Playlist: HERE
I have listened to a lot of songs this year. I could go head-to-head with my music-obsessed teenage self in terms of quantity. I haven’t written much lately, but I have continued making monthly playlists. Each is a grab bag - a collection of recommendations, chance encounters, intentional exploratory efforts, and bits of music history. They contain songs that were loved on first listen and ones that I grew to love over this year. I honor my time with this music by creating my 2023 “Best of” List. However, I will use the word “Favorites” instead, as I have heard only a fraction of what is out there, and I am confident that I have missed plenty of “the best.” The list includes the strange, transformative pop masterpieces of Yaeji and Fever Ray (Fever and Shiver), Hip-Hop soaked in Funk, big strings, and Gospel Choir from Little Simz (Gorilla), the mighty crash cymbal and Black Metal riff onslaught of Ragana (Desolation’s Flower), and the neo-Bossa Nova of John Roseboro (How to Pray). A few tracks off of compilations of older recordings that were re-released this year are also present (Ene Yalant Feker, por Nacimiento). Many other genres abound as the playlist unfolds - Folk, Desert Blues, Ambient, Indie Rock, Electronic, Experimental, and Tropicalia (to name just a few). I think that there is something for just about everyone.
New Old Stock Playlist: HERE
This main playlist follows the usual year-end format, celebrating releases of 2023. A few albums from the end of 2022 also made this list - close enough! The other I am calling New Old Stock Favorites. These are tracks that I had the joy of experiencing this past year but have been circulating in the cultural collective for some time now. Some are decades old; others were released just a few years ago. Their commonality is that I have never heard them before. How did I hear the Pretty Things or The Roches for the first time in 2023? It’s kind of embarrassing, but that’s a requirement of learning. I welcome further feelings of self-consciousness in 2024 if it means finding more musical treasures.
I hope you enjoy these tracks as much as I have, and please email or DM me on instagram with your favorites!
Comments