Best of 2023 | Best albums | Best songs | Irish albums | Best Of Podcasts | Guest lists |
Caoi De Barra is a singer-songwriter and drummer based in Berlin known as one third of Wyvern Lingo. While the band is on a break, De Barra has been releasing solo material, touring Ireland on a scooter, playing shows with Allison Russell and Wallis Bird.
Follow Caoi on Insta.
Dijon
Coogie
Dijon is a delightful mix of Bon Iver and Frank Ocean, but totally has his own thing going on. This slow and soulful single almost sounds like ideas, or like the original demo was good enough and grew legs in the studio. It’s refreshingly loose, palpably cathartic, and I don’t know what it is about that abrupt little hook (still have no idea what he’s saying), but I’m completely addicted to it.
Anna B Savage
Pavlov’s Dog
After discovering Anna B Savage this year, I absolutely rinsed her album in:Flux. The production is so interesting, lots of acoustic guitar, close vocals, live drums and deep electronic beats, not unlike In Rainbows by Radiohead (another thoroughly rinsed album for me this year). Anna’s got this quivering quality voice, reminiscent of Ahnoni and The Johnsons, and her lyrics are a mix of conversational and poetic.
Rachael Lavelle
Travel Size
Rachael Lavelle is lucky they don’t trial witches any more because her album Big Dreams is pure witchcraft on a bed of dreamy synths and vocal stacks. Mystical and reverent, but, also gas at times??? She switches so seamlessly between the most smooth and ethereal vocal performance, to super serenely delivered bits of speech? It just works. It is magic. She is a witch.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
The Garden
I pick a new favourite from this album every time I listen to it. This is the album opener of V, UMO’s first studio album (other than instrumental releases) since 2018’s Sex and Food. Crunchy, lofi, colourful, delicious guitar tone with rnb style vocal melodies. Perfect in my headphones while I’m cycling around Berlin.
Hozier
All Things End
The album Unreal/Unearth is a superb body of work. ‘All Things End’ in particular has been repeated a lot in my headphones on long journeys, each comforting R&B soul section more delicious than the last.
I feel like if this song were placed at just the right moment in a good romcom, people would be bawling their eyes out in the cinema.
Allison Russell
Rag Child
The multi Grammy-nominated legend that is Allison Russell released her second album The Returner this year. The whole album is a triumph, but this song is a stand out for me. It does such a gorgeous job of illustrating a kind of blossoming from darkness to light, a ‘survivor’s joy’ as Allison says herself. I’ve had the pleasure of joining her band this year on drums, touring Europe and the UK, and next year we’re set to tour extensively around the US and Canada. This song is a big show finisher, with stomping, clapping, chanting and harmonies, it’s a total pleasure to perform live.
Young Fathers
Sink or Swim
I’m late to Young Fathers, this track is an example the Spotify algorithm was getting it right! The whole album Heavy Heavy is so energetic and uplifting, I could have chosen ‘Rice’ or ‘Be Your Lady’, but this intro was the first thing that caught my ear, so it’s got a special place in my small heart.
Shiv
Late Now
Driving break beat drums and rumbling bass line, this absolute banger feels like it could sit easily on a Sault album, or even early Sugababes. Shiv’s vocal delivery is gorgeously laid back, with a soothing rich vibrato reminiscent of Lianne La Havas or Charlotte Day Wilson. So good.
Yaeji
For Granted
A total bop, like if Alice Longyu Gao and Grimes had a baby. Starts off like sparse hyper pop, and then grows into a full drum and bass track. Class!
The Line
Fruit Peel Path (ft Caoi de Barra)
This is pure cheeky of me, but also a chance to celebrate my buddy Brian Dillon’s (The Line) excellent album Red Blood Cells and Righteousness! As with all of the other tracks on the album, this song was written and recorded in a day, which means I find it easier to enjoy with fresh ears. It was nice to write a song about my nephew, and it’s a lovely time capsule for a weekend spent in West Cork, where Brian lived at the time.
See all Guestlist of 2023 choices
Best of 2023 | Best albums | Best songs | Irish albums | Best Of Podcasts | Guest lists |
