Dumb Things – Self Help the song opens with that forlorn, wistful Aussie twang, sort of weary yet filled with hope on the horizon. Then, the vocals jumped into the picture, with faint hints of backing vocals twisting the pop knife deep into your soul. All of a sudden the track drops into the chorus, throwing some sick harmonica at me, and you’re tapping your toes to this spritely track built on the back of broken spirits austintownhall

Bug Club – Marriage A Welsh band operating from somewhere inside the Franz Ferdinand-Art Brut nexus, yet holding these influences lightly, prancing around a fruit-tree with a puckish sense of pleasure saidthegramophone

The Mountain Goats – Clean Slate while Jenny from Thebes feels big compared to the Mountain Goats’ stripped-down albums, there’s restraint on these songs, and the rock-opera approach never feels garish pastemagazine

The Last Dinner Party – Nothing Matters both strangely familiar and like nothing else that actually exists. For all their absurd zeitgeistiness, it’s fascinating – and to us old folk, comforting – how TLDP quite unabashedly hark back to a bygone era of guitar-driven art rock. Still, there’s no denying that there’s a very modern sense of transgression to the intensely intimate F-bomb Abigail Morris drops in the chorus – she’s not trying to shock us, but foster a sense of radical intimacy that really makes the song and defines the band timeout

Get Wrong – Too Late To Hide it’s like the perfect tasty treat, waiting to be devoured on a Friday morning. Working with this dancefloor ready electronic pulse, Adam and Naomi trade lyrical lines back and forth with one another. They add in some texture with synth stabs and guitar licks, throwing it way back to some nostalgic pop sounds, albeit with their own brand of honesty. Seeing as the two were/are in some of the most joyous pop-punk acts, you can hear that joyousness in their new project, and its completely heartwarming austintownhall

Soft Science – True Taking its lead from the classic dream pop and shoegaze bands from the early throws in electronic synth lines here and there, but is awash with these classic harmony heavy vocals, huge splashes of chords and this almost Blondie like power pop that makes it impossible to either ignore or to not love. Not with those melancholy melodies anyway backseatmafia

slowdive – chained to a cloud  A creative and commercial peak 30 years in, it’s a remarkable achievement that bucks how this story usually works. It’s a record that harnesses the unexpected durability of shoegaze, where the possibilities of sound embraces timelessness, as opposed to Britpop’s hedonistic soundtrack to the ‘90s thelineofbestfit

Tossing Seed – Can I Still Shine theirs’ is an aesthetic… of soft and fragile that typifies Indonesian guitar-pop… sultry, sweet, semi-disinterested female vocals that are the area’s trademark indie-pop sound find the perfect home in the more jangly tracks such as the beautiful Fall of Sweat Pea and the simply superlative closer, Can I Still Shine janglepophub

Say Sue Me – Mind Is Light a propulsive shimmer that drives steadily ahead from clean clarity into dreamy distortion. stereogum

Pash – Possession wonderful, vibrant indiepop recordsilike

Blur – Barbaric deceptively bouncy pop bummer rollingstone

Daisy Clover – Mystery Faced with a huge music collection and an abundance of new music that demands my attention, I never really know what I am going to be listening to over any given period of time. Like many, I suppose it just ‘sort of happens’…the true appeal of this album is its sense of perfectly underproduced lo-fi pop… Coursed with melodic malaise… augmented by the most stunning sense of dank and dulcet imaginable janglepophub

Dreamcoaster – Say Nothing has left me smitten. It simply is 3 minutes of fuzzy indie pop perfection addtowantlist

Atka – Lenny glitchy and catchy and marauding….There’s boldness and then there’s “Lenny,” which outpaces any such colloquism pastemagazine

Dancer – Love there’s something in their craft that sounds like a more pop-centric brand of Life Without Buildings. The vocals have that vibe where they feel almost distant, though they clearly have that melodic draw that keeps you focused. Circling around the vocals are these angular riffs that sparkle and twist around a thick rhythmic groove austintownhall

audiobooks – Milan Fashion Week an unusual pairing; he’s an in-demand mixing engineer who’s worked with everybody from Frank Ocean to Spiritualized, and she’s an artist and model whose all-in vocal style straddles performance art and “proper singing.” Sometimes they’ll remind you of The Human League, other times The Fall or Tangerine Dream. There’s nobody else like them… “Milan Fashion Week” is a wickedly funny tale direct from the runway with piano-heavy Britpop backing. brooklynvegan

Hurry – Beggin’ For You On their sixth album since 2012, Philadelphia foursome Hurry confirm their credentials as the band most likely to finally wrestle the power-pop genre away from the middle-aged paisley shirt wearers. With its omnipresent subtle jangle-pop riffs and shifts in tempo, this album has to be one of the power-pop genres’ ‘best ofs’ for 2023 janglepophub

The Slow Summits – Oh Me Oh My  any song that opens with its title being sung is damn fine by me recordsilike

