We finally figured out the Y2K throwback in 2023
PinkPantheress' 'Heaven Knows' and these 5 albums moved us beyond just nostalgia-gazing.
This is part of Loops’ end-of-year coverage. If you listened to the new André 3000 album and want more music like it, check out my other recommendations from 2023.
Of the revisited musical cliches continuing to warp and fracture popular music this decade, one proved specially productive in 2023: A little bit of drum ‘n’ bass goes a long way.
Twenty-year nostalgia cycles means dipping back to the turn of the 21st century, a period remembered here in Denver as Y2K. As someone who grew up in another country, I’m fascinated by this period. I can’t recall hearing anyone mention Y2K in Chile, though I was 6 years old and wasn’t keeping up with the news when it happened.
I do remember the music from this period, though: DnB, trance and Eurodance were everywhere. I enjoyed these styles then and still do, though it’s hard to listen to the Vengaboys now without remembering Sept. 11 and how all music like it just sort of vanished. (Though that hasn’t kept DJs everywhere from rinsing mediocre edits of “We Like to Party”.)
In 2023, EDM producers and pop stars relished in taking signature elements of these genres — hyperspeed tempos, bubblegum melodies, the omnipotent and inevitable Amen break — to propel their music forward. Shoegaze bands like Hotline TNT and feeble little horse also used drum ‘n’ bass in a way that added a frenetic and stormy dimension to their music. Here are are six albums from this year that refurbished and injected a fresh spirit to the sounds of Y2K:
Overmono - Good Lies
Overmono are linear descendants from the UK drum ‘n’ bass club scene — they were around in its adolescent years and delivered several big-room bangers before Good Lies. This album could have just been a sanitized collection of the minimal breaks they’re known for; instead, it’s crisp, streamlined and powerful, like a sailboat in open waters — or the Dobermans that adorn their covers.
PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows
A gem of a debut album that brings to mind the early highlights of pop maven Ariana Grande. PinkPantheress, the British 22-year-old born Victoria Walker, presents shyness like a seductive potion on Heaven Knows. Her sound is a classic upgrade on Y2K-era pop, this time rendered in high definition. Her expressions of young love, written in potent and often crushing words, are wise beyond their years.
Sampha — Lahai
This record doesn’t sound like Y2K, per se, but it does share the era’s vision of an advanced and utopian future. For Sampha, whose previous album had come out six years ago, that future is still a possibility. Lahai is a sleek and modern record, one whose pensive and minty R&B reminded me of Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity”, a song that came out before Y2K but prefaced turn-of-the-century anxiety.
Skrillex - Quest For Fire
The key trait that has made Skrillex’s Sonny Moore one of the biggest stars and musical influences of the last decade isn’t his appetite for disruption: it’s his belief that the search for the meaning of existence (and all that is fair in love and brostep) is a lifelong pursuit. He further cements his place in the pantheon of electronic music producers with Quest for a Fire, an album that thrills with its combination of drum ‘n’ bass, rap and pop collaborations, and second-generation dubstep.
Tainy - DATA
The vibrancy of DATA — the debut album by Puerto Rican producer Marcos Efraín Masís Fernández — is also indebted to Skrillex; the instrumental to “Volver”, an album highlight, was co-produced by Moore along with Kieran Hebden, AKA Four Tet, whose track “Lush” builds the former’s foundation. Reggaeton was long due for a sonic overhaul, and in dire need for someone like Tainy to explore its boundaries.
Two Shell - lil spirits
I wouldn’t let go of these club-kid jesters that quickly; their follow-up to last year’s Icons is an EP that dazzles on its own. lil spirits is a time capsule that jams Y2K-era Eurodance, flip-phone ringtones and PC Music emulations into seven blistering tracks. Fans of PinkPantheress will find plenty to love in their faithful explorations of adolescent feelings.