The Daily Spin

Finale

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Welcome back, for the last time, to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023. 

This is the yearly recap, reviewing the best (and worst) from the past year of listening. We’ll break things out into a few different categories. 

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Picture Perfect 

Nominate your favorite album art 

David

Winner: In Colour, Jamie xx

Also considered: So Long, See You Tomorrow, Bombay Bicycle Club; Roseville, Roseville; Currents, Tame Impala; Glitterbug, The Wombats; Wiped Out!, The Neighbourhood; Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers

There’s really only one album with art that I’d consider getting tattooed on my skin, and though certain elements of others (namely, every single frame of the 8 (circle) music video) strike me deeply to my core, the winner was the only answer in the end. 

It’s one of my favorite albums ever made, with a cover to match. There was never another option.

Eli

Winner: How To Be A Human Being, Glass Animals

Also considered: Omit, Grivo; Things Don’t Always Go The Way You Plan, Flume; Currents, Tame Impala; Wildflower, The Avalanches; After Laughter, Paramore; Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips; Mercurial World, Magdalena Bay

I could praise any number of album covers for looking pretty, being well designed, or making me nostalgic, but so many of them fit that description that I’d just be splitting hairs.

Instead, I’ll give this award to the cover with my favorite concept. Glass Animals’ How To Be A Human Being includes 11 tracks and its cover, designed by Anna Bergfors, depicts 11 human beings. That isn’t a coincidence. Each song is a story about a different person on the cover.

These aren’t real people, obviously, but they’re characters based on real people the band alleges to have met while traveling to support their debut album Zaba. Some of the depicted actors even appeared in music videos for their songs. And it’s all paired with the best songwriting Glass Animals have ever employed. Amazing in concept and in execution.

You’ve probably noticed that only 10 of the people on the cover are matched with a song. That’s because only 10 of the album’s songs are full length. The 11th (seventh in the tracklist) is a 36-second spoken word interlude named “[Premade Sandwiches]”. Its relatively crude lyrics, which are obviously sped up and modulated to be a couple octaves lower, detail various reasons humans stand in line. I like to imagine the toddler on the tricycle performs it.

Preston

Winner: WOMB, Purity Ring

Also considered: Currents, Tame Impala; Seelie, CLANN; The Modern Western World, Vansire; The Visitors, ABBA; The Normal Album, Will Wood; Somewhere City, Origami Angel; The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill; Time, Electric Light Orchestra

Good album art sets the tone for a record before you ever hear a note, and this cover by Tallulah Fontaine jumped out at me the moment I pulled it up. It’s laden with symbolism depicting the album’s themes, but beyond that, it’s simply beautiful—painted by hand, as far as I can tell, in a style evocative of classical religious imagery and medieval English art. Purity Ring also deserves a nod not just for seeking out an artist who reflects their work so well, but also for putting her front and center in interviews, taking the relatively rare step to discuss the artistic process behind this cover.

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Orchestral Ecstasy

Nominate your favorite instrumentals 

David

Winner: “beat 58 1.1 [2020 Export Wav]”, Flume

Also considered: “Jupiter”, Gustav Holst; “We’re Finally Landing”, HOME; “No Time For Caution”, Hans Zimmer; “Test Drive”, John Powell

Flume is at his very best when he doesn’t overthink it - it’s why his mixtape is the album of his that gets the most consistent play from me, because it’s time and time again the work of his that, while unpolished, feels the best to listen to. 

When Flume just lets the pen run and doesn’t scratch himself out a thousand times over, you win up with this, a fantastic little track that loops, building and breaking, beautifully Sisyphean. It’s perfection. 

Eli

Winner: “Moon Crystal”, M83

Also considered: None

I thought about this one for approximately 2.3 seconds. I love this song so much. It sounds like if you got Vince Guaraldi to compose a Jon Bois soundtrack. Every time it comes up on shuffle, I jam out to it at least five times in a row. Please go bless your ears with this song.

Preston

Winner: “Across the Spider-Verse (Start a Band)”, Daniel Pemberton

Also considered: “Joop”, YAM YAM; “Water Deep”, M83; “Númenor”, Bear McCreary; “Resource”, Philip Glass; “The Planets, Op. 32: IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity”, Gustav Holst; “Oblo’”, Alberto Baldan Bembo; “Indian Teamwork”, Daniel Pemberton; “See You Tomorrow”, John Powell; “Winning Forces”, Nicolo Bardoni & Stephen Warr; “Planet”, Anamanaguchi; “The Heavens”, Sid Acharya; “We’re Finally Landing”, HOME

I adore soundtracks to a frankly unhealthy degree—we’re talking most played genre of all time here, somehow even outpacing “alternative”, a label applied to approximately every album ever—and instrumentals in general make up a lot of my listening. So settling on a winner here was always going to be a tall task, and I still feel bad about a lot of these spurned nominees. “Water Deep” is what really opened my eyes to how stunningly beautiful M83’s work can be, “The Heavens” was such a transcendent listening experience that I immediately submitted the album it’s from before even finishing it, and both “Indian Teamwork” and “See You Tomorrow” are surefire ways to get me fired up like almost nothing else in my library.

But ultimately, come on. It had to be this. The final four minutes of Across the Spider-Verse are a dizzyingly brilliant conclusion to a dizzyingly brilliant film, hammered home by the final track of a stunning score by Daniel Pemberton—previously relatively unknown beyond his innovative work for the first film in this trilogy. Leaning on countless motifs woven together into an intricate, whirlwindish rush of sound, it’s a staggeringly brilliant song in its own right and the perfect accompaniment to a finale that leaves you on the edge of your seat, desperate for more.

(A brief tangent before we move on: the start of this track also introduces what seems likely to reappear as a character theme in Beyond the Spider-Verse. Without giving too much away for anybody who hasn’t seen the film yet, the character associated with this motif shares Miles Morales’ Puerto Rican heritage, which Pemberton gives a nod to by incorporating the habanera rhythm common in Caribbean music into his theme. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss it moment during the movie…and that level of detail is on just about every single track of this score. It’s unbelievably good.)

