Spotify recently sent me (as it did to many of you reading this) its “2023 Wrapped,” the personalized AI-powered summary of what I've been up to on that streaming platform, which happens to be the main place you listen. my music, organize my albums and save my playlists. Spotify chatteringly told me it had listened to 50 genres of music this year. Fifty! To be honest, I can't name 50 different genres.
I was also informed that my main genres are “delicious” and are classified as follows: 1. Alternative rock; 2. Singer-songwriter; 3. Crank wave; 4. Improv band; 5. Camera pop. Spotify also said I listened to 1,777 artists or bands this year. But it was my #3 gender that stumped me. I didn't know what Crank Wave was. So I looked it up.
It turns out that there is no single description of Crank Wave. Wikipedia says they are a group of bands, primarily from the United Kingdom and Ireland, who became popular in the early 2020s in a sort of post-punk revival. Bing AI had a very different take: Crank Wave is a subgenre of electronic music that emerged in the early 2020s and is characterized by “distorted, glitchy, and chaotic sounds, often mixed with heavily processed or unintelligible vocals.” often associated with themes of dystopia, nihilism and cyberpunk. Wow! My tastes are certainly evolving.
Seriously, I spent a lot of my time listening in 2023, exploring English post-punk bands like Black Country, New Road, whose members include rigorously trained classical and jazz musicians and self-taught musicians who experiment a lot. and they have a distinctive half-sung, half-spoken vocal style. They have only two studio albums but they have caused quite a stir. Some of their contemporaries, such as Squid, Dry Cleaning, Yard Act (all from England) and Fontaines DC (from Ireland) became fixtures on my playlists. Emerging in a post-Brexit world, these bands have become iconic to the young, disillusioned and restless. They also make good music.
There was a torrent of music that was released this year. For me, there were several that will probably be memorable; to be sought out and played over and over again. Like the daring one that Cat Power brought out. She faithfully recreated a complete setlist from the concert Bob Dylan played in 1966 at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. The American singer, born Chan Marshall, sang all the songs Dylan had sung in 1966, including the controversial switch to electric instruments, at London's Royal Albert Hall last year and released that live recording in November. It is a masterful album that is a meticulous tribute to one of the legends of contemporary music.
Then came some new albums from bands I've especially liked for a long time. Like alt-country experimenters Wilco, whose latest album Cousin, produced by Welsh musician Cate Le Bon, will find a place on my playlists for a long time to come. Or the masters of lo-fi, shoegaze, Yo la Tengo (YLT), whose This stupid world came out earlier this year and showcases his understated yet musically adventurous style. Formed in 1984, YLT have deeply influenced generations of bands, but they themselves have remained largely under the radar.
Yes, and another favorite band, The National, with their haunting melancholy, released not one but two albums this year: First two pages of Frankenstein; and laugh track. I liked the first one more than the second, but The National has become a must on my playlists because they can be the perfect sad band to turn to when you're feeling... yes, sad.
Then there was the entire catalog of '80s hip-hop legends and one of the funniest and most inventive bands in early rap, De La Soul. Known for sampling from a wide variety of sources and varied genres, the band's work was largely inaccessible due to copyright and royalty complications. That was fixed this year and all of De La Soul's work was published, allowing many fans of the genre to discover the influential work of one of hip-hop's pioneering bands. Their 1989 album, 3 feet tall and risingIt is essential to listen.
Several musicians died in 2023, prompting me to revisit much of their work. After Robbie Robertson died, I rewatched Martin Scorsese's 1978 film account of The Band's final concert. The last waltz. When Jeff Beck died in January, I re-explored the guitar genius's work, including during his early stint with the English band The Yardbirds, which launched his career and that of other legends such as Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
Similarly, I was drawn to albums by troubled Irish singer Sinead O'Connor after her death in July; and to David Crosby's songs after his death in January, especially his early work with The Byrds.
As Spotify's custom wrap duly informed me, 2023 was a feast for my ears.
THE LIST OF ROOMS
First Beat is a column about what's new and what's happening in the music world. He posts @sanjoynarayan
