Musical geography and other reflections on the music of 2023

It’s time for the 2024 music wrap-up, and we never did one on 2023. So, here are a few thoughts, because the old traditions will carry on, even if blogging is long dead and the world is burning to the ground as we speak.

One thing that has curiously stuck in my head about the 2023 year in music was the geographical musical matches that Spotify Wrapped presented last year (and didn’t do in this year’s mediocre version). Spotify found my music played during that year to be most attuned to the tastes of Christchurch, New Zealand, based upon plays of Madonna, Meat Loaf and The Motels. It comes as no surprise to me that I am more of a mind with folks on the other side of the globe from me. 

I can explain how Spotify came up with the match:  There’s always a Madonna song in my current playlist; I cycled through several Meat Loaf songs after his death, particularly focusing on Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, and I was also exploring some of his less successful output from the ‘80s; and I had The Motels’ “Remember the Nights” in rotation for a good chunk of the year. It wasn’t one of their big hits, but it’s one of the best songs from those pensive ‘80s pop-rockers.

Overall, 2023 feels a bit unremarkable for me, musically. My most played song released in or near 2023 was Texas’ “After All,” a new song included on a new best-of compilation. Everything but the Girl placed at #53 (based on my airplay as tabulated by last.fm and including songs old and new) with “Run a Red Light,” which I got into late in the year and would make more of an impact in the 2024 roundup. One of the Pet Shop Boys’ best and most haunting songs to date, “The Lost Room,” from the Lost EP, was also split between the two years, finishing at #51 for ’23. Interest in Tears for Fears’ outstanding 2022 album The Tipping Point carried over to make it the most played current album again in 2023.

Click here to go down the rabbit hole of past years' roundups back to 2005.

Music that moved me in 2021

This year was more fun musically than last, I’d say, with interesting things going on like Elton John and ABBA going to the top of the charts again.

One of the pleasant surprises of the year was Duran Duran’s Future Past, a stunningly good album that begs the question of where their muse has been in the last 20-plus years. Released in October, Future Past ends up as my #2 album for the year but may ultimately have more impact in 2022 as the songs work through my playlist. The Durans are often at their best with downbeat numbers, and the song “Future Past” is probably my favorite since the extraordinary singles “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone” resuscitated them way back in the first half of the ‘90s.

Here’s a look at how some of the songs released in or near 2021 placed in my top 100, which includes songs old and new and is based on play counts as monitored by Last.fm:

#1 Be the One • Dua Lipa // It was a very Dua Lipa kind of year, and this single from her previous album emerged as my favorite apart from her Elton John collaboration. She has kind of taken on the Queen of Pop role that Gaga squandered over the last few albums. Lipa is also in the top 100 at #21 with “Hallucinate” and #74 with “We’re Good,” and she finishes as the #7 artist of the year.

#2 Anyone • Justin Bieber // Bieber has really carved a niche with melancholy and evocative grooves like this and “Sorry.” Dance with me under the diamonds / See me like breath in the cold is one of my favorite lyrics of the year.

#15 Got Me • Laura Mvula // The British R&B singer delivered one of the most interesting singles of the year. Its groove continually makes me think of Billy Ocean’s “When the Going Gets Tough,” in a good way.

#32 Unwanted • Rick Astley // Suggests Astley should still be making albums of danceable pop.

#38 Cold Heart (Pnau Remix) • Elton John & Dua Lipa // It’s hard to describe what this is — sort of a dance remix of 1989 ballad hit “Sacrifice,” (which by happenstance topped my rolling chart last year), wrapped in a very clever mashup with “Rocket Man,” “Kiss the Bride” and “Where’s the Shoorah?” It’s brilliant, but I wonder if it could have been even more so with a bridge somewhere in the second half. It had the longest run at #1 on my rolling chart and would have finished higher if it had come along earlier in the year.

#39 Free Woman • Lady Gaga // Sometimes a song works better outside the context of its album, and I have found that to be true for some of the tunes from the rather monochramatic Chromatica.

#48 Magic • Kylie Minogue // Kylie’s Disco album is surprisingly not particularly disco, sounding instead like just another pop album, really. There’s nothing anywhere near the disco-ness of Kylie oldie “Your Disco Needs You.” Nevertheless, the single “Magic” lived up to its name.

