#aoty2023

[eramsinnart]

Welp, haven't been here a while... sorry 😅

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #1

夢之駭客 Dream Hacker - Otay:onii

Main Genres: Post-Industrial, Experimental

A decent sampling of: Neoclassical Darkwave, Electroacoustic, Glitch, Industrial Techno, Drone

Brace yourself, cause from here on out this is mostly just gonna be me fanboying and gushing uncontrollably.

Back in 2021, I had championed the Chinese American singer/songwriter/composer/producer/performance artist Lane Shi Otayonii a.k.a. Otay:onii for her experimental record Ming Ming on that year's roundup, describing her potential to become "one of the greatest producers of the decade". But who is this enigmatic artist?

Lane Shi divides her time and energy between creating and touring with her hardcore noise rock band Elizabeth Colour Wheel, and performing studio black magic with her solo project under the Otay:onii name.

She is also an artist who regularly alternates her base of operations between two worlds, residing at different times in New York City and Shanghai. The duality of her identity as a Chinese American is a narrative thread that appears many times throughout the artist's work, informing some of the thematic elements of her records.

According to a really great interview she did with the YouTuber Heinos, the moniker 'Otayonii' itself is actually a name that was given to the artist when she met a Seneca First Nations man, who asked if he could call her by the name for 'wolf' in his ancestral language. She liked the sound and what it represented, and so decided to own her new given title.

Musically, Otay:onii is primarily a post-industrial project, but Lane Shi regularly incorporates aspects of darkwave, glitch, drone, traditional Chinese music, and electroacoustic music into her work. Her signature sound is equal parts atmospheric, lovecraftian, primordial, playful, and frenetic. She's kinda like if an ancient vengeful demi-god reemerged from the bowels of the Earth, and learned how to download and play around with studio software on a laptop.

As a vocalist, Lane Shi possesses a contralto range, and falls under one of my favourite niche categories of woman singers I like to call "force-of-nature belters", along with the likes of Tanya Tagaq and Björk. She has a trademark lower register that I would describe as a witch's snarl, a gentler middle register, as well as a higher register that she usually reserves for piercing battle cries and wailing like a banshee.

Her 2018 debut Nag was a comparatively more minimalist, grayscale undertaking, heavy on the more ambient and gothic tones of her sound. A genuinely solid first effort, if a bit less memorable than later records, barring the deliciously dreary eponymous song which is still among her very best.

2021's Ming Ming was an upgrade in all respects. Pulling major influences from Chinese folk music and folklore, I described the record in my previous Otay:onii review as a "true Pandora's Box . . . like the story of a mortal who attempts to enter the realm of the gods". Lots of ominous industrial cyber-magic, with a rare few moments that could have perhaps been edited down or omitted altogether to increase the force of its impact.

So, what to make of her latest then?

Dream Hacker is an exorcism. An inferno of ancient eternal flames envelops this absolutely bonkers and surreal listening experience. Each song carries powerful buildups in intensity combined with impossibly elegant structural competence. Far and away one of the most visceral and transcendent records I have ever beheld. This gets into your bloodstream, like an innate, raw instinct towards entropy.

Otay:onii's work has never sounded quite this immediate, energetic, and dynamic, thanks to the incorporation of avant-garde industrial techno beats that gives the whole project a mighty propulsion. Even during its quieter moments, you as the listener are never far from being engulfed in its unruly fire and brimstone. So many little leftfield moments that made me audibly go "what the fuck?" upon my first listen, too.

To me, this is album of the year not just because it poses the best collection of songs from an artist in 2023 (which, to be clear, it does), but also because it forms the most cohesive and fully realized project of the year. Every moment of this record feels intentional, meticulously crafted, and designed to fit accordingly into a larger entity. This is almost a living, breathing organism unto itself.

Lane Shi described how much of the inspiration for Dream Hacker came to her in a dream, or as she sees it, an "astral projection". Within this dream, she says she witnessed stones being thrown by a child until two of them overlapped, followed by a great light which emerged from the center of the overlap. The imagery was profound enough that she ended up naming most of the tracks after different aspects of what she saw in the dream.

