Time Best Songs of 2020

So first of all let me be honest - I am ready for year end lists in the world of music. Those of you who either watch this space or know me should also know that 2020 was a really different year in terms of the music I listened to. Yeah, yeah, we can all reflect on COVID and work from home and say unprecedented a  lot, but whatever it is or was, my musical tastes went really sideways. I'm sure I'll have more on that when I do my spotify write up, but for now, this list.

The full article is here. 

I fully appreciate that all the songs play embedded, here is the spotify direct link.

10. Long Road Home by Oneothrix Point Never off of Magic Oneothrix Point Never.

Do you know who this is? I didn't either, but I a couple seconds of searching informed me that it is Daniel Lopatin, the guy who did the excellent Uncut Gems soundtrack. This song is great and deserves more attention - its complex and challenging, but has enough structure there to be palatable to listeners who don's steep themselves in electronica or ambient. Great pick Time.

9. Uwrongo by Prince Kaybee, Shimza, Black Motion, and Ami Faku (Single)

I had no idea who any of these people were, Time gives some dramatic backstory, but the question is, is the song good? Yes, yes it is. It is great.  Sadly most of my touch in African pop is random bits and bobs I pick up in pop culture and Paul Simon's Graceland. This song is Graceland, updated for 2020 R&B sounds. I loved every second of it. If you liked Nico and Vinz in 2015 but wanted something a little more authentic and less pop, this is probably it. 

8. Back Door by Stray Kids, off of In Life.

2020 was truly my year of K-pop. I went from "I like a couple here and there because they are earwigs" to "I follow K-pop news and understand why music shows matter." That said, my appreciation of boy bands still lags well behind my enjoyment of the female idol groups. Of course, this must be balanced with the fact that I now categorize groups by their management, and know that I like a lot of what JYP is putting out. All of this is a long way of saying, if Time had to pick a single song to represent all of K-pop for 2020, this is not my choice but its passable.

7. 7 Summers by Morgan Wallen (single).

I'm not quite one of those people who says "Anything but country" when asked about my musical tastes, but I'm pretty close in practice. I don't stay that close to country except to understand that it is suffering from an identity crises where all the top 40 is formulaic and drowning out some really unique talents. This song honestly sounds like the former - there is unrequited love, beer, summer, and a river... The music is balanced but clearly makes use of 12 studio musicians to lay down the various layers of chords. The lyrics are also dripping in that bizarre sort of misogyny that is a warning sign of future violence when an internet troll expresses it but makes up the basis of country music. Wallen has the best mullet of 2020, and there have been some decent mullets this year. 

6. Think About Things by Daoi Freyr (single, Eurovision)

I love Eurovision and spend a lot of time with it, and with it being cancelled this year, I think much like the 1992 Phillies, Daoi Freyr will always be remembered as being robbed. I've been listening to this song since it first attracted Eurivision buzz and it still holds up. Its great, just great, that sort of simple electro-pop that Iceland is singularly good at once every decade. I just love it, and you should too.

5. Good News by Mac Miller, off of Circles

Sadly, Mac Miller has never been able to capture my imagination the way he probably deserves. Circles was no different for me, and Good News fits that bill exactly. I listen to it, think to myself "This is really great" and then turn it off and never listen to it again until it shows up on a year end list. He is soulful, his lyrics are deep and well written, and he absolutely knows what his strengths are, but again, of the song's 5 minute run time the first 2 minutes are enough for me.

4. Little Nokia by Bree Runway off of 2000AND3EVA

Time's write up, and the video, probably hurt this one more than it deserves. This song is just great. As Time does correctly point out, this walks across genres in a way that could easily be trite but instead just makes it into its own song. Its smart, catchy, and bold in all the right ways - I feel like this is Rhianna if she went harder and less broad appeal.\

3. Yo Perreo Sola - Remix by Bad Bunny, Nesi and Ivy Queen (single)

I wasn't as enamored with this one as Time, in fact this and 7 Summers are the headscratchers for me. Its a solid Reggaeton song for sure, and I also really like the minimalist presentation here. Unfortunately, it will probably be slaughtered with all sorts of extra noise in clubs for the next two years (assuming clubs ever are a thing again...). I really enjoyed that the video makes use of drag, something I understand to be a big deal in latin machismo culture, but otherwise I'm just not seeing how this is better than all but two other songs released this year...

