Flush It Friday: The Ghosts of List-mas Past Once More!
Spooky scary.
Over the last couple years, I’ve taken up the mantle of collating our List ov Lists while also doing what no one has ever thought to do before—reflect on previous Top Ten lists and see how they’ve held up over the year. It’s groundbreaking, unprecedented, and is definitely not something that any or even many other music websites do. It’s crazy how much of my own genius I save just for Toilet ov Hell. You’re welcome. Today, before we get to Flushin’, we’ll take a brief look at my Top Ten ov 2023 to see if the selections have stayed in rotation or if I made any impossible errors of judgment or just to confirm my spotless record as a taste maker and a booty shaker.
Before I even get to the records themselves, I do have to issue at least one apology: I am sorry, sincerely, for how very maudlin I was. Admittedly, I had earned my nauseating bit of mawkishness by year’s end, as 2023 was an emotionally taxing year in ways that somehow outdid 2022. And it’s all over my list. Everything is so dramatic, and when it’s not overly dramatic, it’s so insistent on thing being “fun,” as if calling something “fun” over and over and over again actually makes it so. What a drippy mess. (One final preambling note: I don’t know, if quizzed, if I could have correctly identified, today, more than three of the albums I included.)
Hircine – Old Kings Fall: Incredible first pick. As I noted last year, this album, released originally in 2022 and then given the Fiadh treatment, brought me fully into the world of dungeon/comfy synth. I was able to, belatedly, get a copy of the 2nd edition purple-shelled cassette. It is a magical object and album, one whose autumnal and arboreal spirits still infuse me with a lovely sense of calm and respite!
Wormhole – Almost Human: Oops! I forgot to keep listening to this. I stand by it, though I never did order that Tech Slam muscle tee. Revisiting it for this post, it’s still just as rad, possessing an odd sense of organicism that provides a warmth to the Tech Slam of it all. Plus, I mean, “Spine Shatter High-Velocity Impact” still fucking rips.
boygenius – the record: There is nothing wrong, inherently, with including boygenius’ excellent first full-length. I have loved Julien Baker ever since I heard Sprained Ankle, something I bring up not infrequently, and I really do think the record is chock full of great songs. But I 100% included this in my Top Ten because I introduced my Ex to Julien Baker and boygenius and yadda yadda yadda. It’s not boygenius’ fault. “Consider this a love letter to someone who doesn’t deserve receiving one from me,” I wrote last year. Good god. Who let me get away with that? [Ope! But you can have a little emotion, as a treat ~Roldy]
Fiddlehead – Death is Nothing to Us: Another pick from the heart and very much of the moment. “Going to Die” still retains all its uplifting catchiness, and the record is another fun one from Pat Flynn and Co., but it never really scaled the heights of previous efforts. I’ve still never seen this band live, which I find irksome. One day. I hope it’s with my homie, Matthew.
Serpent of Old – Ensemble Under the Dark Sun: This is a badass pick, because this is a badass album, but I did not spend very much—if any—time with it in 2024. I did, however, wear my Serpent of Old tank top a lot. It fits perfectly and caresses me down in a silky smooth sorta way. It’s become my go-to tanktop. It even had this weird dead bird on the back that is such an entirely different art style than the album art that I almost wonder if it was a printing error, but I guess it wasn’t. It’s also my bottom layer when it’s chilly outside. I do think, though, that this was a triumph of an album. Dense as hell but approachable.
From Overseas and zaké – Demain dès l’aube: One of those albums I emphatically do not remember including, though I did leave a paper trail. I hung around for a bandcamp listening party for Demain and was struck particularly by “Across Mountains” and decided I could not forgo including it. It’s a truly beautiful record! Maybe this is the jolt I needed to spend some time with it as I start working in the New Year. But still: maybe not necessarily a Top Ten pick.
Morgengrau – Sehnen der Finsternis: Ha! This was a big surprise. It’s not that I forgot that I included this record; I forgot it existed. Roldy was really into it, as I note in my blurb, and I found it to be quite the black metal earworm. I would love someone with the chops to write a full review of this record to actually do so, because I do think it’s great. What I really appreciate, though, is the impact I have on the metal-listening world: ever since I bought the record (one person after Roldy) and included it in my Top Ten, three entire people have also purchased on bandcamp. Now that’s what I call influence. (This album rules, y’all.)
Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg for Death: 2023 was certainly The Year of the Fetus for me. I was knee-deep in their discography for a lot of the year and even saw them at Hell in the Harbor in Baltimore that summer. Kinda like with Wormhole’s Almost Human, this whole record is slamming fun the whole damn time. Maybe not rising to the heights of the most classic DF material, but I don’t think it’s far off. Turn your hats backwards and scramble your brains all over again.
Larry June & The Alchemist – The Great Escape: I didn’t listen to a single record in 2023 more than I listened to The Great Escape, which might be the pinnacle of Alchemist’s later era and maybe of Larry June’s entire career. There’s a blissfulness and effortlessness to this record that is undeniably infectious. It’s cool, calm, collected. Its subtle hustle is smooth as mother’s butter. “Grab an o-long tea then jump in this thang.” I’m getting goosebumps all over again!
Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant for Us: Some things are easy and obvious and hold up forever. I still listen to this record. I still freak out over it. I’m still mad their logo is so bad and that their merch follows suit. This really was a list-topping type album. Fuckin’ nailed it.
What a journey. Let’s Flush.
Stick didn’t have to, but he dropped a ten-song Monday Press. A couple heaters and more than few stinkers. Roldy goofed it but he’s typing this part and promises a double-wide TTT next week!
365‘s annual Worst Album Art ov 2024 did not disappoint. 365 really flexed his chops, too. This is a post you can return to over and over again.
Somebody let Brerlapn write a Year End List, and I couldn’t be more upset. But that Devenial Verdict though…
Brock can’t be stopped. Wild stuff from Misanthropy, Owl, and Choir.
Toilet Radio 536 with Joe ‘n Jordan asks the difficult question: What if Punk Rock MBA was always whack?
The holidays are fading into the background. I simply cannot stand Notre Dame. Some of us are back at work. Some of us never got much of a break. Some of us are clinging on to the last few days of sweet, sweet freedom. Clinging a little too hard, maybe. 2025 is gonna be a thing, but we’ll be here, for whatever that’s worth! Drop your GBUs in the comments and tell us all about your stuff.