The album starts with humble beginnings. "You Do/Rub" is a two-parter, opening with the haunting, softly swirling piano ballad melancholy of "You Do". The lyrics are deeply cutting and vulnerable, as the artist ponders her shaky relationship with her father as a daughter of the generation where China had implemented the one child policy, breeding stigma against female offspring in the more conservative rural communities. Lane Shi wields her voice like a delicate blade, gracefully and artfully interrogating her father's worldview. The progression of the piano's melody suggests a kind of resolution in ambiguity, resisting rigid, narrow-minded answers to multidimensional questions.

Then quite abruptly, "Rub" completely overtakes and drowns out the serenity of the softer piano song, like a sudden onset computer virus infection. What becomes of this part two is honestly one of the most immaculate timbral frequencies I've ever heard. A glitchy, droning wall of madness forms in dark, ominous, tempestuous clouds all across the sky. Warm colours are sucked out of existence by a black hole, leaving only greyish pale blues. The soul is washed with abrasion until all that's left is the ability to observe. Sound design on this is fucking unreal, as though Lane Shi Otayonii is wiping clean of our universe, leaving only a empty slate to form the basis for her own new sonic domain, wherein she is god of all things.

"Light Burst" is the combustion spark of a rebirth of all things that comes immediately after. Lane Shi let's out a shrill cry of tremendous power and agony amidst the grinding dust and debris of an incredibly dense and intricate industrial techno concoction, built upon her long standing love affair with minor second chord progressions. This track does not relent, adding more and more layers to its already colossal tower of babel proportions until, just as suddenly as it came into existence, it vanishes without a trace of detection.

"Two Rocks A Bird" oscillates like an electron creating new electromagnetic waves. Sound particles split into atoms that dance in a mindless frenzy. Even as a regular Arca fan, I don't think I was ready to comprehend something like this the first time I heard it. Subverted all of my expectations. I think the artist may have invented a few completely new sound textures on this track. A highly reactive new form of industrial music.

After deliberating with all of the sheer fucking brilliance to be found on this project, I eventually concluded that "Overlap" was my favourite off of the record. Like the best song on her last LP "Blackheart Breakables", this is an epic midpoint that just continues to build and build, feeding endlessly like a malignant being that cannot be stopped. Hand drum beat patterns are mutated, modulated, and mutilated by industrial electroacoustic mechanisms, while a synthesized flute echos a most forlorn and sinister melody.

Lane Shi takes on the shape of a skillful pyromancer, testing her newfound powers by conjuring a sea of flames that I visualize with my mind's eye as something similar to the Darvaza Gas Crater. Alternatively, I imagine thousand year old stains of bloodshed on the tombs of a ransacked temple, or the ancient terracotta soldiers of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum brought to life for the purpose of ushering a new war. "Overlap" is just something else, man. My other pick for song of the year.

"Ritualware" opens with a rare calm, dreams swirling on the outskirts of a newborn world that has not reached its zenith. The spacious void bursts to life with a single, literal drop (another brilliant production choice), creating ripples in space-time that give way to a trumpeting sawtooth synths' cacophonous symphony.

"Good Fool" brings things to a stirringly harmonious denouement. The light of the last candle is blown out, and a creeping dusk sets in. Petals of sound float along the wind and promptly dissipate, as everything reaches an uncanny stillness. A hushed, rapid-fire breakdown of bass drums, hand drums, and gongs occurs as the final closing act of the record.

I know I've already said this like a dozen times before about a dozen different artists, but it really needs to be said here - more people should know about Otay:onii. No one I've discovered has been doing anything as consistently exciting, challenging, and infectious as this project in the last few years. As it stands right now, the artist is criminally unknown and criminally underappreciated.

