Peter's Most Listened To Music in 2023

It's both surprising and unsurprising at the same time.

I saw a few other creators do something similar where they go through their Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, or in my case, my Last.fm Last.Year stats (edit: Little did I know how much work this was going to be hence no new entry last week. Sorry about that!). Sure, I can have my favorite albums of the year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those were my most played.

I think most listened to is super interesting as it should be a good mix of newly released music and older mixes. Whereas my favorite albums are solely based on what I absolutely love.

Similar to other creators, I’ll be breaking this down into three parts: albums, artists, and songs.

Albums

Kicking things off with albums, you’ll see a pattern for my 2023: it was the year of Taylor Swift. And to set the stage, a "scrobble" is what Last.fm is defined as a play. But for albums specifically, a scrobble counts as playing a single track in an album. So, if I only like one song in an album, it would show up as an album scrobble.

Starting off at number 10, I have Ellie Goulding’s Halcyon Nights with 323 scrobbles. This is technically a rerelease. The original Halcyon album was released ten years ago in 2013. However, this album has Midnights level of album variations. Halcyon never had a single album variant that had all of the same bonus tracks. They were all scattered. With Halcyon Nights, we have all the bonus tracks in one album. The album release came with a vinyl pressing, marking the first time the bonus tracks were available on vinyl.

Halcyon Nights being on the list is honestly a surprise to me. I don’t feel like I played this album a whole ton. But given that it’s a rerelease with all of the bonus tracks all in one, I could see myself playing the bonus tracks a lot.

Favorite track: Figure 8.

Coming in at number 9, I’m going to have to combine this one with my number 6 as it’s the same album but the deluxe version. That would be none other than Sabrina Carpenter’s emails i can’t send fwd: with 326 scrobbles on the deluxe, and 413 scrobbles for the original release. Technically, if you combine the two, this is my number one streamed album with a combined 739 scrobbles. But this shouldn’t surprise anyone. I’ve long been a Sabrina Carpenter fan for a long time. Admittedly, emails isn’t my favorite album from her. EVOLution still holds that crown.

But with that said, it’s still a great album and I don’t blame anyone if they got into Sabrina with this album. My days of calling her an underrated artist may be coming to an end as she’s been killing it opening for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour. My phone’s current ringtone comes from this album. It’s also my favorite track on this album.

Favorite track: Fast Times.

Staying on the Sabrina train, my number 8 for this year is Sabrina Carpenter’s EVOLution with 387 scrobbles. In my eyes, this album is a classic no-skips album. It’s her sophomore album. And for a sophomore album, she hit it out of the park.

It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re into dance-pop or synth-pop, this album is right up your alley. There’s not much else to say. The album has been out a little over half a decade, and it’s still one of my favorite albums going into 2024. Which makes picking a favorite track for this album extremely difficult.

Favorite track: Don’t Want It Back.

Number 7 is definitely a case of "if this came out earlier, this would have more plays and be higher on the list. That album is no other than Maisie Peters’ The Good Witch with 402 scrobbles. Eagle-eyed readers will know this was my number one pick for my favorite album of the year. It’s another one of those no-skips albums.

The Good Witch is Maisie Peters’ sophomore album and it’s an absolute delight. I wasn’t a huge fan of her debut album, but The Good Witch just hits different. It’s a fantastic pop-rock album. My only real gripe is that she released a deluxe version of the album later on, and I wasn’t a huge fan of those tracks personally.

Favorite track: You’re Just A Boy (And I’m Kinda The Man).

Coming in at number 5 is Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want To Turn Into You with 521 scrobbles. This album was almost perfect. It’s the closest to a perfect album you could get without actually being a perfect album.

As I mentioned in my Top Albums of the Year article, if you were to remove Fly To You, this would be a perfect album in my book. I think the best way to describe Desire is it’s an experimental album. As much as I would love to recommend this album to everyone and their mom because I genuinely think it’s that good, I couldn’t. It would be irresponsible for me to do so because it caters to a specific subset of people.

