With the caveat that my last.fm account was disconnected in April and I didn’t realize it before the beginning of May, I have a few stats about the music I listened to in 2018: 3,645 tracks, some multiple times: 6,245 listens. that amounted to 15 days and 4 hours of music 690 different artists, of which 66% were artists I hadn’t listened to before 971 different albums (84% new) My top albums were: ...
I’m old fashioned. I listen to albums rather than tracks. I discovered a lot of new music — new to me, in 2015: thank you internet. In fact: thank you Curated YouTube. Amoeba records’ What’s in My Bag video series is a great way to find new music, as are The Needle Drop, KEXP or NPR Music. The amount of great music, old and new, available on YouTube these days is just unbelievable… In the “oldish” category, I spent quite some time with Joni Mitchell, in particular her 1976 Hejira album, which she did with jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius. It’s a beautiful album about road trips, more jazzy than folk, but still very tight and accessible. I also listened to Steve Reich a lot — but that’s a given any year. In the new albums by older bands, I liked the Thurston Moore Band’s The Best Day. It obviously reminds one of Sonic Youth, but it still feel fresh, energetic, and new. ...