Dream Hacker is the rare ambitious record that dares to be so challenging and not only lives up to all of its potential, but manages to make the old formula of doing things look incredibly obsolete by comparison. Not many avant-garde music albums are this ridiculously fun to listen to, let alone manage to capture sonic worlds that are this truly sublime.

I've probably listened to this at least 40 times in the last year, and I plan on at least doubling that number in the following year. This is not just my album of the year; it is my top album of the 2020s as a decade so far, and already one of my favourites of all time. This record sets my soul ablaze and I simply can't get enough of it. Otay:onii is my new religion, and Dream Hacker is the scripture.

10/10

Highlights: "Overlap", "You Do/Rub", "Light Burst", "Two Rocks A Bird", "Ritualware", "Good Fool"

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #6

Red Moon In Venus - Kali Uchis

Main genres: Neo-Soul, Contemporary R&B, Psychedelic Soul

A decent sampling of: Synth Funk, Smooth Soul

Coming out as a Kali Uchis stan.

But for real, the Colombian American singer/songwriter seems to be the one artist that music hipsters, the English mainstream(ish), and the Hispanic mainstream can all collectively agree upon. Part of this is most definitely owed to Kali's versatility as an artist, with a primary basis of sound rooted in R&B (particularly neo-soul) but regularly dipping her toes into the waters of reggaetón, hip hop, bolero, and afrobeats.

Kali is also a definite lover of retro chic, given her clear appreciation for mid 20th century easy-listening pop and old Hollywood glamour. She cites artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Celia Cruz, and Curtis Mayfield as some of her biggest influences. At the same time, she modernizes these influences and aesthetics with a post-sexual revolution ethos of overpowering feminine-centred eroticism and fiercely wielded confidence and self-love.

Her voice is pleasant, mature, and strikingly womanly, in that same kind of way when you first discover as a child the sensation of being struck by the awe-inspiring beauty of a grown woman. Even as a gay man, I can confidently say that I think this is a sort of universal childhood experience, right?

Actually, I think a lot of Kali Uchis' success as an artist can be attributed to just how likable her musical persona is. I think that deep down, many of us want to be a Kali - completely liberated, in touch with our sensuality, and going through life as a warm and confident optimist. She makes music that isn't just well-written; it makes you feel good about life.

After making a big splash with her stellar 2018 LP Isolation and following it up with the success of 2020's Sin Miedo which was more invested in her Latin American roots and corresponding following, I was very curious to see where she would take things next with her career.

In the end, as it would turn out, Kali Uchis' 2023 record didn't really amount to anything that surprising. Instead, we were treated to a progression and evolution in her sound that feels very natural to her, culminating in an album that makes good on the typical promises of a Kali Uchis project.

That is to say, Red Moon In Venus exists in a rose-tinted world bedecked with lush palm trees and populated by curvaceous mermaids. The record is a creamy cocktail of smooth and funky soul jams with the sweet taste of cinnamon kisses and strawberry wine. A true musical oasis of the richest fruits.

Kali really is at the top of her game here. Everything is a subtle improvement on what already mostly worked for her on past projects, with a little more psychedelic flavour added into the mix, resulting in a final product that just sounds and feels really gorgeous and summery to listen to. Not all great music has to be challenging; this just does incredibly well at what it is already comfortable doing.

The record's first song proper is the lead single "I Wish You Roses", a beautiful parting gift to an ex-lover she holds no grudge towards. Petals flutter past the mind's eye as the world of this neo-soul paean springs to life with all the shades of a summer's rainbow. This song is a soft sigh of relief, heard quite vividly in the actual noticeable sighing melodies of those psychedelic keyboards in the chorus. A very classy song, expressing a sentiment not nearly heard often enough in most music about breakups.

"All Mine" is a lights off "wah-wah" slow jam describing a greedy lover's fantasy of having someone completely to themselves. The sound of the passionate id taking over the superego's domain.

Fans of the big city pop explosion that happened on the internet with the surge of Mariya Takeuchi's "Plastic Love" a few years ago may get a lot of mileage out of "Endlessly", a synth funk track that captures a similar kind of metropolitan utopianism. Kali really knows how to bring the kind of riding-passenger-in-a-red-convertible energy that a track like this one needs to really all come together.

