2023 Q2 Review and Analysis
Maybe there's hope yet
I like to review where things stand every few months, once all of the reviews are in for March, June, and September. This is the first time I’m assembling one of these on this platform, so this will also go over a bit of housekeeping.
First, given the sheer volume of reviews, and how this project has grown, I’m only going to be sending out reviews which hit Teal or higher going forward. The rest will post normally. Last year I hit 138 total reviews, and I’m on pace to easily eclipse that number this year. Limiting emails to Teal+ reviews means that only around 40-45% should be clogging your inboxes.
Honestly, Substack could use some modularity/customization options for this sort of thing.
All other reviews will still be available for browsing. But those won’t be in the conversation when it comes time to rank the top 40.
Special discussions, such as these Quarterly Reviews, Release Radars, and special non-review discussions, such as posts discussion projects like the Metallica Blacklist1 and Taylor Swift’s re-recordings,2 will still hit inboxes, too.
Now, to start talking numbers…
Volume
To date, I’ve scored 70 albums this year, through the end of June. Historically, looking at the last two years (small sample size, but still), the reviews through the end of June have generally been about 35-39% of the year-end total. This is due to a few factors:
It’s harder to be aware of smaller releases when they happen, so many of those aren’t found until I do my year-end checks and masterlist update in November
There are often other releases that release in the first half of the year that I don’t learn about until later3
September and October are usually STACKED with releases, sometimes 5-6 on my radar each week (though this balances out a bit since literally nothing releases in December most years)
So, I’m still looking at a large year-over-year gain. If the trend holds, the conservative total at year-end could break 175 albums.
Quality
The above screenshot shows the mid-year totals by score for each year. I have to caveat that the system I’m using does not maintain temporary buckets (Teal and Lavender) for this metric. So this does not accurately reflect the exact situation I was facing those years. For instance, one of the three 2022 releases which released (and was scheduled for review) before July 1 and ultimately received a Purple score, was Coheed and Cambria’s Vaxis II. This time last year, I had given it a Blue. But it really grew on me, and ultimately got bumped up.
But this year, we still only, so far, have one Purple album, which feels really light. Ultimately, in order to really feel like it was a successful year, I would really want Purple and Blue to total at least about 30%.
Right now, even factoring in the expected ~1/3 of Teal albums to bump up to Blue, we’re only at about 27%.
Again, here’s a look at the percentages for 2021 & 2022:
We’re getting a decent amount of really good, 8+ albums, but not much is really feeling worthy of that final 9.5+ bracket. Whether that’s because we’re over the Covid hump or because the sheer volume of albums I’ve consumed has made me more particular, I’m really not certain.
However, there has been a recent upturn which has me feeling more optimistic about the rest of the year.
Key Change
Given that this is a side project for me and that I have no advance time to listen and review before albums launch, there’s a bit of lag time. Sometimes one week, sometimes three. But always a bit of lag.
I was much more dismal at the beginning of June about this year’s trends. I had zero optimism. Then I hit the reviews I had flagged for the second half of May and early June, and there was a significant shift.
Mid-May totals:
Current totals:
Sure, we’ve added one, each, in the bottom three buckets, but also one Purple, three Blues, seven Teals, and three Greens. I make an active effort not to score in temporary buckets, but seven of the last seventeen reviews have felt like they warrant it. And four of those seventeen have scored even higher.
I can’t be certain it’s an all-out sea-change, but it feels like a definite shift in momentum. I’m hoping it holds out through the summer lull. For right now, please feel free to revisit the reviews for the top 12 albums of the first half of 2023:
Purple
Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden
Blue
Gracie Abrams - Good Riddance Haken - Fauna Isole - Anesidora Elysion - Bring Out Your Dead Floor Jansen - Paragon Melanie Martinez - Portals NF - Hope The Ocean - Holocene OK Goodnight - The Fox and the Bird Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Weathervanes The Revivalists - Pour It Out Into The Night
Looking Forward
The forecast through the end of the year is far from set. There should be a ton of announcements throughout July and August which will flesh out the run to the end of the year. I will be doing research on the Release Radar again next week, in time to make you all aware of the lineup of August releases before the first Friday of the month. You can always check it anytime at the link above.
With what we know currently, there are three standouts that I have flagged:
August 18: Hozier
September 1: Soen4
September 15: Baroness5
I’m hoping for a few more heavy hitters to announce. I’ve been anticipating Within Temptation’s new album since 2021. Granted, I had been anticipating Kamelot’s for the same amount of time…
With the year half over, I know we’ll get more good music. And while I wholeheartedly believe Sleep Token’s album is worthy of AOTY, I would like to see it challenged. At least a bit.
As a reminder, you can follow along with the annual playlists of new albums, including just the highest-rated albums, and the top new songs as the year progresses.
Good times. I would love another release which properly captures that kind of energy and excitement.
Look for the discussion on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) tomorrow!
In fact, I’ve already got one on my list: Trophy Eyes’ album Suicide and Sunshine came recommended from a friend, but it released in June, and it’s past time to get this post out, sooooooo… It doesn’t count for this analysis. Look for the review next week!
Really hoping not to be disappointed. They were my runner-up in 2019, and won AOTY in 2021.
The album isn’t named after a color this time. I don’t know what to do with this. First Pokemon, now Baroness. Though, Pokemon came back to colors recently…
I love it when you talk nerdy.