Alright so usually I have no excuse for Recommended Albums posts arriving late (the Warm Visions definition of “LATE” is the post arrives 10 days after the end of the prior month). In this case, I’m a day over. To be fair, I’ve been busy. I just wrapped up an apartment search, I had been at a conference for the first week of May, and I was in Charleston for a wedding at the end of April. There’s a lot going on, but it gave me a lot of time to check out some absolutely fantastic records. I mean, cmon now. 

I highly recommend every record listed below (I guess if I didn’t, this wouldn’t be Recommended Albums then, would it?), and take your time getting through them. Some deserve repeated, purposeful listens for them to unfold for you. From disco glam, to blissful electronics and shoegaze, to psychedelic funk rock, to dubby homespun grooves, to essentially a jam band record, to soooo many more things, April 2023 ran the table. Expect to see many of the records listed below in my Top 50 for 2023.

RECOMMENDED ALBUMS OF APRIL 2023::

Bart – Some Kind of Way [Idée Fixe]
An anti-drug cartoon produced in the 1950s actually makes children excited to try psychedelics.

Esther Rose – Safe To Run [New West]
Putting your parent’s old cowboy boots and finding they fit perfectly, then dancing around your room at 3:00am. Your flight to see your loved ones leaves in four hours.

Everything But The Girl – Fuse [Buzzin’ Fly / Verve]
Low-light, flowering plants thrive in a back alley, absorbing light from flickering neon facades.

Issei Herr – Distant Intervals [NNA Tapes]
Humans evolve to contain one specific new organ that pulsates and emits low-level energy waves when close to specific frequencies. Connecting to those around you on pure wavelength empathy.

Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good! [PMR / EMI]
Sweating prosecco and getting chased around the club by ravenous dancers that missed the open bar.

Nabihah Iqbal – DREAMER [Ninja Tune]
A sharp winter sunset descends over a humming cyberpunk city skyline, as observed by a pair of friends from a grassy, nature-reclaimed bunker on the outskirts of town.

North Americans – Long Cool World [Third Man]
A peaceful town was built around a large fallen log that emits a continual plume of steam, threading itself into a gauzy web of clouds above.

Pearl & The Oysters – Coast 2 Coast [Stones Throw]
A tourism commercial for the most idyllic paradise ever captured on film, only the perceived bending of time and space, assumed created by an old CRT screen in the commercial, actually exist on location and distort the landscape.

Rose City Band – Garden Party [Thrill Jockey]
You just got a new grill and are really, really excited to cook out with your friends every summer night.

Tim Hecker – No Highs [kranky]
Waking up after a sleepwalking session atop the spire of the world’s tallest building, dangling from your feet and swaying in the upper atmosphere’s drifts.

Uh Huh – Uh Huh [Telephone Explosion]
Shrinking yourself down by the rooftop pool and floating in someone’s martini in an inner tube.

Y La Bamba – Lucha [Tender Loving Empire]
A desert oasis wavers in the heat on the horizon, the faint and ghostly sounds of whiny trumpets can be heard like buzzing flies just outside your view. The thought of swaying palms cools your brain.

GR8 TRACKS OF 2023::