#53 Don’t Shut Me Down • ABBA // The new album Voyage is solid if not the mind-blower we were hoping for after all this time, right? The lovely ballad “I Still Have Faith In You” also makes it in at #89.

#57 Golden • Harry Styles // Not a name I would expect in my top 100, and he gets here by evoking a style of music that was never my cup of tea, but it works beautifully.

#68 Your Fandango • Sparks & Todd Rundgren // The incomparable combination of wit and musicianship that is Sparks ushered in the first time ever that I’ve played Rundgren. Love the castanets and the unmitigated glee of the insanity going on here.

#80 Golden G String • Miley Cyrus // My interest in Cyrus’ outstanding Plastic Hearts album carried over into ’21 enough to make it the #1 album of the year and Cyrus the #9 artist of the year, which opened with synth masterpiece “Midnight Sky” sitting at #1 on my first rolling chart of ’21. The raucous “Night Crawling (feat. Billy Idol)” also makes the year-ender at #98.

#81 Once I Saw the River Clean • Morrissey // The Mozzer never quite fades away, and the electronic sheen on recent album I Am not a Dog on a Chain was a welcome complement to his eccentric songs.

What’s so hot about the Hot 100? // We have three points of crossover this time, up from one last year. These minor miracles are:

— Save Your Tears • The Weeknd // #2 Billboard; #26 Me

— Anyone • Justin Bieber // #74 Billboard; #2 Me

— We’re Good • Dua Lipa // #90 Billboard; #74 Me

A close call was Ritt Momney’s “Put Your Records On,” a quirky cover of the Corrine Bailey Rae song that got inside my head but finished a bit outside my 100 while landing at #93 in Billboard, despite getting no higher than #30 on the Hot 100 weeklies.

Go here to view prior years' recaps.

Seven things about Spotify's 2021 wrapped

 

1 // I don't usually post about Spotify's yearly recap because the bigger picture of my listening comes via last.fm scrobbling, which aggregates all of my listening on Spotify and the things that I play from my computer, but this year will be an exception. My overall year-end recap will be forthcoming, of course …

2 // In a bit of a shocker, Wrapped tells me I listened to more music this year than 65 percent of other listeners in the United States. I wouldn't have expected this, since I almost never listen at work, and with last.fm I'm rarely in the top 50 percent.

3 // I was a bit surprised to see Erasure as the most played artist (spoiler: They will not be #1 on the aggregated list). It must stem from the fact that I did not purchase a physical copy of their last album, The Neon, or any of its offshoot releases, such as the Ne:Ep. It's a decent album but not one I feel like I played that much. Their songwriting is not as sharp, in my view, over the last several albums. Wrapped says I was in the top 1 percent of Erasure listeners.

4 // Wrapped says I listened to 63 genres, and that's a good thing — I'm proud to be eclectic. New wave coming out on top is a reflection of all that '80s music, and too much of it gets labeled that way.

5 //  The artists on those top songs are, in order, Bieber, Dua Lipa, Simple Minds, Johnny Hates Jazz and Griff. Then and now, now and then.

6 //  Kudos to fairly obscure electronic / chillwave artist Brothertiger for edging into the top 5 artists. That's largely on the strength of his excellent rendition of Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair album in its entirety.

7 // December 1 is too early to close the chart year — there are weeks to go.

Unmasking Information Society's ODDfellows bonus tracks

I recently got the physical CD copy of Information Society's latest album, ODDfellows, for which the bonus tracks are rather shrouded in mystery. Unless they were described in some "social media" comment thread, there is / was literally no information about them online, except that they are limited to the CD, which appears to only be on offer through bandcamp. So, this is a public service to identify and briefly describe the bonus material:

Track 11 - Might Have Been 4:13 // This is the reason to get the CD. "Might Have Been" is arguably better than most of the proper album; it's got a piano bit that lodges in the brain, and the song is one of the sort of mid-tempo grooves they do so well. It's also a tad dark, as if a pinch of Don't Be Afraid was thrown into the recipe.

Track 12 - World Enough (Phuzzed Up Mix) 5:13 // An unremarkable remix of one of the better tracks.

