10 Debuts of Note: 2023
Debuts of Note’s eighth annual look at our 10 favorite debut albums
Black Classical Music
by Yussef Dayes
Sounds Like: Kaz Rodriguez, Larnell Lewis, Kamasi Washington
Favorite Tracks: “Rust”, “Turquoise Galaxy”, “Jukebox”
Homebase: London, UK
Listen to Black Classical Music: Spotify / Apple / Pandora / Bandcamp
Blondshell
by Blondshell
Sounds Like: Rose Droll, Margaret Glaspy, Phoebe Bridgers
Favorite Tracks: “Veronica Mars”, “Sober Together”, “Joiner”
Homebase: Los Angeles, CA
Madres
Sounds Like: Rosalía, Kelly Lee Owens, Jockstrap
Favorite Tracks: “Si Te Portas Bonito”, “Habla Con Ella”, “Cecilia”
Homebase: Berlin, Germany via Lima, Peru
KAYTRAMINÉ
by KAYTRAMINÉ
Sounds Like: Kaytranada + Aminé
Favorite Tracks: “Who He Iz”, “letstalkaboutit”, “4EVA”, “Rebuke”
Homebase(s): Malibu, CA via Portland, OR & Toronto, Canada
Infinite Spring
by Superviolet
Sounds Like: Dashboard Confessional, Something Corporate, Pinegrove
Favorite Tracks: “Big Songbirds Don’t Cry”, “Overrater”, “Infinite Spring”, “Wave Back”
Homebase: Columbus, OH
Listen to Infinite Spring: Spotify / Apple / Pandora / Bandcamp
Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?
by Kara Jackson
Sounds Like: Vagabon, Indigo De Souza, Cassandra Jenkins
Favorite Tracks: “no fun/party”, “pawnshop”, “lily”, “liquor”
Homebase(s): Chicago, IL
Listen to Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?: Spotify / Apple / Pandora / Bandcamp
Dry Peel Crack
by Beryl
Sounds Like: Daughter, Andy Shauf, Julia Jacklin
Favorite Tracks: “Bad Joke”, “Paint the walls”, “Chalk”, “All Things”
Homebase: Sydney, Australia
Perhaps the name Beryl is an odd one for a band. It’s better than Brian, however, which was Beryl’s first actual name. In fact they still have a solid track (“Odds”) up on their Bandcamp under that awful moniker. When Gabriela King and Alex Jasprizza soon realized the error of their nightmare SEO ways, the duo determined they’d be Beryl. They both liked the word and it was also the name of Gabriela’s ‘head chicken.’ So! “It’s, like, not a very serious story for what I guess kinda seems like serious-ish music,” Gabriela admits, “But yeah.”
A peek behind the curtain is relatively earned this year: Debuts of Note is not about finding the “best” debut album of any given year. “Best” is a tired idea, one too subjective for an artform so malleable. Instead, Debuts of Note takes into account factors that relate to audience size, international scope and independent status. If you’re an underdog artist who has been putting in the hard labor to create a unique, undeniable oeuvre? Your album has just as much (if not better) a shot at shooting to the top spot as any given year’s other debuts.
Beryl fits some of those parameters to a ‘T’, but we didn’t know they existed until about a month ago when their debut dropped. By mid-November, Debuts of Note is hard at work building out preliminary lists of our favorite debuts from that year. For a while, Beryl was nothing more than a quick listen to make sure we had given it a fair shake and could check it off the list. But the sharp lyrics, quick pivots and inventive orchestration were difficult to disregard.
So we returned to Dry Peel Crack — over and over and over — finding something previously missed every listen, rewarding obsession with new kernels each time the vinyl flipped over. And at the end of each indulgence, despite the at-times mawkish sentiments crooned throughout, the debut earned a higher reputation in its standing. It’s not just that Dry Peel Crack is a solid debut, it’s a solid album: full stop. Were this to be any band’s second, fifth, eleventh album — it would still be a masterpiece. But the fact that Beryl’s first LP shows such ingenuity, confidence and restraint means it will be heralded as a cult classic years from now.
And that’s why Dry Peel Crack is 2023’s Debut of Note.
Gabriela (co-writer, vocalist, drummer and guitarist) began working alongside Alex (co-writer, guitarist, bassist, pianist and all-around woodwind renaissance fella) sometime in 2019. The duo originally met at university and had already been a part of Sydney’s music scene for a time. “We kinda just got together and showed each other a couple of songs we’d been working on individually,” says Alex, “and then things kinda rolled from there.”