2. WAP (feat. Megan Thee Stallion) by Cardi B (single)

If there was a single song that I think captures 2020, this might be it - its unique role in trolling the Republican machine was perfect, the genius of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, the fact that everyone needed a rude escape, if in 50 years they re-do Forest Gump this is a big part of the 2020 scenes soundtrack. Again, though, this isn't that great of a song in and of itself - its value is the commentary it makes, the commentary it generated, the commentary it will continue to generate. If the list was "10 songs that explain 2020" this would be number 1, if the list is "the best songs" of 2020, this doesn't qualify.

1. People, I've been sad by Christine and the Queens off of La vita nuova

Ok, this can be the best song of 2020. This is a fine choice. I'm on board. This stands on its own as art, and you don't even need Time's overly contrived writeup about how this is how we all felt this year unprecedented etc etc. Song is so beautiful, so well performed, and it knows exactly what it wants to do at every moment. This is why I love the best IDM - there are a million bips and bops, and each of them represents a chance to be right or wrong, and the best (Aphex, mu-ziq) are always right, even when you aren't. This song has that quality. 

Best of 2018 - 6-10 (Post 2)

This is my... I guess 20 part series where I look in a little more detail at each of my top 2018 tracks through Spotify. 

Track	Artist	Album	Comments
Generated Bodies	Lymbyc Systym	Split Stones	I'm pretty certain this was my most listened to album last year, and there isn't much new to say this year. I didn't spend as much time with the entire album this year but did enjoy coming back to it from time to time. It still has a solid place in my rotation when I don't want to mess with what I'm hearing and I want to know I'll like everything for the next hour or so.
The God Behind The Pines	L'Indécis	Plethoria	This is probably my first real surprise from the list this year - I didn't remember the name or sound of this track until I started working on this retrospective. Having said that - I can see why its here: The steel drums are nice but not overdone, there is heavily layered bass and underlying warm tones, and there is a bit of the quick loop style that I'm noticing comes up in a few places throughout the list.
1977	Adam Young	Voyager 1	Adam Young was my surprise find this year, and my goodness is there a lot here. First of all, he puts out an album a month, which is an absurdity. What is even more absurd is that they are each essentially meditations on a theme. What is probably craziest of all, however, is how good each is. Its like a painter doing a study in light, in red, in realism, in perspective, in tone - each for practice and improvement, rather than final release - but each is a museum quality piece in its own right. This ties into something else that I find really interesting - the idea of doing things for the experience of doing them. Its learning through restriction. Its deliberate practice. Its making practice harder so game time feels easy. It isn't often, however, that you get such deep insight into the creative process. Honestly, I love everything about what he is doing but 1977 is one of those standout tracks that is tough to put down. It might be impossible to say everything that I like about it, but I'll hit a couple things. First and foremost, it has a sneaky drop that reminds me of Mrs Jynx, another artist that I ramble on about. Its a goosebumps moment that doesn't involve the sunrising over Ibiza, and he comes back to it a couple of times and works it into the song tapestry. Usually the drop is a singular moment to help the listener know what to do, but here it is just how the song moves. This is also a space odyssey song (the album Voyager 1 is about, well, Voyager 1) and this song gives the sense of blasting through deep space, alone, resolute, and full of wonder. Sure, you are never going back home and will die in the cold void of space, but that is in the future - right now you are rocketing around Saturn's rings seeing things that no one has ever seen before. It uses a couple vague static voice samples too - which is normally a trope - but here its just beautiful.