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Songbirds

Nominate your favorite vocal performances 

David

Winner: The Balcony, Catfish and the Bottlemen

Also considered: Keepsake, Hatchie; In The End It Always Does, The Japanese House; Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers

Bookended by the two best songs on the record, I find The Balcony to be an utterly captivating vocal performance in every sense - in part because it feels so raw and real. This is an album that sits on my chest when I’m struggling and pushes me to get up and get back at it. Nothing more powerful than that, to me.

Eli

Winner: Mercurial World, Magdalena Bay

Also considered: Every Carly Rae Jepsen album we reviewed; both Lorde albums we reviewed; Collapsed in Sunbeams, Arlo Parks

I, uh…have a type. If I had to describe my favorite subgenre of music, I would call it “woman-driven synthpop”. (Arlo isn’t really synthpop but, y’know.)

Among my favorite voices in music is that of Mica Tenenbaum, lead vocalist of synthpop duo Magdalena Bay. Even in its most powerful moments, there’s an air of ethereality to Tenenbaum’s voice that makes it sound as if she’s singing directly to the listener. That’s a tough tightrope to walk, and it’s one more well seasoned vocalists (like Carly) very often fall off.

The other half of Magdalena Bay is producer Matthew Lewin, who also sparingly provides background vocals throughout the record. His production does a lot to highlight Tenenbaum’s talents, and his mixing excellently shifts between letting her voice take center stage and fading it into the background as one small part of a larger whole, layering vocal tracks on top of each other and turning the reverb up to 11.

I rated Mercurial World a 9/10 and highly recommend listening through the whole thing, but I believe the album’s most popular track, “Secrets (Your Fire)”, best exemplifies the intricate dance Tenenbaum’s voice and Lewin’s production perform to perfection.

Preston

Winner: Hellfire, black midi

Also considered: Collapsed in Sunbeams, Arlo Parks; Everything I Know About Love, Laufey; RJT4, Run the Jewels; songs written for piano, Katie Gregson-MacLeod; Pony, Rex Orange County; Memories of Tokyo-To, 2 Mello; The Ride, Catfish and the Bottlemen; For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver

Geordie Greep is just having so much fun on this album, y’know? Playing the parts of cruel generals, hired murderers, and brothel owners, he delights in bringing the bleak settings of Hellfire to life, his suave, charming delivery one of the few constants in a relentlessly chaotic album. There are plenty of albums we listened to that were enhanced by strong vocals, but only this and Memories of Tokyo-To really felt to me like they wouldn’t be the same otherwise, and I’m gonna give it to Hellfire by a hair.

Tungsten Arm O’Doyle

Nominate a strong song from a weak album

David

Winner: “Glendale”, Chapter One, Clans

Also considered: “Eight Things”, Sport, Medoed.; “Next To You”, BOY, RAC; “Alrighty Aphrodite”, Being So Normal, Peach Pit; “Just A Man”, Kiko, Los Lobos; “Columbo”, Morningside, Faded Paper Figures; “In Your Love”, In Your Love, Tyler Childers

I’m so glad that Eli’s winner is what it is, because this really came down to a two-horse race in the end, two albums that were in the middle sixes for me in all honesty, buoyed by two utterly fantastic tracks. 

“Eight Things” genuinely gets my heart swelling in that familiar manner that makes me want to cry a little bit, a completely contrasting feeling to so much of Sport that it’s almost dizzying - especially as the closer. It’s like throwing Mariano Rivera out there after a bunch of in-house Little Leaguers. 

My winner, though, has to be “Glendale” - all the way back on January 5, we looked at Chapter One, one of a multitude of projects made by an artist that goes by Clans for this specific work and by niko+ for his larger portfolio (this change happened sometime in 2023 - it’s confusing to me, too).

Much like Sport, Chapter One is kind of a mess - through eight songs, it’s this loose collection of vaguely Californian-sounding music, but never really steps toward a cohesive identity. It’s content to be a bunch of loose threads, a sweater picked bare - until “Glendale” arrives as the closer, this fantastic little emotional spin, lovesick broken hearts that move into rock before it all falls away, building and collapsing like the music is breathing. It’s absolutely phenomenal work, and it caught me woefully unprepared. 

Eli

Winner: “Eight Things”, Sport, Medoed.

Also considered: “Bells and Whistles”, People Who Can Eat People…, AJJ; “Bang!”, OK ORCHESTRA, AJR; several guilty pleasure songs on the Alvin and the Chipmunks soundtrack; “Under The Table”, Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple; “Carried Away”, Gossamer, Passion Pit

This song kinda comes out of nowhere.

The first seven songs of Sport are replacement-level emo with frankly bad mixing and mastering. You’ve got lengthy, ear-shattering feedback squeals, almost unintelligible vocals, and drums that sound more like tin cans than actual snares (St. Anger style). It’s a mess.

The eighth and final song, “Eight Things”, is a light, poignant instrumental that sounds in all respects like it came from a completely different band. It’s lovely, it’s tightly composed, and it probably raised the album’s final score by two points just on its own.

I still gave Sport a 6/10 on aggregate, which should tell you how much I value the rest of the record, but I absolutely recommend “Eight Things”.

Preston

Winner: “Killing Me Softly with His Song”, The Score, Fugees

Also considered: the pairing of “Touch-Tone Telephone” and “Cabinet Man”, Spirit Phone, Lemon Demon; “Bread Song”, Ants from Up There, Black Country, New Road; “Deadlock”, Coffee and Ramen, Go! Child; “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.”, Different Class, Pulp; the one-two punch of “Take Me to Church” and “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene”, Hozier, Hozier

The Score was one of a handful of albums I submitted for consideration without having fully listened through them, largely based on the strength of a particular track. Its positive reputation isn’t completely unearned—its place in the history of conscious hip-hop is impossible to deny—but a lot of it leans hard on being good social commentary (which is hit or miss) and not much is actual good music.

“Killing Me Softly with His Song” is the standout exception. Led by the vocals of Lauryn Hill, whose subsequent solo album is an inner-circle favorite of mine, and supported by frequent ad-libs from Wyclef Jean, it’s a rare case of a significantly changed cover song that becomes so iconic, it almost completely outshines the original track’s popularity. It doesn’t hurt that it helped spark my interest in rap and hip-hop in the first place, which is part of the reason I ended up joining in on this project.

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Who Let Them Cook?