"Moral Conscience", in mild contrast to "I Wish You Roses", is a cautionary tale of karma hunting down an ex-lover who hurt her. Even still, there's more of an air that she's simply warning the wrongful party here - it's not a threat, she's just stating a fact about how the world works (as she sees it anyway). Still keeping it classy. Musically, this is thick and fleecy, lounging languidly in a boudoir sofette with low humming synths.

"Deserve Me" is an elegant and drip-droppy hip hop soul duet with Summer Walker, who is now officially my new favourite random feature after previously popping up on last year's Kendrick Lamar record. Very killer refrain on this cut, almost as addictive as the track that follows it. Speaking of which...

"Moonlight" was quite possibly my SOTY for 2023. A lot can be said for how erotic round shapes are for basically all genders and sexual preferences, and I don't know how to explain this but the song simply sounds ROUND in every possible way. The funk bass is so bubbly and horny and sopping wet that it's probably illegal in many parts of the world. Kali is giving it her ALL on those verses. Absolutely luxurious production. The chorus has that subtle air of mystery that really ensnares the erotic imagination. I can't even remember the last time I heard a song that positively oozed sex like this, while also describing such a clearly healthy relationship. Is it possible to be getting drunk off of flowery bubble bath fumes? Because this is precisely what it would feel like. Interstellar spa getaway for two in the neon pink galaxy of Aphrodite. Perfect fucking song. A++ goddamn.

I could say a few words as to how this is a back-loaded record, but I think y'all have heard me call something front or back loaded at least a dozen times and I'm struggling to find original ways to express this sentiment. Either way, this is a milder case - more just that the second half is so consistently brilliant that it kinda blows the first half out of the water, particularly that early-mid section. The weakest moments here are the least imaginative ones.

But a very good chunk of this record is just pure gold. Red Moon In Venus is a vibrant and aesthetically immaculate R&B record, possibly the best of the new decade thus far.

As I publish this review, Kali has already dropped another album in the first few weeks of 2024 and it sounds almost as good as this one. I don't know how exactly she's doing it but she makes exploring a variety of genres and killing it at every one of them look so easy. Kali Uchis is the queen of her medium right now.

9/10

Highlights: "Moonlight", "I Wish You Roses", "Deserve Me (with Summer Walker)", "Moral Conscience", "All Mine", "Endlessly", "Not Too Late (Interlude)", "Love Between", "Happy Now"

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #2

Ooh Rap I Ya - George Clanton

Main genres: Baggy, Chillwave

A decent sampling of: Trip Hop, Dream Pop, Synth Pop, Vaporwave, Breakbeat

Okay okay so yeah I'm very late to the whole George Clanton thing. Look you guyz, vaporwave and its adjacent scenes have never really been my cup of tea due to the general over-saturation of super amateur "vibes" artists with no songwriting chops. The gratuitous Japanese has also always reeked of pretentiousness to me. But there's almost always at least one diamond in the rough.

And I know that Clanton is really more regarded as a chillwave artist, and I know that there's a meaningful distinction between these genres, especially since the term 'chillwave' is at least a year or two older. But I guess in my own mind I just kinda put him in with the former, so he wasn't particularly high on my list of things to check out.

That is, until I saw those peculiar genre tags on his latest record and the general praise it got on my favourite insufferable hipster website rateyourmusic.com (sue me bitch). Baggy and chillwave together? Now THAT was something I had to hear.

And it just so happened to turn out that his stuff blew me away completely. Even upon my first listen, this LP had basically already skyrocketed to the number 2 spot on my year end list and managed to hold on for the rest of the year.

