Other Wrapped stats are 110 days of total listening, 15,922 songs (including one of Ro’s 114 times), Lana Del Rey was my 3rd top artist and Melvins 5th – as a learned friend pointed out, one only has to listen to each song once for it to count for a lot – with Laura and Ro in 2nd and 4th. So far so cool, but then my top genre was movie tunes. Because children (Disney).
Speaking of cutting down, I’m pretty sure I have written, more than once, about how I might try to listen to less new stuff. So of course my 2023 playlist has more than 400 albums on it, falling just short of 350 hours. Assuming two listens of everything, that accounts for circa 30 of the 110 days, leaving 80 days for Tool and John Coltrane, etc.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2XuCoM24EFoaXQxAuQZXHD?si=K_OJkH5JRu2ZrT4Hy057ZQ&pi=e-AXGqxM7bQUyZ
I couldn’t tell you a thing about many of those 400
records, but I can’t remember any being anything approaching objectively ‘bad’
or unlistenable. I suppose it’s simply a case, as always, of what makes one sit
up and take notice, and want to listen again. Granted, where one is already
familiar with, or a fan of, an artist’s previous work one is undoubtedly more
likely to give stuff that doesn’t grab immediately a few more listens ‘just to
make sure’. I do that with Tool’s Fear Inoculum all the time. I’m also trying
to move away from being disappointed by things, doing my best to remember that
the concept of mean reversion suggests that an amazing record is not likely to
be followed by an even better one.
When people talk about zeitgeists in music, I guess
they mean what’s achieved critical mass. Not necessarily in the mainstream but at least in an established subculture. One might lament this, but it seems like it could be the case
that for every instance of an artist changing the sound or even dumbing it
down, there will be one somewhere who isn’t. Or the other way around –
Metallica put out another by-the-numbers metal record but there will be plenty
of other metal bands doing something exciting and more original. It also means
one will have to take the music press with a larger pinch of salt – what they
decide is cool this year doesn’t detract from what else is alive and well, and
discoverable on streaming or youtube or whatever.
I’m dangerously close to digressing, but the point I
really wanted to make is how easy it is to pick any genre and find plenty of
awesome stuff that happened in it in 2023. Not all of it will be innovative and
interesting, but some is! For example, there was a wide range of jazz, with
established artists playing it safe but well, plenty of avant-garde, and more
than one future classic potentials. Some favourites include Yussef Dayes’ Black
Classical Music, Johnathan Blake’s Passage, Paul Dunmall’s Bright Light a
Joyous Celebration, Emma Rawicz’s Chroma, Jaimie Branch (RIP)’s Fly or Die Fly
or Die Fly or Die (world war), Lakecia Benjamin’s Phoenix. I also thought the
Neck’s new one was really cool. And I was surprised by how much I enjoy
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s latest, given he, er, doesn’t play trumpet on
it.
Post-rock had far from a horrible year. After Ro, I
think maybe hubris.’ The One Above was my second favourite. (I’m not sure if
the word ‘second’ is redundant here.) Shoegaze, I know, but Slowdive’s
everything is alive continues their wonderful comeback.
I am largely unqualified to talk about pop music, but
favourites included Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS, Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want
to Turn Into You, and P!nks’s TRUSTFALL. Sleep Token (ha!) not so much (I’m
mostly joking here. Fair play, but it’s not really my thing). Much has been
made of Corinne Bailey Rae’s left-turn into multiple genres, but I haven’t listened
enough to form an opinion.
Ditto for hip-hop, but outside of the record that made
it onto my final list of favourites, I really enjoyed Logic’s College Park. I
think it’s a concept album, and it’s very funny in places, but none of that
overshadows the beats and raps. billy woods is a name that comes up more than
once, I was surprised I enjoyed Nas’ new material given there was so much of it
and I mostly only like him because of Illmatic (and previous Korn
collaborations). And it never fails to warm my heart to have something new from
Oddisee.
With apologies for the flimsy categorisation, from
singer/songwriters there are a couple of standouts one will see on every
year-end list, not least boygenius’ the record, which is an amazing listen…when
I remember to put it on and pay attention. Kara Jackson’s Dickhead Blues surely
deserves an award for song name, and it was good to have a more straightforward
Keaton Henson back. PJ Harvey’s new record didn’t stick for me, but I seem to
remember enjoying Hayden Pedigo more than a little (listening back to it now to
check, it seems there’s no singing. Whoopsy. Told you).
