STACK #230 December 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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It's time for the STACK music writers to make like a gooseberry and cast their ears back over the last 12 months, selecting their favourite album from the pool of records they've covered this year! Here you'll find excerpts from the reviews as they first appeared. Don't sleep any longer on these beauties – you might just find your new favourite LP amongst them. CRITICS' CHOICE: CREAM OF THE '23 CROP

ALEX BURGESS

JEFF JENKINS

BRYGET CHRISFIELD

Fiddlehead, Death Is Nothing to Us

Ella Hooper, Small Town Temple

Grian Chatten, Chaos for the Fly

Fiddlehead’s music is imbued with an ineffable yearning, which also resists interpretation. At best, the Boston post-metal act's material can be described as a gentle, melancholic desire for things to be different, but there are still traces of hope to be found. Death Is Nothing to Us completes an album trilogy (balancing the aggressive undertones of their debut with the melodic inclinations of their sophomore LP) with deeply personal insight into trauma and acceptance, as well as connecting with the very nature of our human condition... HONOURABLE MENTION Bob Dylan, Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17

This is the album that Ella Hooper was destined to make; her songs are heartfelt and true. After riding the rollercoaster of rock, Violet Town helped Hooper rediscover what’s real: friends, family, community, and childhood memories. As she sings simply, “You can’t make new old friends.” This is the sound of an artist recapturing the joy and innocence of youth and taking control of her career. “I’ll be my own goddess, I’ll be my own man,” she declares. It’s only January, but this will definitely be one of the albums of the year... HONOURABLE MENTION Minor Gold, Minor Gold

In this vivid collection of vignettes about people who live in an imaginary small seaside town, Chatten portrays “the bitterness of lives not lived” to devastating effect on his debut solo album. He boasts a singular, once-in-a-generation voice, embodying lairy youths, broken souls and everything in between as he taps into the complex emotional worlds of these characters, much like a playwright. Standout track Fairlies contrasts minimal, crooned verses with choruses that take flight: when those blazin’ fiddles invade the scene, a spontaneous jig is mandatory... HONOURABLE MENTION Chemical Brothers, For That Beautiful Feeling

TRISTA MCCONVILLE The National, First Two Pages of Frankenstein

JACQUI PICONE Angie McMahon, Light, Dark, Light Again

BILLY PINNELL

Mo'Ju, Oro, Plata, Mata

On the band's ninth album, The National display a complex understanding of how the bold addition of something outside the recipe can bring out the flavours in the most splendid of ways. Think balsamic vinegar on perfectly ripe strawberries. It’s a lack of arrogance and a musical intelligence that sets this beautiful band aside from its peers – a subtle elegance draped in powerful emotion. [Its first singles] suggested quintessentially classic The National. But it’s not; it’s so much more. Will you enjoy

In a year of blistering Australian releases, a late offering from Angie McMahon easily rockets to the top of the 'Best Of' list. A seemingly impossible task to exceed one of the best Australian debuts in recent memory (the artist's 2019 effort Salt ), McMahon does that and more. Exploding is a sonic chokehold, while Fireball Whiskey showcases McMahon's rasping, gutting vocals in all their glory. Possibly the best songwriter in the country right now, McMahon has delivered a reckoning, and a big neon sign to the world to sit up and pay attention... HONOURABLE MENTION Polaris, Fatalism

The fourth studio album from Mo' Ju explores self-belief, family, spirituality, and political change, inspired by a 1982 historical war drama of the same title ( Gold, Silver, Death ) directed by their late uncle. With a sonic landscape that fuses Kulintang (traditional Filipino percussion ensemble) with woodwind, piano and industrial studio production, this extraordinary singer's messages of hope and inner strength confirm the emergence of a major talent who is daring, uncompromising, and unafraid to experiment on every album... HONOURABLE MENTION Sun feat. Renée Geyer, Sun 1972

this album? Only if you like music... HONOURABLE MENTION Jeremy Dutcher, Motewolonuwok

22 DECEMBER 2023

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