Nominate a weak song from a strong album

David

Winner: “Oil”, Cracker Island, Gorillaz

Also considered: “Darling Nikki”, Purple Rain, Prince

This was surprisingly tough - I tend to just kinda wipe bad songs from my memory whenever possible, so I had to kinda pick through - but there were two standouts that actively dropped the score of the album they’re on by a significant margin by themselves. 

The winner is “Oil”, in no small part because a combination of Gorillaz and Stevie Nicks should never sound that poor - my total disappointment was only really matched by my feelings on the rest of that album. 

“Darling Nikki” is the standard-bearer for the parts of Purple Rain that kinda suck - around 4 complete and total bangers, fifteen out of tens, you’ve got 4 pretty “eh” tracks, and one - this one - which is a befuddling ode to being horny that was completely unnecessary in the eighties and forty years later, is still unnecessary. Prince, buddy. Why?

Eli

Winner: “No Friend”, After Laughter, Paramore

Also considered: “You Caught the Light”, The Bones of What You Believe, CHVRCHES

There were only ever going to be two songs on this list. These are two of my favorite albums of the 2010s and, in both cases, these songs are the singular entities preventing me from giving their respective albums a perfect 10/10 rating.

Neither of these are hot takes; each song is the least streamed on its album (with “No Friend” having less than half the stream count of the album’s second least popular song on Spotify). As a card-carrying CHVRCHES superfan, I feel comfortable saying most of us consider “You Caught the Light” a dud. I get the feeling “No Friend” has somewhat more defenders among Paramore fans.

And yet “No Friend” gets the nod here because of how utterly unnecessary it is on After Laughter. Immediately before it on the album is “Idle Worship”, an actually great song about how idolization is often mutually destructive. The specifics of the idolization are more implied than stated, but it seems pretty clear frontwoman Hayley Williams is referring to her own fans idolizing her as a person.

For a song about herself, Williams is surprisingly self-effacing on “Idle Worship”. She centers the listener and gently describes the possible negatives on their end of the deal rather than moaning about how stressful it is to be famous. In fact, she does the opposite, insisting that she’s just a regular ol’ girl and “not your superhuman”.

And then there’s “No Friend”, which continues the instrumental riff from “Idle Worship” as Aaron Weiss (of mewithoutYou) relays a barely audible spoken word diatribe that essentially repeats the thesis of the previous track in a verbose and much more mean-spirited manner (“let’s make one point crystal clear … you’re no friend of mine”).

Worst of all, “No Friend” is longer than “Idle Worship”, making the less-than-worthless outro to “Idle Worship” longer than the song itself. The sole redeeming quality here is that they had the good sense to split the song into two tracks.

Preston

Winner: “Backseat Freestyle”, good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar

Also considered: “Big Fat Bitchie’s Blueberry Pie, Christmas Tree, and Recreational Jell-o Emporium…”, “In case I make it,”, Will Wood; “宇宙ステーションのレベル7”, Hawaii: Part II, ミラクルミュージカル; “LoveGame”, The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition), Lady Gaga; “Computer Rock”, Odelay, Beck; “Where the Shadows Lie”, The Ring of Powers: Original Soundtrack, Bear McCreary; “War!”, A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak, Zach Callison; “The Noisy Eater”, Wildflower, The Avalanches

I do get why “Backseat Freestyle” is generally pretty highly regarded. good kid, m.A.A.d city is a faultlessly produced album with consistently brilliant instrumentation and vocals alike, and all of those attributes are on full display here. But those 10/10 qualities are saddled with the massive albatross around this track’s neck, namely the jarringly terrible 0/10 lyrics. They’re tongue-in-cheek, sure, but a song that makes such a farce of itself feels completely out of place on an album which otherwise takes itself very seriously, dwells on some heavy topics, and holds your immersion throughout. It’s only on such a masterwork that a mediocre track like this sticks out like a sore thumb, which is a credit to how incredibly good kid, m.A.A.d city is otherwise.

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Shock Value

Nominate the album that positively surprised you the most

David

Winner: METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, Metro Boomin

Also considered: everything is alive, Slowdive; Stories from the Sky, Sid Acharya

Objectively, this might not be the biggest surprise, as I figured I’d enjoy this - but what got me was how much I enjoyed it. 

I’ve enjoyed RnB, rap, and hip-hop for a long time - and that’s obviously extended over to melodic trap, which makes it all the more intriguing that Metro Boomin has always lingered as a blind spot for me - prior to this, at least. Within two tracks, though, this record had me in a chokehold, one that wouldn’t dissipate through the remainder of the year - and likely won’t for a long while yet. One of my top albums of the year, and I mostly threw it in because I figured the movie would be fantastic. Good job, me!

Eli

Winner: TA13OO, Denzel Curry

Also considered: The People’s Champ, Quinn XCII

Both of these albums are by artists from whom I’d heard only one song before listening: “RICKY” from Denzel Curry and “Sad Still” from Quinn. I liked both songs but I wouldn’t have considered either earth-shatteringly good at the time.

As a result, I came into each album with fairly muted expectations, as I usually do when I’m not super familiar with the artist. It’s not so much an expectation that the album will be bad as it is a lack of expectation that it will be good. People are generally resistant to change and stepping out of their comfort zones, and I am certifiably a person, so you kind of have to wow me if I don’t already like you.

Both albums clearly wowed me if they ended up in this section, but Denzel takes this award because of how much of a lasting imprint TA13OO made on me. It became so central to my listening rotation that I went back and regraded it from 8/10 to 9/10 almost nine months after we initially reviewed it. “RICKY” suddenly sounded significantly better to me, and once I’ve recovered from this project enough to start listening to new music again, I’ll absolutely listen to more of Curry’s discography.

The production on TA13OO is immaculate, the flows are impressive and numerous, and Denzel’s delivery is compelling and ultra-hype. This is a massive accomplishment considering the album tackles some pretty dark topics (its most popular song being about suicidal thoughts). Regardless, you never feel like you’re being lectured listening to this album, and you certainly never get bored from it. It’s an enjoyable listen throughout.

