What I’ve Been Listening To – Fall 2023
I’m back and ready to recap my fall through music.
What? A new article from me? It’s been months! What happened to music?
Thankfully, music’s still around, and so am I. I just went to journalism school, and I’ll admit, things got a little crazy. However, this fall, I noticed a lot of shifts in the kind of music I’ve been listening to. Maybe it reflects the dramatic changes in my own life; maybe I just respect house music a little bit more now. Let’s look at how my fall sounded like!
This season, we had an onslaught of new music from big artists, overnight sensations, and personal staple musicians alike. The September 22nd release of Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of A Midwest Princess defined not only the kind of upbeat, lighthearted, and pop vocal-forward music I reveled in, but also my subway rides, my “getting ready” routines, and my power walks through my new neighborhood. “After Midnight” (my 20th-most listened to song of 2023, according to Spotify Wrapped) brought me to my feet in seconds, energizing me with its modern disco groove, lighthearted and witty lyrics, and silky vocals. “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” was a triumph in pop, a spectacle of Roan’s capabilities as a vocalist, and one of the best tracks on the album. Lastly, I have too many fond memories singing “Red Wine Supernova” a little too loudly, whether bouncing up and down with my best friend while screaming the iconic bridge (best bridge of 2023) on the subway, or while dancing around my tiny bedroom while putting on makeup. At a time where I had to grow up fast and really work on building my career, it felt comforting to hang onto some youthful, girly fun.
Staying with the beautiful pop girls, I also enjoyed the release of Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS way more than I thought I would—I became a bit of an Olivia defender after learning about the Sour lawsuits and watching her perform “All-American Bitch” in that random parking garage—and reveled in the alt rock hits. Again, letting go of my hater tendencies may have symbolized a dramatic change in my personal attitude toward life; maybe I just finally learned to have fun with pop!
I also had a pop girl moment because I went as Lana Del Rey as a Waffle House waitress for Halloween. I just wanted to mention that…and the soundtrack to getting ready for Halloween was “Taco Truck x VB”, which is a lyrical masterpiece.
However, the fall wasn’t all glitter, going out, and girlhood; let’s not forget Sufjan Stevens (who I famously love) released Javelin, a parting letter to his late lover. The album was phenomenal—so much so that I still haven’t found the words to intelligently review it. “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” brought me back to the sounds he explored in the Greatest Gift mixtape, especially in the finger plucking of the guitar and banjo to sound like a folksy harp. “Goodbye Evergreen” has lyrics that make me want to throw up. Mitski released her new album The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We, and though I really only played it for the first month of its release, songs like “I’m Your Man” chewed up my soul, swallowed some chunks, and spit the rest back out. I genuinely loved her pivot to folk; the quieter, simpler, more natural-sounding (literally, she used samples of crickets and dogs barking in her tracks) tracks were a good experiment.
In terms of new artists I added to my ever-expanding rolodex of favorites, I got into Pearly Drops, an ethereal indie band from Finland. I actually saw them in concert early October, and it was one of the highlights of the season. Their vocals are so peculiar (think Grimes in Visions), and their fusion of ethereal, hip-hop, and indie pop produced A Little Disaster (2023), an album with catchy, cool, and haunting tracks like “I Cry While You Sleep”, “Feed The Fire”, and “Kiss Away the Pearly Drops.” They also had great stage presence, and I’d 100% see them again.
I also had a brief British post-punk moment with Yard Act, King Krule, and Courting, mainly because I wanted to write a thesis on the legacy of Britpop that did not pan out like I’d hoped. I also really wanted to use this thesis as an excuse to meet and interview Black Country, New Road, whose first album became one of my most listened to pieces of music this season. I made a giant playlist out of my failed idea, though…and I had a fun time with these angsty bangers. King Krule’s Man Alive! (2020) works as a great writing album, by the way.
Finally, though my playlist does not reflect this, my fall was defined by one artist I never really paid attention to until now: LCD Soundsystem. I decided to switch him on one day in September because, to me, he represents the most iconic parts of the New York indie music scene, and I finally accepted the fact this is my home now. This season, I moved into my first apartment, moved away from my college campus, made great friends outside my school, and spent a lot of time really building a community with New York artists and journalists. So, why not make a soundtrack with an NYC legend? This is Happening (2010) was the album I played whenever I didn’t know what to listen to, when I needed to spend hours on the subway riding to-and-from Brooklyn (where most of the artists I wrote about live), when I was getting excited to see my friends at night, and whenever I *just* wanted to listen to “I Can Change” on a loop. I also now like house and nu-disco a little bit more and think it can be interesting when done well… So it goes when ya gotta dance yrself clean!
Feel free to listen to my Fall 2023 playlist!*
This playlist spans September 1 – November 30, 2023. Though I know fall begins in the middle of September, I start adding to the playlist at the beginning of the month to give clean, three-month periods of building it.
*You need Spotify to listen to this playlist. Sorry in advance.
Header image edited by author.