Alex and Gabriela definitely have separate processes; Alex works slower and methodically, Gabriela more quickly and freeform. They found that each of their own idiosyncratic approaches to songwriting — both of which, they admit, tend to focus on elements of “sadness” — gelled with the other, leading to early singles “Time around”, “Wash” and “Bite the hand”. “It’s interesting,” says Gabriela, “for me at least, ‘Bite the hand’ was the first song where I felt like we had kinda tapped into something that I was into.”
Shifting between simple singer-songwriter alt folk (Gabriela’s expertise) to light chamber pop (Alex’s specialty), the duo quickly established a give-and-take to their collaborative efforts. Each lyricists, Gabriela even coyly sings some of Alex’s words — a tinge of stolen valor which Alex doesn’t seem to mind. Gabriela’s impressive vocals always break through the instrumentation, demanding full attention but without overwhelming the gorgeous mixes laden beneath — that is, until those gorgeous mixes occasionally crash and collide in their own otherworldly fashion.
By the time their debut EP Keeping score released last year, it was clear Alex and Gabriela had found a particular niche. Sure there were elements of this band and/or that band, but as much as first EPs can be a statement, Keeping score quietly cornered a market, so to speak. The recording process was “a real bender” according to Gabriela. The duo, along with their producer Blain Cunneen, only ended up with 3 or so days in studio amidst Australia’s more stringent lockdown — six months after they were supposed to record! It ended up being serendipitous, however, as Alex took the time to “arrange a string quartet thing (for the EP),” adds Gabriela.
At its core, Beryl’s debut Dry Peel Crack resonates as a piece reconciling those delicate, minor moments with important people — whether they be partners, friends, family or complete strangers — throughout time and space, both past and present. Less string-laden and slightly more raucous than previous efforts, somehow Beryl manage to evolve their sound in under a year from EP to LP, further entrenching their subgenre of specific indie alt folk as one which is all of their own design.
Whether it be the unsettling, carnival ride-esque mid-section of “Dolphins”, the ominous post-chorus of “Child’s play”, or the foreboding squawks leading to the divergent outro of “Table manners,” Alex’s instrumental flourishes sparkle throughout while the compositions (purposefully) rarely outshine Beryl’s other ace in its hole — Gabriela’s yearning, matter-of-fact lyrics and voice:
“Time’s a trick and I’m still rolling up my sleeves”
“Cause it feels better tucked in me and my dread”
“Some things are harder to unsee / Glitter on your eyelids, fistfuls of deceit”
A common theme, the idea of time and aging seem seeped into every pore of this debut. Many songs appear to be from the POV of younger versions of Alex and Gabriela. The inability to truly differentiate which member of Beryl has written which lyrics adds to the discombobulation of the album’s narrative, escorting the listener along with a brilliant tracklisting that fluctuates between soft, supple ballads and harsh, discordant rock.
By the time the album’s closing out, two of the most spectacular examples of what Beryl does best arrive back-to-back. The effortlessly enchanting “Chalk,” Dry Peel Crack’s penultimate track, uses all that Beryl has at its disposal to tell a tale of young love, futures that could’ve been, lives never lived. Beginning solely with Alex’s acoustic guitar complimenting Gabriela’s swooning, as the narrative unfurls so does the accompaniment: Piano, oboe, clarinet, other woodwinds — they all arrive just in the nick of time, building a rich bed of instrumentation which delicately glides the song to its forlorn conclusion.
Subsequently, the album closes with more spirited (by Beryl’s standards), pop-oriented track “All Things” which suggests that perhaps its better to leave the past to the past. Its chorus — a repeated refrain of “All things can break down / sometimes we let them break” — initially plays with a mixture of piano, bass, acoustic guitar and muted sax before abruptly providing more woodwinds, an electric guitar and drums to the track, which peps things up. The uplifting music appears to influence our protagonist, who ponders fondly over past memories, but determines that it’s alright to keep exploring—to move on — which also means it’s okay to keep failing.
Even if that’s the case, and “all things can break down,” let’s hope that Beryl’s continued experimentation in the world of orchestral folk rock isn’t something Alex and Gabriela ever let break.
Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order):
Barry Can’t Swim / When Will We Land
Bory / Who’s A Good Boy
Chappell Roan / The Rise And Fall of A Midwest Princess
Chartreuse / Morning Ritual
Durand Jones / Wait Til I Get Over
FIZZ / The Secret To Life
Grrrl Gang / Spunky!
Hak Baker / Worlds End FM
Khamari / A Brief Nirvana
Maeta / When I Hear Your Name
RAYE / My 21st Century Blues
Shalom / Sublimation
SIPHO. / PRAYERS & PARANOIA
Tapioca / Samba em Kigali
wave to earth / 0.1 flaws and all.
