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.
For example, there are a lot of songs that were featured in movies and TV shows I enjoyed, such as “Long, Long Time,” from The Last of Us; “Frightening Fishes” and “Every Morning,” from Shrinking; “Diamonds,” from the Super Bowl Halftime Show; “Dog Days Are Over,” from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; “Stay,” from Past Lives; “The Show Goes On” and “Strange Currencies,” from The Bear; “Murder on the Dancefloor,” from Saltburn; “A World of Your Own,” from Wonka; and “I’m Here,” from The Color Purple. (For the record, I didn’t actually see the new Trolls movie, but I included the new *NSYNC track from it because it was a new *NSYNC track. Same goes for the Bruce Springteen track from the movie She Came to Me.)
The playlist also includes multiple songs from the Daisy Jones and the Six album, Aurora; the Only Murders in the Building, season three, soundtrack; the Schmigadoon!, season two, soundtrack; and the Barbie soundtrack; and selections from the scores of Succession and A Thousand and One.
I only saw two musicals on stage this year, Sweeney Todd and Beetlejuice (the latter when it was on tour in Boston). But I enjoyed songs from Almost Famous (which I saw last year) and Shucked enough, and listened to them enough times, that I had to include them on the playlist, too. [Update 12/27: After this blog post was published, I saw Gutenberg! the Musical on Broadway. So I’ve added a song from that show to the playlist — except it’s from the original Off-Broadway production, not the production I saw, because Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad have yet to record a cast album.]
Similarly, I never watched the show Pose when it was on, but earlier this year, the YouTube algorithm randomly suggested I watch a clip of MJ Rodriguez and Billy Porter performing “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” and, well, that video got a bunch of play in the first half of my year. I also kept seeing clips of Cian Ducrot and a choir surprising people with performances of “I’ll Be Waiting,” so that earned the song a spot here, as well.
The Instagram algorithm is the reason there are three songs by Couch on this playlist. I was served up a clip of them playing a cover of Billy Joel’s “Vienna” in Times Square this fall and really dug their old-school, horn-driven sound. I’ve since gotten into this Boston-based band’s music quite a bit and have found their youthful energy hard to resist. “Alright” is a groovey tune of theirs that I’ve listened to the most, but “Saturday” is a close second, followed by “L.A.,” which is here because it makes me think of possible good times in 2024.
Here in 2023, though, things are more sober. So, of course, there are a number of songs reflecting the war in Israel and Gaza, including “Hatikva,” “Bring Him Home,” and “Am Yisrael Chai.” Matisyahu performed “One Day” and Omer Adam and Ishay Ribo performed “Halev Sheli (My Heart)” at the March for Israel, and I wanted to remember that day and those performances, so I included those tracks.
There are songs from some of the artists we lost this year: Burt Bacharach, Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, Sinéad O’Connor, and Jimmy Buffett, each a big loss. Thankfully, their music will live on.
Switching gears again, I saw John Mayer and Jamie Cullum in concert once each, Springsteen and the E Street Band twice, and the Lone Bellow three times, so those artists’ music is included on the playlist — as are tracks by J.P. Saxe and Stephen Wilson, Jr., who opened for Mayer and the Lone Bellow, respectively.
Actually, this year, the Lone Bellow reclaimed the title of my most-listened to artist on my Spotify Wrapped roundup, after two years in the number two or three spot. No wonder; their music is all over my 2023 Time Capsule playlist.
Likewise, Springsteen also made my Wrapped list of top artists and his music is all over the playlist, as well. One song, “I’m on Fire,” is here because I enjoyed Hollow Turtle’s bluegrass performance of it when I was down in Providence, R.I., this summer. Alas, their version is not on Spotify. Oh well.
Other artists with multiple songs on my playlist this year include Jonas Brothers, Chris Stapleton (including one with Dolly Parton), Darius Rucker, Bailen, Christopher, Noah Kahan, and Post Malone. You might say Willie Nelson appears here multiple times, too, since there are two songs from his 90th birthday celebration. And there’s one song — “Find Your People,” by Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors — that appears here twice; one version is the regular, more upbeat version and the other is a more mellow, acoustic version. In a year when finding my own people became important, that duplication seemed appropriate — and a nice way to end the playlist, too.
I’m a sucker for an earworm, so that’s why you see “Hey You,” which was featured in multiple New Balance commercials this year, and the ubiquitous “Lil Boo Thang” on my playlist.
I enjoyed a couple “novelty” songs this year — “It’s McElhenny,” Ryan Reynolds’ tribute to his Wrexham co-owner, and Kyle Gordon’s ubiquitous “Planet of the Bass” (shout-out to the real Ms. Biljana Electronica!) — so those are on my playlist, too.
And shout-out, as well, to my friend Edwin’s girlfriend, Heather Taylor, whose song “I’m Good” dropped in January. I listened to her track so many times in the first half of the year that I was convinced it would be my top song on Spotify Wrapped. Alas, Niko Moon and Zac Brown’s “Heaven Has a Bar” ultimately took that title. Sorry, Heather.
Finally, when I wasn’t listening to music this year, I was listening to podcasts like Smartless, Strike Force Five, and Anderson Cooper’s All There Is, or audiobooks like The Genius of Israel. Celebrity interviews, talk-show hosts passing the time, Cooper dealing with his grief and others’, and a (fantastic) book about the resiliency of a country whose mere existence became a flashpoint this year. If that’s not an up and down mix of topics, I don’t know what is.
Alright, if you’ve read this far, you may be wondering: No Taylor Swift? Nope. And that’s all I’m going to say about TIME magazine’s Person of the Year. Still not a fan.
Anyway, that’s just a sampling of what I was listening to this year. Definitely an odd mix of music and content. But yeah, that’s just the kind of year it was.
Martin's Musings 
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