Track 13 - Escape from Murderapolis 1:02 // An instrumental trifle that seems rather pointless to include here at just a minute in length. Quite possibly from one of the guys' soundtrack work.

Track 14 - Slow-Scan 72 1:40 // This is one of their on-line scavenger hunts that I was never hacked enough to pursue.

Back in 2018, they sort of declared the album format dead and started chucking out a string of singles — "Nothing Prevails," "World Enough," "Room 1904" and "Bennington." These ended up being four of the 10 tracks of the new album, so it feels more like getting an EP's worth of new material here. The romantic rumination "World Enough" is the best of the bunch, another of those mid-tempo toe-tappers. Their 2014 return with _hello world remains the jewel of their late active period and, with Information Society (1988), is one of their two best albums.

Song of the decade

Does a decade's worth of music mean anything anymore? To me, it doesn't feel like it, and hasn't really since the '90s, which probably just means that I'm old. Time flies and a lot of life is happening, so I'm just getting around to taking a look at the past decade. Rather than serving up a big list, I've decided to simply crown my most-played song of the twenty-teens.

The winner is '90s survivor Robyn with "Dancing on My Own," which was released in June 2010 as lead single from the excellent Body Talk album (my #9 album for the decade, including music from all decades, per Last.fm), and which she cowrote and coproduced with Patrik Berger. It's a devastating dance music ballad, all swirling synths and heartbreak, that should have shot an arrow through the heart of the pop music audience. It is the epitome of the melancholy cast against a euphoric upbeat arrangement, which defines so much of my favorite music. How does a song this brilliant (and featured prominently in HBO's Girls) not even crack the Billboard Hot 100? Despite making no impression on the chart, it did, deservedly, go platinum in the U.S.

Music that moved me in 2019

Song of the year
Tanners, a relative unknown, won the year with a song from 2018, the urgent "Holy Water." It's hard to describe her vibe; I've been thinking I could imagine Sophie B. Hawkins doing this in the '90s if she'd had a tad more of a pop sensibility.

The runner-up
Dido put out a fine album in 2019, and the lush ballad "Give You Up" finished one point behind Tanners. It's her best track in years.

A year without breakouts
I said this about 2018, as well — there was no single artist or album that emerged as a big thing for me. Madonna's Madame X was a notable lemon in my world, a non-starter for the most part, although "Medellin" did get some spins and "Looking for Mercy" finished at #60 for the year. I feared this album would disappoint when I heard Mirwais was producing. For me, it's her worst since American Life and a real letdown after Rebel Heart, which had a few duds but, to me, is the best since Ray of Light. My most played album for the year was the new David Bowie compilation Loving the Alien (1983 - 1988).

Mildly unexpected
I've liked a random Bruce Springsteen song here and there through the years, but he stopped me in my tracks in 2019 with "There Goes My Miracle," #18 for the year. It's a beautiful tune and I've never heard him sing in this style — like an old-school crooner. Carly Rae Jepsen is not an artist I've given much attention, but her "Want You in My Room" finishes way up at #5 for the year.

When we was fab
I've never been one to listen to the Beatles, but a couple of the players had a good year with solo material — I've really gotten into some of the songs on Paul McCartney's latest, Egypt Station. He finishes #6 for the year with "Dominoes" and #22 with the beautiful ballad "Happy with You," while John Lennon is in at #69 with oldie "(Just Like) Starting Over." Julian Lennon got some spins as well with "Say You're Wrong."

What's so hot about the Hot 100?
We have but one instance of crossover for 2019 courtesy of Ava Max, whose "Sweet but Psycho" closed out the year with a long run at number one on my last.fm rolling chart. Had I discovered it earlier in the year, it probably would have been a contender for song of the year honors. Sounds a bit like early Gaga, doesn't it? It finishes the year at #53 for me and #23 in Billboard. Speaking of Gaga, the big soundtrack hit "Shallow" was a close call for another point of crossover (#134 me, #19 Billboard). And Post Malone's "Circles," which finished at #62 in Billboard, has recently gone onto my current playlist.

Previously
Go here for the best of 2018 and links to numerous previous years.