Preston

Winner: Rolling Blackouts, The Go! Team

Also considered: Fantasy, M83; Polydans, Roosevelt; 22, A Million, Bon Iver; Everything I Know About Love, Laufey; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Original Score), Daniel Pemberton

In retrospect, I’m almost inclined to feel guilty about my rankings of the two albums by The Go! Team that we listened to. Thunder, Lightning, Strike, their debut which we hit up in July, felt just a bit too raw for my tastes—which is odd, because given that it’s such a vibes album, I didn’t think I would care that much. I tend to like a more unrefined sound for this sort of off-the-wall, energetic-bordering-on-anthemic album…yet six years of intense refinement to this sound led to Rolling Blackouts, the second of their works we listened to, and the one that grabbed me by the collar and didn’t let go. Despite being a bit more restrained, it never once sounds fake in the way Thunder, Lightning, Strike occasionally did, simply coming off as forty minutes of pure, genuine, even stubborn joy. Of all the artists we revisited during this project, I’m by far the happiest that we came back to The Go! Team, because they could’ve easily gotten lost in my library otherwise.

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How To Disappoint Completely

Nominate the album that disappointed you the most

David

Winner: 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift

Also considered: SAWAYAMA, Rina Sawayama; KAYTRAMINE, KAYTRAMINE

As with any Taylor’s Version record, 1989 TV is an album that, unfortunately, is worse in basically every regard than the original version. I respect what she’s doing in terms of taking control of her own music, but you’ve gotta be able to make it sound good. She hasn’t been able to do that, and the overwhelming presence in pop culture means it’s reinforced in the worst way possible constantly.

Please don’t post my address.

Eli

Winner: Endless Summer Vacation, Miley Cyrus

Also considered: The Age of Pleasure, Janelle Monáe; UTOPIA, Travis Scott

We reviewed a decent amount of newly released music in this project—we devoted almost every Monday to it—and a lot of it was from artists I already liked.

Most of it met my expectations. I haven’t expected Taylor’s Versions to be good for a while, so 1989’s being mid was no shock to me. On the other side of the coin, I expect Roosevelt to keep putting out bangers, and he did.

Some of it even exceeded my expectations, and I’ll get to that in the next section.

Three albums, the ones you see above, badly failed my expectations. But, while Travis Scott’s UTOPIA is so dull as to be completely unnoteworthy and Janelle Monáe’s The Age of Pleasure is just flatly uninteresting music compared to the rest of her catalog, Miley Cyrus’ Endless Summer Vacation was the only one that stood out to me as a head scratcher. It is baffling in its badness.

I wrote a long diatribe on this album in the monthly rundown for April, so I won’t repeat myself, but I do want to reiterate that “Flowers” is garbage. It’s an abrasively nothing song and is easily my least favorite #1 hit of the year, a year when “Try That in a Small Town” and “Rich Men North of Richmond” also hit #1.

Preston

Winner: I Rest My Case, YoungBoy Never Broke Again

Also considered: Coffee and Ramen, Go! Child; 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift; John Henry, They Might Be Giants; Spirit Phone, Lemon Demon; The Score, Fugees; Djesse Vol. 3, Jacob Collier; Shipwreck, Shayfer James

Part of the reason I joined this monumental undertaking was to expand my musical horizons, and I definitely feel that the vast selection of music we listened to accomplished that. Hip-hop was among the genres I was most excited to explore further, and we ended up listening to a ton of great and/or iconic albums in that field, which I’m very satisfied with. But the first hip-hop album we listened to…was this one.

I think at the time I was inclined to excuse a lot of I Rest My Case’s shortcomings as a consequence of my unfamiliarity with—and regrettable Protestantism-trained aversion to—the genre. Looking back on it now, though, this album is just a mess. It’s composed of nineteen tracks, averaging just over two minutes apiece, and featuring almost nothing memorable aside from multiple skits which are just people talking about how cool YoungBoy is. I’m just glad we got to TA1300 not long afterwards, and when it comes to hip-hop albums in this project, it’s been all uphill ever since.

Give It Time

Nominate an album that grew on you from the original listening date

David

Winner: Weathervanes, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Also considered: Angels In Science Fiction, St. Paul and the Broken Bones; Deep End, Doc Robinson; What Could Be Better; The Happy Fits

Kind of a pick out of left-field, but this one really happened to hit more for me throughout the year. I’m not sure if that’s because it feels more like a wintry or fall album to me, or if it’s just because Isbell takes a little time to properly appreciate, but this album resonated with me in the best possible sense as time went on.

Though it never landed anywhere too high on my top lists for the end of the year, it did fly up my personal leaderboard, and I still find myself going to him whenever I just need to feel a little bit (which is more often than I thought, how fun is that?!)

Eli

Winner: This Is Why, Paramore

Also considered: TA13OO, Denzel Curry

I’ll be honest and say that the only reason Denzel Curry didn’t also win this award is because I didn’t feel like writing about the same record twice.

Instead, I’ll go back to the Paramore well. I came into This Is Why having listened to none of the advance singles, so its complete stylistic shift from After Laughter (and even really from Hayley Williams’ interim solo work) hit me like a ton of bricks. After my first listen through, I didn’t really like this album.

Of course, short-time readers will remember that Paramore ended up on my Spotify Wrapped in 2023 and that I resultantly recommended This Is Why. That’s because I gave the album a second chance and tried to listen to it divorced from all prior context, and…it turns out that when I’m not judging This Is Why as an extension of After Laughter for no reason, I actually like it quite a lot.

In a word, it’s pretty great post-punk that dives into present-day politics while remaining danceable and rarely feeling too sanctimonious. In some ways, I like it even more than After Laughter, which I didn’t think was possible for a Paramore album.

Preston

Winner: The Modern Western World, Vansire

Also considered: Metamorphosis, Cloud Cult; Collapsed in Sunbeams, Arlo Parks; Adventure, Madeon

While the Daily Spin was an immensely enjoyable project to participate in, it made me aware of a limitation that I’m sure I share with just about everybody who reviews music. Namely: sometimes, you don’t always know right away what a song, artist, or album means to you. I still remember reading David’s Late Break review of 22, A Million, way back in February 2022, and giving that album a try before deciding it wasn’t for me after a couple tracks. It took an entire year for me to end up revisiting Bon Iver’s work for this project and realizing how unbelievably brilliant it is, and now he’s one of my favorite artists.

