I’ve been tracking all the music I listen to since mid-2011 on last.fm, and now it’s time to share my own version of Spotify Wrapped (but without the pretty graphics, and, more importantly, without the Spotify):
I listened to 27,296 total songs last year, which comes out to 74 a day!
Monthly averages ranged from a low of 49 songs a day (May) to a high of 101 (January). This was my third-highest year on record in terms of song count, just ahead of 2023 (27,115), but far behind 2020 (28,618) and far, far behind 2024's record of 41,110.
This is hardly surprising given my change in employment. I went from being able to listen to music for hours and hours each night while working to having a job in which I tell people not to listen to music. (At least while they're supposed to be doing group projects.)
It's not all about play count obviously, but I do wish I had more time to listen to music. There's still so much out there... but I don't expect to see my listening time do anything but go down a bit this year.
My most-listened artists and albums are below.
Downy at #1 is no surprise considering how last year they managed to climb to #3 within a month of my discovering them in December. I still haven't been able to stop listening to them -- and am even going to a music festival in Japan this April to see them live!
The biggest shake-up, though, is King Gizzard falling from the #1 spot they'd held for the past three years -- and not just to #2, but to #7. Somewhat ironic given how many times I saw them live this year (six!), but obviously I still love them, and as soon as they put out an album I like again I'm sure I'll re-obsess.
Nine Inch Nails, meanwhile, perennially sits in my top 10, and moved up this year despite my having fewer plays of them than at any point in my music listening history.
This award goes to the album I listened to the most this year which I discovered at least a full calendar year prior.
Before checking, I was at a loss for what the Top Classic might be -- there were no older albums I felt like I kept returning to throughout the year. However, the numbers revealed the truth. The winner, in its very first year of eligibility and with a total of 9 plays, was…
My #9 favorite album of 2023 has evidently ended up being the one with the most staying power. Here is my review, as originally written in that year-end list:
Yet another reason to thank the online pirate community: this gem would otherwise never have popped onto my radar, and there would have been only seven people at their show at O’Briens back in May instead of eight. (Shoutout to the guy who invited his Tinder date to the show; you, sir, are Doing the Work.) This is an album for staring out of the window into the rain and wondering why you have so many emotions. As one Bandcamp reviewer put it, “every song is able to cry your heart out to.” Thick and present basslines, angular guitars à la Franz Ferdinand, and pounding drums; emotive vocals that switch between singing and screaming, but which are surprisingly non-cheesy for a post-hardcore-adjacent band. It’s powerful stuff.
Shout-out to the runners-up: And So I Watch You From Afar's self-titled; Saul Williams' self-titled; and the Top Classic of both 2022 and 2023, Mujuice’s Cool Cool Death!, each of which I listened to 7 times!