Let's talk about The Bird and The Bee

When The Bird and The Bee released the rather quirky  Interpreting the Masters Vol. 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates nine years ago, I figured it would be their Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 — an outstanding album that would never see a second volume. Well, they've just proved me wrong with something that absolutely no one was asking for — Interpreting the Masters Vol. 2: A Tribute to Van Halen. However, we should've seen it coming, given that they signaled their love for VH with the not good song "Diamond Dave" on their 2008 album Ray Guns Are not Just the Future. Perhaps it makes a bit of sense, given Van Halen's somewhat atypical use of synthesizers in the hard rock genre. It's the one thing that made some of their music work for me.

At best, this covers album takes Bird and Bee (Greg Kurstin and Inara George) into some new and interesting sonic territory, particularly on "Ain't Talking 'bout Love," which sounds like Bird and the Bee dipped in dreamwave / synthwave / retrowave, and it's a very good thing. Another highlight is "Jump," which very cleverly transforms singer Inara George's lovely voice into that classic hit's infamous synthesizer riff. Album opener "Runnin' with the Devil" works well, as does "You Really Got Me" (which really ought to be disqualified from this exercise by way of originally being a Kinks song) and "Jamie's Cryin'."

"Eruption" is a roughly 90 second instrumental b-side cover, leaving us with nine actual songs, including the previously released "Diamond Dave." Overall, the song choices veer too far away from hit material for the casual listener; I would much rather hear Bird and the Bee tackle "Dreams" or "When It's Love" than most of what's here. At worst, they struggle with capturing the inherent silliness of some the originals, as in "Hot for Teacher."

FLASHBACK // Back in 2010, I said the Hall & Oates tribute worked beautifully, with "The Bird and the Bee's electro lounge pop marrying perfectly with H&O's pop chestnuts."

RIP Ric Ocasek

While most of the Ric Ocasek obits are understandably focused on the importance of The Cars and his role in their success, it’s one of his solo songs, "Emotion in Motion," that is one of my all-time favorites of the 1980s and among all pop tunes in general. There's a magical quality to the synth-driven ballad that really takes me somewhere. Released in 1986 as the lead single for his second solo album This Side of Paradise, which largely sounds like a Cars album, it was Ocasek's only U.S. top 40 single as a solo artist (#15 pop, #8 AC, #1 rock tracks). It's a sweetly romantic track, in a good way, and it sits at #16 on my all-time Last fm scrobbles chart. Ocasek's final drawing/doodle that has been featured in the news says "Keep on Laughin'," which is the title of the opening track on This Side of Paradise. It's a good tune, but the second-best track on Paradise is "Mystery."

Elsewhere among his solo albums, "Hang on Tight" from 1997's Troublizing, which featured some collaboration with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins (not on this track, however), is also highly recommended, with an interesting evolution of the synth-pop-rock sound.

As for The Cars' body of work, the moody ballad "Drive" and "Magic" are divine slices of pop music.

Pet Shop Boys drop surprise single Dreamland with Years & Years

While giving this its first spin this evening, a distinct feeling emerged: This sounds like one of those Pet Shop Boys B-sides in which they are aping a specific artist, song or genre, or some combination thereof, such as in "The Ghost of Myself" (Britney Spears' "…Baby One More Time") or "Betrayed" (jungle). In this case, the imitated object would be the popular synthpop recording artist known as Years & Years. My first impression is that this new A-side is pleasant enough but not destined to be a favorite.

While it was known they'd been working with Olly Alexander of Years & Years, bonus points are in order for dropping the lead single from out of nowhere on a non-standard release date, accompanying the news of a greatest hits tour and the January release date for the upcoming studio album (it's been a long wait), which will complete the Stuart Price-produced trilogy. Here's to a new era of PSB.

New Miami Vice music package offers several treats

Jan Hammer's Miami Vice: Special Edition, a repackaging of Miami Vice soundtrack selections, quietly surfaced in May, and it brings a good bit of Vice synth-pop music to Spotify for the first time while also adding a couple of remixes and two tracks that did not appear on Miami Vice: The Complete Collection, which spans more than 40 tracks of dramatic chords and sunny synths. 