Developing musical opinions and realizations have affected my scores on this project at times. I’ve changed the overall grade for albums more than a few times, and I make an effort to be forgiving when an album strikes me in a particularly unfitting mood for its style. Usually, this is enough, though on a couple occasions I’ve had to go back through and do a proper relisten because my first impression ended up way off the mark.

Aside from Collapsed in Sunbeams, which I almost immediately regraded during the first week of the year, The Modern Western World saw by far the biggest jump from its initial rating. Unlike in the former case, I can’t say I had any particularly negative feelings about this album upon first reviewing it in May; the reason the jump was so dramatic is because it went from pretty good to one of my favorite albums ever in the following few months. I kept coming back to it at various points in life, high and low, upbeat and downcast, and it kept delivering time and time again. I could certainly speak to its objective brilliance—tons of subtle wordplay that I missed on the first spin, instrumental cues that fit into one another like a glove, delicately interspersed features that always feel right in line with the album's tone—but that’s only part of why I came to appreciate it so much. More than technically excellent, The Modern Western World is a record I’ve found equally comforting, uplifting, and reassuring every time I’ve listened through it, and there is very little music that I love more. It took a while to rate it appropriately for how important it’s become to me, but it’s never been more apparent to me that this album deserves the highest praise I can give it.

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Aptly Named

Nominate the album with the best title track

David

Winner: Tourist Season, Miel

Also considered: So Long, See You Tomorrow, Bombay Bicycle Club

Two-horse race, and I almost just called it a tie - I think what sets “Tourist Season” apart is that it is far and away the best track on its album, while I’d almost argue that SLSYT is maybe third, maybe fourth on its own album. It’s a fantastic little tune, expansive and emotive in a headrush sense, but not the sort of song that captivates the way “Home By Now” might - while “Tourist Season” instead is Miel, to me, now. 

Eli

Winner: R.I.Pizza, Stoney Calzoney

Also considered: This Is Why, Paramore; Rolling Blackouts, The Go! Team; Goldrushed, The Royal Concept

The calzone you’re recognizin’ is me: Stoney! Don’t need ID, they won’t deny me! What up, G?

(No, I’m not joking. This song was #4 on my Spotify Wrapped in 2023.)

Preston

Winner: What Could Be Better, The Happy Fits

Also considered: Rolling Blackouts, The Go! Team; Bewitched, Laufey; Hellfire, black midi; Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie; Tourist Season, Miel

The field of indie rock is so vast that I don’t want to write off the chances that there’s a more complete album than What Could Be Better out there. That’s the main reason I didn’t give it a perfect 10, honestly—and without the relative weak points early on, “Go Dumb” and “Moving”, it probably would’ve gotten there. If they had a title track for this album at all, it was bound to be a good one given how consistently stellar the whole thing is, but it ended up being one of my three inner-inner-circle favorites from the tracklist, alongside “She Wants Me (To Be Loved)” and “No Instructions”. It’s a perfect closer to the record, too, capturing every bit of almost-manic energy and coming to a stop at the perfect time, not a beat late.

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A Gift From Others

Nominate your favorite album that was suggested by someone else

David

Winner: Keepsake, Hatchie

Also considered: Passive Me, Aggressive You, The Naked and Famous; Before The Waves, Magic Man; Dreamland, Glass Animals

The nominees here are better albums, but Hatchie blew me away so totally that I was baffled that I hadn’t heard of her before - and in a weird way, this is another album that I could easily see growing on me time and time again. A lot of these albums, I’d heard of in some capacity, too - so I wanted to award it to something that I hadn’t suggested, put in for one of my weekly picks, or hadn’t listened to prior. From that (surprisingly small) list, Keepsake was an obvious pick. Thanks, Eli!

Eli

Winner: Finally Woken, Jem

Also considered: What Could Be Better, The Happy Fits; 55, The Knocks; Junk, M83; TA13OO, Denzel Curry

Five albums here: two recommended by Preston, two from David, and one from neither of them (at least I’m pretty sure Denzel Curry was from neither of them). (D: this was suggested by a fan of the program, OC - thanks, dude!)

Finally Woken wins here because boy is this right up my alley. Minor-key, slickly produced (bordering on overproduced) pop-soul tracks with a hint of guitar by a woman with high, willowy vocals. If Spotify had a name for this specific genre, it would probably be some nonsense like “soultronic rock”. Whatever it is, I vibe with it.

Though my being introduced to it in January gave it an inherent advantage, it felt right that “24” ended up being my #2 track on Spotify Wrapped in 2023.

Thanks Preston for introducing me to this unendingly catchy and frankly kinda ridiculous album! And, though I disagree that “Moving” is a weak point on What Could Be Better—I actually think it’s the album’s best song—I’ll go ahead and say thanks for making that record a part of my life too.

Preston

Winner: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83

Also considered: Polydans, Roosevelt; Currents, Tame Impala; Collapsed in Sunbeams, Arlo Parks; The Modern Western World, Vansire; In the End It Always Does, The Japanese House

If this were a matter of the best album recommended by someone else, I think I’d have a somewhat tougher time choosing. Objectively, the answer there is probably Currents, purely based on the fact that it’s the only album in the entire project that we all awarded a perfect 10. But my favorite album from somebody else? Maybe it’s recency bias talking, but I’ve gotta go with the very last one.

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is, in my estimation, both a virtually immaculate album and one that’s right up my alley. There’s no doubt in my mind that it was the best possible choice to close out this year-long project, a triumphant, beautiful marriage of orchestral and synth instrumentals that manages to lose none of its authenticity while hitting one exultant peak after another. And in a year where I personally fell in love with the idea of being relentlessly, blindly hopeful, an album that embraces the spirit so completely feels like the perfect capstone. Thank you, David—not just for this perfect pick, but for all of the Daily Spin, a project I’ve immensely enjoyed taking part in.

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So Close, Yet So Far

Nominate albums that were on your shortlist, but just missed the final cut

David

Winner: Worlds, Porter Robinson

Also considered: The Lumineers, The Lumineers; Lush, Snail Mail; Scott Street, Phoebe Bridgers; ONEPOINTFIVE, Amine; RICKY, Denzel Curry; Awfully Apeelin’, The Happy Fits; ACT ONE, Marian Hill; Warm On A Cold Night, HONNE

One of the bonuses of being the showrunner is that I had the discretion to fill through the calendar a lot more than anyone else did - new music on Mondays, but more relevantly, Favorite Fridays - so fifty-two times we looked at my selection specifically, not counting any of my many at-large selections. I’ve basically gotten to be a power conference in March Madness - everyone gets a spot.

