Noots Letter: '23 And Me (And Graphs)
December 2023
In January, I began with a challenge: 1 album per day, everyday. It began as a practice of consistency—if I could listen to a whole 40+ minute album with the same ease as brushing my teeth, then maybe it wouldn’t be too impossible to apply this methodology to other pastimes in my life. And I was right! It was very easy! Occasionally I missed days due to vacation or rehearsal processes or simply enjoying the world around me sans headphones. But overall, I listened to at least 335 distinct full albums and 350 days of albums (I listened to a couple more than once lol), totaling to over 15,400 minutes. Of that number, 330 of those albums were brand new to me, and 289 were brand new to 2023.
In an attempt to find nuance among genre distribution, I very painstakingly tried to label, by hand, attributes of the 330 new albums I listened to, thanks to Every Noise At Once and Last.fm. There were, however, way too many subcategories to organize. Categorizing them into broad genres removes their interesting niches (as provided by Every Noise At Once). Some highlights include: New Weird America, LGBTQ Hip Hop, Zolo, Chamber Psych, Escape Room, Trap Queen, and Aussie Indie Punk. In past years, I’ve also literally made up words according to vibes, like Poppers, Downers, Slappers, and Vibers, all of which I believe should be clinically adopted worldwide.
Every year, I am told by Spotify that my top genre is Indie Pop. Sure. But for some reason this enrages me? It makes me feel like I’m a 23 year-old tween listening to Clairo for the first time then learning she’s a nepo baby then wondering what “indie” even means anymore? If you’ve been here from the start, you’ve read my complaints about genre over the years and how gender/racial biases create limitations on how we classify music. A lot of favorite (female) artists of mine ended up with the label “Bubblegrunge”—why does this feel like a slur lol? And for genre-bending Black artists who are literally inventing new musical styles in front of us, is the best we can do just to label it “Afrofuturism”?
Simply put, I don’t have a way around this yet. And maybe that’s because the problem exists as a result of us trying to contain something so malleable and expansive. No matter how much digging and hyper-specifying we do, a simple label will never be enough to capture the full range of someone's artistry.
As a meager attempt to get over my “indie” existential crisis, I decided to avoid the word “indie” completely, thus assigning each album terms like “alternative” (artists who are trying to do something new), “mainstream” (especially recognizable names, artists who are selling out huge venues), “traditional” for standard folk, “classic” for older rock, etc.
For the 289 new albums from this year, I also assigned each numbers 1 - 10 to indicate their individual impacts on me, the listener, Noots. 10: Favorites of the Year, 9: Extremely Enjoyed, 8: Highly Recommended, 7: Recommended, 6: Very Good, 5: Good, 4: Fine, 3: Neutral, 2: Disliked, 1: Couldn’t Finish. Only four made it to the 10 ranking and only four made it to the 1 designation. My average rating over all 289 albums was 5.1. In other words, most of these I found to be solidly mid. In the graphic below, the size of the circle correlates with how many albums I listened to from that genre; the number in parentheses is the average rating I gave those listens.
A couple interesting things to note: while folk was one of my most-listened-to genres, I find it quite repetitive among many artists, hence its lower average score (4.5). R&B feels the most exciting and genre-bending right now, lending itself to the top spot (6.4). My listening habits also reinforced my own bias: sometimes know what I already do / do not like. Like, despite what the billboards say, I shan’t be listening to M*rgan W*llen or Dr*ke! I aim to actively expand my artist exposure but also feel like I’m fed suggestions based on previous listening habits, ultimately narrowing the bubble. I remain evermore steadfast in battling the Spotify algorithm head-on. Otherwise, this expanse of singer-songwriter folk may start to resemble the “Authors like Sally Rooney” book recommendations trap I fell into a few years ago, resulting in works that were largely repetitive, boring, and quite white.
As for sources, I started the year with some suggestions from friends and some selections from Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In addition to keeping track of the anticipated 2023 releases using—ahem—Wikipedia, I turned most frequently to NPR New Music Friday and Pitchfork for recommendations. Occasionally, I found options on TikTok, but I especially loved the ones from @LockedGroove. Toward the end of the year, as releases slowed, I perused year-end lists from Rolling Stone, Paste, Bob Boilen, and tbh Niche Music Memes.
While I didn’t keep exact tabs on this, I can say for certain that I most often listened to music to improve the vibes of two of my least favorite and most frequented locales: on the 6 Train to work on the Upper East Side, and under the BQE on Meeker Ave in North Williamsburg.
In a wild break from the norm, I only made about 10-12 playlists this year. A few were scant, and a few were for exercise purposes only. The big one, “Nobody Likes You When You’re 2023”, finished up with over 800 songs. I’ll probably never know just how many individual artists I listen to in a given year, but this is pretty close. (Scroll further for more / less overwhelming playlists!)
I’ve always wanted to go back and remember the first time I heard my favorite song, and now I can. I’ve kept track of my albums on a spreadsheet next to one memory from each day, so many of these albums align with distinct memories from this year, both significant and menial.
I could go on and on (and I will)! I am so, so grateful for this little 2023 audio diary I’ve created. And can you believe we only pay $0 to $10.99 per month for it?? What a steal! You too can do one thing a day—for, basically, free—and be proud of it and simply thrilled by it!
Every year I see so many of you listening to so many tens of thousands of minutes of music, and I’m so impressed, and sometimes worried, and sometimes curious if you’re falling asleep to brown noise because how’d you get to 79K minutes. But if I could leave you with this, dear reader, I’d implore you to listen with intention whenever you can. If you’re struck by whatever just came on shuffle, stop where you are and pay attention to those feelings, this moment, the world around you, the enriching momentum of your own personal soundtrack.
All we can do in our silly little lives on this silly little rock we call Earth is choose to enhance our existences with some magical combination of 12 silly little notes. Whew. Music, man! It’s really just the best freaking thing in the world.
Playlists!
Top 50 - One song from each of the top 50 above.
23 and Me - I feel like there are so many songs about being 23, and I liked being 23 once, and that made me like this year even more idk!
2023 Singles - Single releases or songs from EPs that have been on my rotation, and some to anticipate on full albums next year.
Lastly, the 200 Top Album Rankings spreadsheet for those who have requested (only 4 to 10 though, because those are the ones I most enjoyed)!
Many thanks to local hottie/numbers cruncher Austin Steinhart for helping turn my messy spreadsheet into yummy visuals, and also for having good music taste (thank god). <3
Natt this is amazing!!!!!! i also loved Vagabon esp “can i talk my shit”