Year in Review: Your music of 2023
Reflect on the music you listened to this year.
Tell us about it.
Important:
- You do not have to limit your discussion only to music released this year. Anything you listened to this year is fine.
- This thread is much more interesting if you give details and explanations. Please don’t just list artists/albums/songs on their own. Let us know your thoughts and feelings too!
Conversation starters:
None of the below is required, but feel free to use any of it as a jumping off point for what you want to talk about (if needed).
Consider the following categories:
- Your personal Artist(s)/Album(s)/Song(s) of the Year
- Highlights
- Hidden gems
- Surprises
- Disappointments
- Outliers (stuff you loved from genres you usually don’t)
Consider the following questions as well:
- What music resonated most strongly with you, and why?
- What could you not stop coming back to, and why?
- What music was the most interesting or exciting to you, and why?
- What did your music listening habits say about your year?
- How did you change as a listener this year?
Meta note:
Yes, this is a little early to post something like this. I plan on doing this same thing for ~games and ~books as well. I figure spacing them out rather than doing them all at once is a best practice, and I didn’t want to wait too long to get started because having a bunch of these going up in January feels like it would be too late.
Also, I’m not planning on doing these posts for ~tv, ~movies, or ~anime. If anyone wants to steal this sort of thing to post there (or for any other group here), be my guest!
My Spotify Wrapped this year's top 5:
NIKI, Le Sserafim, Taylor Swift, Metro Boomin, and NewJeans
I actually saw Niki and Taylor in concert this year too so I'm very happy about that. :)
I'm not too surprised by this list, I started listening to NIKI super late last year and it just carried out to this year by a lot, her latest album, Nicole, imo is the epitome of the "sadgirl" emotional album that really captures a lot of my young adult angst.
Antifragile by Le Sserafim was very popular earlier this year, and was my soundtrack while exploring Tokyo.
Don't really need to explain Taylor, Back to December is one of my favorite songs and it just got rereleased this year!
Metro Boomin did such a good job on the Spider-verse album, and I got to listening to some of his other tracks and they're incredible, thinking of picking up his Heros and Villains vinyl.
Finally NewJeans with their new EP that came out this year, I've been really enjoying kpop this year, it really feels like with BlackPink and BTS not releasing too much this year it gave a lot of room to new-ish artists to step up. Not that Jungkook isnt making a killing with his singles recently.
Next year I'm not too sure what I'm looking forwards to. I've been recently getting back into Punk and Pop Punk, with Against the Current on my recently listening lists. Some throwbacks to Rage Against the Machine and Kendrick are also on my docket!
So according to Last.fm my top listened artists is familiar names like Death, Summoning, Nile, Desaster, Slayer and Sodom. Been heavily into death and black for the last 20 years and still is, but if anything 2023 has been a year where I started exploring a bit more traditional heavy metal. The new singles from Judas Priest has gotten me into them and if possible I want to see them live when the are on tour next year. Have also been listening to names like Running Wild and Manowar.
Not a whole lot has happened in terms of new releases this year for me. Cannibal Corpse released a new album, which is fine but not remarkable or groundbreaking in any way. Same could be said for the new release from Immortal. Sodom did release a cool new EP and Panzerchrist is back after 10 years with a female vocalist.
If you want something that combines NWOBHM and death metal, I would recommend melo-death, which does that. I would recommend Dark Tranquility and In Flames, two of the original bands that helped form it. Something for In Flames, I would recommend their albums Foregone (their newest one (the title tracks are good)) and Clayman (one of their older ones (Only for the Weak is a great one of it)). For dt I would recommend Fiction (Terminus (Where Death is Most Alive) is a good song). There is one more of the original bands, At the Gates, that formed this genre as a whole, but I don't know as much about this as the other two. And the reason why I had recommended two albums for In Flames and only one for dt is that, In Flames sound had evolved the most, with the common complaint that In Flame's fans have is that they want them to go back to the old sound. It had got to the point where the band told the fans that they are not going back.
I started writing this out and realized it's a bit all over the place. I've decided to format it with Spotify metrics out in front, then newly discovered artists this year (not necessarily new, but new to me), and then seasonal trends and preferences.
Spotify Metrics
I had a really weird wrapped this year, driven by a headlong dive into early 2000s pop during some bike training/as a mood booster in the winter/spring of 2023. I know this will likely color folks opinion of my recommendations of artists/songs/albums of this year, but my top song this year was Sugar Ray's "Fly". Top artist was Herb Albert. My top album was Erin Rae's Lighten Up (I even had the chance to see her live, even if it was a 6 hour round trip).
New Music Discovery
This year was an exploration into folk and country for me. I'm not usually a huge fan of either genre, despite an occasional listen to Sturgil Simpson, but I think the amount of women singer/songwriters I listened to last year (Alexandra Savior, Aldous Harding, Stella Donnelly) led Spotify to spice up my discover weekly. From these new artists, the highlights were:
Erin Rae, her music is light, fun and whole. Every time I listen to it I find myself in a better mood.
Sierra Ferrell, twangy and full bodied. She pulls in quite a bit of Spanish bandelero and flamenco. I think that addition has made it a great gateway drug!
Emily Nenni: brassy and sassy. I sing her music when I shower and make breakfast. It feels like a descendant of Dolly Parton.
Anna St Louis, much more mellow and soothing.