Aldgate Patterns	Little People	We Are But Hunks Of Wood	I stumbled into Little People this year (I've listened to a couple songs here and there previously but never seriously) and it was Aldgate Patterns that got me hooked. Little People actually probably leans closer to the hipster style indie folk that bubbles up through NPR sometimes, so if that is the type of thing you like, maybe give this a try (if you like From Indian Lakes you will probably understand Little People). One surprise for me as I started down this road was how much I genuinely enjoyed the full album, as well as the full Mickey Mouse Operation album previously released.
This Is America	Childish Gambino	This Is America	Since leaving the world of working in bars and nightclubs, I've taken a step back from staying on top of mainstream trends. Still, every so often I listen to something because I think its a cultural touchstone that I need to have context for. That is why I started with this song. One only need to talk to me for a couple minutes to learn that I don't have the familiarity or history to speak knowledgeably about hip hop or rap. I doubt I could really do this song justice, and in any case, so much has been written about it I think we've developed the This is America library of Babel. I'll just conclude with general thankfulness that I got to experience this.

Best of 2018 - First 5 (Post 1)

This is my... I guess 20 part series where I look in a little more detail at each of my top 2018 tracks through Spotify. 

Track	Artist	Album	Comments
Noriko's Story	Levox	The Dynasty Chronicles	I don't know how I found this one, but this was one of my favorite finds this year. I love the traditional bamboo flute influences - I've had a soft spot for far eastern chamber music for ages - and it is balanced here perfectly with the hip hop beat. I think what really takes this to the next level are the occasional empty spaces, as well as the repetitive loops stuck in throughout. The structure draws heavily from mu-ziq style breakbeat (or even Skrillex style bro-step) where there is a melody developed that comes in and out through the interruptions of the harder and slightly more discordant beat breaks. As a side note - the rest of this album is solid and generally stays around this theme. Its all worth checking out.
Wishbone	nervous_testpilot	Music for Code	This quickly became one of those songs where I found myself humming it subconsciously - the depth of the bass is superb, with just enough modulation to make you think. It always resists the temptation to turn into dubstep though. At times you think its going to turn into chiptunes, but again, it resists those urges as well. You know what the reference is for this one? Its Halo 2 - Halo 2 had a much hyped soundtrack with input from Incubus if I recall correctly, but honestly it was kind of meh. However, there was one moment where the level opened up and you were walking across a bridge between archipelagos and the skybox was stunning, and this track kicked in, and for 25 seconds you weren't slaying aliens, you were in a different world just out of your mind lost in wonder. That is this song. The album isn't quite a full album, probably more like an EP, but the rest of the songs are great as well. Its a shorter but entirely coherent piece of work, and deserves any and all praise it gets.
Last Kiss	ARTY	Glorious	This one makes me laugh - I have no idea where this came from or how I stumbled across it, but good god, it just is... I don't know... it? Such a random little track in the middle of an album that doesn't otherwise use this sound, but here we are. The funny thing is, ARTY is a pretty big mainsteam EDM name, and even though he goes into downtempo from time to time, I've never really felt that strong of a connection. I don't know why he made this one - I honestly think it was either a thought experiment or just a listening break on the album - but I'm glad he did, and I'm glad I got to live it.
Burn - Magic Man Remix	Ellie Goulding Magic Man	Burn (Remixes)	Haha - this song shows up every year that Spotify provides me with a year end list. I love it. I love it. I love Ellie Goulding. I love this remix. I love Burn. I wish I could go back to 2009 or whenever last.fm started pushing her music and experience it again for the first time. But since I can't go back in time I will just continue listening to this song until I die. Editor's Note - As I was writing these little retrospectives, I ended up just putting this on repeat for the rest of the day and had to pick up the rest the next day. What is life even?
Ice Cream Cake	Red Velvet	The 1st Mini Album‘Ice Cream Cake’	Those who have known me and my musical tastes for a couple years should also know that my favorite musical guilty pleasure is Top 40 female bubblegum pop - Keisha, Kelly Clarkson, Madonna, Hillary Duff, you get the idea. Thus, I've toyed with the idea of listening to K-Pop for a while but never really took the jump. Well - this year I went hard into it. I spent most of my time with the all female groups, and generally stuck to the pop side of things. The power ballads weren't my favorite, and the rap side of things is cool, but wasn't quite my taste. However, the all female groups singing this sort of upbeat pop is 100% quality. Unfortunately I haven't quite figured out how this stuff gets released, and thus far my discovery has been very scattershot. Still - I'm ok with this being the first K-Pop pick on this list.

Spotify Wrapped 2018

Here we go! The annual Spotify Wrapped post, this time new and improved for 2018. Let's see what I did in my listening this year.