I think Desire is one of those albums where, if you’re like me, you’ll love most of the tracks on the album. Or, it’s an album where if you don’t like one track, you probably won’t like any of the other songs on the album.

Favorite track: I Believe.

Here we go, the first Taylor Swift album on the list. My number 4 is Lover by Taylor Swift with 544 scrobbles.

Despite portions of the internet calling this her worst album, I absolutely love this album. Is it her strongest album? No. That’s why it’s number 4. But for the most part, it knocks it out of the park. Lover to me, is in many ways a pop album, with hints of bubblegum pop.

Set aside the fact that Cruel Summer became a single four years after the album’s release and still managed to break records.

Favorite track: The Man.

Now we’re getting really serious. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift comes in at number 3 with 551 scrobbles. It’s the first Taylor’s Version to show up on this list, and the rerecord honestly surprised me a bit.

I wasn’t always a huge fan of the original album and I think it’s clear to me now that it was mostly due to the production of the album. Speak Now was Taylor’s second album so I’m not terribly surprised it had its production issues.

I think TV and being significantly older gave me the ability to appreciate the album quite a bit more. And while I definitely do love the core album tremendously, the vault tracks are what really locked me in. So it’s probably not terribly surprising that my favorite track from this album is a vault track.

Favorite track: Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) [Feat Hayley Willams].

Coming in at number 2 is Pang by Caroline Polachek with 624 scrobbles. I think this is one of those cases where I love a debut album over an artist’s sophomore album. While I think Desire is a great album, Pang is an album I could pick up and listen to any day of the week.

I’m just glad I was able to listen to Pang before Desire came out and that I got in on the ground floor. Similar to Desire, I’d say Pang caters to a very specific type of listener. You know who you are. That said - I absolutely love this album. If it weren’t for Pang, I don’t know if I would’ve ever discovered Desire or listened to it as often.

Favorite track: Caroline Shut Up.

Have you guessed it? I bet some of you already knew what my number one was before reading a single word of this article. My most streamed album for 2023 is Taylor Swift’s reputation coming in with 677 scrobbles.

Similar to Pang, reputation is an album I could listen to whenever. Whether that’s at home on vinyl, or out at a restaurant, I have to resist the urge to sing along. I think I will genuinely die and get resurrected when reuptation (Taylor’s Version) releases. It’s a no-skips album, whether listening top to bottom or a single song during a shuffle. I could legitimately listen to this album all day.

Favorite track: Delicate.

Beyond my top 10, here are the next 15 albums. Some notable albums include the few years old Singular Act I by Sabrina Carpenter, Sigrid’s How To Let Go, and Egg in the Backseat by Em Beihold.

Artists

Looking through the stats, I think it’s fairly obvious that correlation ≠ causation. There’s some predictability and inferences you could make about who my top artist may be. Yet, there are artists on my top artists list where there was not a single album listed on my top 25 albums.

That holds true with my number 10 artist, Melanie Martinez. I want to say I discovered her music a few years ago but really got into her albums earlier this year. I think the storytelling in her albums is great, and they work when you listen to the albums from top to bottom. But for me, the majority of her songs aren’t playable if you "just hit shuffle".

I’ve been an avid Carly Rae Jepsen fan since I was a teen. I think that descriptor holds true. For the most part, I can’t really name an album by her that I love from top to bottom. But she has a selection of great songs from each album that I listen to pretty regularly. The only exception is her latest album, The Loveliest Time, which I’ve been enjoying quite a bit.

At number 8, we have Gabrielle Aplin. I’m actually kind of surprised at how low she is on my list. I feel like I play her music often. Though I’m not the biggest fan of her latest album, her last two albums were COVID discoveries and they’re some of my favorite albums. Those two albums are rare exceptions where I had to import the vinyl since those records aren’t officially sold here in the States.

Sigrid is an artist that comes and goes for me. I saw her in concert in 2023, so it’s not surprising that she comes in at number 7. Sigrid creates great music if you’re into dance/EDM-pop. I loved Sucker Punch and How To Let Go as albums. Don’t get me wrong, when the mood is right, I’ll play the hell out of those albums. But those moods are rare.

