It’s February, so I’m a little bit late to add to all of the reviews of last year posts, but when did timeliness ever matter here? I could go through what happened in the year but that would probably bore you dear reader, never mind me – and I lived through it.
Instead I’m going to concentrate on the best new (to me) music from 2023. I love listening to music, I can’t play for toffee but I can appreciate a good tune. When I’m working at home I have music playing (thanks Sonos!) and when I’m out and about I usually have my earbuds in and something playing on my phone.
I think it’s fair to say that I’m middle aged. Most people’s taste in music is set in their late teens and early twenties and I don’t think that I’m any different to anyone else. But what I’ve been trying to do in this age of streaming music services is to seek out new music, maybe by artists I already know and like but even better if it’s someone I’ve never really listened to before. To show how old I am I’m also going to list my favourite albums. These days the album is a strange concept but it is how I listen to music and I’m too old to change now.
Reviewing what I listened to and what I liked last year is a combination of music by new (to me) artists, new music by some of my favourites and the outlier is a record recorded in the early 90’s but not released until last year. Without further ado here are my top albums of 2023
- Gaz Coombes – Turn the Car Around – with a 5 star review in the Guardian no less
- Ben Folds – What Matters Most
- Pele – This Time Next Year
- James – Be Opened By The Wonderful
- Dan Sultan – Dan Sultan