I dug this one when it came out back in August and for whatever reason it got lost in the shuffle. As we near the end of 2023, I wanted to squeeze one more favorite in before we close out with the usual year-end round up next week. 

When we last met John Dwyer in 2018, the name of this outfit was Oh Sees (which itself followed stints with at least four other variations). Now they're on LP number six as Osees. The restless Providence native is about as prolific as they come, and when you're pumping out multiple albums a year for nearly two decades, quality will vary. While I've enjoyed some of Osees/Oh Sees work since Smote Reverser, nothing has hit me quite like Intercepted Message. It's got the usual Dwyer "charm," but compared to 2022's A Foul Form, and many of his other works, it's far less beat-you-over-the-head garage/punk/rock and takes a more nuanced, if Dwyer could ever be described as such, approach. Quirky, at times experimental and trippy, some tracks, most notably "Chaos Heart" and "Always at Night," sound awfully LCD Soundsystem-ish, along with "Submerged Building," if James Murphy and his Brooklynites were mashed with Beck's Midnight Vultures. Dwyer certainly knows how to rock. But it's even more fun when he indulges his whims with a wider palette.