So - first of all, the format was a little different this year. Spotify continues to do its "hyper-targeted" listening data - I think at some point I may have authorized Spotify to put my 2018 Wrapped card on a billboard - and this year its gotten... a little odd. In previous years, I felt like there was a lot to learn about yourself, with things like what was your top song by genre, or quarter, or most repeated, etc. This year, there is a lot of odd data about the songs themselves (like the artists star sign or 'oldest'). I'm not sure I like this new approach. On the one hand, it is a cool use of the data and it is nice trivia, but on the other hand, it is just that - trivia. In the past, I've reflected on how my life changed and how that showed up in my music listening, or what certain habits said about me. This year, I see a lot less of that and more silly stuff like "the oldest song was recorded by a philharmonic in 1959." Interesting, for sure, but it doesn't say much about about me.

Anyways - I've got screen shots and writing space, so let's jump on in.

Firsts: The first song I listened to in 2018 was apparently Mozart's Symphony No. 35. I listen to classical music from time to time, so I was thinking that perhaps this was a deliberate choice on my part. I looked it up just now, and it wasn't - this must have come through on a random classical playlist.

The first artist I discovered (which I am going to take to mean "first time listening to") was Stev. Well, I couldn't remember who Stev was, so I searched Spotify for him. Turns out Spotify's search algorithim makes him impossible to find - entering Stev in the search bar (even with quotes around it) returns various "Steven" related strings. I messed with this for a bit, then turned to Google, and found the Google search card had a link to his spotify, which then opened in my browser, so I clicked that, and eventually got him playing in my Spotify app. If I'm an artist... I'm irate at this.

In any case, Stev does the downtempo electronica with traditional Chinese chamber music influences, so this is probably my jam. I think I'm going to spend some time with his stuff this last week of 2018, so a nice bookending to the year here.

Number of Minutes: Spotify presents this one as a quiz (which, if you recall, was a heavy theme of 2017's Wrapped list). I don't recall if I got it correct or not, but the answer is 25,331 minutes during whatever period they define as "this year."  That works out to about 422 hours or 17 or so days. Per Spotify that is up 18% from last  year (and overachieving, lol).

Spotify presents this statistic each  year, which is fine, although I wonder if they would surface it for premium members with, say 18 hours. I think my $9.99/month is well spent, but I don't know if everyone out there agrees.

In terms of listening, Spotify continues to be a mostly "at my desk" sort of thing. I listen at work. I picked up some Sony Studio Monitors this year which have enhanced my life in ways I didn't initially think possible. This year at my job saw a lot of turmoil - first, we adopted a more "open office" approach that saw me sitting next to a noisy sales team, which caused me to retreat more into the headphones. Then I was assigned to a project that essentially amounted to data entry, and as such I basically just put on 8 hours of music a day. Then, I was moved into a more senior role, and found that I needed to be available without headphones on, and listened less for a period.

One difference this year is that I picked up an audible subscription, and as such my commutes were mostly audio books and not music. 

Top Artist: Mokhov. Mokhov is phenomenal, and honestly this is a solid top artist pick. I think he was my favorite this year in a very genuine sense (in the past years I've seen artists like Taylor Swift on this list, whom I like but only made the list because a single song got stuck in my head). Interestingly, I listened to most of his discography.

I've written about Mokhov before - the biggest weakness is that the songs can get sort of formulaic. Still, that doesn't mean that there isn't a boatload of excellent stuff to enjoy.

The Charts. Well - I guess at least Spotify did provide this, in a year where they otherwise went for the obscure or the general.

 For the top artists, something interesting happened this year - an 'outlier' crept into my listening profile. My son really likes the StoryBots and we have been listening to a couple of songs on the way to drop him off at school. As far as kid's music goes, the StoryBots are probably a parent's favorite way to go - the music is good and the styles are varied (I'm particularly fond of the Colors album that references a sort of Rap/R&B style). Still, I was surprised as I've read a lot of articles that detail Spotify's algorithims, which should be able to separate out the music you put on when your toddler is in the car from the rest of what you listen to. I guess I finally listened to enough StoryBots, or regularly enough, to trip to the other side where its just "my tastes."

