AARP Hearing Center
The finest music released so far this year favors both a gender (women) and a country (Britain). No fewer than seven of the top 10 entries were created by female artists, and an equal number come from the U.K. The female factor could reflect the rising encouragement for women in an industry in which two of the biggest stars are women: Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
The British aspect definitely reflects the creativity that’s propelled the country to produce many of the smartest new acts over the past few years, including Wet Leg, Squid and black midi. At the same time, this year’s crop conforms to no set genre, sensibility or age. Instead, their work honors the qualities of the best art — originality, beauty and truth.
The Last Dinner Party: Prelude to Ecstasy
Mamma mia! What a rush of sound comes pouring from The Last Dinner Party. This young all-female British quintet became the breakout band of 2023 with the hit “Nothing Matters,” a musical feast stuffed with sounds influenced by the most proudly bombastic bands of the past century. Think Queen (in that soaring mock Brian May guitar solo), ABBA (in the operatic vocal chorale) and Electric Light Orchestra (in strings so vigorous, they sting). And that’s just the start. The full album is rife with rococo melodies, incisive lyrics (female assertion is a specialty) and more-is-more arrangements that you can’t get enough of.
IDLES: Tangk
Seven years ago, the British band IDLES soared to stardom on a brutalist approach to music. Their guitars cut like chain saws, their drums exploded like cluster bombs, and front man Joe Talbot barked every lyric like a human bullhorn. For their revelatory fifth album, these purposeful brutes shade their assault with nuanced synthesizers and melodies that flow as well as stomp. At times Talbot even manages to croon. Thankfully, none of it lessens the band’s intensity. Instead, it clarifies their focus, making the case for IDLES to rank among rock’s most righteous bands, up there with acts like the Clash and Rage Against the Machine.
Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past Is Still Alive
New York–born singer-songwriter Alynda Segarra, who performs as Hurray for the Riff Raff, boasts a colorful past, including several years spent hopping freight trains across America, Woody Guthrie–style. The fruits of these memories are front and center on The Past Is Still Alive, a folk-rock masterpiece that features some of the best storytelling and most heart-tugging melodies since Rod Stewart’s early solo work. Segarra’s picaresque romp is filled with grifters and drifters, rendered without the sentimentality such figures too often inspire. While the characters may come from Segarra’s past, the artist’s remembrances of them couldn’t feel more present.
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