I went on a very musical journey in 2023…filled with ups and downs, this ways and that ways, ins and outs, the whole shebang. It has changed who I am for the better, and so much of me said “share it with others” so that they may be bettered too! Music really is magic.
This journey started out being a Top-100 of my discovered songs throughout 2023. As I slow watched the playlist begin to trickle over 100, I realized that it was unfeasible for me to think with three months of new music to go that I’d be able to thin the list down to 100.
We’ll be featuring a lot of Angie McMahon’s songs through this playlist! She’ll blow you away.
Expansion was the only answer. I’ve listened to a metric shit-ton of music this year, and as I currently write this it’s August 28th. I’m aquiver waiting for my Spotify summary. (From the future….IT WAS DOPE!)
WELCOME
If you’re here…that means you love music, and shockingly, might care about what I think of it! I love the idea of striving to experience something new everyday, and now I’ve given you a one-stop shop for it! Let me share my 366 favorite new musical discoveries of 2023! (The playlist ended up at 522…that’s a lot of bonus music for you to explore!)
A note about the list itself. Remember, it started out as a Top 100. So numbers 1-100 really are ordered in the order that I loved them. After that though, is pure discovery.
Get ready to dive into some insane wordplay from this man, Lil Wayne
After the Top 100 the order doesn’t matter at all. I manually ordered them all so there would be a nice space between hearing the same artists.
I’ll say up front here that I own no rights to any of the music or images (unless stated otherwise) in this series of blog posts. Hopefully that will save me from having to put that in every post.
ENJOY!
Initially I didn’t plan on writing a post for every single song. I guess I was thinking I’d just post the Spotify link or something? Well it turns out I have commentary! Some of these songs might feature a memory or funny story attached, or be especially meaningful, or I just really fucking loved the song.
This man is a vibe. Such a real person. Wish him the biggest of 2024!
Every one of them though helped me in a positive way in 2023, though. That’s why I want to share. Please don’t hesitate to share your discoveries and comments with me! I’d love to have some give and take with everyone!
Before I send you on your way, thanks for reading! It honors me that you’d even take a few minutes out of your day to read what I think of anything. If anything in this blog resonates with you, let’s talk more! Let’s go get coffee!
With that, I really hope you find something you love and it’s brand new to you. I wish that for you everyday.
This summer was a very creative one for me; I’m happy to report as we enter into Fall. A couple months back, I conceived an idea to restart my blog in 2024. I’ve been listening to an absolute ton of music this summer, and it has completely revamped and evolved how I view my mental health and I can absolutely report that I feel a lot more fulfilled overall! I can’t stress enough the importance of being selfish sometimes when it comes to taking time for yourself but whenever you do, fill it with song!
I shit you not, it’s changed my life.
I’m looking forward to 2024, because I am planning to do a blog post a day sharing a song that I discovered this year (2023). A sort of look-back on my discoveries and my thoughts on them, but simultaneously being a daily discovery possibility for you!
Discovery-ception! (I debated cutting that the moment I wrote it, but screw it, you’re stuck with it. As I am. We are bound in this.)
Anyway, music has become such a huge part of my mental health, I can’t help but share the strategy. There is so much importance, I think, in pushing your boundaries in all things. What I mean is, constantly be stretching who you are. Reach. Grasp. INHALE new things. New music leads so seamlessly into new books, and new movies, and new games, and new experiences….and so on.
We are never the best version of ourselves, always growing, always learning from lessons….some really, really hard ones, right? I know you all have you’re own hard stories. I’ve seen some of my darkest times, but I can absolutely tell you if you’re going through yours, there is light at the end. The secret to life, I think, is to actively seek discovery.
Actively seek discovery
This can take shape in so many easy ways every day.
Not only in the ways I mentioned above, but even in something as small as a passing conversation.
Think of this interaction.
Walking past a coworker in the hallway/parking-lot/coffee-machine, whatever. You get it, simple moment.
Just ask the question…, “doing anything fun after (work, school, class, yoga, whatever)?
The amount of possibilities springing from this is huge! By asking this question, we’re creating a tiny little bond between the two of us. You could share something and it might be something I’m curious about! If we know another well enough, you might share a somewhat negative thing going on in their life to that question, either sarcastically or genuinely.
Innocent, pure, positive…even if something negative is shared, that person gains an outlet, and that’s a net positive in my book any day of the week!
Looking forward to sharing
I am super-stoked to commit to this! I mean…I listened to every song on the playlist at least once… Can’t wait to see my Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year!