Otherwise, Mokhov was top of the year, and Tycho has been on this list many times before. New entrants are Levox and nervous_testpilot. Levox was a real surprise find but also a bit more niche - I mostly looped the stellar Noriko's Story. I did go through the Dynasty Chronicles album a couple of times, and drifted through the top tracks once or twice, but it was mostly Noriko's Story. None of this is necessarily a bad thing, of course, but its a little less instructive.

nervous_testpilot, on the other hand, was a cool find. I'm covering Music for Code, the album I spent the most time with, in depth elsewhere, but in short, it was both terrible and goofy while being impossible and awesome. I think the album was basically someone saying "What music would I like to listen to while I wrote code?" and came up with this - it toys with chiptunes, it isn't overly lyrical, it moves quickly with heavy bass, and its maybe a little on the simple side at times. I listened a couple of times and immediately made a connection to Explosions in the Sky - if nervous_testpilot did a videogame soundtrack, people would find some of his other work and then say "Oh yeah, I'm into soundtracks" when asked about music. Well, to no one's surprise, nervous_testpilot does soundtracks.

It sounds like I'm dragging this album but the fact of the matter remains that it was one of my most listened to, and one that I came back to repeatedly throughout the year. I just can't get over the fact that I liked it so much.

With the top songs, I'm not going to go into too much depth. Noriko's Story clearly was my favorite this year, and Akane is another Levox song that I went deep on. If Noriko's Story is too on the nose with the bamboo flutes, try Akane for something that is solid EDM (heavily looped too). Wishbone is from nervous_testpilot's Music for Code, so no surprises there. Arty's Last Kiss was a real treat. Arty is obviously a giant in the industry, but someone I've always sort of orbited around. His stuff is always a bit more big room than I'm after. Last Kiss, however, is something else altogether. It's just beautiful. It was a song that I put on repeat when I had stuff to get done and wanted my mind cleared. It moves. It's delicate. It has a beat. It's unique, but draws from predictable influences. Maybe the best way to describe it is "delicate" and if you have followed anything I've written about music before, you can see why this matters so much to me.

And... well... I've been doing these since 2014 and I don't think there has ever been a list without a Burn remix so we are all good there.

The Top 100. You don't know this yet but I've been working on a retrospective of the entire top 100 list. Check back and you might actually get to read it.

Non-Mainstream. This is maybe the coolest card in the whole list. I listen to 91% more non-mainstream artists than the average Spotify listener. This is a cool statistic. This is interesting. This is about me and my habits.

Of course, I don't know how mainstream is defined... and of course there is no real baseline here. How much music does the average "mainstream" listener listen to? I will say, this isn't surprising - most of my listening if deep in the ambient/IDM/chill EDM side of things, and even when I dip out I spend time in things like traditional classical which is probably "non-mainstream." I guess I really can, unironically, say "You probably have never heard of them" when someone asks about my music tastes.

Seriously though - cool stats.

Oldest Song. Ah - this one has the potential to be awesome but kind of falls flat. For those of you who are less familiar, La Gionconda is a ballet that I think I picked up because my son was watching Little Einsteins and this was the featured track. Apparently the recording for this version was done in 1959... but the song is from 1875. See - if Spotify could have picked that out, that would be cool. I wonder if this is actually older than some of the other songs I listened to. I probably listened to some rock and roll from pre-1960 at some point this year, but Spotify can only pick out the date the album was released.

So... a nice thought but really poorly implemented torpedoes this one.

Star Signs. Ok, what is going on with this? This is seriously the oddest statistic I have ever had presented. I mean, its cool in that I would have never thought to categorize my music like this. Is there something that makes me drift towards artists of a certain birthdate?

But - let's start with the problems. First, why use star signs? They are so useless and silly. Second, who are these artists? The card lists Tiesto and Skrillex, fine, but who else? What is the sign of the my most popular artist? I know for a fact that Tiesto and Skrillex didn't combine for a high volume of music this year, so obviously something else is at play. 

Like the oldest statistic above - a great thought but a poor implementation.

