TFG1Mike’s Top 10 Albums & Songs of 2023!!!!!
Hello Music Fans it is I, TFG1Mike… And I’m here to give you my favorite albums and songs of 2023. I got inspired to do this, after I listened to Music Talks Podcast’s final two episodes of 2023. Terry Smith has Steven Routledge on both of these episodes to pick their Top 10 each of their favorite albums of 2023. You can hear Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE! So Terry and Steven are just doing albums for 2023, but for me I’m doing albums or songs of 2023, due to the way I listen to music. I loved listening to their selections and those episodes of the podcast. You should check it out.
Before I get into my list please check out the Top 20 Albums and Songs of 2020, which you can read HERE! I was gonna do lists for 2021 and 2022, but they just fell through the cracks of an old music theatre! Also this counts as Day 364 of 2023 in my 365 blog series!
The rules Terry and Steven went by are as follows:
– No Repeats (Basically if a song from an album makes it to the songs list, that album can’t be on the albums list and vice versa)
– The album had to be released during the year that was 2023!
– No live albums or greatest hits albums!
I think I can stick with their rules in order to make my list. Also what I noticed this year more than the previous years I’ve done this write up…. I have been finding music I like through Instagram stories from various people I follow. The sad thing with this is that one of the songs I thought I was gonna put on my list is older than 2023! So I’ll use this moment here to give that song an honorable mention. It’s Jeris Johnson with Ricky Desktop on damn! I saw/heard that song in Instagram stories and I got hooked on it!
Also for my list, I’m going to have a NUMBER ONE song and a NUMBER ONE album. My reasoning behind this is that, what I found out in my music listening at the end of 2023, was that I listened to SINGLES, as well as ALBUMS!
I have listened to all of these throughout the year. There are a few that were released at the very end of 2023, so I’ve had those on repeat more than some of the others. So here are my Top 10 Albums and Songs of 2023.
10. Dinosaur – Theory Of A Deadman As a die hard Theory Of A Deadman fan, it hurts me to put this album at number 10. Jesse Earley aka Matrix Prime and I did a full review of this album on GeekCast Radio Episode 320. You can listen to that HERE! Re listening to the album again for this write up…. I feel the same way I did when we did the podcast. Sideways, Head In The Clouds, and Hearts Too Wild are the best three tracks from the album. The rest are good, but the content is very depressing.
09. Bad Idea Right? – Olivia Rodrigo I know it’s a breakup song, but it’s just sooooo damn catchy!!! I’m actually liking a lot of her music beyond this track!
08. Retrovision – Honey Revenge So I first heard the track Airhead on Instagram (are you sensing a pattern here?) I liked that song, and wanted to check out the rest of the album. I really dig it and it almost reminds me of Avril in the 90s. That’s not a bad thing, and the instrumentals on these songs are amazing. Track 3 Are You Impressed has musical tones that are very interesting to me. There are 12 tracks here and I find it interesting that they start with Airhead and end the album with Distracted. Track 10 Scapegoat has instrumentals I really dig as well. My top three songs from this are Airhead, Are You Impressed, and Favorite Song. It’s a great listen through, but those are my three favorites!
07. Let It Hurt – Sophie Lloyd, Black Stone Cherry, Chris Robertson Damn! This song, it can’t be said enough…. DAMN! It’s just so good. I had never heard Sophie Lloyd before, but between her guitar stylings and the BSC sound as well, it is one helluva powerful combo! And the lyrics absolutely love this one!!!!
06. What’s Love Got To Do With It – Black Stone Cherry So this was a track that I wrote up an article for earlier this year when it released. That was Day 193 of 2023 and you can read that HERE! BSC always kicks ass with anything they do, but this cover kinda rocked me to my core. Plus the band took all the proceeds that they were gonna get and donated them to charity. BSC rules!
05. How We Roll – Rockin’ 1000 Featuring Black Stone Cherry – Chris Robertson Again I’ve been all in on Black Stone Cherry since I found them in 2011, so anything they do, and especially when Chris Robertson is lending his amazing vocals to anything I’m all in! With this song not only are the instrumentals great, but the message of the song in the lyrics is very uplifting. Very much in the BSC wheelhouse!
04. Hook The Ultimate Edition Film Soundtrack – John Williams <—- Unfortunately it’s temporarily out of stock over on the La-La Land Records website, but I’m sure it’ll be back in stock at some point. You can find it HERE! I’ve been waiting three decades for this music to be released, and now it’s here! 3 Discs with under 4 hours of music! I will be doing a separate write up in 2024 for this release, but listening to it since I grabbed it before the holidays and now…. All I can say is BANGARANG!!!!!
03. Ravage – The Cybertronic Spree! Oh The Spree!!!!! This was amazing!!!! I was able to back this kickstarter project to get the CD, and wowzers it’s soooo good! You can hear Mike Seibert and I discuss the whole thing right HERE! I will say though I love listening to this album! It’s the 80s in the 21st century and it rocks!
02. Batman Beyond Volume 1! – DMP – Kristopher Carter, Lolita Ritmanis, Michael Mccuistion! NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!! 2024 is the 25TH ANNIVERSARY of BATMAN BEYOND! Now we here at The GCRN, especially me have always loved covering Batman Beyond stuff! This Volume 1 score is no different! I’ll be doing a future blog post about it as on January 10th 2024 we will celebrate 25 Years Of BATMAN BEYOND! Soooo many favorite tracks from Season 1 of the show, and this 95 track score has it all!!!
01 Song: Poetry Glass – Peyton Parrish! Once again I found Mr. Parrish through an Instagram ad, and it was an ad for this very song. It captivated me. From the music to the lyrics, and everything in between Poetry Glass has me shattered at how hauntingly awesome it is! In 2024 I will celebrate 30 years of writing poetry. I started writing free verse poetry when I was 14 wayyyy back in 1994! So a song with the name Poetry Glass was gonna catch my attention.
Lyrics that grab me:
“All the colors And pain
That you paint into the glass
Shatter my name
Then you tell me (I’m alright)
You fail me
Over and over and over again!”
And then there’s:
“Your love is all I need
Why can’t you just see?
You have me falling
Into your poetry glass!”
Ever since finding this song and Peyton Parrish, I’m a fan. He’s killin’ it! And his NEW Album SOUL comes out in 2024!! That’s definitely gonna make the Top 2024 albums list! Which means I’ll get to talk about Poetry Glass again a year from now!
01 Album: Screamin’ At The Sky! – Black Stone Cherry In the year of #BSC8 are any of you surprised that this is my number one album of 2023?! Black Stone Cherry are a band that I’ve always said were Southern Rock. I say that with love, and pride, but they are soooo much more than that. BSC can give us ANY SOUND they want and it’s gonna either kick your ears outa your ass or it’ll melt your heart with a ballad. Screamin’ At The Sky is an earsplosion of excellent rocking tunes! I pretty much love all 12 tracks, but my top 3 are Here’s To The Hopeless, You Can Have It All, and R.O.A.R. <— (Raindrops On A Rose)!!! Terry Smith of Music Talks Podcast and I recorded a review episode on this album for GeekCast Radio! You can listen to that HERE! And that pretty much says everything I would write here about this album. I can’t stop listening to it, cover to cover! It’s amazing!
So there ya have it folks! My Top 10 Albums and Songs of 2023! What did you think of my list and will you be checking out any of my choices? Sound off in the comments. No matter what music you listen to, ENJOY IT!!!!