• Angel Olsen – “Forever Means”
• Angel Olsen – “Time Bandits”
• Avalon Emerson – “Entombed In Ice”
• Avalon Emerson – “Sandrail Silhouette”
• BART – “The Breeze”
• BART – “Gorge”
• BART – “Rose Quartz”
• BART – “Turncoat”
• Bodywash – “Kind of Light”
• Bodywash – “Massif Central”
• Bodywash – “Perfect Blue”
• Esther Rose – “Chet Baker”
• Esther Rose – “Dream Girl”
• Esther Rose – “Spider”
• Esther Rose – “Safe To Run (feat. Hurray for the Riff Raff)”
• Everything But The Girl – “Caution To The Wind”
• Everything But The Girl – “No One Knows We’re Dancing”
• Everything But The Girl – “Nothing Left To Lose”
• Everything But The Girl – “Run A Red Light”
• Feist – “I Took All of My Rings Off”
• Fly Anakin – “Blicky Bop”
• Issei Herr – “Aubade (The Farewell Is A Beginning)”
• Issei Herr – “Toccata (Kisses of Earth)”
• Jessie Ware – “Beautiful People”
• Jessie Ware – “Begin Again”
• Jessie Ware – “Hello Love”
• Jessie Ware – “Freak Me Now”
• Nabihah Iqbal – “A Tender Victory”
• Nabihah Iqbal – “Closer Lover”
• Nabihah Iqbal – “Dreamer”
• Nabihah Iqbal – “Gentle Heart”
• Nabihah Iqbal – “This World Couldn’t See Us”
• North Americans – “Classic Water”
• North Americans – “The Nighthawks Are Out”
• Nourished By Time – “Daddy”
• Nourished By Time – “Rain Water Promise”
• Nourished By Time – “Shed That Fear”
• Pearl & The Oysters – “Fireflies”
• Pearl & The Oysters – “Konami”
• Pearl & The Oysters – “Pacific Ave”
• Pearl & The Oysters – “Read The Room (feat. Laetitia Sadier)”
• Peter Manheim – “A Lonely Road”
• Peter Manheim – “Peace Groove”
• Rezzett – “Ladbroke”
• Rezzett – “Leg It”
• Rose City Band – “Chasing Rainbows”
• Rose City Band – “Mariposa”
• Sweet Dreams Nadine – “Track Star”
• Sweet Dreams Nadine – “Weird Love”
• Tim Hecker – “Monotony II (feat. Colin Stetson)”
• Tim Hecker – “Total Garbage”
• Tiny Ruins – “Earthly Things”
• Tiny Ruins – “Sounds Like”
• Uh Huh – “Babylon”
• Uh Huh – “Blinds Drawn”
• Uh Huh – “Redemption Pause”
• Wednesday – “Bull Believer”
• Y La Bamba – “Collapse”
• Y La Bamba – “Hues (feat. Devendra Banhart)”
• Y La Bamba – “Nunca”
• Y La Bamba – “Walk Along”
• Yaeji – “Done (Let’s Get It)”

NON-2023 LISTENING::

Frank Ocean – “Nikes” [2016]

Inspired by the Coachella set, I had to go back to Blonde. Yup, it’s still good. In this listen I also played it for my partner for the first time. She had more important stuff going on at the time so I’m not sure how much she paid attention. Not important.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “Blaise Bailey Finnegan III” [1999]

Reading the kranky book You’re With Stupid and the rise of Godspeed You! got me thinking to my favorite piece of their work, the Slow Riot for Zerø Kanada EP. I don’t want to go on record saying this might be my favorite EP of all time, but damn does it come close. Something about “Blaise Bailey Finnegan III” is so immensely satisfying. Put this in “oddly satisfying” TikToks. Is that a thing? OMG GY!BE is soooooo oddly satisfying. It’s pretty sad this country can’t see that they’re a third world, third rate, third class slum. I don’t think it’s going to get better before it gets worse.

Jai Paul – “Jewel” / “Vibin’ (Unfinished)” [2013]

Jai Paul’s Coachella performances (and subsequent bootleg videos from said performance) got the mysterious man back in my constant rotation for the first time since 2019 when he officially released the leaked album. The songs are just as exciting as I remembered, and I definitely found a new soft spot for “Jewel”, or as it reads on the 2019 re-release, “Vibin’ (Unfinished)”. Love its tempo, its blurry groove, and its warmth. Cut to a week later – and I’m finally seeing Jai Paul live after being obsessed since 2011. I consider myself endlessly lucky to have gotten a ticket to one of his two NYC shows (shout out to my partner for entering the ticket lottery with me and being the one chosen for the ticket). Although Paul didn’t play “Vibin”, being in a crowd going absolutely buckwild to tracks like “BTSTU”, “Jasmine”, and “Str8 Outta Mumbai” was something I hope to never forget.

M83 – “Don’t Save Us From the Flames” [2005]

Finally got the chance to see M83 after being a fan since 2009. I’m pretty warm on the new album, but the old stuff definitely has all my heart, especially everything from 2003 – 2008. When those songs came on, energy and memories from high school came rushing back. Funny enough I went with a friend that I made in high school, so the effect was double. First off though, M83 know how to put on a damn good show, going full shoegaze/dreamy noise mode, filling the massive venue with the most volume I’ve heard in a while. Hearing a personally-slept on favorite, “Don’t Save Us From The Flames”, really set off a chain of emotions within me, and I got to marvel at how it’s such a perfect rock song. Damn.