Of course Spotify Wrapped doesn’t really show the true state of the music that I was enjoying, listening to and discovering in 2023. So, I have decided to compile my favourites of 2023, broken up in three posts that I will share over the next three days.
First up: My Top 10 Tracks of 2023
It will be of no surprise that the first artist to get a mention in this list is Hamish Hawk. It was a year in which he featured heavily in my listening and gig-going. I went to see him live a total of six times during the year, travelling as far as Blackpool to see him play. Interestingly, my Spotify Wrapped said it was Bridget St John from the Angel Numbers album that was my most played song of 2023. I do love it but, for me (and it is an almost impossible choice because there are just so many of Hamish’s songs that I love), I am going with Think Of Us Kissing.
Waaay back in January, the Godfather of Punk, Mr James Newell Osterberg Jr, released his album Every Loser. There were two singles from the album that were released towards the end of 2022, Frenzy and Strung Out Johnny. Both received radio play from Billy Sloan which had me eager to check out the album when it was released. I really enjoyed the album. For me there were a number of great songs on it, but my firm favourite was New Atlantis.
February was a busy month in that I was absolutely captivated by a song that Billy Sloan gave quite the plug to – Get It On by local East Kilbride band One Nine Eight. In the same month, Hamish Hawk’s Angel Numbers was released and I went to my first headline gig of his at St Luke’s – just up the road from the Barras. With that said, February belonged to One Nine Eight and Get It On.
May saw the releases of two albums by two of my favourite American bands, The Lemon Twigs and Sparks. Both of them toured the UK in that month as well. I managed to see both of them, with the gigs just three days apart. I’ll talk a bit more about those in my post about my gigs of 2023. As for the songs in my Top 10 tracks? For The Lemon Twigs it was the album’s lead single – Corner Of My Eye, which had been released in January. As for Sparks, my favourite was Escalator. It just has such a captivating melody and the lyrics are wonderful. A mix of melancholy and hope. A domestic romance.
As far as local talent went for May, I went and saw Brooke Combe. She was another find from listening to Billy Sloan and I wanted to go and see her perform on the strength of what I was hearing of her music through listening to Billy’s show. Black Is The New Gold was the track that got me wanting to see her. She released what was called a ‘mixtape’ in April which featured the song as the titular track. Other tracks had been released as singles over the previous two years. I had actually chosen ‘Are You With Me?’ as the track I was going to highlight but it had originally been released in 2021, and as it was Black Is The New Gold that brought her to my attention, I changed my choice.
April saw the release of a fantastic reimagining of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle by The Anchoress. Catherine Anne Davies had been working on releasing ‘covers’ – reinterpretations, reimaginings – call it what you like – of other artists’ songs and releasing them for Bandcamp Friday. A set of EPs on compact disc followed to then become a full-blown album of these songs titled Versions, released on both vinyl and compact disc. Catherine was also able to get back on the road and tour. The tour was broken up into two parts, one part in the spring, the other in the autumn. There are several tracks on the Versions album I enjoy but Bizarre Love Triangle just has a real great dance groove to it. A great synth-pop joy.
The next track came from a band that I grew an organic kind of curiosity about. I saw their name come up here and there and thought I would take a dive into their music. They’re called Nation Of Language and they were going to be coming to Glasgow in June. I was liking what I was hearing and decided to grab a ticket for the gig. Also happy to be returning to the QMU for a gig as I really enjoyed my experience of seeing Brooke Combe perform there. They were mesmerising, particularly their frontman, Ian Richard Devaney, and his performing style. Their album, Strange Disciple was released in September, and it was the lead single, Sole Obsession, that for a period became MY ‘Sole Obsession.’ It seemed to be encapsulating things going on with me on a personal level which really resonated with me, and as a result I just fell in love with the track.
The penultimate track comes from the super-grouping of Lol Tolhurst, Budgie and Jacknife Lee and was the lead cut from their album, Los Angeles – its title track. Another one exposed to me by Billy Sloan. The album was released on 3 November and I’ve yet to listen to it in its entirety but I definitely want to give it a listen. I mean, come on, what’s not to love about the concept of an album involving two great drummers?
Finally, a song that was introduced to me through listening to Ronnie McGhie’s show on Pulse 98.4. It’s by local artist, Andrew Wyper called What You Wanted. It just resonated with me instantly and I couldn’t get enough of it.
So, here they are in order of discussion, my Top 10 tracks of 2023:
Think Of Us Kissing – Hamish Hawk
Corner Of My Eye – The Lemon Twigs
Black Is The New Gold – Brooke Combe
Bizarre Love Triangle – The Anchoress
Sole Obsession – Nation Of Language
Los Angeles – Lol Tolhurst + Budgie + Jacknife Lee
What You Wanted – Andrew Wyper
Next up tomorrow will be my Top Five albums of 2023.
