an end-of-year roundup: listens
my favorite albums and podcasts
Usually I find my Spotify Wrapped to be an accurate reflection of my listening habits throughout the year, but 2023’s came as a disappointment. It just didn’t feel like me. (Besides my number one song being Weyes Blood’s “God Turn Me Into A Flower,” which is extremely on brand for me.) I did tend to listen to more playlists than full albums, which probably impacted the results. Below are my favorite albums of the year. If I had to choose, I’d pick Sampha’s Lahai as my favorite album of the year, and it came out only this October.
Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, Caroline Polachek
For some reason, Caroline Polachek’s music didn’t initially click for me. Polachek has performed under various monikers, but the one I was most familiar with was the indie pop band she founded with musician Aaron Pfenning while at the University of Colorado, Chairlift.
I listened to Desire, I Want to Turn Into You out of curiosity and found myself drawn to it more and more. I especially love “Pretty in Possible.” It’s a deceptively simple song on the surface, but that’s why it’s perfect. I love the repeated “da-da-da-da” that opens the track. It reminds me of a nursery rhyme. And for some reason, the bridge sounds like a HAIM song to me. Polacheck’s music is glittery and baroque and has a lot of heart.
I decided to watch her Tiny Desk Concert one morning and found myself moved to tears. You can really see Polachek’s range and skills as a vocalist. The songs are translated live beautifully, in particular her rendition of “I Believe.” What amazes me about her music is that in watching her live, you realize there’s absolutely no vocal manipulation going on. All those reaches and dips and dives are all her.
When the Poems Do What They Do, aja monet
It’s been a hard year. This year I listened to surrealist blues poet aja monet’s (now Grammy-nominated!) debut album and thought, “Thank god we have the poets.” I met aja a few years ago and was immediately struck by her warmth, wisdom, and sense of humor. She’s the real fucking deal to put it bluntly, someone who embodies the notion of speaking truth to power. (And aja’s work always reminds me that both are rooted in love.) aja was generous enough to speak with me about the process of making the album, why we need poetry, and more. She’s a permanent daydreamer who invites us to embody the future we want to see, and her album offers a welcome dose of hope.
Heaven Knows, PinkPantheress
I’ve been a fan of PinkPantheress since “break it off” and was delighted when her second album Heaven Knows didn’t disappoint. Victoria Beverley Walker, the brains and voice behind PinkPantheress, broke out as a musician on TikTok in 2021. She’s a fantastic producer, constructing gems in under two minutes. In classic Gen-Z fashion, she’s strongly influenced by a nostalgia for the early aughts. I guess the nostalgia is working for me, because in listening I do feel as though I’ve been taken back to the space of being a girl. Listening to her makes me feel like I’m a Powerpuff Girl. I think I’m onto something here because her Instagram profile image is of Buttercup. And the more that I think about it, Buttercup really does embody the energy of her music.
According to many, 2023 was the Year of The Girl and Heaven knows is absolutely Girl Music.
Lahai, Sampha
There are moments on Sampha’s latest album Lahai that are truly transcendent, where I listen and feel like I’m floating on air. “Suspended,” the fourth track on the album, is my favorite. The transition from “Dancing Circles” into “Suspended” is gorgeous, too. (Here is where I get annoying and ask you, if you have Spotify, to go to your settings, go down to “Playback,” select Crossfade, and set it to 3 seconds. You’re welcome.) The layering of his voice perfectly translates the elevation he speaks of throughout the song. The endless free-fall of falling in love.
James Blake performing with Airhead at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Other favorite albums: Playing Robots in Heaven by James Blake, Never Enough by Daniel Caesar, With a Hammer by Yaeji, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd? by Lana del Rey, Work of Art by Asake, Sundial by Noname (also one of my favorite album covers of the year), SOS by SZA.
I listen to a fair amount of podcasts and a good portion of them are interview based. I think of it now as partly research, but it’s something I’ve always loved doing. I grew up listening to NPR; it was the default station in the car and on the radio in our kitchen. Terry Gross’s voice in particular feels nostalgic and comforting to me. Fresh Air is an old standby.
On Being with Krista Tippett is another classic public radio show for me. My mom would always play this show on Sunday mornings and I’ve found myself continuing the tradition. The show ended its run on public radio last year, but thankfully has been relaunched as a podcast offering “wisdom to replenish and orient in a tender, tumultuous time to be alive.” It’s exactly that. This year, Tippett interviewed Nick Cave, Isabel Wilkerson, and Rick Rubin. If you’re looking for conversations that are intimate, profound, and soul-searching, this is the podcast for you. The archive is incredible, too. I recommend: “On Being in a Body,” “Ecological Hope and Spiritual Evolution,” “The Body’s Grace,” “Where life is precious, life is precious.”
Another fantastic interviewer is Sam Fragoso of Talk Easy. Not enough people know about this podcast! I’m always impressed by who he manages to get on the show: Marina Abramovíc, Zadie Smith, Michelle Williams. What makes the show special is the level of research put into each episode. There’s no replacement for that kind of dedicated work and you can tell that his guests appreciate that level of intention. It also automatically makes for a richer interview. Many of the show’s guests are politicians and actors, people who are masters at presenting themselves. But Fragoso always gets his guests to land in a place that feels real and truthful. The best interviews have the richness of narrative stories, like you’ve been taken on a journey. Like a good conversation, I suppose, where there’s a sense of mutual transformation and arrival. Fragoso’s interviews do that.
For news and cultural reporting, I really enjoyed The Ezra Klein Show (in particular his coverage of AI) and The Assignment with Audie Cornish. I especially loved Sam Sanders’s Into It, which was criminally canceled after only a year. Each week offered a breakdown of the biggest pop culture trends and stories. I started my career in Hollywood and used to read up on the trades religiously. I now find reading them tiresome and listening to Into It was the perfect way to keep tabs on the strikes and changes in the entertainment industry. There’s so much out there to ingest and I’ve found personally that I need to limit how much I take in for my well-being. Sanders’s show was the perfect way for me to keep up. Episode suggestions: “It’s Not Just Scorsese. Why Are Movies So Long?,” “How AI Is (Already) Transforming Hollywood,” “Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Sex Onscreen.”
Thankfully, Sanders has another great show he co-hosts with poet Saaed Jones and journalist Zach Stafford, Vibe Check.
For something more lighthearted, I highly recommend Normal Gossip. Who doesn’t love indulging in gossip, especially if it’s ultimately harmless and unrelated to you? Episode suggestions: “Every Peach is A Miracle with Samin Nosrat,” “Emily in Paris” Meets “Parasite,” “Is Mythology Just Gossip?”
Further listening recommendations:
The Assignment with Audie Cornish
The Ezra Klein Show
“The Art of Noticing - and Appreciating - Our Dizzying World”
“A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Forgotten Teachings”
As always, thank you for being here! In a few days I’ll be sharing my favorite exhibitions, films, and shows.