It may be hyperbole to say this, but 2023 was the year the movies came back.
After three years of Hollywood being in pandemic mode and struggling to recover, including a year like last year when the films just felt so forgettable and meh, this year was filled with so many movies that were worth seeing that it was hard not to feel like things were back to normal.
Of course, it was interrupted by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which set production on many projects back a few months (or, in some cases, a year) and meant that nearly every film that was released during the strikes did so with little to no fanfare. If one of those releases found an audience, it could consider itself lucky.
But by year’s end, things were back on track, and here we are again taking stock of the best and worst releases of the year.
Every year, I’m fond of looking back through the music I’ve added to my annual Time Capsule playlist on Spotify and seeing what it says about those 12 months, if anything.
Rather than ranking the “best” music of the year, like so many music writers and publications do, or letting Spotify tell me my most-listened-to songs and artists, I find the Time Capsule playlist is a more accurate representation of not only what I listened to but what I want to remember about the year. Often, it reveals a narrative, providing a soundtrack of sorts for the last 12 months that helps me recall good times and bad, significant milestones, and the everyday joys of driving around with a good song playing at top volume.
This year, when taken as a whole, my Time Capsule playlist is kind of an odd collection of tunes — but then again, it was also kind of an odd year (more on that in another blog post). There’s less new music than usual, some definite themes or trends, and a bunch of seemingly random inclusions. The playlist (which is largely chronological and not ranked) is all over the place.
In short, what appears here requires a little explanation.
Martin's Musings 