2023
2023 was a great year.
I hope it was awesome for you as well.
It was an especially good year for me when it came to finding and listening to new music.
According to my Spotify recap, I listened to something like 54,000 minutes of music over the year. Which was awesome.
Every year since 2013 I have made a new playlist, and I just spend the year filling it with all the things that I’m listening to that year. I rarely repeat songs from year to year, because I’m always on the hunt for something new that I haven’t heard before.
I wanted to share some of my favorite things that I listened to this year. The things that just kept on getting played, and never got old.
I’m not going to cover all of the things that made it onto my list this year, because that would take forever. I have 16 1/2 hours of music on 2023’s playlist.
I’ll go through my top artists and then 3 of my favorite songs from what I listened to. I’ll link the playlist below as well, if you’re interested in taking a journey through my music discovery adventures.
Top Artists
So, here are my top 7 favorite artists I listened to this year. These are the artists that I just kept listening to over and over again, and they never got old.
Paramore
First up is Paramore. I listened to them so much that they were my top artist on my Spotify year recap.
My friends were all shocked that I had never heard of Paramore before this year.
So sue me, this was my first year discovering Paramore. I know, I know, I was missing out!
Such good stuff. So many songs that I liked in their discography.
Their songwriting is fun and imaginative, their arranging is interesting and varied. I had a blast listening to Paramore, and hope that they release more stuff soon, I’m excited to see what they do next.
They don’t have a massive discography, but a lot of it is really good.
There were actually 3 albums that I kept coming back to, even though I listened to all their albums, I’d say these three were their best:
- Brand New Eyes
Yes, it’s from 2009, but it still stands as one of their best. Top 3 songs on that album: Playing God, Brick by Boring Brick, The Only Exception. It really shows the wide range of what they are capable of.
https://open.spotify.com/album/27UqZoE1kV6sIV6uQcI28A?si=voJa54yvQyS9V0ecBZDevQ
- Paramore
Fast forward to 2013 and they do a self-titled album that (in my humble opinion) is their best work so far. I like the whole album, but 3 songs that really caught my attention were Fast in My Car, Now, and Ain’t it Fun.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4sgYpkIASM1jVlNC8Wp9oF?si=llAakrDMTjaNtHsmghuruw
- This Is Why
This album came out in 2023, and it’s got some fantastic stuff. Definitely worth a listen. Top 3 on there are actually the first 3 songs: This is Why, The News, and Running Out of Time.
Such good stuff, if you haven’t listened yet, you should.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6tG8sCK4htJOLjlWwb7gZB?si=JrJ_OPQeTUCNWh5Jcj_8Xw
Royal Blood
Next up is Royal Blood.
This was not the first year I listened to them, they’ve been on my radar for a while, but I found songs that I hadn’t heard before.
It’s hard not to have respect for a bass/drum duo that manages to sound this cool and full. They employ some really imaginative techniques to make the bass sound like both a guitar and a bass at the same time which involves splitting the bass signal and sending the higher frequencies through some effects and to a guitar amp and the lower frequencies to other effects and to a bass ampro. But if that was all that was cool about them, they probably wouldn’t have made my list.
They also just write really catchy songs. The grooves and riffs that they come up with are really imaginative and groovy, and stand on their own. Their songs would be awesome no matter how many band members they had, but it makes it that much cooler that it’s just the duo.
This year I listened to their 2021 album Typhoons the most. I don’t know why it took me two years to find this album, but I’m glad I did. I actually just saw today that they put out another album this year, so hopefully they end up on my 2024 list soon.
Some top songs from that album are Boilermaker (The riffs on this song, chefs kiss 👌), Either You Want It, and Oblivion. But the whole album is killer.
https://open.spotify.com/album/05aqnnpYVOvsX0SIzmIuxi?si=giFzmhpLQ6O-pU_yR-lsNQ
Becca Stevens
The last two have been rock groups, but this next one is a songwriter that I’ve been trying to keep up with for a few years; Becca Stevens.
I first saw Becca on one of Snarky Puppy’s videos where they did one of her songs “I Asked”.
It was a fantastic performance (one of Snarky Puppy’s best videos, in my humble opinion), so I checked out her other stuff, and found that she is an immensely talented singer and songwriter that works well across many styles and genres. Plus she just seems like a really cool person in general.
The album that I listened to the most was her Wonderbloom album, from 2020.
She’s got great collaborations with the likes of Jacob Collier on the song Slow Burn. Cory Wong, Justin Stanton and Michael League on I Wish. And then collaborating with Ryan Scott on I Will Avenge You.
A lot of her previous albums were very much in the vein of folk music, but these recent songs had a very different vibe and sound to them. She really branched out by implementing electronic instruments as well as incorporating and melding different genres, and I was a huge fan of the direction she was going; implementing funk, soul, and rock vibes with her amazing lyrics and melodies, it was a great mix.
If you’re a fan of great lyrics and songwriting, Becca Stevens is one to keep an eye on.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5nUG94jIWfDdXhErqP03Ni?si=dyHMj9hJTauCt2AmWrnAlw
Madison Cunningham
Another songwriter that I’ve been following for a few years is Madison Cunningham.
A lot of her music falls more into the acoustic singer-songwriter realm, which I liked, she’s good at it. Her lyrics and melodies are always creative and inventive, and often introspective and poignant.
This year, I found she had added some new sounds to her arsenal both with collaborations with people like Remi Wolf (who is an interesting artist in her own right), but also just experimenting with electronic elements melded with her traditional acoustic aesthetic.
