Not Spotify Wrapped

Thanks Spotify, for wrapping up another year in music. It’s evident I spend a LOT of time listening to music, I still can’t get over Blink182 and I need to move to Burlington, USA?

But algorithms and underwhelming animations aside, I was thinking what I, yes me, not my data-me but my brain-me, thought my musical 2023 was really like.

Because after all music is so powerful when it’s connected to feelings. Anything from a late afternoon Hackney summer breeze coming through the window when you come home and stick some relaxing music on, when you’ve got friends around for drinks and a handpicked playlist gets people singing along and having a good time (I swear it was the music, not the booze), to when you’re horizontal on the sofa down & out with watery eyes - it’s the music that become the soundtrack to these scenes in your life.

So excuse me data, but here’s a bunch of artists & tracks that did it for me in 2023:

Artist: Sun Kil Moon

An artist that has been going for ages, released an eclectic range of records under his own name ‘Mark Kozelek’ as well as his other band ‘Sun Kil Moon’, previously as ‘Red House Painters’

I haven’t listened to the ‘Red House Painters’, but Sun Kil Moon heavily crashed into my rotation this year after having discovered the catchy track ‘Ben’s my Friend’ probably in an Artist Radio on Spotify (see algorithm, it’s not all bad news). After that ‘You Missed My Heart’ (Later covered by Phoebe Bridgers) A vivid, disturbing, tale that played out like a movie in my head as I laid in my rather cold bedroom in January.

Delving deeper into his work, I was quickly drawn to the Modest Mouse cover album ‘Tiny Cities’, especially the tracks ‘Trucker Atlas’ and ‘Ocean Breaths Salty’ I remember having on repeat in the first few months of the year, walking along the Greenway to the Olympic Pool, doing mundane tasks around the flat whilst freelance work was dry, and wanting to tell my brother all about them when he visited.

There was a phase where I had Sun Kil Moon’s more diary-entry like works on repeat with tracks like ‘Stockholm’, ‘Candles’ & ‘Carrisa’. The extremely loose and unstructured nature of the songs constantly keeping me engaged and finding new things within the tracks. Another one that stands out is ‘I watched the film the song remains’ whilst spending countless hours on my friends boat in Blackwall Basin, staring at the summer sky through the skylight.

Reading more about Mark Kozelek and his Sun Kil Moon project, inevitably I read the controversial stories about the man himself, his questionable behaviours and actions. It did taint my opinion about his often autobiographical, stream-of-concenience like work a little, but then again I did feel the raw, honest, nature of the lyrics, no trying to be refined or poetic but rather brutally blunt and straightforward was wat cut through and purely artistically speaking was worthwhile.

I can see where he can be perceived boastful or self indulgent, especially when it’s wrapped up in a song like ‘I know it’s pathetic but that was the greatest night of my life’. It’s tricky. Where do you differentiate between the artist’s output and his behaviour outside of the recording studio. Do I stop watching any films affiliated with Weinstein, albums by Michael Jackson, books by Bukowksi and the list goes on. I guess the difference with Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon is that sometimes the line between the work and the man himself are so blurred.

Album: DIIV - Deceiver

After casually enjoying DIIV’s earlier work which felt more like breezy poppy melodic indy soundscapes with some incomprehensible vocals, which brings me back to a solo backpacking adventure along the South Downs Way, wet from a thick mist and drizzle, deep green tall grass, the typical British countryside landscape outstretched in front of me, nervous and excited at the same time, these tunes keeping me bopping along. But that was 2017. In 2023 their latest album ‘Deceiver’ really stood out as a evolution of the band, and for me personally I have some vivid memories of cooking up a storm in my small Hackney Wick apartment whilst strumming my air guitar, my dog watching me pull of this culinary performance with admiration (I’d like to imagine).

Song: Carissa’s Wierd - They’ll Only Miss You When You’re Gone

Music taste changes with the seasons. Winter certainly brings with it a more somber tone in recent years. I’ve stopped with the traditional Christmas albums by Dylan, Crosby or Sinatra. I’ve kinda ditched Christmas altogether really, but music is still a daily consumable, especially in winter. And recent Christmas times I’ve been diving into ‘Carissa’s Wierd’ (yeah that’s how it’s spelled), after having exhausted Band of Horses records throughout the year, I happily discovered that Carisas’s Wierd was now on Spotify. A band formed in Seattle before Band of Horses came stomping on the scene, Ben Bridwell filling the drums here instead of taking lead. Whispery vocals, somber strings, low-fi production, dark lyrics, but beautiful music that really hits you, especially ‘They’ll only Miss you when you gone’ did it for me with the long tentative build up, and then the release of energy and emotion. It conjured up a snowy bitterly cold scene in my head, even though the winter’s back home usually are filled with rain instead of snow.

Music Video: Iron & Wine - Upward over the Mountain/Call it Dreaming

I’m probably responsible for half of its views. Beautiful one-take video:

Lyrics: Death Cab for Cutie - Roman Candles

It's been a battle just to wake and greet the day
Then they all disappear like sugar in my coffee
A hint of sweetness but the bitterness remains
The acidity devouring my body

But I am learning to let go
Of everything I tried to hold
Too long 'cause they all explode
Like Roman candles

I used to feel everything like a flame
Now it's a struggle just to feel anything
I watch the world from a window on a hill
Everyone moving as I'm standing still
I'm standing still

But I am learning to let go
Of everything I tried to hold
Too long 'cause they all explode
Like Roman candles

Benjamin Gibbard has been constantly penning lyrical beauty, but sometimes it’s just a simple ones like these that enter your ears and just make seem to spell out how you feel that day. Certainly not my favourite track of Asphalt Meadows, and much better lyrics surface on other tracks, but I recall crystal clear taking in these words at first listen.

A little trivia on another track from this album; ‘Foxglove Through the Clear Cut’, the lyric ‘Nothing lives long, only the earth and the mountains, as he quoted Black Kettle’s death song’ - these words were apparently not spoken by the Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, but by White Antelope.

Live Gig: Bonny Light Horseman - Union Chapel, Islington

Beautiful setting. Great band. Vivid setlist. No booze though.

Encore:

After Neil Young’s retreat from the streaming platforms naturally my consumption of his vast ouvre diminished slightly, but I still cherish those quiet nights in, pottering around the flat, not doing much really, but just enjoying a long ‘Neil Young Full Album’ YouTube binge.

Oh and that house party track; it was plucked from the many 60’s & 70’s music that’s on my weekly rotation; Wings - Band on the Run. What. A. Tune.