The Shop Window – It’s A High draws on all the best elements of classic C86 with it’s jangling guitars and soaring vocals. It’s even got a Sea Urchins type lengthy outro with a horn part added for good measure louderthanwar

Fragile Animals – December expertly blend angst with sweet and breezy sounds… a glimmer of sunshine amid stormy skies nextwavemag

Kylie Minogue – Padam Padam There’s nothing worthy here except the chorus, but honestly what a chorus. You hear it in the city, you hear it in the country, you hear it pumping from a 20-year-old mp3blog, and you think: “Can I hear that again?” saidthegramophone

Tonique & Man – You Make Me Feel So Good I challenge anyone to listen to this album without smiling. It’s a playful, unpretentious, disco-hued celebration of what it means to live and crave and look back with love on the human experience in all its absurdity timeout

Being Dead – Daydream a smooth, irresistible and cosmic offering that outmuscles any bedroom pop label pastemagazine

Lightheaded – Mercury Girl a New Jersey band with pop smarts at the graduate degree level, boy/girl vocals that penetrate your heart, and a Brill building vibe the never fails to rope us in when it is done this well. Yeah, it is nostalgic, but it quite simply is good pop music whenyoumotoraway

The Motifs – All About tickles your rhythm bones… before ultimately deconstructing such a sound by removing any sense of tempo or vocal exuberance… Fluttering, fragile twee-pop has never been as essential as it is in the hands of this act janglepophub

Julie Byrne – The Greater Wings an exploration of grief so unique and moving that categorization wounds its serene beauty… The vivid imagery painted not only by her lyrics but also by her meticulous sound design certainly contributes to its unrivalled greatness; each string and pluck solidifies the inexplicable pain that is lodged inside her… With the absence of percussion on the record, gravity is nonexistent. Every song finds solace in anything but the ground; they stay afloat and directionless, solely guided by pure emotion thelineofbestfit

Lana Del Ray – Margaret (ft Bleachers) she practically smiles through the microphone as she concocts a fake date for her producer and friend Jack Antonoff’s wedding pitchfork

The Umbrellas – Echoes the song is enveloped in a sighed ennui. It drapes itself across the speakers, a bit weary, but not beleaguered. Things may not have gone according to plan, but the bittersweet balance is still there. It’s a song of coming to terms with expectations — the long drag rendered in jangles ravensingstheblues

Ducks Ltd – The Main Thing even as the song careens along at a blazing 182 bpm, it’s the honey-sweet wistfulness that stands out most, as reverb-drenched harmonies join singer-guitarist Tom McGreevy’s aching refrain of “I don’t believe in it now” exclaim

Youth Valley feat. Serafim Tsotsonis – I Don’t Want to Go Out With You, Veronica there’s definitely something faintly Morrissey in the vocals (before we all decided that guy was awful); they have this shyness to them that seems fitting for the band’s lyrical parable on how we’ve all grown to shy to go out and enjoy the night. And, if the voice wasn’t enough to seduce you, listen to the sharpness of those guitar chords, dancing and distorting in the distance, twirling their little fingers through your hair, playfully; it’s all sheer charm austintownhall

Melenas – 1986 As direct as their lyrics can be, Melenas can be subtle, too. On Ahora’s catchiest tune, the stair-stepping “1986,” the dangerous attraction of a flame becomes a metaphor for fascination and repulsion pitchfork

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – What Will Heaven Be Like? four EPs in 2023 (and two LPs)… Murder, Oral Sex & Cigarettes, kicks off with “What Will Heaven Be Like,” one of the best post-punk tracks this year pastemagazine

Sufjan Stevens – Will Anybody Ever Love Me? pure, undiluted, raw—the kind of song that makes your face crinkle up before a single word is sung pitchfork

mindful ruminations over quiet acoustic arpeggios… Then the songs swell — or rather, burst — into larger cacophonies of sound, as if to balance each point of introspection with an aural representation of its respective, unbridled emotion. The production is immense, yet every layered instrument and rackety beat feels meticulously deliberate, deepening the impact of some of the finest songs of his career rollingstone

Crayon Case – Gravits Another day and another new band from Indonesia… a buoyant indiepop song that is upbeat despite the words spinning a tale of lost love, and the joint vocals combine effectively. An excellent first single! recordsilike

The Age of Coloured Lizards – June a journey of powerful fuzzy, noise-pop exploration that is beautifully addled by hushed male and female vocal harmonies that lay upon each other with deft ease janglepophub

Jetstream Pony – Sixes and Sevens simply marvelous, full of chiming guitars under floating vocals, giving us the sense of drifting away on their water concept louderthanwar