First, the new offerings: "Little Havana" is the better of the two; a pleasant, moody, salsa-ish number. "The Kick" is more of a driving rocker that sounds like it could serve as background for a guns-blazing chase through the Miami streets at night.

Special Edition opens with a new remix of the theme music, the XL Mix, which is largely faithful to the original but about a minute longer and with some additional guitar parts. The intro is also tweaked. It sounds like a new recording and, thus, cleaner than the original, which could stand a good remaster. 

"Crockett's Theme," which got a big boost in the '90s from its inclusion on the popular Pure Moods album, is not labeled as a remix or a remaster, but it is clearly a different mix than the original. In some regards, it sounds better (cleaner, like the theme), though there's a new little repeating electronic chirp that I don't love.

About 16 tracks of Hammer's Vice music were already on Spotify via previous collections Escape from Television and Snapshots 1.2. Some of the better Vice tracks joining them now are the likes of "Clues" and "Voodoo Dance." But this new collection curiously omits a few old favorites like "Chase" and "Evan," which were on the original soundtrack release in the '80s alongside the hits by Tina Turner, Phil Collins and Glenn Frey. They are, however, available for purchase through Hammer's website, along with all of The Complete Collection.

Party like it's 1989 with Paramore and Bruno Mars

A few weeks ago a song came on the radio and immediately stopped me in my tracks — a rare occurrence in the 2010s.

I was listening to an adult top 40-ish station, and I was like, "Whoa, somebody accidentally put on something from 1989." Shazam informed me that this curiosity is Paramore's latest single, "Rose-Colored Boy," which sounds, at least in that opening bit with the "low-key, no pressure" chant, like very late 80s dance pop (not so much new wave, as some have suggested). And, a bit later, it occurred to me that it actually evokes a particular song — Martika's first single, "More Than You Know," which went to #18 in 1989. Despite their apparent popularity, I wouldn't know another Paramore song if it humped my leg, but "Rose-Colored Boy" is a real treat amongst the mess that's on the radio these days. And, boy, does it stand out. Like many of my favorites, it's a clever juxtaposition of melancholy lyrics and upbeat music.

Another ear-turner for me is Bruno Mars' "Finesse" (without the Cardi B rap, thank you very much), which cleverly evokes Bell Biv DeVoe's excellent 1990 single "Poison" by using the same drum sounds that define the earlier song. Mars also pulled off a fine imitation of 1989 R&B balladry with previous single "Versace on the Floor."

Music that moved me in 2017

Top song …

My most-played song released in or not terribly far from 2017 is "Mistakes" by Avec Sans, which finishes at #2 overall in my top 100 of the year as monitored by last.fm. This kind of ethereal, melancholy electronic bliss leaves me drooling. It's the closer on their really good debut album, Heartbreak Hi.

Other notables …

• "Up the Creek," Tori Amos' best single in years, at #29
• "Losing Touch," a new synth masterpiece by Empathy Test, at #20
• Sia had a big year on my chart, finishing at #3 with "The Greatest," #4 with "Never Give Up" and #11 with "Move Your Body."

Oldies …

My most-played song overall was Billy Joel's somber and reflective ballad "I've Loved These Days" from Turnstiles. The most-played album overall, by a substantial margin, was the very good super deluxe release of Fleetwood Mac's 1987 classic Tango in the Night.

Posthumously …

• George Michael finishes at #6 with "Something to Save," #7 with "White Light," #29 with "Heal the Pain" and #66 with "Shoot the Dog."
• Prince lands at #73 with "Strange Relationship," #87 with "The Morning Papers" and #95 with "P Control."
• Leonard Cohen is at #67 with "Hallelujah."

Most-played new album …

With 2017 releases from Erasure and Goldfrapp sadly underperforming, the door opened for Depeche Mode to sneak in with the politically charged Spirit. It's the only DM album I've wanted to listen to all the way through since Violator.