Despite that, there are only 365 days in a year - and I have given the tracks on 452 different albums at least 100 total plays. Even if I had told literally everyone else to bugger off, this project is entirely mine, there would have been nearly a hundred albums stuck out in the cold. For context, I’ve listened to over 18,000 albums since 2014. 

Namely - I wish that I would have included a few more soundtracks. The ones we did examine were among my absolute favorites, but I regret not being able to expose you all to more of that world of sound - because when well-executed, there’s little better. 

There are a great deal of fantastic little records in the indie/pop/rock section of the world - think FIFA music, which we were lucky enough to examine in great detail, but that’s another segment that I still feel might have somehow been underrepresented. 

Country, metal, and other genres I’m not terribly familiar with also find themselves underrepresented here. I would have loved to have gotten more involved with those as well, if for no other reason than to expose myself to it and get more comfortable with those genres, both as a reviewer and as a listener. 

The last thing I’ll say is that I nearly pitched the idea of only allowing one album per artist - this would have been a fun choice, for sure, but I’m glad we didn’t do that. Allowing me to wax poetic about the different eras some of my favorite artists have passed through is a choice I would pick a thousand times over. 

Eli

Winner: Dedicated Side B, Carly Rae Jepsen

Also considered: Formentera II, Metric; Every Open Eye, CHVRCHES

The albums I submitted for this project were a trip down memory lane, from early childhood (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots) through middle school (The E.N.D.), high school (In A Tidal Wave Of Mystery), undergrad (Emotion), pre-covid grad school (Keepsake), post-covid grad school (color theory), and whatever the hell you call this current chapter of my life (Mercurial World).

Legitimately, I don’t think I missed a single noteworthy album aside from maybe Every Open Eye, CHVRCHES’ 2015 sophomore effort. I have just two regrets. The first is that David misinterpreted my request for Carly Rae Jepsen’s Dedicated Side B as being for the marginally worse Dedicated and I didn’t catch it until it was too late. The second is that Metric’s new release Formentera II was bumped from the rotation late in the game to make room for something else.

I suppose those two gaffes make up for me pretty much singlehandedly putting an end to soundtracks being reviewed for this project because I thought it was ridiculous to try to review a score for media I haven’t seen. (I stand by this assertion and still haven’t given the Interstellar soundtrack a rating.)

Preston

Winner: Rainbow Road, Patricia Taxxon

Also considered: any second album from The Altogether; Kid A, Radiohead; Queen of the Night, Dirt Poor Robins; Kung Fu Panda 2 (Music from the Motion Picture), John Powell and Hans Zimmer; Far from Home, Hugo Kant; Cosmicandy, The Orion Experience

I submitted a lot of albums pretty indiscriminately in the early days of the Daily Spin, and I’d definitely change a fair few of them if I could, looking back. Kung Fu Panda 2’s soundtrack and The Altogether’s discography are both works I would’ve enjoyed exploring and reviewing; Kid A, Queen of the Night, and Far from Home, meanwhile, are all albums I discovered and/or realized I wanted to look at later in the year—by which point I’d monopolized half of spring and summer with my suggestions and had no right to throw in a ton more, frankly.

That being said, the album I most regret missing is one that fell out due to understandable technical limitations. David and Eli both did a lot of the work for this series using Spotify, while I did mine using Apple Music, neither of which feature Patricia Taxxon’s Bandcamp-exclusive discography. That would’ve made it impossible to feature Rainbow Road seamlessly in a lot of ways, but I do want to give it a shoutout here, if only for the magnificent trio of tracks that is “Soaring”, “Diversion”, and “Take Care”. I’ve been listening to a lot of Taxxon’s work lately, and this album supports and affirms me like almost nothing else can.

Worst of the Worst

Nominate your least favorite albums 

David

Winner: Alvin and the Chipmunks (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Alvin and the Chipmunks

Also considered: A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak, Zach Callison; The Normal Album, Will Wood; People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People in the World, AJJ

The “also considered” section here is a formality. 

Eli

Winner: People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World, AJJ

Also considered: Deceit, This Heat; New Hell, Greet Death; Different Class, Pulp

Every album I gave a 3/10 or lower is represented here except for the Alvin and the Chipmunks soundtrack. That was a childhood favorite of mine and, while I do generally think it is bad music (resulting in a 2/10 rating), my memories of it are too rose-tinted to put it on this list.

AJJ takes this award, as People Who Can Eat People was the only album of the year I gave a 1/10 and nothing got a 0. I won’t drill the album too much because my fiancée recommended it and I love her. I wrote out my initial thoughts in the monthly rundown for February and they haven’t changed at all.

Preston

Winner: Alvin and the Chipmunks (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Alvin and the Chipmunks

Also considered: Deceit, This Heat; People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World, AJJ; Bright Green Field, Squid

I’m a strong proponent of the notion that soundtracks should be treated just the same as albums, with all the reverence that status confers. It warmed my heart that a number of film scores—and even one TV score, of my own recommendation—were included in the Daily Spin, and that the one I consider the utter pinnacle of its field (Across the Spider-Verse, what else?) finished in second, right alongside some of the greatest albums in any other genre. In the modern era, with such stellar soundtracks available as easily as any other album, I truly believe there’s no excuse for major review sites like Pitchfork to spurn scores from their rankings.

With all of that being said, the fact that this score was also included in the Daily Spin is almost enough that I want to take back that entire paragraph and take a stand against ever reviewing another soundtrack album.

(Okay, not really. But good heavens, this soundtrack is awful.)

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Top Tracks

Nominate your favorite tracks

David

Winners: “Loud Places”, In Colour, Jamie xx; “8 (circle)”, 22, A Million, Bon Iver; “Homesick”, The Balcony, Catfish and the Bottlemen; “Because I’m Me”, Wildflower, The Avalanches; “Let Go”, Strangers, RAC

Also considered: “Across the Room”, A Moment Apart, ODESZA; “Passenger Seat”; Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie; “circle the drain”, color theory, Soccer Mommy; “I Know The End”, Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers; “Cherry Wine”, Hozier, Hozier

Thousands of tracks - to narrow them to just ten is a nigh-impossible feat, and there are absolutely omissions from the list above that I’d slap myself for forgetting - but that’s kinda the nature of a project like this. 

