I'd like to figure out a better way to write thoughts about music. Records and songs tend to grow on me over a number of listens. Therefore, I don't feel compelled to write a review on a record after the first listen. It weaves its way into my subconscious and then I find 6 months later that I have a new favorite record. So, I don't really have a great summation of the music I listened to or the records I loved. You can see some data on Last.fm or Spotify Wrapped. Those don't feel that personal to me. So I'm just going to talk about some highlights this year.
This is the year of Hotline TNT for me. It's the first "local" band I've been interested in in a long time. I like the music. I like their ethics. I like that the writer has a little HTML website. I like that they've made stances on not putting music on streaming. I like that they self-publish zines. I like that they play in weird places. I like that they have a distinct personality not just as musicians but in the entire project. I really became enamored with them this year. Thank you, Drew, for introducing me! Their last album, Nineteen In Love, was in constant rotation and their new album, Cartwheel was quite good as well.
Blue Rev came out at the end of 2022 but I listened to it for the first time in 2023. I love the distorted guitars, crystal clear melodies, balance of playful and serious songwriting. I love this album.
Gotta talk about Blink. They were my favorite band as a teen. So of course, seeing Tom Delonge return to the band raised the flag that I need to listen to this new record. I listened to their untitled record like 30 times in a row this fall in prep for the new album and I loved every listen. It was nice to revisit their stuff. It's been a long time. Anyway, the new album is just alright now that the freshness has worn off, but I'm happy the guys seem to be back and having fun. Dance With Me was my favorite of the new singles and I spun it a lot.
This Summer, Laura and I rented a car in the UK and listened to hours of music while driving across the English countryside. It was wonderful. I never realized how many of my favorite artists are British. We listened to a shitload of Oasis, Blur, IDLES, Elton John, The Beatles, Radiohead and plenty of others. Once we got home, I still had the bug. And because of that, I wound up getting deeply into Blur for the first time. That had me going back to Gorillaz, which I've loved since 7th grade. Damon's projects took up a lot of my listening time this year.
Alright, I'm going to share something ridiculous I did a few times this year as well. I wanted to really critically think about some of my favorite bands to try and understand what it is about their music that I actually like. So for both Tigers Jaw, Gorillaz, and Blink-182, I listened to all of their songs, rated them, and wrote notes about each song. It's pretty sloppy and not fully formed so, my apologies. But I'll share anyway. Let's argue about favorites:
While none of it was very public, I played a lot of music this year too. Hopefully you can hear some of that soon. I also started to write poetry more frequently this year. I wrote 274 poems in 2023. I started writing them every morning with coffee in an attempt to more easily tap into that creative part of my brain. Many of them aren't good, but it was an exercise that I feel was totally worth. Maybe you'll see some of those one day as well.