What's so hot about the Hot 100 …

There is, per usual, minimal crossover between my year-end chart and that of popular consumption. Here are the two miracle compositions:

• "I Feel It Coming" by The Weeknd Featuring Daft Punk, #34 Billboard, #56 me
• "Chained to the Rhythm" by Katy Perry Featuring Skip Marley, #73 Billboard, #20 me. I'm skeptical of everything to do with Katy Perry, and I think she's one of the most commercially and critically overrated forces in popular music, but there is no denying that this is a successful stab at mature and sophisticated electronic pop music. The same is true of "Roulette," which sounds like it could have been released in 1996, and lands at #60 on my year-end chart.

Click here for 2016 and prior years.

Ten years of scrobbling

Back in September, I reached my 10-year anniversary of using the Last.fm scrobbler to record statistics on my music listening habits. At the beginning, it imported my iTunes history, so the statistics actually go back a bit farther than 10 years, and it also includes my Spotify activity. It's an irresistible thing for those of us who have the chart disease — I think people with a certain amount of OCD are predisposed to an unhealthy interest in the ebb and flow of popular music up and down the charts, and there's an added allure when it's limited to your own musical tastes. 

A few statistical highlights:

Number of songs played: 58,866
#1 artist: Pet Shop Boys (4,046 plays, about twice the number of second place)
#1 album: Yes by Pet Shop Boys
#1 song: "A&E" by Goldfrapp
#2 song: "Dancing On My Own" by Robyn. It's a crime against music that neither of these songs even cracked the Hot 100.
Highest-ranked '80s song: (tie) "One on One" by Hall & Oates and "This Is the Time" by Billy Joel at #8. I'm a little surprised to find that the two most-played from that decade are ballads, because when I think of my love for '80s music, I think of upbeat, synthy stuff. 
Highest-ranked '90s song: "I've Tried Everything" by the Eurythmics at #6
Highest ranked instrumental track: "Crockett's Theme" by Jan Hammer at #14. I've listened to a lot of Hammer's scoring for Miami Vice in recent years.
Most songs in the top 50: Pet Shop Boys, with eight. Next is Goldfrapp with five.
Most played '80s album: Autumnal Park by Pseudo Echo at #6. Ironically, I didn't own this synth pop classic until 2011.

View my Last.fm profile here.

Where's the revolution?

It's been about 12 years since a new Depeche Mode single really grabbed me (the last was "Precious" with the sonar sound pulsating throughout), but it's happening now with "Where's the Revolution," a rather clear and rousing political statement for those dismayed by how the country has recently gone off the rails.

Where's the revolution 

Come on, people 

You're letting me down

Indeed. 

I especially like the bridge, with the repeated lines of "the train is coming" and "the engine is humming," as the music literally mimics the sound of a locomotive bolting down the tracks. I'm definitely on board. For a political playlist, I'll suggest "Policy of Truth" as the next track …

Goldfrapp's new single

I really wanted to love the new Goldfrapp single, "Anymore," because it appears this album will be one of the more uptempo ones, and the last one left me cold (Head First, Supernature and Seventh Tree are my favorites). I gave "Thea" some streams but never even bought Tales of Us. "Anymore," if we compare it to the past material, sounds like it could fit on Black Cherry, which is neither particularly a good or a bad thing, but the melody is lacking for me. Here's hoping the album, Silver Eye, sounds better.

The songs that moved me in 2016

Based on my monitored music-playing activity from last.fm, my 11 most-played songs of the year, limited to those released in or not too far from 2016:

Burn ~ Pet Shop Boys // From this year's Stuart Price-produced Super album, it's one of their best-ever stompers and the best track to emerge from the Boys' new hardcore dance phase. Not that the single choices matter much at this stage, but how was this not a single?

Living Inside My Heart ~ ABC // What a year to be an ABC fan, with the incredible Lexicon of Love II preceded by two amazing appetizers — this one from Fly (Songs Inspired by the Film: Eddie the Eagle) and the incredible Radiohead cover from the 80's Re:Covered album.

Blue ~ Marina and the Diamonds // Cannot get it out of my head and don't want to.

Say It to Me ~ Pet Shop Boys

Love Will Keep Us Together ~ Kim Wilde // Another gem from 80's Re:Covered.

Mine ~ Third Eye Blind // A stunning, unexpected, deconstructing cover … and those are the best kind. Better, to my ears, than Beyonce's original.

Twenty-Something ~ Pet Shop Boys // One of the best lyrical efforts of their last few albums.