Her album Revealer that was released in 2023 had a lot of great music. Most notably 3 of the songs that kept getting repeated from me were
- Anywhere
Super upbeat and fun.
- Collider Particles
Kind of dark and introspective, but it uses a 7/4 time signature and uses really interesting instrumentation that I liked a lot.
- Your Hate Could Power A Train
Also a little dark, the title kind of says it all, but I was hooked from the very first riff in the intro with what sounds like a detuned guitar or something. It’s great.
She really put some new vibes out into the universe that resonated with me and I really enjoyed listening to her music this year.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3flejyQLaN7EolO3Vmg31D?si=78IT11ZrQ7uNwumb3eq4ww
Karim Ziad
This one surprised me.
I had the opportunity to go to Morocco as part of the National Guard band and played music over there in conjunction with the Royal Moroccan Air Force Band.
While I was there, I was so blown away by the rhythmic complexity of their traditional Northern African music. Like, everybody there just gets polyrhythms and complex syncopations like it’s second nature.
A friend of mine who went on that tour with me sent me some music from Karim Ziad, who is actually not Moroccan but Algerian, but is known for his contributions to the Northern African music tradition, and I got to listening to some of his fusion of traditional African music with jazz and just loved it.
It wasn’t like anything that I had heard before, but also somehow familiar and approachable (despite not speaking the language). It was a musical trip to another part of the world, a whole different musical paradigm that my western brain was not prepared for, but now that I’ve heard it I hope to find more like it.
I listened to other albums but his Ifrikya album from 2001 had some songs that I just couldn’t get enough of.
- Sandiya
I believe this is very much a traditional Northern African style, and is so much fun.
- The Joker
This is a darker instrumental African jazz piece, but that intro with piano and bass unison parts is so cool. Gets me every time.
- Amaliya
This song has so much good going for it. I’m still not entirely sure I’m counting the time signature right. I had to watch a YouTube breakdown of this style to learn how this genre of music is played, and it’s so different than anything we do here in the states or even Europe.
It’s rhythmically complex and interesting, the bassist goes absolutely buck-wild throughout the whole song. It’s so cool. And the buildup at the end … gah! It’s so good, just go listen to it!
https://open.spotify.com/album/4ZxEG0vF1yh3EPoO7BWmUw?si=juqaLga_Qdy6Otd4-nvYYg
Mammoth WVH
Alright, back to rock.
Sometime over the last 2 years or so I started getting recommendations from Spotify to listen to a band called Mammoth WVH.
All it took was one song for me to be hooked.
Then I looked them up and found out the “band” is actually just one guy: Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen’s son. And he’s got it. Whatever “it” is that he’s got, he’s got it good. He sings and plays all the instruments on his albums.
His guitar playing is impeccable (you’d expect as much, considering who his dad is), but his drumming is also great, his vocals are amazing, the songs he writes are just really catchy and fun to listen to, and he’s even a great bassist as well. He actually started touring with his dad’s band at the age of 16 as their bassist.
He’s insanely good.
I’m sure when he tours he has a band, but in the studio, apparently he needs no band.
He put out the album Mammoth II in 2023, and it got quite a lot of play time from me.
Top 3 songs, if I had to choose just three though …
I wouldn’t.
I couldn’t.
I would be literally forced to pick the first 5 on the album, because I can’t just pick 3 on this one.
They are all just absolutely huge, fun rock/metal songs.
There are some explicit songs on the album, so beware of that if you don’t like the swears or have kids. None of the songs I recommend will be explicit, though. So, there you go.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4IBqnUmKDyB8WUv1q8ElSi?si=2-FUNJ8fTViXLZapNWD8bw
Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter, Nate Smith trio
And lastly, but not leastly, a jazz collaboration that continues to surprise me as they release new singles; is the trio of Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter and Nate Smith.
These three people are some of the best musicians out there right now.
Kurt has been one of my favorite jazz vocalists since I was a teenager, just an absolute powerhouse of a vocalist who has had a very long and amazing career as a jazz vocalist, a really unique voice in a genre that prides itself on producing unique voices.
Charlie Hunter is one of those guitarists that can just do it all.
In this collaboration he plays the guitar and bass parts … at the same time.
He plays either a 7 string guitar or a baritone guitar and plays the bass line and chords simultaneously, and it’s fantastic, but also infuriating.
His left hand thumb and pointer finger are a better bassist than many.
And then there’s Nate Smith, who is just pure groove incarnate.
Some say that when he looks at the drum set it starts to groove.
He’s got quite a lot of solo stuff out there that’s great, and also collaborates with a lot of different artists.
And when you put these three together, they make some fun music together that blends jazz, funk, soul, and frankly whatever else genre they feel like, but in a really creative and fun way.
The EP that they released in 2023: SuperBlue: Guilty Pleasures is only 6 songs long, but is just pure funky grooves all throughout.
I first heard the song Sticking To My Guns, and I was like, I don’t know what I’m listening to right now, but I really like this.
I mean, I recognized Kurt’s voice immediately, but then saw who else was playing and was so happy that they released more this year.
So there’s that song, but also Boogie Down and Baby Hold On are just great.
You know what, just listen to everything that they do, they don’t have any duds, it’s all great.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4KGZEfzmcVMM6XujS0RWyp?si=lSFdO84FTLehdoyITj4RMw
Summary
So there you go, those were some of my favorites from this years 54,000 minutes of music I listened to.
Go check out some of these artists, though.
There is so much great music out there. You may find some artists that weren’t on your radar before, and expand your musical horizons.
Keep groovin’ y’all!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sh1fRoDwNFy4y6NJ6jF45?si=39502134b8e54083