There is nearly always some great hardcore
(/punk/post-hardcore/etc) and this year was no exception. I enjoyed the new
Dreamwell and the Jacob Bannon-featuring Sexless Marriage, and I really enjoyed
(supergroup) Empire State Bastard (I’m pretty sure there’s a drums-and-vocals-only
track on there, which reminds me of Converge), (supergroup, again) Better
Lovers, and Fiddlehead. There was even a new record from Will Haven, who seem
to have come and gone over the (20+) years.
Lazily lumping together ambient, instrumental, and
electronic, it seems I will always love everything Warmth and Loscil do. For
whatever reason I often put on Mioclono and Jack Vanzet when people came over,
I didn’t hate Mac DeMarco’s effort, may Ryuichi Sakamato rest in peace, and
Moby’s ambient record is my very first entry on the year’s playlist. I do
really like the new DJ Shadow, except to say I’m not sure how much of a good DJ
Shadow record it is. I’ve listened to M83 several times and can’t recall a damn
thing about it.
Even more lazily, I am going to group together ‘genre
metal’. By this I mostly mean black and death, and permutations thereof, maybe
with some doom and sludge and other things in there too. There’s an awful lot
of this in my 2023 collection, driven by two friends, one relatively new and
one an old school friend I hadn’t spoken to in years. (His number one genre on
his Spotify Wrapped was dissonant death metal.) I’m not saying I don’t take it
seriously but most of it really is great fun – not just the names and the
titles and the artwork and the genre hallmarks, but the riffs and the songs
too! I nearly put Liturgy in my top 15, because when it works, it’s
mind-blowing (‘bananas’, my old school friend said), but it is a bit
long for what it is. Perhaps length is a requirement to be avant-garde, I don’t
know. Other highlights include Tomb Mold, Spirit Possession, and Cattle
Decapitation, but there were plenty of others.
Some artists I would like to spend more time with include
Alfa Mist, Actress, Marnie Stern, Raul Refree, Lambert, Spotlights, Militarie
Gun, Sampha, and Graf Orlock.
OK. Right. Well then. I better get on with the main
event. In the end, after all of the above, it was surprisingly easy to whittle
it down to a favourite fifteen. I have in the past often included things that I
loved even if I couldn’t think of something to say about them. That would have
meant including a few names from my best-songs playlist, especially Jason
Isbell and the 400 Unit, Rozi Plain, JW Francis, 100 gecs, and Mutoid Man. I
also think Foo Fighters put out their best record since One by One, and Avenged
Sevenfold’s latest is indeed bonkers. But this year I’ve gone for the
no-brainers, things I remember without having to refer back to anything.
Albums: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Ze2aEq0hek0HSEzOC9LxF?si=YDjeTnnqQdqOyuSrcvRY5w&pi=e-8OhyqH30SROR
Songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1VxORHMxJqS0nkQD0vy2G0?si=TcQJuHSvQ5ybZN2xVnv1hQ&pi=e-PfAzuWeTSj-f
Ro – Baiagoan
Spanish post-rock band with fewer than 400 monthly
listeners on Spotify and whose 2020 record, Athalase, was one of my favourites
that year. Baiagoan is bigger and better in every way. Some cheesy distortion
aside, largely devoid of bells and whistles – as I often like to say, the
simple (but not simplistic) sound of some friends making alchemy in someone’s
garage. They have achieved so much with so little it’s astonishing. The title
track is worth the price of admission almost by itself; the guitar interplay is
sublime.
Jose James – On & On
One of my favourite artists but I certainly don’t like
everything he does. That’s surely inevitable given all the different things he
tries – jazz, R&B, a Christmas album, tribute albums to Billie Holiday,
Bill Withers, and now Eryka Badu. I thought it was an odd choice that wasn’t
going to work, but I was very wrong. It’s a great covers album and a
great jazz record.
Emiliana Torrini, The Colorist Orchestra –
Racing the Storm
Electronic folk meets a chamber orchestra, with sublime
results. A captivating, albeit a bit cutesy, voice.
Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a
tunnel under Ocean Blvd
There’s plenty I’m dubious about on LDR’s ninth album –
the awkward title, its length, the unnecessary inclusion of the original
version of Venice Bitch, and A&W not being as good as every critic seems to
think it is – but I have been wrong about Lana Del Rey enough times in the past
that, like Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino getting their Oscars for The Departed
and Scent of a Woman even though they’d done better before, I am not going to
fail to include her record in my list of favourites this time. Looking back, I
should have included NFR (turns out one of my favourite albums ever, and
whose frequent revisiting likely drove LDR’s 3rd spot of my top 5
Spotify artists) in 2019 and Chemtrails over the Country Club in 2021. There
are, nonetheless, more than enough highlights on DYKTTATUOB to justify its
inclusion, not least Candy Necklace with Jon Batiste, and Let the Light in with
Father John Misty.
Five-Way Split – All the Way
I think this was a random Spotify recommendation. If not,
then I have no idea how I came across it. I don’t think I’ve heard of any of
the quintet before, and they have precisely 43 monthly listeners on Spotify. It’s
hardly innovative, but it’s one of the most expert and perfect distillations of
straight-ahead jazz I have ever heard.
bar italia – Tracy Denim
Crunchy, jazzy, often witty indie.
Fox Wound – Death Blossoms in a Trauma Year
I think hardcore music can live or die by its vocalist,
or at least without a good one its all too easy to sound generic or copycat. Luckily,
Fox Wound’s (c.250 monthly listens on Spotify, just to confirm my cool
credentials) vocalist more than holds his own against the rest of the band and its
engaging arrangements.
Blackbraid – Blackbraid II
Full disclosure, I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar in
odd places, such as electronic (Four Tet) and, in this case, black metal music.
Spotify lists Sgah’gahsowáh (Jon Krieger)’s solo project “Indigenous black
metal from the depths of the Adirondack (Northeast New York) wilderness.” I gather
he plays everything except drums himself; I think there might even be some
flute in there somewhere.
Noname – Sundial
The final track, Oblivion, which features Common, is a song
of the year. I confess, rightly or wrongly, that it ticks all the boxes I like
for hip-hop – organic sounding beat, great hook (from Ayoni), varied lyrics,
the sound of her voice – plus some tiny but appealing little quirks like the
way she says “yo”. The rest of the album more than holds up against that
standout, though, especially on tracks like boomboom and gospel? (featuring
billy woods, among others). Short and sweet too, clocking in at just over half
an hour across 11 tracks.
Sunny War – Anarchist Gospel
Much like for Five-Way Split, this must have been a
random Spotify suggestion. Despite the title and artwork, it’s very much a folk
record, and it’s quite extraordinary. The playing, the arrangements, the
lyrics, the hit-rate across the 14 songs,…something this good shouldn’t be this
hard to find.
Laufey – Bewitched
Close your eyes and don’t listen too hard and you might
be forgiven for thinking this Chinese-Icelandic pop-jazz singer is the second
coming of Ella Fitzgerald. I won’t promise I’ll think that forever but while
the album is very far from daring or innovative, it is incredibly addictive
and really rather lovely.
Crosses – Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U,
Delete
I wasn’t sure where I was going to land with this, but
where I have is that there are plenty of good songs on this, again outside of
the one that most immediately stood out (the title track, featuring Chino
Moreno at his most soothing and beautiful). Found is probably my second
favourite. The synth arrangements rarely fail to be interesting, and Moreno’s
gift for hook and melody has seemingly returned, following its absence on
Deftones’s Ohms from 2020. As per their M.O., it’s very much a collection of
songs rather than an album with real flow, but with such illustrious features
as El-P and Robert Smith), it would be churlish to complain.
Sofia Kourtesis
I think I’m right in saying that electronic music is a
genre where women are underrepresented, but I hope that a record as stunning as
this does nothing but help change that. Came out the same day as DJ Shadow and
I much prefer it. My favourite electronic music has to be beautiful as well as
cool, funky, or banging, and Kourtesis has certainly nailed that.
Howling Giant
I kept filing this under ‘genre metal’, largely because
it’s the AOTY of my friend who’s mostly into doom metal, but it’s actually prog
and not really death/black at all. This is the sort of mind trick memory failure
that happens when you spread yourself too thin, I suppose. I could learn from
that, but likely won’t. Anyway, it’s prog where the songs come first, and the
extremely catchy riffing is the first thing you notice.
Night Verses
And finally, a band I only heard of because Tool picked
them to support next year’s tour. Independently awesome though, I have discovered.
Not a million miles off Animals as Leaders, I’m going to conclude. By which I
mean a proggy, mathy, heavy (am I supposed to mention ‘djent’ too?)
instrumental trio.
So there you have it. Thanks very much, and happy Christmas,
one and all.
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