2023 Music Review
A look back at favourite albums and listening habits from the past twelve months.
⭐ Favourite 10 Albums
My favourite albums of the year were:
- Tracey Denim by bar italia
- Blondshell by Blondshell
- 3D Country by Geese
- In the Light of the Blistering Moon by How Strange It Is
- Time Ain't Accidental by Jess Williamson
- Versions Of Us by Lanterns on the Lake
- The Window by Ratboys
- Yard by Slow Pulp
- Dead Meat by The Tubs
- Heaven Is a Junkyard by Youth Lagoon
🎧 Listen to my playlist of favourite tracks from the year on Spotify
🎸 Last.fm Top Charts
I scrobbled a total of 13,777 tracks in 2023. My top 10 albums by Last.fm play count released in 2023 were:
- Heaven Is a Junkyard by Youth Lagoon (290 plays)
- Tracey Denim by bar italia (244 plays)
- First Two Pages of Frankenstein by The National (190 plays)
- No Joy by Spanish Love Songs (156 plays)
- The Dreamless Sleep Of The 1990s by Broken Records (149 plays)
- This Place We Live by Matthew And The Atlas (145 plays)
- the record by boygenius (141 plays)
- Desire, I Want To Turn Into You by Caroline Polachek (120 plays)
- In the Light of the Blistering Moon by How Strange It Is (111 plays)
- The Window by Ratboys (109 plays)
🎟️ Concerts
I managed two gigs in 2023, both in Glasgow, and both excellent.
On a sweltering May evening New Zealand power pop band The Beths played to a sold out Garage at the far end of Sauchiehall Street. My train ran late so I only caught the last couple of songs of support act Lande Hekt. The Beths arrived to rapturous applause and launched into an energetic set covering favourite songs from across their albums. Expert in a Dying Field, Future Me Hates Me and Silence Is Golden were all great and the bands introduction in the round brought out their quirky characters. It was over all too soon but hopefully they will be back.
Review and great concert photos from Dale Harvey on Re-sound and a video of Expert in a Dying Field on Youtube.
In complete contrast, a cold November night saw me at St Luke's in the east end of the city for Lanterns on the Lake. Supported by solo act Sophie Jamieson. Lanterns came on with two drummers; their usual drummer Matt Hardy was joined by Radiohead's Philip Selway who had helped rescue their 2023 album Versions of Us.
The new album featured heavily in the setlist with the new songs sounding great. The band have always had a talent for beautifully marrying the post-rock contrasts of quiet piano verses and bombastic guitar driven choruses. It was a stunning performance and the sound quality at St Luke's was excellent - clear and loud without being excessive.
📈 Spotify Wrapped
