^^full list including the other 10 albums i listened to this year Best EPs of the Year: 1. Medium Build - Health EP 2. Tommy Lefroy - Rivals EP 3. Bruuno - Fosbury EP 4. Manchester Orchestra - The Valley of Vision EP 5. Pacing - Snake Facts EP 6. Sweetmess - Everythings Fine EP 7. Ultrasaturated - Universal Hologram EP 8. CIL - Tears Dry on Their Own EP
Alright I think I've got it down to 35... There's so much this year I have still to listen to and got overwhelmed and cut the list short. Lol. I will say the top 15 is pretty accurate. The sleeper album for me this year was Koyo "Would You Miss It" . It just blew me away. "What's Left to Say" just hits me in the feels. The top 3 have gotten me through so much this year with the separation from my wife 3 months ago.
My music listening has been in decline, with this year’s listening 10,000 minutes less than last year, according to Apple Music. I’ve spent more time listening to podcasts, YouTube, audiobooks, playing beach volleyball more than going to the gym, and when I can, actually reading. In part because I feel like I need to keep my political education and keep up with current events. I think next year I need to set up some time to sit down and have some good active listens. It will probably do me some good. So it’s been more and more difficult to get myself to do a simple AOTY list. Still i managed to list 10 strong albums that I enjoyed this year in some type of ranking order and after looking at some lists posted on here, I decided to put in the extra effort of adding a little blurb. First Honorable mentions: The Age of Pleasure - Janelle Monae BUSINESS IS BUSINESS - Young Thug GUTS - Olivia Rodrigo Sorry I Haven’t Called - Vagabon So Much for Stardust - Fall Out Boy Magic 3 - Nas Fountain Baby - Amaarae The blurbs: Desire, I Want to Turn Into You - Caroline Polachek The most interesting and ambitious album I’ve listened to in years. Polachek is at the top of her game with this one averaging a triple double on every track. The album is too good at too many things to list and stands easily heads and shoulders above anything else I’ve listened to this year. The Record - boygenius How lucky are we that three of the most talented singer songwriters of a generation are infamously close friends and in a super band? Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus weave their talents together in beautiful harmony once again and once again we are blessed by this unholy trinity. History Books - The Gaslight Anthem The Gaslight Anthem will always be that band for me. They have a way of making me weepy eyed for a New Jersey style slice of Americana that I cannot relate to and is more or less a fantasy. Pulled in by Fallon’s familiar lyricism but with a new dazzling array of guitar tones buzzing in my head, I’m so glad to be back in this world. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan I just hopped on the Zach Bryan train this year and man am I kicking myself for being late to the party. With a gritty voice that fluctuates between solemn sorrow and ferocious desperation, Bryan puts on a masterclass in country songwriting. Sundial - Noname I was curious how the popular education of noname would effect her next album. Safe to say it has but the spoken word style rapper is effortless in this synchronization. The evolution of her artistry seems just as natural as her politics, both made equally important to her as she name drops WEB Du Bois in a song about getting some boomboom in Africa. The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We - Mitski Aptly named, this album is Mitski at her most… desolate? Gone for the most part is the synthpop and far removed from loud distortion, underneath there apparently is an ol’ timey Hollywood, Patsy Cline sound to wistfully sway to you hurdle towards the apocalypse. Heaven Knows - PinkPanthress The album I was looking forward to the most this year. Leading into her first debut album I was already fond of PinkPanthress’ catchy hooks and infectious melodies. But while she could rest on her familiar bag of tricks the album finds her taking on the challenge of a debut album pushing past her EPs and singles. Jaguar II - Victoria Monet An album that I think has been slept on in some circles. Every song is well constructed driven by Monet’s natural talent for creating a steamy sensual experience, making for the smoothest R&B listen you’ll hear all year. Goyard Comin’: Exordium - Goyard Ibn Said & Ghais Guevara I’m very fond of when an artist creates a persona of sorts, in this case a larger than life character constantly hounded by geeks to read Marx’ Capital. I can sorta relate. That and Ghais Gueverra’s flow over extremely well picked and chopped samples earned many listens. 152 - Taking Back Sunday A band whose streams I usually reserve for call back to a bygone era, this record make its clear: Taking Back Sunday, despite being a quintessential “emo” band, never tried to sound “emo.” The band has always been a collaboration of different talents offering their own unique flavor to the create the the most meaningful music they can. This is what TBS sounds like at their best.
