Stereogum's Best EPs of 2023

In 2022, “Cbat,” an 11-year-old song by Hudson Mohawke, went viral due to the pure comedy of imagining it on a sex playlist. Such an honor might as well be a Grammy nod for the Scottish producer, whose maximalist electronics have always been served with a side of absurdist humor. On *Set the Roof*, he’s joined by the Atlanta-based producer Nikki Nair for a six-track speedrun of house euphorics sprinkled with a dash of breakbeats and a hint of Crazy Frog energy. (For those seeking something even weirder than “Cbat” to sabotage date nights worldwide, there’s “More Recently,” which sounds like two bulldozers trying to make a baby.)

Ice Spice’s “Munch (Feelin’ U),” the Bronx-born MC’s biggest hit to date and the song that has soundtracked an unknowable number of after-school hangs, almost wasn’t. “The song was really a throwaway for me,” Spice told Apple Music’s Ebro. “I made it, and I was like, ‘All right, let me put that away.’ And the people I was playing it for—I played it for a bunch of people, and \[they\] was just like, ‘Oh. OK, cool.’” But the song was not to be denied. By the time “Munch (Feelin’ U)” hit streaming platforms in August 2022, Ice had accumulated a legion of local fans eagerly awaiting its release, having heard a snippet she’d uploaded to socials earlier that summer. Once the phrase “You thought I was feelin’ you?” made it to TikTok, the rest was history. Or as Spice herself puts it on January’s *Like..?* EP, “In the hood, I’m like Princess Diana.” Twenty-three-year-old Ice Spice was born Isis Gaston and got an early start at rapping. “I had little raps and shit since I was a kid,” she says. “I never made full songs, though.” She began recording properly in 2021, with things really revving up after meeting producer and frequent collaborator RIOTUSA while in college at SUNY Purchase. Though her popularity rose fast, her first and likely most important fan was her father, an MC in his own right who, Spice says, used to run with DJ Doo Wop in the early 2000s. “In the crib or on the way to school and everything, he would be on some, ‘Let me hear something’ and always trying to film me, pushing me to do something,” she says. “Or if I would tell him about girls that I didn’t really fuck with in school, he would be like, ‘Write a rap about them.’” He likely couldn’t be prouder of his little star upon the release of *Like..?*, a six-track EP that was, at its arrival, already 50 percent hits. “Munch (Feelin’ U)” is, of course, here, as are the instantly viral “Bikini Bottom” and “In Ha Mood.” Add to those the NYC drill-expressive “Princess Diana,” the P. Diddy “I Need a Girl, Pt. 2”-sampling “Gangsta Boo,” and the Jersey club-indebted “Actin a Smoochie,” and you’ve got a picture of a young talent who is just getting warmed up. “Those are six songs that I already made,” Spice says of *Like..?*. “Fans going to eat that up. And then there’s always time to evolve and grow as an artist. So, I’m not rushing to jump into another sound or rushing to do some different shit. If it happens, it happens. I just want everything to be natural.”

Like…? is Bronx, New York newcomer Ice Spice’s debut EP. Following up the success of “Munch (Feelin' U)” and “Bikini Bottom,” on November 16, 2022, during an interview with RapCaviar, Ice Spice announced that she was working on an EP, stating: I’m excited for this new music. I’m about to put out an EP. It’s about to be like six songs. ‘Bikini Bottom’ is on there, and then there’s some that people haven’t heard. It’s about to be a vibe. Visuals coming with it, too. Yeah, a bunch of content around it. It’s lit. On December 25, 2022, Ice Spice released the EP’s third single, “In Ha Mood.” Although no other information about the EP was announced, the day before it’s release, Ice Spice took to social media revealing the cover art and tracklist. Lil Tjay serves as the sole feature.

In 2022, NewJeans dropped into the saturated K-pop industry with zero pre-promotion. The music video for “Attention” combined breezy R&B-inspired pop, immaculate Y2K-nostalgic visuals, and the teen-girl cool of Minji, Haerin, Hanni, Danielle, and Hyein. Now they’re back with their second EP, a mini-album featuring six short tracks that reasserts NewJeans’ dominance in the fourth-generation K-pop scene. Sonically, *Get Up* doubles down on NewJeans’ commitment to noughts-era R&B paired with electronic dance elements. Pre-release singles “Super Shy”—which member Hanni says reminds her of flying through space on a rocket ship—and *Powerpuff Girls* collab “New Jeans” are peppy, synth-driven bops that fans of “Ditto” will love. But the girls have never been as solemn as they are on “Cool With You,” a UK garage track, and “Get Up,” two songs that could be teasing an evolution of their vibe. Tying the sophomore project together are the versatile, finely tuned vocals of the young members, which continue to elevate NewJeans’ music from forgettable pop to something more textured—and serve as a tribute to the teen-girl interiority that is at the center of NewJeans’ music and story.