Tastebreakers. This is Spotify's annual attempt to make you listen to music you active decided not to listen to during the year. I don't know why they think this is a good idea but they do it every year. Last year, I went through most of the list and concluded, yes, I am ok with having skipped these songs. I'll probably take a browse through this year and see what is there, but again, if I didn't listen to these songs, why would I want to now?

The Sharing Card. This is cute little summary, and I like that they have worked in the album art. I also enjoy the little "if you don't post did it happen" quip, but I've got them covered without adding in the card. The only weakness I will point out is that the Top Songs list is meaningless without an artist or album to pin them too (searching Akane brings up a lot of other hits that are not the one by Levox that I listened to).

Well, there we have it - Spotify's Wrapped 2018. In terms of the overall Wrapped service, I liked this format more than last year's bizarre "know yourself" quiz feature, and I'm glad they got away from the pastel Christmas color scheme. That said, they still are way behind 2014 and 2015 in terms of interesting data uses! Let's get back to discovering cool things about myself, not useless trivia about when a particular artist was born or when a song was recorded to CD.

I'll probably have some more posts on this coming up - I'm about 75% done with a retrospective on my top 100 songs.

2017 Wrapped - Spotify

Well, after the 2016 disaster that saw me cancel my spotify premium, this year I did receive a 2017 in review playlist and was able to click-through the little website that pulls the information.

Let's dig in, shall we?

In 2017, I listened for 21,201 minutes, to 3,346 different song and 1,475 different artists, along the way exploring 45 genres. For those keeping score at home, those 21 thousand minutes work out to about hours or just over 14 days. That's not bad, but even more so, consider that for about half the year I didn't even use Spotify after being really frustrated by losing the end of year review for 2016. I'm generally an active listener to - I put it on in the background while I'm working but I don't generally leave it playing if I'm not at my desk.

I'm not surprised about the variance in number of songs, that number is basically meaningless anyways, but I was surprised to see nearly 1,500 different artists. My only guess is that it is partially drawn from the way spotify sometimes considers it a different artist if there is a "feature" but I still think this is pretty mind-boggling. Although I guess you can subtract a couple for Richard D. James, Caustic Window, Aphex Twin, etc...

Top Artist

For some reason Spotify leaned in heavily with the "know yourself" theme this year and quizzed you on your listening habits. They presented a solid list but it was an easy pick for me, Lymbyc Systym was certainly a bright spot in my year and Split Stones was an album I put on repeat for a solid part of the year. This category is almost always guaranteed to be a new discovery - I am a huge fan of Mrs. Jynx and her body of work, but I generally don't spend a lot of time with songs I've heard before. I don't have the exact numbers but I doubt the others here were even close.

Top Song

Ah, this category always is enjoyable for me. The top artists and albums are always pretty predictable, but you never know what song you'll get stuck on for a three day period that will show up on this list. I actually had to think really hard about this one, because I had no idea if it was TYSM or Taylor Swift... Ultimately, though, I think Honeymoon Phase might actually be a 2016 song, so this year it was ...Ready For It? (abysmal punctuation aside). I mean, its a good song, and Taylor Swift is a good performer. It still is funny though - you don't see much of Taylor Swift or top 40 elsewhere in my lists.

Top Genre

I used to think genre really mattered, then I decided it was a waste of time, now I'm somewhere in the middle. Having said that, looking at these vague words, the answer should be obvious. Scorecore? Neo Mellow? Deep Chiptune? Compositional Ambient? These remind me of the Xbox Live Gamertag generators from a couple years ago that just did "AdjectiveNoun" to make you a screenname.

Results

I was pretty confident in getting these right, but I was pretty surprised with the variance between my top 5 artists, songs, and genres. For Artists, Lymbyc Systym and Tycho do something very similar, and Little People is certainly directly adjacent. Its Taylor Swift and TYSM that stand out a bit, especially so because in each of their cases, it was really just one single song that I put on repeat (a lot). I was also kind of surprised that Kiiara didn't make that list, since Gold was one of my top songs.

The top genres, on the other hand, are probably reflective of my general listening tastes. I probably spend most of my time with IDM, but some songs that I think are IDM are categorized as Electronic instead, and I have no idea what the difference between those and EDM is. Trip Hop is my standout here - a genre I had almost no experience with and did some exploratory listening to through reddit.

