My 2023 Spotify List

<< Click here and listen to my favourite music of 2023 >>

This is number 14 of my yearly list of tunes and albums I especially enjoyed this year. It's always a bit of a struggle, to prepare my end-of year list, and this year wasn't any different.

2023 was actually a pretty tough year, not much for me to enjoy. So it's kind of ironic that Romy repeating endlessly "Enjoy Your Life" during 4 minutes ended with the #1 spot. The Austrian cabin-hike crew had to endure me putting it on time after time on our way back - thanks for the patiencie, lads!

PJ, Downpilot, the omnipresent Polacheck and Roisín Murphy came up with my favourite albums of the year. Special mention for the tunes is Marina Herlop, which I had the pleasure to discover during a live performance this year. I really need to do more concerts next year.

All the best for 2024! Enjoy music and enjoy your life!!

(listen to my playlist below this image)

My 2022 Spotify playlist

<< Click here and listen to my favourite music of this year >>

13 years. For 13 years I have been doing this.

For 13 years, I've been listening and following up on new outcoming music. And at the end of every year I compile my favourite music into a Spotify list. You can click on the link above, or directly listen using the widget below.

2023 was a strange year, music-wise. I went hardly to any concert. I wasn't sure I had 5 favourite albums until last week, and at one point I thought a might just skip making this list this year.

But, turns out there was actually plenty of great music out there. The Belgians are on top this year, with Chantal Acda and Stromae #1 and #2. Music person of the year Rosalia was never absent this year, thanks to her solo album Motomami and many colaborations. "Between There and Here" was surely the purest pop-song of this year.

Many cool and beatiful things to discover in this list. Let's give it a try!

Here's to a great 2023 full of music!

My 2021 Spotify List

Don't want to read?

Click straight here to listen to my favourite music of this year on Spotify.

Here we are back again with my list of prefered music. It's alreay been 12 years I compile a yearly list.

I must admit, I had a bit of a hard time following new music this year. I spent a lot of time traveling and looking at stock markets and being in love again. Priorities, you know. I also discovered a lot of 2020 music this year, which I had missed out on last year. So my 2021 list isn't only a list wih 2021 music.

Enjoy listening!! And what am I looking forward to on 2022? Concerts, concerts and festivals!!

Happy music-listening for 2022 for all of you.

My 2020 Spotify List

2020 was a fantastic year, not only for music: I retired, and everybody knows that not working was what I was looking for this year.

When it comes to music, there were a lot of highlights:

• Nobody blocked my view during festivals.
• No band I can think of right now officially split up.
• No major disappointments at concerts or on releases.

(Sorry for the sarcastic intro - now a bit more serious.)

Making my yearly list wasn't hard at all. I probably listened to more new tunes than ever. And this list is also a bit longer than normally. 

But I did miss more releases during the year, and more albums that will stick and that opened my eyes and ears. It does feels a bit of a non-optimal choice to put Nick Cave with his solo-concert of mainly old songs on #1. Even if the album and concert and film wouldn't have existed if Cave was on tour with his band.

But I'm convinced a lot of great stuff will be put out over the next couple of months and years after everything that has happened this year. Creativity will triumph. We can expect a super 2021 list, no doubt.

For any newbies: The list follows my traditional set-up: First my 5 favorite albums (Nick Cave, Sorry, Ellie Goulding, Halsey, Destroyer). Then 5 also-great albums (Matt Berninger - Bebel Gilberto - Georgia - POLIÇA - HEISA). Then the list of songs I liked.

My 2019 Spotify List

2019 - the year where music came in pairs!

Don't feel like reading a blogpost like it is still 2013? You can listen to my 2019 list here. 

Like all previous years, in 2019 I built my list with favorite music following this structure: first you get one song from my Top5 Albums. Then you get all the songs I like.
Btw, did you know I've made this list now for 10 years in a row? A decade!

My top5 Albums:

1. MAGDALENA - FKA Twigs

Most inovative album. Futuristic and dark hiphop, with Miss Twigs' voice in a star-role. Also the album with the best pair of songs: sad day // holy terrain.

2. Big Thief

This band I had never heard of before. They came up with 2 albums in less than 6 months. Not sure if I'll still listen to them in 3 years time, but both albums are of great beauty. I couldn't decide between them. I hope to see them live in February. 

3. Ghosteen - Nick Cave

Maestro Cave came up with a double album in 2019, building further on his track towards a life's work that can only be described as an opus magnus. This album is again about his son who died a couple of years ago and you can feel the pain.

4. Nest - Brutus

This Belgian band has made such a big step from their first album. They mix rock and heavy up until post-rock, while the singers voice steers all the noize to safe places.

5. Norman Fucking Rockwell - Lana del Rey

La Lana does what's she's been doing for the last 10 years: nostalgic pop with a state-of-the-art production, singing about hedonistic 50´s California. And she's only getting better at it with each album.

Click on the image to enlarge

You can discover the rest of the list on Spotify. Som general thoughts:

• The list is probably the longest I've ever made. Probably a good indication on how rich 2019 was.
• I'm surprised how much commercial tunes have gotten into the list.
• I've added for the first time 2 tracks of the same album on here - Pairs!
• There's still a fair share of "country which isn't country" music, like my friends tend to call it.

Enjoy listening!

My 2018 Spotify List

At the last day of 2018, I’m proud to share with you my list of favorite albums and songs of 2018. Click link here to listen.

What a year it was, 2018, for music. I found it very exciting. Traditionally I make a list with the first 5 songs representing my favorite albums, and the rest are just songs I like. But this year, the first 16 songs all represent albums I really liked in 2018. So much albums that proved to be worth being in this list – that’s something that didn’t happen since 2012.

2018 might not have given us the albums that mark history, no albums that redefine the foundations of how music is made. But it was very broad and very high quality overall. As a result, I've created the longest year-end list since I started doing this in 2010.

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U.S. Girls goes first, helped by the best song of the year Rosebud. Credit to them. Serpentwithfeet is bizarre and brilliant, our Paris neighbor Marianne Faithfull made a timeless album, The Blaze provided the perfect summer soundtrack and last-minute entry 6LACK (cheers, Dalons) will be a rap album I’ll still listen to long into 2019.

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It surprises me how more and more of this list starts becoming Rap and R&B oriented and/or influenced. I used to be very rock, but here I only have Die Nerven in my list (first German album I include, I think).  

2018 gave me also a lot of Belgians worth including in the list (4), and some bands like SX didn’t even make my cut. The Belgian bands also provided the first French and (I think) Flemish songs I included in my list.

Listen on in 2019!

My 2017 Spotify List

Here is my traditional list of favourite albums and songs of 2017. (Click link to listen here)

Like every year, the first 5 songs of the list represent my preferred albums. Slowdive is all the way up there with their comeback album. Their nice concert on Rock en Seine added to making them the #1 this year.

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There are 3 funny things about this list:

1. From my Top 5 albums, I only knew Mount Eerie before 2017 started - it has been a year of discovering a lot of new bands.
2. I think this list is the least in line with what everybody else has in their list this year (No Kendrick, War on Drugs, Vince Staples or SZA for me).
3. Almost all my preferred music this year was released in the first half of the year.

What follows are my preferred songs of this years. Some lesser work from The XX, The National, Iron & Wine, Lana, Benjamin Clementine this year unfortunately.

(click on image to enlarge)

Many thanks to den Humo, Spotify's 'Discover Weekly' and Dalons for tips and discussions.

Hope you enjoy the 2017 list, and let me know what you think!