Number 6 is another artist I’m surprised is so low on my list, Maisie Peters. But thinking about it for more than two minutes, it sort of makes sense. Even though The Good Witch is my favorite album from last year, it came out very late in the year. And while I’m coming around to her debut album, it still has a small number of plays. Hopefully, those numbers come up in 2024.

Probably the most oddball artist on the list given he has no ranking on either my top albums or tracks, Michael Jackson. I grew up listening to his music. It may be a controversial take, but I don’t care. He pioneered the pop music genre and is still the king of music videos. No one comes close.

Coming in at number 4 is Caroline Polachek. My 3 and 4 were very close, but I’m sad she didn’t take the number 3 spot. This one requires no explanation. I think both Pang and Desire, I Want To Turn Into You are incredible albums. I play these albums on a pretty regular basis. And with her newest single Dang out, I’m stoked about what she’s going to release in 2024.

And here we are in my top 3. This artist is one of the oldest modern artists on my list. That’s none other than Ellie Goulding. I’ve been a fan of her music since I was a pre-teen, and while I don’t think her latest album is that good, the rest of her discography is incredible.

My next two artists should be a surprise to no one if you’ve been reading my articles. My number 2 is unshockingly Sabrina Carpenter. What can I say? She puts out great music and each one of her albums has its own individual vibe. You could say I’m basic, but some of my favorite modern albums are Sabrina Carpenter albums.

Of course, you all saw it coming. My number one artist for 2023 is Taylor Swift. I’ve been a Swiftie for a long time, and between the tour, movie, and rerecords, it was hard not to hear Taylor Swift this year. There’s no way to hide it. Taylor dominated my music listening this year, to the point where I played Taylor more than 2x compared to my number 2.

Digging deeper into my next 15 artists is arguably more interesting than my top 10 if I’m being honest. It gives a glimpse into the other genres I listen to. Notably, Kimbra, Florence + The Machine, Regina Spektor, Madison Beer and Em Beihold are on that list.

Songs

On to arguably my least interesting list but I’ll include it anyway. My top 10 songs can be summed up in this way: it consists of exactly 3 artists, two of whom are my top two favorite artists. With that said, I’ll group my list into artists to make it less drawn out and more concise. For the most part, nothing in my top 10 songs surprise me at all.

Starting at number 10, we have King of My Heart by Taylor Swift. Although it’s my favorite reputation song, it’s the lowest ranking rep track in my top 10. In terms of Taylor, the next one jumps all the way up to number 5, with Cruel Summer. Not totally surprising, it became a single in 2023 and was played nonstop in the second half of the year in my household. Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version) took my number 4 spot, and Look What You Made Me Do took my number 1 spot. Now that surprised me more than anything. I was never the biggest fan of Look What You Made Me Do, but I guess I was wrong.

Coming in at number 9 is Blood and Butter by Caroline Polachek. Followed by I Give Up at number 7, and Sunset at number 3. I have nothing more to say other than, I look forward to streaming more Caroline in 2024, hopefully with a new album in tow.

Lastly, I have bet u wanna by Sabrina Carpenter at number 8, followed by decode at number 6, and Fast Times at number 2. Again, none of this is terribly surprising. There’s probably a level of recency bias here since all three tracks are from her latest album.

Ideally, I’d say that my next 15 tracks pivot, but that’s not the case. With the exception of number 25, which is Mirror by Sigrid, the entirety of my top 25 tracks are from those three artists.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I think it’s very interesting to see what albums, artists, and songs I played the most this past year. I believe the real value will be the second iteration of this when I inevitably do it again a year from now. I would love to compare and contrast what changed, who I’m listening to now, and what fell off the radar completely. I’ve also learned that I should pay for Last.fm Pro. That way I can consolidate those pesky deluxe albums.

As per usual, if you found this post interesting, I’d appreciate a like or share. If you’d like to continue this conversation, let’s chat on Threads!