Every note off of Ooh Rap I Ya is drenched in a multicoloured neon slush that tastes like pure fifth gen console nostalgia (yes that's the only thing I can recall about the 90s tyvm). A portal to a dimension floating in a solution of sheer serotonin, with groovy baggy rhythms and gooey, acid-y synths. Layers upon layers of unabashed awesomeness condensed into thirty eight minutes that feel like hours of non-stop raving that still somehow ends all too soon.

There's been way more than enough homages in the 21st century paying tribute to 80s synth pop and its related genres. I'm glad that someone out there finally decided that the early 90s British baggy scene and its related "Madchester" club culture deserved a work of similar celebratory fondness. Not that I'm honestly too well-versed in it myself, though hearing this certainly makes me feel like taking that genre deep dive next year.

But like all good throwback revivalism, this record doesn't just rehash the era that it's paying tribute to. There's a lot of contemporary production techniques and ideas being applied here, and it's all filtered through a very post-internet 2.0 chillwave online aesthetics lens. And while sonically it feels incredibly optimistic, the lyrics have definitely been injected with some of the generational existentialism of its time.

Moreover, this basically just kicks ass more than 98% of anything else released this year. The songwriting is tight, the riffs are infectious to no end, the sound design is simply godlike, and Clanton's trippy pretty boy vocal styling blends seamlessly into this genre. It's just some good fucking timeless music that happens to be heavily influenced by a very time-and-place sound.

"Justify Your Life" has a very particular vibe, as though it was written from that headspace you get when it's 2:00 am and you should be tired, but instead your mind is hyper awake and you're up just kinda reflecting on everything over the last six months. The whole thing rides on the wave of a breezy looped guitar feedback sample, taking little plunges into deep plasmatic psychedelics during the chorus. Very chill and daydreamy, but also a little agitated and melancholy.

The torrential, churning feel-good chaos of "Punching Down" is almost enough to make me feel sick. So sugary and whimsical, you'd be totally forgiven if you missed George's lyrics dissing on the subject of the song, who might just probably be himself. The combination of rubbery arcade synths and a blown out drum machine pattern absolutely buries this song in a totally orgasmic collage. Someone shook the soda can and let it spray all over the damn place. Makes my brain go all fuzzy.

"I Been Young" is a quarter life crisis anthem that's musically somewhere halfway between INXS and Chapterhouse. Very boy band meets neo-psychedelia. The lyrics are poignant in a way I think all of us are destined to feel at some point. But there's also a kind of bittersweet, triumphant silver lining at play here, as in "yeah, life is pretty fucked, but look how far you've come!". Clanton does the great big beautiful chorus thing in a way that I've heard very few artists really manage to pull off so cool and effortlessly. Those colossal piano chords are purely divine. No other song this year comes quite so close to the sentimental, end-credits energy that this song manages to emanate from its very core. Insanely potent, and plainly one of the greatest songs of the decade so far.

"You Hold The Key And I Found It" has me swimming downwards in slow motion. This is for the point of the night at the rave for when you're beyond blasted, and you're kind of just absorbing your surroundings, with every second being its own little eternity. More vaporwave than anything else off the record, but this is a brilliant example of the genre's potential when the songs have the right amount of pulse to them.

"Ooh Rap I Ya" glows like little flourescent fishies swimming in an aquarium. Little bit of a new jack swing meets trip hop vibe on the beat here which makes it extra comfy and danceable. Those "ooh rap I ya"s during the bridge that give the album its title are just so sexy and snappy; I believe I've caught myself singing it at random at least a dozen times in the last month alone.

The sluggish closer "For You, I Will" is insane. This. Song. Is. Massive. I can't get over how utterly consuming it sounds, like impenetrable walls being erected towards the sky that obscure the nature of reality. This one simply must be heard on headphones to get the full experience. George Clanton employed the help of Hatchie 💖 to do the backing vocals on this, which I personally thought was a really cute addition seeing as how her 2022 record Giving The World Away was basically the only other prominent LP of the last few years (or decades, more likely) to pay a lot of homage to the 90s baggy sound.

For as consistently brilliant as the album sounds to my ears, I do admit I have one gripe with this record that I just couldn't look past to give it a 10.