I’ll try to drop a post or two in the meantime. I have a draft going introducing the “Project” or whatever we wanna call it. I don’t know. 🙂
It’s that time of year again. (Actually, the first time of the year period, I guess). Now that I think about it, we use this expression a lot for a load of different times, don’t we? When the Valentine’s Day decorations come out before you open your Christmas presents…when the black flies and mosquitoes come out to ruin so many BBQs and bonfires…when you’re a teacher and you go back for those two staff-only days before the first day of school…when Black Friday hits on the morning of Thanksgiving Day (sigh…another blog post)…when you actually have to scrape the ice off of your windshield in the morning, etc.
So to be more specific, the time of year to set our sights on a goal and strive to achieve it.
Somewhat sadly, one of my goals is the same as last year. (I failed.) I, like many before me, and quite possibly many of you, want to be healthier. I seem to have developed the perception of others to view me as the athletic, in-shape, PE teacher. I am two of those for sure, but that “in-shape” thing is wholly inaccurate. I definitely need to get running again, but I really want to get myself into some yoga. I need to be more flexible, more relaxed, more centered, but above-all, more mindful. Nicolette wants me to tag along for one of her classes, but I find myself leaning towards a more private yoga with myself to start out. 🙂 Any suggestions on some resources for a fledgling yogi?
While I’m definitely concerned with my physical health, I definitely also want to work on the mental and emotional aspects of my health. Not that I’m mentally ill (these and future blog posts aside) or emotionally incompetent (I like to think I’m very empathetic, sometimes too much so), but I can afford to be a little more aware of my state of feeling in a particular moment.
If you’ve played World of Warcraft (you probably haven’t, and I’m outing myself as a complete and utter nerd right now and you’re probably second-guessing your friendship/association with me) there is a race of humanoid Pandas (have I lost you yet? No? Wow, thanks for sticking around!) who believe in the harmony of opposites. When you’re running around with your character doing stuff in the game, it’s common to hear a generic NPC (non-player character) just say the line “Slow down.”
Sounds like this:
That’s what I need to do.
Nicolette and I are so busy, on the run, always somewhere to be, and she’s WAY better than me at slowing down, being at rest, and calm. Stop and smell the roses. Be in the moment. Observe. It’s such a simple concept, but incredibly easy to forget, especially for me. Netflix, movies, iPhones, iPads, computers, PS4s, and other distractions take up so much of my precious time that I fail to use that time properly and in a meaningful way.
I need to be with Nicolette more, laugh with her more, and experience things that we’ve never gotten to do before. When you live with someone as amazing as her, and see her everyday right in front of your face, it’s easy to forget and overlook how absolutely extraordinary she is. You could own the most beautiful painting ever created and hang it in your living room, but after seeing it everyday for years, it’s easy to fall into the habit of not appreciating it as much as it deserves. I’m the luckiest man on the planet, married above my class, and hit it out of the park with her. It’s about time that I remember that.
I need to spend more time with my parents and find out more about their lives growing up before me. Their time when I was in the oven, their stresses, hopes and dreams, regrets…I don’t know enough about them. I’ve been alive for 34 years, spoken countless words to them, and yet there are times when I sit down and realize that there is so much about them that I am horribly unaware of.
I need to see my niece, Ava, 10, and nephew, Jack, 7, more before they grow out of wanting to see me and hang out with me. Being with the young makes you feel younger, and there’s never a moment with them where I don’t marvel at something they do, or say, and even though I’m sure I’ll never stop marveling, it’s about time that I enjoy being their Uncle Jesse more. (I get to choose between Dukes of Hazzard Uncle Jesse and Full House Uncle Jesse)
Not bad company to be in…
Whoa…that’s some heavy stuff, at least until it went off the rails at the end there. On to the second less incredibly soul-searching and emotional part!
A new goal for this year is to read more. Read more books, more magazines, more newspapers, more blogs (start one up! I’ll read it religiously!), etc. I started a “reading challenge” on Goodreads to read 20 books in 2015 (I think I set it up in September though, so I didn’t give myself much leeway in terms of my habits to that point) and ended up getting 11 done. So I figure if I can do 11 in three months, I can knock out 40 or so in 2016 if I am diligent. I’ve got an insane backlog of books that I’ve collected from bookstores, yard sales, and friends over the years that it’s time to start doing something about getting them read. If only so that I can empty the bookcase, and fill it with the hundreds that are sleeping in cardboard boxes up in the attic!
There are so many amazing worlds, fantastic writing and stories, and colorful characters just sitting there on a shelf in my room or in a stack on the floor by my desk or supporting my computer monitors, alarm clock and lamp on my nightstand. I find myself looking at them sometimes and thinking, “that book was probably so excited when I bought it, just like I was. Now it’s probably incredibly depressed at the fact that my bedside lamp has been sitting on it for ten months.” I need to free my books from the prisons I’ve sentenced them too. (Don’t even get me started on my Kindle backlog. Signing up for the daily Kindle deal email from Amazon has been the bane of my existence.)
everything, etc. 