One Step Closer signal a sea change with Songs for the Willow. With last year’s This Place You Know, the band had already mastered a unique stripe of mournful melodic hardcore informed by eclectic emo influences. But on Songs for the Willow, they’ve tapped into a dynamic, emotionally powerful, and sonically intricate post-hardcore space inhabited by the charged aura and artistic nuance of landmark early 2010s records like Title Fight’s Floral Green and Touché Amoré’s Is Survived By. But ultimately, Songs for the Willow moves this sound forward into new territory. While frontman Ryan Savitski explored clean singing on This Place You Know, he expands his vocal repertoire further here, pushing himself to an even wider range of styles and methods, from soaring highs to breathy lows and rousing harmonies. He makes for a spirited lead and consistent presence while guitar work from himself, Ross Thompson and newcomer Colman O’Brien weave sundry, compelling layers, never content to linger on one riff for too long. “All three songs revolve around the problems that touring so much this last year have caused,” Savitski says of the thematic melancholy running through the EP. “Losing relationships, losing band members, losing a sense of what this band even means to everyone.” Savitski is still grateful for the growth his band experienced—they made memorable appearances on some of hardcore’s biggest stages (Sound and Fury, This Is Hardcore, and Outbreak festivals), supported scene staples on tour (Comeback Kid, Drug Church, Terror), and had This Place You Know land on respected publications’ Best of 2022 lists (Stereogum, BrooklynVegan). But Savitski also recognizes the sacrifices they made along the way, and that struggle imbues itself in the EP’s desperate tone. “I feel like this last year was the first time we’ve truly felt like a real band, but there were so many issues underlying that it made it hard to enjoy a lot of things.” The band stepped outside their comfort zone to create Songs for the Willow, teaming with Jon Markson and Eric Chesek to record the EP and explore new sonic terrain. “[Markson] is such an awesome guy and [they] really pushed to get the best out of us the entire time,” Savitski says. “I think their creative minds helped us make something special. We tried a lot of new things for these songs and really pushed a vocal style I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.” Those three songs comprise a mighty trio of powerhouse mid-tempo fare that fire off stirring tempo and tonal changes, giving mere three-minute songs a dramatic, cinematic splendor. “Dark Blue” seems to yearn a loss through the picturesque changing of seasons. “Earlier this year driving through the Pacific Northwest,” Savitski recalls, “I was struggling with how much we were about to be touring this year. As much as I was excited, I was just as much scared of how the dynamic of my life at home would change. I almost felt like people would forget about me for some reason, or relationships would change while being away. I found comfort looking out the window of the van and seeing things I never thought I’d ever see, while simultaneously turning my head to see some of my best friends who I get to experience this life with. It made me feel conflicted—potentially lose the people you love at home, to do the thing you love just as much. This song represents those conflicting moments in time.” “Turn to Me” wields a surprisingly melodic refrain while trying to maintain optimism amid despair. “Sometimes things happen and it changes relationships, and no matter how much you don’t want that to happen, it still does,” says Savitski. “I’ve experienced this a few times in my life and every time it makes me wonder why things can’t be the same as they were, until I finally realized it’s just part of growing. This song is about watching yourself and your friends grow up, but [also] further apart. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world and it really sucks to live with it everyday.” Following that, “T.T.S.P.” appropriately attempts to find closure with more natural imagery surrounding the search for solace. All along, there’s an insistent, relentless forcefulness to each performance. After already cementing themselves as the best young band reviving genuine melodic hardcore, One Step Closer have now proven themselves as virtuosos of the impassioned post-hardcore mini-epic.

Does Zach Bryan ever sleep? The wildly popular country singer-songwriter is also wildly prolific, dropping this surprise quintet of songs just weeks after releasing his massive self-titled album, itself coming on the heels of the string of loosies and EPs Bryan released in the year since blowing up with 2022’s *American Heartbreak*. *Boys of Faith* opens with “Nine Ball,” a new song whose roots-rock production hews closely to *Zach Bryan* tracks like “Overtime” and “Fear and Friday’s.” The tune is also reminiscent of Jason Isbell, a major influence on Bryan—particularly *Southeastern* deep cut “Super 8,” with its devil-may-care attitude, and *The Nashville Sound*’s wistful “Last of My Kind.” Noah Kahan joins Bryan on “Sarah’s Place,” the “Stick Season” singer-songwriter lending harmony vocals and sounding like he’s having a great time doing it. Bryan teased the title track, a collaboration with Bon Iver, on social media in advance of *Boys of Faith*’s release, with the somewhat surprising pairing sounding like two sides of the same downtrodden coin. While that collaboration may grab all the headlines, the EP also boasts a recorded version of “Deep Satin,” a fan favorite song of Bryan’s that many fans begged for after it didn’t make the tracklist on that self-titled LP. Its studio incarnation crackles with the same urgency found in the live versions floating around online, with gritty, off-the-cuff-sounding production to flesh it out. Bryan closes *Boys of Faith* with “Pain, Sweet, Pain,” another deserving unreleased tune getting the long-awaited studio treatment.