Some of the tracks above are among my favorite pieces of music ever made, while some are new blood, tracks that I was particularly infatuated with after a long year of listening to music. A lot of them are brilliant pieces in their own regard, enhanced with the heavy weight of years of emotion tied to them in the way that only music can bear. 

It’s a privilege to be in this position, to have so much sound to pick and choose from - may this small selection be but a footnote to the many fantastic albums and songs that we’ve listened to this year. 

Eli

New favorites: “Lone Digger”, <|°_°|>, Caravan Palace; “24”, Finally Woken, Jem; “The News”, This Is Why, Paramore; “Moon Crystal”, Junk, M83; “Moving”, What Could Be Better, The Happy Fits; “Why 1.3 [2012 Export Wav]”, Things Don’t Always…, Flume; “CLOUT CO13AIN”, TA13OO, Denzel Curry; “New Gold”, Cracker Island, Gorillaz (ft. Tame Impala and Bootie Brown); “Astronaut”, Wilderado, Wilderado; “Unusual”, EGO, RAC (ft. MNDR); “Shark Attack”, Spreading Rumours, GROUPLOVE; “Chicago”, Five Easy Hot Dogs, Mac DeMarco; “Ba-Da-Ba”, Memories of Tokyo-To, 2 Mello; “Frankie Sinatra”, Wildflower, The Avalanches; “Life Itself”, How To Be…, Glass Animals

Old favorites: “R.I.Pizza”, R.I.Pizza, Stoney Calzoney; “Luna”, Embrace, Roosevelt; “Power & Control”, Electra Heart, MARINA; “Don’t Stop”, Summer’s Gone, ODESZA; “Shapes”, Lines, Defunctland; “Hanging On”, Nocturnal, Yuna; “No Surprises”, OK Computer, Radiohead; “Patience Gets Us Nowhere Fast”, In A Tidal Wave…, Capital Cities; “Hate That I Love You”, Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna (ft. Ne-Yo); “Box Around The Sun”, Our Own House, MisterWives; “Back Like 8 Track”, Rolling Blackouts, The Go! Team; “Instant Crush”, Random Access Memories, Daft Punk (ft. Julian Casablancas); “I Look to You”, Illumination, Miami Horror (ft. Kimbra); “A Dedication”, Within and Without, Washed Out; “All That”, Emotion, Carly Rae Jepsen

I’m doing this a little differently. I went to my Spotify Wrapped top-100 playlist and selected, in order, the first 15 songs I first heard through this project, restricting myself to one per artist. Those are my “new favorites”.

Then I did the same thing for songs I already knew and loved but became re-infatuated with by relistening for this project. There were only 14 of those, so I threw my favorite Carly Rae Jepsen song at the end as a wild card.

Preston

Winners: “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave”, The Normal Album, Will Wood; “Exit Music (for a Film)”, OK Computer, Radiohead; “Hummingbird”, METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, Metro Boomin

Also considered: “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”, In Rainbows, Radiohead; “Against the Kitchen Floor”, “In case I make it,”, Will Wood; “’Cause I’m a Man”, Currents, Tame Impala; “I Know the End”, Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers; “Paranoid Android”, OK Computer, Radiohead; “29 #Strafford APTS”, 22, A Million, Bon Iver; “The Defence”, Hellfire, black midi; “Space Song”, Depression Cherry, Beach House; “A Wolf in Geek’s Clothing”, Passive Me • Aggressive You, The Naked and Famous, “Rock the Beat!”, Memories of Tokyo-To, 2 Mello; “Michelle”, Party Favors, Sir Chloe; “It’s Not the Same Anymore”, Pony, Rex Orange County

It wasn’t until I set about making this list that I realized just how much of my individual track listening for the last year has been defined by the Daily Spin. Admittedly, a lot of these were my own suggestions, but going back through these albums often brought out new favorites or revitalized my love for old ones. “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics” is one such example—thanks in part to diving deep into the reasons I love The Normal Album, it jumped a tier or two in my mind and surpassed “Against the Kitchen Floor” as my favorite Will Wood track. I’ll probably never be as obsessed with “Exit Music (for a Film)” as I was when I first listened to OK Computer a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean I love it any less. But the best addition to my library was James Blake’s “Hummingbird”, a track which I was impressed by in theaters, but that soared into my inner-circle favorites on a dedicated listen of Metro Boomin’s Across the Spider-Verse accompaniment album.

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Best In Year

Nominate your favorite album released in 2023

David

Winner: In The End It Always Does, The Japanese House

Also considered: Volcano, Jungle; Embrace, Roosevelt; Fantasy, M83

We listened to a lot of fantastic music throughout this year (shoutout to me, for the New Music Monday suggestion that ran pretty much uninterrupted through the first ten months of the year, good job David), but this album wound up pretty clearly being the winner.

There were standouts - I think that M83’s Fantasy hit some of the best highs, and few songs have ever earwormed their way into my conscious quite like the best of Volcano. Even Embrace managed to put quite a few tracks solidly on my radar, and for a entry later in the year, the stream count I racked up was pretty impressive - but no one touched The Japanese House’s In The End It Always Does. 

It’s funny - not one of the songs off the record made my Top Songs of 2023 playlist - but this album was still undeniably one of the most complete and consistent bodies of work that we saw throughout the year. I’m a sucker for softer indie pop like that, and I firmly believe that Amber Bain nearly perfected the art with an album that frankly, is what I wish the record had been. 

Eli

Winner: Embrace, Roosevelt

Also considered: The People’s Champ, Quinn XCII; This Is Why, Paramore; Fantasy, M83; the record, boygenius; Eternal Sunshine, WHALES•TALK; In the End It Always Does, The Japanese House; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Original Score), Daniel Pemberton; METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, Metro Boomin

Listed above is every 2023 release we reviewed that I gave at least a 9/10. I awarded only one 10/10 here and it wasn’t to the winner of this section; it was to the Spider-Verse score by Daniel Pemberton. But Preston’s gonna wax poetic about that below, so I’ll leave it to them.