20. Paramore - This Is Why 19. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan 18. FRND CRCL - Suburban Dictionary 17. RAYE - My 21st Century Blues 16. Matchbox 20 - Where The Light Goes 15. Andrew McMahon - Tilt The Wind No More 14. Post Malone - Austin 13. Hot Mulligan - Why I Should Watch 12. Boygenius - The Record 11. New Found Glory - Make The Most Of It 10. Story Of The Year - Tear Me To Pieces 9. Youth Fountain - Together In Lonesome 8. The Gaslight Anthem - History Books 7. Taking Back Sunday - 152 6. Fall Out Boy - So Much (for) Stardust 5. Boys Like Girls - SUNDAY AT FOXWOODS 4. Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS 3. Arrows In Action - Built to Last 2. Blink 182 - One More Time 1. Fireworks - Higher Lonely Power
Just finished my list! Full write up is available over on my blog at https://kennybloggins.net/ with playlists and all the good stuff. -or- Here’s a summary: 1) The Coral - ‘Sea Of Mirrors’ 2) Noah Gundersen - ‘If This Is The End’ 3) Rival Sons - ‘LIGHTBRINGER’ 4) Paramore - ‘This Is Why’ 5) Manchester Orchestra - ‘The Valley Of Vision’ 6) Queens of the Stone Age - ‘In Times New Roman…’ 7) Nickel Creek - ‘Celebrants’ 8) Cut Worms - ‘Cut Worms’ 9) Butcher Brown - ‘Solar Music’ 10) The Lemon Twigs - ‘Everything Harmony’
Spanish Love Songs – No Joy The Gaslight Anthem – History Books The Menzingers – Some of It Was True Olivia Rodrigo – Guts Fall Out Boy – So Much (For) Stardust Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Weathervanes Awakebutstillinbed – Chaos Takes the Wheel and I Am a Passenger The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein Hot Mulligan – Why Would I Watch Foo Fighters – But Here We Are Blink-182 – One More Time… Fireworks – Higher Lonely Power Ruston Kelly – The Weakness The Mountain Goats – Jenny From Thebes Origami Angel – The Brightest Days Dave Hause – Drive It Like It’s Stolen Citizen – Calling the Dogs Paramore – This Is Why There Will Be Fireworks – Summer Moon The Maine – The Maine
The 10x10 collage thing is cool. I did mine and was quickly reminded that songs listened to via my Sonos speakers scrobble twice for some reason lol
Listened to way more music this year than the last few years, but most of it was not released in 2023! So I'm only doing a top 10 but it was still a really strong year. The top 2 records on this list are probably my favorites of the decade so far. 1. Wednesday - Rat Saw God This album is the 2023 equivalent of Darkness on the Edge of Town but for punk and indie kids from the South. If you know, you know. If you don't, it's still one of the best guitar records in a long, long time (and I'm including Xandy's pedal steel work there). Plus Karly can tell a story like few other people on the planet right now. 2. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Weathervanes He's my favorite musician, he has been for quite some time, and this is his best solo record front-to-back. Southeastern is a masterpiece and I have a special personal connection to Something More Than Free, but I think this one beats both. This record takes the best aspects of Jason's carefully honed songwriting from the past decade and pairs it with the best on-record performance by any band Jason's been in the studio with since The Dirty South. 3. Ratboys - The Window One of two artists on this list (along with White Reaper) who have ties to my former hometown of Louisville and that I met ten or more years ago when their careers were just starting to take shape. Fucking surreal to see Julia on the CBS Morning Show this week. That's so cool and this album rules. 4. Narrow Head - Moments of Clarity Really wasn't familiar with Narrow Head at all before I saw them do an opening set for White Reaper this year. They mostly played songs from this album, all of which were very good, and their guitar tone on stage in the 700-cap venue was unbelievably good. Blew me away and I've been listening to Moments of Clarity regularly since. 5. Ruston Kelly - The Weakness I definitely don't like this record as much as his last two, but that's a high bar. The best songs on this (tracks 2-9 mostly) are as good as anything he's done. I hope he isn't finished with country or country-adjacent music but this was a cool album even if it didn't floor me like his last two. 6. White Reaper - Asking for a Ride 7. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin 8. Wilco - Cousin 9. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World 10. Hotline TNT - Cartwheel
It wasn't on my list but thanks to a ton of people posting it in here I have become obsessed with the Laufey record from this year and want to rectify and put it in my top 10 haha.