The gripe is that "F.U.M.L." to me is just a weaker, simpler take on "I Been Young". I guess the whole ultra-teenage upbeat pop punk "let's chant gleefully about being edgy and depressed" has never really been my thing either (Looking at you Wheatus, grrrrr), no matter how many layers of nostalgia or even irony you try to bury it under. Maybe an uncharitable take, it's still a pretty decent song and production-wise it's excellent, but I have basically no fondness for it when compared to anything else on the LP.

But anyhow, shut the fuck up already Bradley cuz this record is goddamn amazing. Ooh Rap I Ya has very quickly become one of my favourites of the decade - heavily grounded in the psychedelic baggy sounds it derives from, while managing to be so incredibly forward thinking in its maximalist production and songwriting. George Clanton just landed himself at the top of my list of artists to be on the look out for new releases in the next few coming years.

9/10

Highlights: "I Been Young", "Punching Down", "For You, I Will", "You Hold The Key And I Found It", "Ooh Rap I Ya", "Justify Your Life", "Everything I Want"

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #3

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You - Caroline Polachek

Main genres: Art Pop, Electronic

A decent sampling of: Downtempo, Alternative R&B, Dance Pop, UK Garage

Seizing the essence of life itself. The search for the meaning of everything. The sheer sense of adventure and danger that is going it alone for the first time.

Caroline Polachek has more artistic vision than just about any other pop artist out there right now. She takes a concept and runs marathons with it, working to achieve its platonic ideal.

This ethos is reflected in her intricate songs, laden with layers of meticulous, hyperreal production courtesy of her long-time co-producer Danny L. Harle, her commitment to weaving rich lyrical webs of different aesthetics, ideals, and mindsets that all fall into place like a great jigsaw puzzle, and her equally impressive, high-concept music videos that harkens back to the likes of other cinematically ambitious female artists such as Lady Gaga, Björk, and M.I.A.

Her voice has often been compared to the function of auto-tune itself, mostly thanks to how masterfully and seamlessly she modulates across complex melodies that jump notes seemingly almost at random, but actually follow an elaborated structure. Meanwhile, the timbral qualities of her voice are crystal clear and hyper-articulate, almost to the point of crossing the uncanny valley and into the supernatural.

So yeah, suffice to say, this was my #1 anticipated release of 2023. It certainly helped that she kept on teasing it, dropping the lead single all the way back in summer of 2021, and then another one in the first few weeks of 2022. It also obviously helped that her first album was simply one of the best art pop records in recent memory (eclipsed only in it's own release year by Twigs' Magdalene).

Polachek's solo pop debut Pang was a headfirst dive into painful love, and the act of relieving oneself from the shackles of self-doubt. The album played out like a series of short stories in a greater narrative storybook anthology, each song its own cerebral headspace, dissecting and sometimes psychoanalyzing the artist's own emotions. To put it concisely, my own interpretation was that of an album about learning to listen to what the self feels, needs, and wants.

This record then, broadly speaking, is about the restless pursuit of those wants.

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is like the flickering light from the torch's flame that illuminates the ancient wall glyphs inside of an old cave of ruins. It is the feeling of catching your breath, and quenching yourself with that vital taste of water after you’ve just ran a marathon. It’s a thrilling and euphoric experience from start to finish. Art pop with adrenaline and passion.

The prominent Alternative R&B elements that made her previous record more rhythmically complex and sonically contemplative take a bit of a step back on this project, peeking through every now and then on tracks like "Billions" and "Pretty In Possible".

But by and large, Polachek leans more towards sugary pop and dance-oriented songs with high art ambitions, with many tracks influenced by the hop-and-skip beats of the UK Garage EDM scene. There's also a fair bit of more atmospheric downtempo moments in similar fashion to tracks like "Go As A Dream" on Pang, but even they have a little more pulse on this record. A more extroverted sound altogether this time around.

