The Top EPs of 2023 Feat. Adult Leisure, Dazy, Good Strangers, Yellowcard, The Americans
It’s End of Year list time. A time for reflection on the year past, and for arbitrary ranking of things we liked from the last 365 days. And while most lists focus on full albums and songs (which we will of course do too), I feel that EPs, which have proliferated in the streaming era, should not be overlooked.
Below are The Indy Review’s Top EPs of 2023 (technically, Dec 2022 – Nov 2023, as we post in December). Hopefully you’ll give these wonderful short form collections a listen!
Adult Leisure – The Weekend Ritual
It’s releases like this that make me include the December releases from the year prior into our list. Released on Dec 2nd of 2022, upon first listen I knew it was an amazing debut (read my review here), but as I continued to listen to the songs into the new year, the power of them didn’t fade. Tracks like “Happiness” carry an emotional intensity that is hard to describe, and “Things You Don’t Know Yet” feels like a pure anthem for the confusion and naïveté of youth. Though the band released another excellent EP just last month, this one needed still sticks with me all this time later.
2. Dazy – Otherbody
Since discovering Dazy at the beginning of 2022, the project from James Goodson has continued to release excellent, sugary nuggets of music, and Otherbody is no exception. Coming in under twenty minutes with eight songs, he knows to never let a good song overstay its welcome. Tracks like “I Know Nothing At All” sound like they could be off a forgotten 70’s power-pop compilation, with its fuzzy bounce, and songs like “Submarine” provide a hazy sunshine to bask under. The whole EP goes down like warm, sweet syrup, but the sugar buzz never gets old.
3. Good Strangers – Adult Teenage Novels
As mentioned in my review last month, this new Irish folk rock band builds an expansive sound that still immerses you in the emotions at play in every song. Echoing groups from Frightened Rabbits to The Waterboys, the group can just as quickly rouse you with epic statements of purpose (see “The Garden”) as it can eviscerate you with vulnerable introspection (“Private Hell”). One of the best end of year discoveries.
4. Yellowcard – Childhood Eyes
I’m not sure anyone had a Yellowcard reunion on their bingo card for 2023 (heck, based on my interview with him last year, William Ryan Key didn’t either). But reunite they did, and not just to play shows – the group released their first new music in seven years, and by golly it holds up. While it could have used a bit more violin, songs like the fierce punk collaboration with Pierce the Veil “Three Minutes More” showed a fire still in the band’s guts, while the title track brings the group back to the kind of anthemic choruses that shot them into the mainstream twenty years ago. Great to have the group back in action.
5. The Americans – Strays
Since first seeing The Americans play in a small Irish pub in downtown Los Angeles decades ago, I’ve been keeping track of the group, and remained impressed by the progression of their roots-rock, Americana sound and storytelling abilities. On their latest EP, they showoff both their ability to write gritty, Springsteenian tales (“When You Get Back”) to grander, gospel-rock numbers like “Kingdom”. They still feel like a “best kept secret” type of band, but with the rising popularity of artists like Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan, it’s time these guys get the spotlight on them.
Honorable Mention:
Levi Turner – Allergy Season
The first signee to Zach Bryan‘s label shows off rootsy songwriting skills on his debut.
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You can find and listen to all of these EPs right here in our Top EPs of 2023 Playlist!