I Can Fly ~ Lana Del Rey // Not much from Del Rey has caught my attention prior to this stunner from the closing credits of the great film Big Eyes about the artist Margaret Keane.

In Bits ~ Pet Shop Boys // The B-sides of the last three albums have not lived up to their impeccable track record, but the dour "In Bits" is a notable exception.

The Dictator Decides ~ Pet Shop Boys

Viva Love ~ ABC // From Lexicon II, it sounds like a natural extension of their run of '80s hits.

A few factoids on my year in music:

• Most played "oldies" of the year: "Blue Eyes" by Elton John, a single from 1982, and "The NeverEnding Story" by Limahl from 1984, prompted by the Spotify commercial. Forty of my 100 are from the 1980s.

• A look at Billboard's top 100 songs of the year is, as usual, a reminder of how far removed my tastes are now from the mainstream. My top 100 played songs of the year has only two crossovers with Billboard: "Sorry" by Justin Bieber (me #27, Billboard #2) and "Cheap Thrills" by Sia (not the Sean Paul version, please) (me #40, Billboard #11). If I had discovered it earlier in the year, "Stressed Out" by twenty one pilots would probably have joined those two — it's certainly one of the most interesting tunes to get radio play this year.

• Prince had gone a bit underappreciated in my playlists in recent years, resulting in a gradual slide down to #57 on the artists chart at the time of his death. I've since spent a lot of time revisiting his vast discography, resulting in a huge rebound to #21.

Go here for last year's recap and links to prior years.

At last, Pet Shop Boys in Nashville

 

Nashville enjoyed a night out with the Pet Shop Boys in November, "at last," as Neil Tennant declared. I was thrilled to be there for my second PSB concert and not to have to make the much longer drive to Atlanta as we did in 2009 for the Yes tour. It was a fantastic show in Andrew Jackson Hall near the Tennessee Capitol, with the additional on-stage musicians bringing a little twist to the performance, which included spectacular visuals. It's always thrilling to hear the new mixes they bring to the live shows.

Setlist highlights: "Love Comes Quickly," "Domino Dancing" and "The Dictator Decides"

Setlist quibbles: 1) The exclusion of "Being Boring" 2) The inclusion of "New York City Boy" 3) The representation of Fundamental only by "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show;" I'd choose any other of the album's tracks over that one except "Numb."

A special note: To the person seated in row L, seat 30, who sat on top of your seat, everyone behind you thought you were a giant douchebag.

A thought on Dead or Alive (or RIP Pete Burns)

To read the press accounts in the last few days of the death of Pete Burns of Dead or Alive, you'd think the band only ever managed one placing on the Billboard Hot 100, since they only mention "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)," the 1985 hit. It's a fine pop tune, but I pretty much always preferred "Brand New Lover," also a top 15 hit in the U.S. in 1987 from the band's next album and also a production of the Stock Aitken Waterman team. The single "I'll Save You All My Kisses" from the same album is a fine reminder of the time, as well.

ABC covers Radiohead's "High & Dry"

Although I did buy their "pick your own price" album in 2007, I never got into Radiohead. I'm a sucker for interesting remakes, though, so ABC's cover of "High & Dry," part of the recent 80's Re:Covered album with "80s" artists doing other people's later songs, brings the 1995 single to my attention. Like Beethoven flogging a Blur album track, ABC pulls out all its trademark New Romantic flourishes for the slow-paced alt-rock tune, which was a high point for Radiohead in terms of commercial exposure. It's a fantastic cover; ABC sounds as vital as ever, and it begs the question why they haven't released an album since 2008.

Kylie Minogue's "Only You" with James Corden

One of the last things you'd expect on a Christmas album is a cover of a Yaz (Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet) tune, but that's what Kylie Minogue served as the first taste of her Christmas album in a surprising (in several ways) duet with James Corden, the Brit host of The Late Late Show on CBS. Who knew that Corden could sing? He acquits himself better on this lush cover of the 1982 synthpop classic than he does as a late-night host. The Christmasy-orchestral makeover of the bouncy original lends heart to the lovelorn lyrics, making for a welcome gift to 80s fans from the enduring Aussie.