Seablite – Hit The Wall still plumbing the well of shoegaze and dreampop, but with a tighter focus on the underlying pop sheen this time around. The band escapes the pitfalls of the often rote genres, lacquering a vaseline smear of obfuscation onto pristine pop tracks rather than using the cotton ball cocoon as the hook. Too often bands get a bit bogged down in the sunburn singe of fuzz and froth that it becomes a crutch, but strip away the sudsy production and Seablite would still have an album full of indie pop hooks and dream-doused gems. treblezine

The Photocopies- Heart Keeps Breaking Down bouncing yet gloomy… Given that all proceeds from the single sold via Bandcamp will benefit the mental health charity Mind you may get some idea of what the words entail during a tale of relationship discord recordsilike

The Photocopies – There Is No “Us” Anymore Sean Turner continues his C86 retro pop takeover of your ears. There are very strong Wedding Present vibes on this one recordsilike

Maud Anyways – Love Affair subtly distorted shoegazing textures and jangly sparkling bittersweet melodies weave vibrant ringing nostalgic mists, underlied by steady lively rhythms, to cocoon soft, dreamy vocal angst… whilst  trying to discover the intentions of another’s heart whitelight-whiteheat

The Cat’s Miaow – Between The Stations & The Silence When the indiest of indie labels decide to celebrate, you can guarantee that it will not just be six cans of Ace Lager, a party pack of salt and vinegar, and a few cherry bakewalls shoved on the printer table in some soulless office in Drabsville.

As such, the 25th anniversary of Melbourne’s Lost and Lonesome label and the 200th release of Portland, Oregon’s Jigsaw Records, see them team up to collaborate on something truly special with indie stalwarts The Cat’s Miaow and Rocketship. The three tracks from The Cat’s Miaow represent their first new music in 25 years and are topped by the brilliance of a Between The Stations opener that rumbles with lo-fi, twee-pop counter melodies that drip with reminders of just why they were so essential in the 90s janglepophub

Mary Lattimore – Music for Applying Shimmering Eye Shadow reminiscent of the ritual of putting on your most flamboyant accouterments before a performance, of transforming from a meek, pedestrian individual into a glistening superstar. It’s the kind of track that makes every morning better pastemagazine

Kara Jackson – no fun/party Jackson’s voice is deep and weary, as if the act of singing these songs has drained her of her energy. But the one-time US National Youth Poet Laureate imbues her songs with a rawness and sense of pathos that cuts against the more conventional sounds of mainstream popular music guardian

Wetsuit – Twiggy With a laid back guitar progression that seems to fit somewhere between surf pop and twangy indie, there’s a sense of dreamy momentum in Becker’s writing. While it steams from loss and subsequent hurt, it’s really a beautiful rememberance of friendship and the power of feeling accepted post-trash

Voxtrot – New World Romance After breaking up in 2010, the Austin blog-rock all-stars are back together… a graceful, restrained indie chug with lots of strings and Fender Rhodes, and it truly sounds like something that would’ve gotten serious online burn in the ’00s stereogum

Matched – Give In delves into the struggles of perfectionism and the pressure to conform to external expectations, highlighting the importance of staying true to oneself lastdaydeaf

Guided By Voices – The Race Is On, The King Is Dead the most jubilant and immediate opener the band has released since the title track from 2018’s Space Gun. The song is another trophy fish Pollard can happily hang on his wall. But what is astonishing about this album is just how little it waivers from there pastemagazine

Big Thief – Vampire Empire On this rough-and-ready studio recording of live favorite, Adrienne Lenker’s deep sensitivity to everything around her is at its most finely tuned. Atop ragged folk-rock, she spills forth about sex that transcends gender and drugs that don’t work, embracing and then escaping her demons in a whirlwind plunge pitchfork

The Hazmats – Wondered come from the UK’s punk and hardcore world… But the Hazmats don’t sound anything like those bands. Instead, they make bright, jangly indie-pop that calls back to the halcyon days of college rock stereogum

Deary – Fairground This is big music, music that has reach. And while it would be easy for a band to get lost in their effects pedals while crafting this sort of thing, Deary do not. They wisely have a sound which seems fairly ambitious, even if it’s indie in nature… most attentive listeners will hear things here which call to mind the Cocteau Twins from 1990 to 1996. There’s the same sort of sense of exploration and boundary-pushing, and the same sort of absolutely breathtaking vocals. apessimistisneverdisappointed

Gia Margaret – Cicadas an album so modest that it risks obscurity. However, when listened to attentively, it illuminates a forgotten world. Field recordings of a rainstorm, a person walking, birdsong, children playing, and cicadas at night accompany her piano melodies, hovering like memories popmatters

Lonnie Holley -None Of Us Have But A Little While (ft Sharon Van Etten) the 73-year-old sings of the struggles of existence and reminds us that it will be over all too soon. As Sharon Van Etten’s haunting croon harmonizes with the static of Holley’s synthesizer, they offer a gorgeous and melancholic plea to live in the moment pitchfork

The Beatles – Now And Then Absolutely incredible biblical celestial heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time Liam Gallagher