1. Invent Animate - Heavener 2. Anberlin - Convinced EP 3. Carly Rae Jensen - The Loveliest Time 4. Taking Back Sunday - 152 5. Spiritbox - The Fear of Fear EP 6. The Ongoing Concept - Again 7. The Amity Affliction - Not Without My Ghosts 8. Yves Tumor - Praise A Lord Who Chews But Does Not Consume 9. Cartographer - Metamorphosis EP 10. Caroline Polacheck - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You didn’t intend to combine EPs into the album list but I really played the crap out of those 3.
Top 40 Albums of 2023 1. Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You 2. Hot Mulligan - Why Would I Watch 3. There Will Be Fireworks - Summer Moon 4. Holding Absence - The Noble Art of Self Destruction 5. Spiritbox - The Fear of Fear 6. Olivia Rodrigo - Guts 7. Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust 8. Caitlyn Smith - High & Low 9. Katie Dey - Never Falter Hero Girl 10. Movements - Ruckus! 11. Hannah Diamond - Perfect Picture 12. Ellie Goulding - Higher Than Heaven 13. As Everything Unfolds - Ultraviolet 14. Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall 15. Blink-182 - One More Time... 16. Kamelot - The Awakening 17. The Maine - The Maine 18. Ling Tosite Sigure - Last Aurorally 19. Gunship - Unicorn 20. The Used - Toxic Positivity 21. Boys Like Girls - Sunday at Foxwoods 22. Silent Planet - Superbloom 23. Enter Shikari - A Kiss for the Whole World 24. Captain Jazz - Captain Jazz 25. Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loveliest Time 26. Babymetal - The Other One 27. Hail the Sun - Divine Inner Tension 28. Invent Animate - Heavener 29. Origami Angel - The Brightest Days 30. Dispirited Spirits - The Redshift Blues 31. Rebecca Black - Let Her Burn 32. Wargasm - Venom 33. yeule - Softscars 34. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan 35. 100 Gecs - 10,000 Gecs 36. awakebutstillinbed - Chaos Takes the Wheel and I Am a Passenger 37. McFly - Power to Play 38. Paramore - This Is Why 39. Nicole Dollanganger - Married in Mount Airy 40. Chad Perrone - What Would I Leave You With? Top 30 Songs of 2023 1. Caroline Polachek - Welcome to My Island 2. Hot Mulligan - Smahccked My Head Awf 3. Spiritbox - Jaded 4. Gunship - Tech Noir II 5. There Will Be Fireworks - Holding Back the Dark 6. Katie Dey - Hoarder 7. Ellie Goulding - Midnight Dreams 8. Enter Shikari - The Void Stares Back 9. Holding Absence - Her Wings 10. Carly Rae Jepsen - Psychedelic Switch 11. Hail the Sun - I Saw You Hanging 12. Kamelot - Opus of the Night (Ghost Requiem) 13. The Maine - Funny How? 14. Movements - Tightrope 15. Fall Out Boy - Heaven, Iowa 16. As Everything Unfolds - Twilight 17. Caitlyn Smith - Alaska 18. Olivia Rodrigo - Love Is Embarrassing 19. Black Country, New Road - Turbines/Pigs 20. Noname - Namesake 21. Invent Animate - Without a Whisper 22. The Used - Cherry 23. Boys Like Girls - Miracle 24. Hannah Diamond - Want You to Know 25. Ling Tosite Sigure - Super Sonic Aurorally 26. Babymetal - Divine Attack - Shingeki - 27. McFly - Crash 28. Rebecca Black - Look at You 29. Captain Jazz - Forevers a Cool Word 30. Blink-182 - Anthem Part 3 Another great year! My musical wish for this year is the same as it was last year, a new MCR album!
2023 Top 5: LPs murdermart - COWBOYS LIVE FOREVER Gorillaz - Cracker Island The Japanese House - In the End It Always Does Holy Wave - Five of Cups Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard EPs addy - temperance Sun Organ - Candlelight Showertime Zach Bryan - Boys of Faith Turnstile - New Heart Designs Toro y Moi - Sandhills Songs Gorillaz - Skinny Ape murdermart - Horseback Bdrmm - Be Careful Youth Lagoon - Mercury Sufjan Stevens - Will Anybody Ever Love Me?
Last.fm's last.year is live, basically their version of spotify wrapped. You can see it at: https://www.last.fm/user/ENTER YOUR USER NAME/listening-report/year. My top artists for 2023: 1. Led Zeppelin 2. Taylor Swift 3. Blur 4. Fall Out Boy 5. blink-182 5. Sufjan Stevens 7. Gorillaz 8. Zach Bryan 9. Rancid 10. Charli XCX
I don't really know, I use spotify and it works great. Here's the plugins they have https://www.last.fm/about/trackmymusic