albums I ultimately ended up having no time to actually review, and I’m moved and grateful that the BPM crew understood my long absences, yet still made me feel like part of the team when I did touch base again. It made me cherish this group of people even more, fortifying my motivation for next year to hopefully contribute more frequently and consistently.
One album I really wanted to review but never got a chance to was my favorite album of the year: Bridge Underwater by Club Casualties, the joint project between Cooper B. Handy (LUCY) and Nick Atkinson. It’s just glorious pop music jam-packed with witty, wholesomely delivered one-liners and fun, bold arrangements. And I love the broad strokes sonically, meshing thrifty home recordings with a string ensemble to surprisingly deft effect. It’s everything I want to hear in pop music, going the whole nine yards, from gloopy synth pop to flirtations with happy hardcore (!). It’s hard to put into words how much I love “Erosion”, a track featuring another pop genius in Sen Morimoto: the best fusion of synth pop and jazz this side of Joe Jackson.
Though the year was a struggle, I found myself homing into to sounds of exuberance and joy: the boisterous, off-the-cuff new Young Fathers album Heavy Heavy, the bleeding edge pop wizardry of Water From Your Eyes and This Is Lorelei, the vibrant and deliciously bizarre pop collage Scaring The Hoes by JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown. Music that exuded a sense of abandon and fun, basically, as I didn’t really have the headspace to navel gaze or spill some heavy duty goth tears. I took a lot of solace in Paul Wall’s verse in That Mexican OT’s banger “Johnny Dang”, as it showed me that you can enter back into the fray anytime, and practice your craft with utmost spirit and joy. Surely I don’t need to wear a fancy grill or chain to be infected by such positive energy.
Even the edgier, heavier music I listened to had other intangibles that were far more intriguing than your typically lame aggro-posturing. Yves Tumor proved they are a true chameleon with their new impossibly titled album, Fever Ray’s enchanting Radical Romantics added a new chapter to Karin Dreijer’s unparalleled visual storytelling, Kelela’s Raven manages to disentangle club music’s hedonistic punch and weave it into soft empathic paeans of affection, and Mandy, Indiana’s debut i’ve seen a way exceeded expectations and then some. All these artists embody a fluidity and mystique that circumvents trite soapbox theatrics, burrowing into impulses more profound and more beckoning.
I guess as a hopeless romantic myself, you mirror the music you loved this year to how you’ve processed certain experiences, and this year I often had to be a beacon and a source of reliance for other people, whether it was for clients or family. And I ultimately took pride in that, even though it often came at the expense of personal wants and needs. It was a year of desperation, of clutching to the nearest entity that gave me comfort. That being said, I hope 2024 will be a year where I can afford to jump into the deep end some more again. I do already know one album that’s going to hit next year’s top 10 list: the debut of beloved Rotterdam band Neighbours Burning Neighbours. Hopefully I get to review that sucker, and discover likewise amazing music and sounds amidst the grind. Indeed, I’m glad this slog of a year is finally over.