There are also frequent references to Greek mythology, as well as a myriad of melodic motifs that are revisited and re-imagined between different tracks, like the opening melody of "Crude Drawing of An Angel" appearing in the second verse of "Butterfly Net", or the chorus of "Fly To You" being interpreted by a bag pipe solo in "Blood and Butter". Never underestimate Caroline Polachek's ability to tie an album's concepts together into a beautifully interwoven and interconnected symbiosis.

The album takes off with its central thesis, "Welcome To My Island", a declaration to defy all expectations and become desire itself. It opens with a single rapturous siren cry, soaring into the stratosphere and heralding the beginning of a new era. Suddenly, the song's aircraft comes to meet its landing strip. Bright, beady, bubbly little synths make pops and flares over the verses, before the unleashing of a total power chorus that showcases the very best of Polachek's ability to carry zephyrous long notes, meanwhile with her irresistibly cute and sassy "hey, hey ,hey, HEY!" chants forming the backing vocals. Every last ounce of her unapologetically bold artistic personality is lavishly painted over this ridiculously catchy and charming pop song.

"Sunset" pays homage to Spanish flamenco and appears to be taking some cheeky inspiration from the Gerudo Valley theme in Zelda: Ocarina of Time according to a TikTok that Polachek herself posted. This song tastes of the juiciest citrus fruits and the richest olive oil, pouring out of a marble chalice like a waterfall. An excellent demonstration of her artistic versatility.

"I Believe" immediately gets my heart racing with its crisp piano stabs and exhilarating 2-step shuffle. Makes me feel like some kind of JRPG mage, hopping through the air by casting levitation spells and gazing upon the cloudswept Earth below. Totally dreamy and life-affirming.

I find myself deeply immersed in the humid forests of "Blood and Butter". This downtempo track incorporates some very SNES era sound fonts, hand drums, kalimba, and acoustic guitars into a euphoric and ritualistic performance, with the atmosphere of swirling magic mists and even a left-field instrumental bridge featuring some very festive bagpipes. Simply impeccable sound design; listening to this one with headphones is like discovering a sixth sense I didn't know I had.

"Butterfly Net" is the sublime sunrise that turns the entire sky a goldenrod yellow. It's an auditory gateway to beautiful plains of crested wheatgrass, with psychedelic folk undertones and echoing vocals and digital landscapes that stretch off into the horizon for dozens of miles. One of her greatest songs yet, and one I couldn't get enough of for basically all of spring last year.

"Billions" would be my song of the year, had it not already been released in 2022. I cannot overstate, nor begin to describe with all due credit it deserves, just how fucking brilliant the production on this track is. If "Blood and Butter" was the sixth sense, then this is the seventh. Tantalizing, mystifying, erotic, bountiful, reaching towards enlightenment. Everything that must be and will be, maybe truth itself is contained somewhere hidden under the plentiful layers of beats and microbeats in this stunning art pop pedestal. Musically, it sounds ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, and post-modern all at once. Also - maybe the best incorporation of a children's choir in all of music history? What a bold move to put this as the album closer. If this is the page she chooses to close this chapter on, I can only imagine what magnificence is to come next.

I thought for sure this was going to be my AOTY when it was announced. The fact it didn't end up being so and landed at number 3 instead is just a testimony to how brutally stacked this year's competition was.

I could still nit-pick this quite a bit if I really wanted to. "Hopedrunk Everlasting" and "Bunny Is A Rider" are not only both easily weaker than any of the other material here, but both of them seem to disrupt the respective flow of their placements on this record. But barring that, this is damn close to a masterpiece.

Naturally, this has landed on loads of other 2023 year end lists besides my own, and its definitely not hard to see why. Caroline Polachek is a staunch perfectionist and over-achiever, and shows no signs of stopping any time soon, and Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is an uplifting work of creative genius that only she could have made.

9/10

Highlights: "Billions", "Butterfly Net", "Welcome To My Island", "Blood and Butter", "I Believe", "Sunset", "Pretty In Possible", "Crude Drawing of an Angel"