So I’ll give it to my second favorite 2023 release, Paramore’s This Is W—wait a second, I already talked about that one too.

So I’ll give it to my third favorite 2023 release, Roosevelt’s Embrace. This is probably my favorite album of his (it’s either this or the self-titled debut) and I’m excited to hear what else he’s already started working on. The man knows how to write a hook.

Preston

Winner: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Original Score), Daniel Pemberton

Also considered: In the End It Always Does, The Japanese House; Fantasy, M83; METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, Metro Boomin; Embrace, Roosevelt; Bewitched, Laufey

Despite my stance on soundtracks being every bit as legitimate as other albums, I did waver a bit when considering if Across the Spider-Verse’s score should be eligible for Album of the Year. There are plenty of strong contenders behind it that I’d be happy to give the award to—not just In the End It Always Does, but also Patricia Taxxon’s masterful TECHDOG and Bug Hunter’s delightful Happiness (Without a Catch) if you expand beyond the Daily Spin’s list.

But ultimately, I think this soundtrack deserves consideration, and it’s almost impossible to deny if you count it. It’s a perfect score for the film, not just in how well it fits every single scene, but also in how impossibly, endlessly creative it is despite a staggering runtime of nearly two hours. Daniel Pemberton’s work unerringly dovetails a dizzying series of character and thematic motifs with the unpredictability and spontaneity needed to keep up with Across the Spider-Verse’s breakneck pace, and the end result goes down in my books as the greatest film soundtrack of all time, bar none.

Best of the Best

Nominate your favorite albums 

David

Winner: In Colour, Jamie xx

Also considered: Currents, Tame Impala; EGO, RAC; In Return, ODESZA; 22, A Million, Bon Iver 

I gave five albums a score of a perfect ten. Any one of them could have won this award.

I’ve talked a lot about the reasons that each of these albums means so very much to me, and it’d be silly to resurface them at this point - but the reason that In Colour wins this for me is that it has been so present throughout my life, as touched on in my own review. 

I tend to value an album that serves as a constant as I myself change - and even in 2024, I’m not even remotely the person that I was when I started this project. With each passing year, the only thing that changes regarding In Colour is the depth of my affection for it. Through each beat, each sparkling synth, every impeccably-placed note, this record has grown and changed with me, eras of my life defined by the arcs and the sentiment attached to so many of these songs.

That’s music. 

Eli

Winner: Thunder, Lightning, Strike, The Go! Team

Also considered: In Rainbows, Radiohead; Emotion, Carly Rae Jepsen; Currents, Tame Impala; Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Original Score), Daniel Pemberton; Torches, Foster The People

The above albums all received a perfect 10/10 rating from me but it was always going to be Thunder, Lightning, Strike.

If you’ve been reading us for any length of time, you’re aware this is my favorite album of all time. As with David, it seems silly to recap why, so you can read my review in our monthly rundown for July for the full explanation.

I do, however, want to say how meaningful it is to me that all three of us just ended up picking our all-time favorite albums for this section.

Music does a lot of cool things. Any emotion you could possibly have, music can enhance it (if you want to feel the emotion) or assuage it (if you don’t). It makes you dance. Sing. Laugh. Cry. Think. Remember. It can add fuel to a creative fire or pull you out of a rut.

But the most important thing music can do is represent you. I think I speak for all three of us when I say that the albums we’ve each chosen as our favorites have become so intrinsically part of us that they serve as musical extensions of our very essence. They can speak for us when even our true selves don’t know what to say.

This is why music always has been and always will be my favorite art form. And despite all of the work required to critically review an album a day for a year straight in a year that also included a 1000-mile move and a good amount of wedding planning, I am extremely grateful I did it.

Preston

Winner: In Rainbows, Radiohead

Also considered: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill; Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Original Score), Daniel Pemberton; Everything I Know About Love, Laufey; The Modern Western World, Vansire

Alright, one last—relatively minor—reason that I chipped in on the Daily Spin. Sometime in 2021 or 2022, it occurred to me that there simply isn’t a bad or even average track on In Rainbows, and it slowly but surely surpassed ABBA’s The Visitors as my favorite album of all time. I never thought it was anything but excellent, and when I started playing it more as a result of that decision, it only rose in my estimation…but prior to 2023, I honestly didn’t listen to many albums. The field of contenders wasn’t very strong, and I was curious if In Rainbows would live up to its standing if I expanded my sample size beyond these 365 albums.

As it turns out, it absolutely did. Six other albums earned perfect 10s from me this year, and several others—particularly the Laufey and Vansire records listed above—quickly emerged as personal favorites that I think are also nearly perfect overall, but nothing I listened to ever truly threatened to dethrone Radiohead’s 2007 classic. It’s not for lack of trying, considering how many absolutely brilliant albums we listened to, but In Rainbows is simply, ethereally beautiful, a timelessly transcendent piece of art that demonstrates the band’s staggering musical evolution and simultaneously feels entirely distinct from any era or musical style.

Sure, it’s got an edge because I’ve loved it for so long, but The Visitors had the same advantage and barely cracked my top 25. I’m more confident than ever that this is my favorite album of all time, and probably always will be. Having so much brilliance to compare it against, in the end, only makes it shine all the brighter.

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Well, folks. Here we are.

This is the end of the Daily Spin.

This has been a challenging year on many fronts, and there were a lot of times where I nearly gave up on this project - but we got through it. In a year where almost nothing remained the same, this was one thing that was a constant through it all. 

Two people in particular deserve special thanks for their involvement here. Eli Powell, my fellow Low Major co-founder, listened along when he absolutely didn’t have to. His insightful reviews and additions to the monthly posts gave the project a lot of gravity when it could have stumbled and lost steam. The other is Preston Pack, over at the Wild Pitch - whose sheet provided the entire backbone to the statistical side of this - and who also listened along when there was no impetus for them to do so. Appreciate you both.

I’m incredibly proud to have completed something of this magnitude, and it would not have been possible without the support of the many who contributed along the way. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for following along - whether you read, listened, suggested, or supported this project, it means the world to me. 

Thank you forever.

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Oh. One last thing.

Starting this week, I’ll be creating and showcasing weekly mixtapes, published through the Low Major. 

I’ll see you tomorrow.