Albums – As with all so-called ‘disappointments’, this one is totally subjective, but James wrote an article to this effect in June – and I think his sentiments still stand by the year’s end.
I’ve enjoyed plenty of albums this year. Noname had plenty of engaging words to say on the brief Sundial. Yves Tumor dropped some more energetic art rock on Praise A Lord… Fever Ray’s stark electronics grabbed my ear on Radical Romantics. But here’s my issue. These albums – and many of my other favourites this year – are ‘good’. None of them are ‘great’.
There’s a key difference. I feel like I’ve been moaning about this for the last few years, so I listened back to my end of year playlist for 2018 – a year which saw the release of several albums I loved. And the difference is stark. My albums of the year this year would have barely scraped the top 10 then.
But maybe this is just me settling into the grouchiness of my early 30s. My ‘things ain’t what they used to be’ era. Once again, I find myself waiting for classics in 2024.
Tom Burrows
Janelle Monae – Well I was disappointed with a bunch of follow ups albums this year. Squid, James Blake, Kevin Abstract, and Poppy. But Janelle Monae was maybe the worst offender. After waiting 5 years since the absolutely fantastic Dirty Computer we got The Age of Pleasure. It just was a little dull. It didn’t feel like a trailblazer at work. Just someone having a nice old time. Good for them I guess. But I hope we don’t have to wait another 5 years for them to make an album worthy of their own discography.
Matt Paul
Spotify and the streaming business – Well I shouldn’t be too surprised about a business looking after their bottom line. But It’s always hard to be objective about the interface between art and capitalism. The squeeze on artists’ ability to monetise their music keeps tightening. This year Spotify removed a bunch of songs from monetization. And yes these songs weren’t getting many listens. But coupled with the recent big layoffs, the trajectory of where this creeping squeeze is going is pretty concerning for smaller artists.
It just keeps becoming clearer that we can’t rely on big companies like Spotify, YouTube, Apple etc for responsible stewardship of music. And with the worrying change of ownership of Bandcamp and their subsequent layoffs, the one beacon of sanity seems to be dimming.
Matt Paul
The Mercury Prize Winner – It feels silly for this to be one of my disappointments for 2023 when me and my fellow Bastards basically make hating on Mercury Prize decisions our personalities, but the staggeringly bad choice of winner had me seething. I had just left one of the greatest gigs of my life, Christine and the Queens no less, and checking my phone to see the words Ezra Collective next to a tweet about the winner of the Mercury Prize had me aghast. I was yelling about how outraged I was, utterly fuming.
The album itself wasn’t horrendous, it’s just in the context of a list with so many worthy potential winners on it, giving it to such a non-event of an album felt like a personal attack. Imagine listening to the Loyle Carner, Jockstrap, Raye, Fred Again, Young Fathers, Jessie Ware, Lankum and Shygirl records and going, ‘yeah none of those deserve the trophy over this wrong-side-of-boring jazz record’. I’m still fuming.
Sam Atkins
Hit Parade – No this isn’t a moan about an antiquated version of the top 40. It’s the Róisín Murphy album of the same name. And while I’m mentioning Róisín, I should say neither is this a moan about the time when she got ‘cancelled’ earlier this year. Nope, it’s simply because I was hugely disappointed by the album. It’s one I anticipated in our end of year lists last year and one I thought I’d definitely be shopping for when it was released. Instead, I found it quite dull and lacking energy and dynamism, despite the many critical plaudits it gathered. And I promise I really tried, coming back to it several times in different moods and times of day. It never clicked for me. I’m not saying it never will, but a definite let down for me in 2023.
James Spearing
Picky Bastards 
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