The One Deserving Band on Those Cursed Year-End Lists

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Every December, we are inundated with critics' favorite songs and albums, exhaustive year-end lists contrived to include every genre and internet micro-trend, often full of songs and artists no one but music journalists listen to. Viral sensations are placed alongside megawatt popstars and bonafide legends as the listmakers strive to appear well-rounded.

This mishmash has never made much sense to me, but admittedly, I read them all so that I can get mad at the rankings. I choose to click on these lists, but thanks to Spotify and its cursed “Wrapped” program, we are all forced to see what seemingly every person we follow on Instagram listened to this year. People share their individually generated lists for different reasons: some to show off their good taste (a mix of cool indie hits, danceable Top 40 smashes, gay anthems, and one rapper), others to celebrate their bad taste (make it cute and ironic), and some—my personal favorite—to demonstrate that they only listen to Bach and other classical composers. From a marketing perspective, Wrapped is, of course, genius. The mass platform provides its user with a cute infographic that advertises how much the person listened to Caroline Polachek, and, more importantly, allows them to broadcast I am kinda weird but cool and a little bit hot.

I use Apple Music, but I don’t need their Wrapped knockoff to know I have listened to Lucky For You by Bully, the band led by Nashville-based musician Alicia Bognanno, non-stop since it came out in June. I haven't found music this versatile in a long time. It’s the perfect 32-minute soundtrack for driving, strolling down Lafayette Street, and even working out. It sounds like Hole, The Breeders, and The Pixies put together, a combination I didn’t know I needed; it’s fat-free and hits the mark every time I put it on. In a world plagued with “vibes,” Lucky For You is aggressive, upfront, and deliberate. I don’t even care that the best lyrics are about the death of Bognanno’s beloved dog, Mezzi (I dislike dogs). It had texture, something most popular music is lacking these days.

No matter what the people sharing Spotify infographics may think, listening to Caroline Polachek (or Bach, or Pitchfork’s highest-ranked noise rapper) isn’t a personality. One of the great things about Bully is that the many minutes I spent listening to the band this year don’t say anything about me, other than the fact that I like modern takes on 1990s alternative rock (and great singing: Bognanno’s voice is pleasingly jagged, an instrument all its own). I was vaguely familiar with the band before this album, their fourth. I had read somewhere that Bognanno studied with revered producer, engineer, and sometimes blowhard Steve Albini, who had worked with Pixies, PJ Harvey, and Nirvana, and I had probably heard a song or two over the years. But Lucky For You came along and floored me. That’s what used to happen, before stans and performative streaming hijacked music culture: A band or artist you weren’t invested in might suddenly drop your favorite song or album of the year.

Lucky For You did in fact make several 2023 best-ofs Wrapped lists that I saw, which reassures me that well-crafted guitar music can still resonate with people. Ableton nerds and other computer jockeys have yet to replace bands. I believe the pendulum is swinging back to guitars, and Bully is at the leading edge.

Originally Appeared on GQ