I'm not sure why these artists all spoke to me this year, but they've been on heavy rotation since August.
Seasonal Breakdown
My year is usually dived pretty evenly by season, not intensionally but it usually works out that way. Ironically, we don't usually have the traditional seasons where I live. Winter is sunny but a little cold. Spring is sunny and a little warmer (still ~60-70F). Summer is some combination of fog and clouds for 4 excruciating months. And fall is a dream of warm, sunny days. It's a local oddity. However, even with those hyper specific weather patterns, my music tastes trend more in line with more traditional seasonal trends. Winter tends to be mellow, more jazz/soul/R&B and introspective/depressing songs. Spring is usually full of hype. Surf metal, pop, dance music, funk, that kind of thing. Summer tends to keep the happy train going with a more mellow energy. Pop and classic rock are often on repeat. Fall listening tends to be more comfortable easy listening music. Usually that comes in the form of indie or latin music, but for some reason this year went folk/country. I have seasonal playlists going back to 2015 and the trend feels pretty consistent.
Winter
Started pretty mellow. Durand Jones, The Buttshakers, Derek Harriot, Biig Piig, Men I Trust, La Femme, and Chancha Via Circuito.
Spring
As promised the energy turned up. Most of the artists in rotation were new discoveries and included Hala, BRANCHO, Roisin Murphy, Jessie Ware, Iguana Death Cult, and Michael Rault.
Summer
I travelled a lot this summer so I didn't spend much time on music, but I did looooove Mac Demarco's new, weird album One Wayne G.
Fall
Outside of the artists I've mentioned, I listened to Pity Party, Vansire, and The Walters quite a bit.
Edit: Also if you're up for it @kfwyre I'd love to hear about yours as well.
According to last.fm my top 5 artists of the year are as follows:
Immolation
Sargeist
Khold
Darkthrone
King Diamond
cc: @rosco
My Top 5 Artists:
My Top 5 Albums:
My Top 5 Songs:
Everybody already knows that this was Taylor's year, and my music follows that. 1989 and Speak Now have always been my favorite albums of hers by a wide margin, so getting the re-records of both back to back was quite a treat. I think they're both genuinely excellent for very different reasons. Speak Now has Swift at her songwriting best, giving songs that capture youth (she wrote the album as a teenager) but also feel wise beyond their years. Meanwhile, 1989 is an incredibly solid pop album.
Jukebox the Ghost is my comfort band. Their music is fun and interesting and resonant and generally pretty feel-good. I love their use of piano, and I love that they often go in odd directions lyrically ("everybody panic, but one at a time / people have jobs to get to"). They don't have a single standout album for me -- their entire discography is great.
Betty Who is a solid and genuinely underrated pop artist, and BIG! is the best thing she's done. It's fun, engaging, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Also my husband jokingly said it's a concept album about Big the Cat, which makes it immeasurably better in my opinion. As Who sings about heartbreak, we joke that the song's about a tumultuous period between Big and Froggy. It's become a meme of our marriage.
Magdalena Bay and The Beths are other bands that can do no wrong. Magdalena Bay are making incredible pop that feels fresh and not at all sterile, while The Beths demonstrate a completely understated songwriting quality. Their stuff is seriously good and their lyrics are seriously thoughtful and resonant, but they're never in your face about it and instead are just sort of quietly amazing.
Noah Kahan was a new find to me this year. I've only listened to Stick Season so far, but I really enjoy it. His voice is very compelling, and his songwriting has a resonance that mostly works for me (thought at times I think it can be a little overwrought). "All My Love" -- the track that made my top 5 -- is an incredible song in part because it's ambiguous. Is it earnest? Is it sardonic? You can validly give it both of those readings at the same time. Is it defeatist? Is it hopeful? It's... both. The song is the musical equivalent of a glass with water at the 50% mark. Half-full or half-empty? Depends on how you look at it.
The only other thing I'll say is that my number one song, "Who the Hell Is Edgar?" is in its rightful spot not only because it's a certified banger but also because it became a meme within my friend group. We had a bachelor party for two of our friends who were getting married, and much of the weekend devolved into our group of mostly gay guys just breaking out at random into the "Poe Poe Poe-Poe-Poe" line while badly vogueing. It was great fun. They should get married again so we can relive that glory.
my Spotify is all borked. My top five according to them is 21 Savage, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Monster Rally, Arc De Soliel -- but this is only because I listen to rap in the morning and late afternoon but switch to jazz, soul, etc for dinner prep and the evening... but then I'm listening to Little Snake or whatever late at night (this playlist right now)
This year I really listened to more soul, jazz, whatever Monster Rally and related acts are filed under.. good year for discovery.
I spent a lot of time listening to x radio on Spotify. The generated mixes are pretty consistent.
My top five artists
I think the top albums for me this year would be Foregone by In Flames, basically their best album by far because it really showcases how well they have came as artists. And my other top one would be War of Being by TesseracT, which is the album that got me into them.
Although they did not appear in my Spotify top five, Amon Amarth had released an EP for Heidrun and made this remix of their song. Which is my hidden gem of the year, because I did not know that they made this.
Here is my "top 50-ish chart" for 2023 releases. I'm sure things are missing, and this is not in any particular order, other than the first couple of lines being my absolute favorites.
https://imgur.com/QSYECvQ
Text Version of the list