Wrapping up my Replay

My Music Replay for 2023

I love this time of year – Apple Music summarises my listening habits for the last year, and presents it to me in a beautiful and engaging way. “Here, master” Apple Music says “I now present to you all the bangers you’ve queued up, every bop you had on repeat and all the artists and albums that slap, all presented just for your pleasure.” Oh ho ho, why thank you Apple Music! I will take a gander, and I will be impressed with my listening tastes. What a man of culture I am that you have presented this so nicely to me! You live to see another year of my hard-earned money go towards your subscription…

And then like magic, it almost writes a blog post for me! All the data is there, all the lovely screenshots and sharable pictures, all waiting for me to do something more than just Tweet about it. And so, we write about it because we must. For no one else shall take it upon themselves to write about my year in music, nor will they understand the absolute culture and artistry on display as I showcase my musical tastes to the world.

What I really like about these Apple Music Replays and Spotify Wraps and whatever the heck YouTube Music does, is the very real data behind it. It tells a story. Like for instance, this year I only listened to 18,000 minutes of music. Thats less than half of what I did last year. And therein lies the story! Why did I listen to less music, why did this song get 66 plays while the next one got 25, how come this album never left my rotation? Each stat a story, beautifully presented. Data can indeed be beautiful!

Now, let’s dive in!

This year, I listened to less music than last year. The reason is that I was busier this year, having more adventures and also because I got into podcasts in a big way. If you’re looking for podcast recommendations, then this is not the post for you. But one may come… If you ask nicely enough. Another reason is that the Sonos app has gone out of its way to not play nice with Apple Music. Look, i can understand, they want you to use their service or even Spotify at a stretch, but the Apple Music implementation is more of a roadblock than anything. Part of the reason I have moved to Apple HomePod’s! (the review is in the works!)

My top artist was Sleep Token, and if you haven’t heard these guys yet, then do yourself a favour! They are absolutely incredible with what they are doing. While I don’t class them as heavy, in fact, they are more light rock in my opinion, they are doing amazing things in the genre! I have to do a music review of their album at some stage.

Make Them Suffer’s Ghost Of Me was an absolute assault on the sense this past year. One of the best metal tracks I have ever heard, without a doubt, the song has a fantastic push and pull to it that has you being yanked around by your neck. Listen to it! Listen to it now!

And Todsunden by Feuerschwanz managed to stay in rotation all year. What can I say? A German power metal band covering 80 pop hits and even some of the newer songs just sits right with me. Their cover of Blinded by the Lights is amazing, but their standout track, without a doubt, is their cover of Ghosts’ Square Hammer. They have taken a mediocre rendition of it and made it into one of the best metal tracks out there.

And of course, the genre… No surprises there!

My top artists also tell an interesting story. I am surprised to see Slipknot so high, considering their last album The End, So Far has not really grabbed me. The Privateer is still some of the best pirate metal one can put into their ear drums, and their song Ghost Lights is incredible. Orbit Culture is earth shatteringly good and their latest album is criminally underrated. Seriously, they are super technical and heavy while remaining a great time! Eluveitie remains of my most favourite bands ever, so they will always make an appearance. Wind Rose – ah dwarven metal – the genre you never knew you needed! Put on their Wintersaga album and tell me I am wrong. You can’t can you?

And a new discovery this year – Bloodred Hourglass – blew me away. They managed to jump into this list, despite me only discovering them mid way through December. Yes! That’s how good they are.

The albums that made it into this list also tell an interesting story. Like I said, Bloodred Hourglass was only discovered in mid-December and already they are up there with 52 plays! And We Came as Romans’ Darkbloom was on repeat prior to seeing them live. Now that was a killer gig, and definitely one band I’ll be going back to see in future. I have already mentioned Orbit Culture, but I’ll say it again – listen to these guys. Listen to them loud! This new album is incredible!

Top songs for fun time sing along time – and they are the staples i have already mentioned. Sleep Token’s Rain is one of my all-time favs. And Bloodywood manage to combine Indian music with metal and have something really special. If you have not heard them yet, Endurant is a fantastic intro song to this band.

In a surprise to no one, my top genres are pretty standard… so not worth mentioning really. But here they are just the same!

This year, Apple Music did something I really enjoyed – Milestones. Taking your listening history and telling you on what date you hit certain milestones, like when did you play 1,000 songs, or on what date you had listened to 500 artists. This is great as it gamifies listening to music a little bit – you get to compare with friends and family, and see who the main music fiend is in your group. More of these please Apple! When did I listen to the most new songs? What day did I hear a certain song for the 10,000th time? Give me more stats!

Another new thing was the playlist and radio stations. I really like the new music algorithm Apple has here and its evident by the fact that almost 3,000 minutes was spent in this one playlist alone. It helps that it gets refreshed every Friday, and showcases new-to-you music and not just the released-in-the-last-7-days music. It’s allowed me to discover old bands I wouldn’t have otherwise, long after their last album has been sold.

And so wraps up another year of being a very happy Apple Music subscriber. I often said that the point of these subscription services is to make you actually want to use them. Apple Music – the subscription and the app both do this very well. While in the app I want to keep listening to music, I want to dig more into the artists, the albums, the songs, I want to watch the music videos and listen to the behind the scenes. There’s something magical Apple have managed to capture here, it’s magic that just isn’t the same when it comes to YouTube or Spotify.

And as is custom, here is my playlist for this year’s Replay. Critique it, find some new bands or songs to dive into, and let me know what you think! Who was your top played artist, album or song? What album really stood out for you? And what were your total listening minutes!