The Age Thing

Spotify knows my age, so I assume that is where they pull this from, but I just had a nice laugh at seeing "Brostep" with an average listener age of 25 at one end of the spectrum and "Folk Rock" with an age of 40 at the other end.

Skips

187 skips this year, only defined as "less than the average listener." I've done some informal polling and amongst my friends with premium accounts, this is several orders of magnitude less (most of them are in the range of 2-4 thousand).

 Overall

I'm... ok with this new format. On the one hand, it works, and that is a massive improvement over previous years. On the other hand, the data is just ok. It doesn't really tell me much about my listening habits that a "most played" list wouldn't. The red, green, and pink color scheme is also tough to get behind.

Spotify - Year in Review 2015

It's my favorite time of the year! Spotify has released its annual year in review data visualization.

My first track this year was Plug Me In by Squarepusher. I think this actually came off of a "Best of" thread from here. Squarepusher is one of those that is exactly adjacent to a lot of my other favorite artists and yet I never seem to stick with. Maybe in 2016.

Top Artists:
1) Ellie Golding
2) Aphex Twin
3) Porter Robinson
4) Mrs Jynx
5) Tiesto

Last year Ellie Golding, Aphex Twin, and Mrs Jynx were all on this same list. At the time I remarked that Aphex Twin and Mrs Jynx were particularly notable because each of those were artists whom I owned much of their catalog and still found them in my top streams. This year I made a major switch, deciding that if I was going to plunk down the $9.99 a month for Spotify premium, I was not going to spend money purchasing music.

I tried to denounce Ellie Golding last year, as I got stuck on some Burn Remixes which I thought influenced the stats, but I guess at some point I have to admit that I am sucker for female bubblegum pop, and without major releases from Kesha or Madonna this year, and with Kelly Clarkson a sad shell of her former self, there really isn't much to choose from.

I was also a little late to the Worlds party, however the commentary tracks really gave it some new life for me. Mrs Jynx and Aphex Twin are two of my favorites, so no surprises there, but I was a bit surprised to see Tiesto. I scratched my head about this for a bit, then realized he is credited with the Spotify running mix "Burn" which I think is phenomenal.

Top Albums:
1) Worlds by Porter Robinson
2) Burn by Tiesto
3) Shark Carousel by Mrs. Jynx
4) 5 Years of Mau5 by Deadmau5
5) The Standoffish Cat by Mrs. Jynx.**

Interestingly my most played artist doesn't even hit this top 5, and that Mrs Jynx can have two albums on my top 5 but still ranked only #4 on my artist list.

As I mentioned above, I listened to Worlds last year, but not heavily. This year I really started to discover it and enjoy it. I then discovered the commentary version and it helped peel back even more layers to the album, which I really enjoyed.

My top track this year was On My Mind by Ellie Golding. A fairly recent release, I think this is a return to form if you view her discography as cheesy pop radio bait, and not, as some would have you believe, a second coming of Bon Iver. The video for this song is great as well. According to the stats presented here, I streamed On My Mind 173 times...

My number 2 track was Borderline by Tove Styrke. I heard this on Kimmel or SNL or some other late night show, and almost dismissed it as just another hipster world music band. The song stuck with me though, and I really like the heavy dub influences. It actually reminds me "post-Sublime" Sublime (when they were known as 'The Long Beach Dub All Stars').

The rest of my top 5 were Worlds tracks with 15 plays each, so I don't think much more needs to be said.

Yearly stats with YOY growth: I listened to 17,000 minutes, or 291 hours, which is up 154% from last year. 1,276 different artists, which is apparently 806 more than last year. My total track count was 2,949, up 1,634 over last year.

Remix: Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch - Sweet Nothing (Diplo and Grandtheft Remix)

I fell in love with this song very early on when I heard it at the bar. The DJ was playing a pretty standard mix, it was basically the original song with the low end boosted. I went and downloaded it, and discovered that the original lacked some of the pounding drive of. It was underwhelming.

This remix is stellar. It adds some of the heavy hardcore electronic styling the song needs, but it also does a nice job of breaking down and getting soft in places. It swings further in both extremes, but keeps its balance.

If you like the version, you can get it here through Amazon.