The new year is fast approaching, along with a lot of great music from Nashvillians to look forward to. But before we get there, Scene writers have eight more recommendations for releases from 2023. Find them at your favorite local record store, add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up via the artists’ websites (or their merch tables). The fate of much-loved sales-and-streaming platform Bandcamp — which changed hands for the second time in the fall — remains uncertain. At press time, there was no news as to whether the Bandcamp Friday promotion, during which the company waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period, will return. But many of our picks are available directly from artists via Bandcamp as well.
Ashley McBryde, The Devil I Know (Warner Music Nashville)
Ashley McBryde’s fourth record The Devil I Know leans unabashedly into Nashville nostalgia. After her 2022 critical darling Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville and winning her first Grammy this year for a duet with Carly Pearce, McBryde delivers her signature gritty and rock-inflected sound on her latest LP. On “Cool Little Bars,” she sings about watering holes with cigarette machines where they play “songs you don’t hear much anymore,” and she prays that “time just forgets to turn places like this into drive-thrus and condos.” McBryde’s been making music in Nashville for more than 15 years and inevitably has seen a lot of change to the city — and her industry. JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT
Find The Devil I Know at your favorite record store or on your favorite streaming service via this handy link, and follow McBryde on Instagram for updates.
Brian Brown and Carmine Prophets, BBGonProfit (It’sYoWorld)
Musicians have been singing about money for a long time, reflecting on the things it can offer you, the things it can take away from you, the ways having it — or not — can mess with your perspective. Over sophisticated beats by Carmine Prophets, top-notch rapper Brian Brown cannily considers a bunch of these angles. He kicks off by looking at the way his hometown of Music City hasn’t done the best job of managing the influx of dollars during the past decade’s “it city” boom, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s an excellent way for Brown to bookend the year, which he began with his kickass Two Minute Drill EP. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Eardrummer, Eardrummer (self-released)
On their self-titled debut album as Eardrummer, two powerhouses of the local DIY electronic music scene, Adrienne Franke and Eve Maret, build layered, palatial sonic worlds through seven synth-driven songs. In line with their titles, multiple kaleidoscopic compositions reflect the creativity artists glean from both science fact (“Hibiscus,” “The Bee,” “Helium Zone”) and science-fiction (“Space Freeway,” “Planet Orange’’). The two tracks not fitting neatly in those boxes reign as the duo’s most compelling. “Ultra” is an electro-pop stunner that’s ready-made for a slew of remixes, while the Vangelis-inspired closing track “Ode” sounds like it’s truly from another world (perhaps even Planet Orange) courtesy of flute accompaniment by Proteins of Magic. ADDIE MOORE
Vera Bloom, It’s Me (Monte Carlo Sounds)
Vera Bloom’s It’s Me radiates West Coast vibes throughout the Nashville-by-way-of-Washington-state singer’s six-song EP. Although Bloom keeps everything lean, with grunge-y guitars and Pavement-style structures, It’s Me sounds almost lush at times — Bloom isn’t a doctrinaire post-’90s rocker. It’s Me pairs Bloom’s classic-rock vocal style with great guitar licks drawn from the recent history of a group of rock genres she understands very well, and she knows how to build a standard rock arrangement into something both grand and human-scale. Her approach is most effective on “Serenity,” which sports a fine guitar solo and achieves an equilibrium the song’s title alludes to. EDD HURT
Boys Club for Girls, Boys Club for Girls (Brooklyn Basement)
Come for the distinctive harmonies, stay for the power-pop hooks. Amie Miriello and Vanessa Olivarez take inspiration from the Laurel Canyon songs of the ’70s — but strive to open up the “boys’ club” notorious at that time to everyone. The duo’s self-titled debut pursues that mission on all levels. “Tell Me I’m the Only One,” the album’s opener, is on its surface a song about interrogating a lover as things fall apart. But there’s also a sense of empowerment here: Women don’t need to put up with anything less than the best from the people around them. Miriello and Olivarez’s power turns into something delicate and honest on the moving song “Closest,” and the high-spirited “5 O’Clock Shadow” showcases the duo’s ability to hammer out a groove and run with it. Boys Club for Girls is the start of something magical, so you should get in on the ground floor. RACHEL CHOLST
Find Boys Club for Girls on your favorite streaming service, and follow the group on Instagram for updates.
Various Artists, Trip to Tennessee (Weedian)
Heavier than that 11-29 you caught after graduation, danker than that D9 you bought at the gas station, Weedian: Trip to Tennessee follows the smoke toward the riff-filled land of, uh, here. Curated by the beloved meme page, the compilation contains 49 (!) tracks of bong-rippin’ eardrum destruction from across the Volunteer State’s heavy-music underbelly. With local luminaries like Friendship Commanders, Flummox, Electric Python and Black Moon Mother and a list of out-of-towners that reads like a flyer for all the gnarly shows you saw this year, A Trip to Tennessee posits that our homegrown strains are some of the headiest anywhere. SEAN L. MALONEY
Rainsticks, Here Come the Warm Jets (Oreo Bottle)
While I would definitely like to hear Rainsticks do a track-for-track tribute to Brian Eno’s lauded 1974 solo debut, I’ll have to wait. However, this November LP of originals from songsmith and multi-instrumentalist Asher Horton — featuring his longtime drummer cohort Ben Parks and vocal contributions from Emily Hall — is no consolation prize. Released the day after Thanksgiving, it’s a wistful, thoughtful collection that blends jingle-jangle psych and power pop (and, yes, the occasional Eno-phonic treatment). Horton’s appreciation for the fleeting joys of life and the challenges that contemporary society poses to living in the moment come rippling out of reverberant spaces like memories you thought you’d lost. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Bill Lloyd, Look Into It (Whole-In-One)
Nashville power-pop legend Bill Lloyd masterfully integrates some of his rootsier inclinations into his pop-rock sound on this impressive new 14-song collection. Lloyd plays all the instruments on five of the tracks and is accompanied on the others by some top players, including bassists Garry Tallent and Doug Kahan, guitarist Pat Buchanan, multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke, pedal-steel guitarist Pete Finney, and drummers Martin Lynds and Jonathan Bright. Bright also handled the bulk of the engineering and mixing on the record. Songs like “The After-Party Party” remind us Lloyd is a colorful and intelligent lyricist with a wry sense of humor. While his solo records never disappoint, Look Into It shows Lloyd is continuing to grow as an artist. DARYL SANDERS
Find Look Into It at your favorite record store, on your favorite streaming service or via Lloyd's website.
