After autumn’s customary extended flirtation with her handsome, seductive friend the Indian summer, her last leaves are falling in a melancholy dance, revealing the imminent decline of the back end of the season. The shadows are stretching now, the skies are dressing themselves in a deepening gloom, and the dreaded reign of winter is starting to look inevitable.
To arm ourselves against the cold and come out of this frozen chaos triumphant, we’re offering our usual digest of the indie releases of the moment: 20 tracks that will, we hope, keep you warm through this polar era.
Surprise and admiration are the watchwords for this season’s releases, with the return of artists who, for all the years and the experience, keep proving they have lost none of their fire or their creative genius: the long-awaited comeback of the immortal Rolling Stones, an unexpected meeting of the worlds of the living and the dead on a new Beatles single, and the announcement of a new album from Camden’s enfants terribles, The Libertines.
It’s also with a nostalgic and still deeply devoted eye that we hand this season’s spotlight to our friends in The Kills. The brilliant duo of Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince show us once again that the Anglo-American brotherhood is alive and well, offering a sixth album, God Games, that is wiser, more controlled and more sincere than ever.
On our end, we send you our sincerest and warmest wishes for the new year just beginning — one that we hope will be every bit as rich in musical discovery and sonic adventure as 2023.
