It's End Of Year List Season
My Favourite Time of Year
One of the hot topics that comes up in music every now and again is that of gatekeepers, music journalists, playlist curators, record labels, radio producers, DJs, there’s too many, there’s not enough, the list goes on… everyone has a say about who controls what we get to hear, or what they think we should get to hear.
I’m of the belief that most people you could accuse of being ‘gatekeepers’ actually just want to share what they love, not for any underhand reason, but just because they truly love and believe in the music they’re sharing. Of course sometimes there’ll be other commercial reasons in wanting to push a release, but on the whole people who write about/release/play/program music do so because of a love of it.
One way we get to share these tunes we love, especially at this time of year, is via the ubiquitous end of year list or chart. Every record shop and music publication worth it’s salt will put together a list of things they’ve loved that year, and some of the bigger players will even go so far as to commission exclusive versions of their favourite releases with special packaging or extra tracks. That’s a real belief in what you’re selling.
By far and away the daddy of all End of Year charts is Boomkat’s behemoth offering - not content with listing their favourite new releases, reissues and discoveries they also invite a wide variety of artists, labels, journalists, distributors and other assorted hangers-on to submit lists of their favourite records of the year. It’s honestly one of my annual highlights going through these lists and seeing what friends, peers and people I look up to have chosen as their records of the year gone by. It’s also a great opportunity to discover new things, things I might have overlooked or missed for whatever reason but then you see it on someones list and think “well if so-and-so rates it then perhaps I should check it out after all”.
My personal list is here, I’ve spoken about most of these records in my newsletters already this year but not much of the list is on Spotify. You should find most of it on Boomkat (obviously) or Bandcamp if not, but some of it you might need to dig a little deeper for. I cut it down a bit to keep it to around 10 releases, but it could have been three or four times longer - it’s been a good year for music this year, even though it’s been a pretty shitty year for the world (and for me personally, as I write this laid up in bed with COVID).
In the spirit of things, I’ve put together a Spotify playlist of some favourites from 2023, and I’ve also shared a few books, films and tv shows I’ve enjoyed this year too.
In Strict Tempo 2023 Charts
Music
Films
I don’t really watch a lot of films if I’m honest, but enjoyed Oppenheimer (although it could have easily been forty minutes shorter).
TV Shows
Silo (Apple TV) was very good, enjoyable and not overlong. My clear favourite (like most peoples) was The Bear Series 2 (Disney+), which despite the superfluous romantic storyline was absolutely masterful. Episodes 6 & 7 (Fishes and Forks) were such a stunning back-to-back of TV like I’ve never seen before. I think I’m gonna watch it for a third time over Xmas. Welcome to Wrexham (Disney+) continued to annoy me but I’ll concede that some episodes (mainly the ones in which Rob & Ryan don’t feature) were put together very well.
Books
I didn’t read as much as I wanted to this year, but finally read Dracula which was better than I was expecting. I read Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men which was a great run-through of the criminally overlooked contributions to art by women throughout history and Audrey Golden’s I Thought I Heard You Speak which speaks to a number of the women involved with Factory Records - outside of the Wilson/Curtis/Hook/Ryder story everyone knows there were a whole army of women running the club and label behind the scenes that haven’t got their dues until now.
(I know I’m giving out Amazon links here, and your local bookshop would appreciate the custom far more, but if you need a last-minute Christmas present then Amazon is probably the only place that will be able to deliver in time.)
Finally I’d like to thank each and every one of you for reading/sharing/subscribing to this newsletter, and wish you all a happy holiday season however and wherever you’re celebrating. I’ll be back again in 2024 with more music and more hot takes.