My music listening habits have changed over the past couple of years. For one, I dropped Amazon Music as a streaming service, because they kept taking away features I was using. So, goodbye! I tried Spotify for a while, but they didn’t integrate well with Last.fm, never getting the album title correct, using the playlist title instead. I finally settled on Tidal as my streaming service of choice, since they integrate with Last.fm and get the album title correct whether I’m playing an album, a playlist, or an individual track added to my play queue.
Tidal submits multiple artist names for tracks, and I have to edit my scrobbles on Last.fm to only use one artist name and put the others in the track title as featured artists, and that has been enough of a pain, I dramatically cut down on my playing of tracks that had multiple artists listed. That practice, however, changed with the new feature on Last.fm that allows you to check a box to have scrobble edits automatically applied in the future. So now when I play a track with multiple artists, I can edit the scrobble once on Last.fm, and from then on when I play that track, Last.fm will automatically correct the metadata for me. I think I’ve got the best situation I can get with a streaming service.
When I play MP3s in my media player on my laptop, I can fix all the metadata in my media player and have it always be submitted exactly how I want, but I wouldn’t have the range of music to play that a streaming service provides. So I’m good with the Tidal and Last.fm integration as it stands now.
Moving on to my top played artists, albums, and tracks for 2021…
My Top 5 Most Played Artists in 2021:
5. Grimes
Okay, the deal here is that I made a new music video for a remix of the Grimes song, You’ll Miss Me When I’m Not Around. I had to listen to the track a lot during the time I was working on it. And then Grimes recently released a new song, Player of Games, and I had to put that track on repeat for a while, enjoying the lower register she goes to in the song. I love her music, especially her more recent music, Art Angels and beyond, as opposed to her older stuff that all her original fans are so vocal about. I mean, her older stuff is good, too, but I prefer the newer.
4. Billie Eilish
When I first heard bury a friend and bad guy by Billie Eilish, I thought they were such great songs, I wondered if she could produce anything else as good. With her Happier Than Ever album, she has scored some more great tunes, I’m happy to say.
3. salem ilese
I discovered quite a few new artists once I subscribed to Tidal. Their recommendations weren’t always spot on for me, but they seem to have improved over time. They recommended salem ilese, and I gave her music a try. Much of her music is whimsical and lyrical and good-natured fun. Ben and Jerry is one such song.
2. Grace VanderWaal
Grace VanderWaal is growing up, and her music is evolving with her. That’s cool. She released a couple new tracks in 2021, Don’t Assume What You Don’t Know and Repeat. I listened to both of them on repeat a lot during the year.
1. Max Gumdrop
If you haven’t heard of Max Gumdrop, I’m not surprised. It’s my music group. So, of course I listened to our music over and over and over. If we members of the band don’t love what we’ve done, we can’t expect anyone else to. The tracks have grown on me even more since we first released Antiviral, our debut album, at the end of 2020. The tracks are all instrumentals, but vary across genres. I wish we had music videos for more of them. We have more planned, but two of the three of us have been working on book two of our GameLit series, due out before the end of December 2021. Maybe after it’s released, we’ll have some time to put together another music video. We’ll see.
My Most Played Albums in 2021
5. Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams
Somehow I missed this album in 2020. I didn’t have Tidal until 2021, and that’s when I discovered great tracks like Simmer, Cinnamon, Dead Horse, and Crystal Clear, from the album Petals for Armor by Hayley Williams. The year 2020 was so crazy. I didn’t even post a list of top music for that year. So it’s fitting some of that year’s music made this list. And, yes, Hayley Williams released the album Flowers for Vases / descansos in 2021, and I listened to it a good deal, too. Just a Lover has a great buildup. But both her latest albums were new to me. I played the earlier one more.
4. Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land – Marina
Marina shortened her name from Marina and the Diamonds. The Diamonds were her fans, not a group she sang with, so shortening it to Marina only made sense. It was nice to include her fans in her artist name, but first names only for artists has become quite the trend, and what artist doesn’t want to be on a first name basis with her fans? Marina has always had a way with lyrics, from the fanciful to the more serious, while still putting them to a pop beat. The lyrics for the title track of Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land could be confused with pop melodrama if not listened to carefully, but there’s deeper meaning in many of Marina’s songs that doesn’t necessarily register in one’s mind at first listen. She can thus appeal to the masses and to the thinking individual as well.
3. SOUR – Olivia Rodrigo
I’m not an old fart who listens mostly to classic rock or death metal. I do listen to classic rock and other oldies on occasion, but so much of what I listen to in my old age, in case you hadn’t noticed, is pop music by female vocalists. It’s who I’ve become. Sure, I like Elton John and Billy Idol and other classic artists who have released new music, and I’ve listened to a good number of their songs this year. I was surprised and happy that Billy Idol released a new EP. But I love an upbeat pop song with lyrics that are slightly bent, and if you don’t understand, I can’t help it. There’s a part of me that empathizes with the plight of females trying to make a go of it in an industry seemingly still dominated by males. When a young lady can put her feelings into song, I want to listen. But it’s not just to support her in her career choice. I have to actually enjoy what she has produced if I’m to keep listening. And I enjoyed a good number of songs from Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 release of SOUR. My favorite track from the album is brutal. Watch the video and imagine an old fart like me putting myself in the singer’s role. Ha. But sometimes it happens in my warped mind. I didn’t say I was proud, but I’m not ashamed of it, either.
2. (L)only Child – salem ilese
I listened to the title track of (L)only Child a lot more than the other tracks on the album, which boosted the number of plays for this album significantly. All of her songs have some degree of pop appeal. Dinosaurs (s4e7) adds a somber message within its poppiness.
1. Antiviral – Max Gumdrop
Yes, I listened to my own album more than anyone else’s. Again, if I don’t love what I do, I can’t expect anyone else to. Emila Thicke and I used one of our songs, Metal Voltage Acid, in a promo video for our first novel, The Longest Survivor. Can I plug our sequel here, too? Book two, Undone, is due out by the end of this month (December 2021). We don’t have a promo video for it yet. We’ll get it published first and then think about doing a video.
I also created a video featuring Steve Crompton’s Demi the Demoness. It’s a promo video for his City of the Gods books, and features our track, Lost Cobra. The project was the first to feature a complex character that I’ve done, and there are a few things about the video I’d have liked to have done better, but I could have spent many more days working on it for a minimal return. Steve was happy with the result, especially since he’d been wanting a video featuring his Demoness for a very long time. I’m happy to have done as well as I did for him. It’s always easier for me to create promo videos for my own stuff, because I can change my characters if I want so they work with the 3D models I have. Trying to create something close to what someone else envisions is a much tougher task. But Steve was flexible, and that helped. Here’s the final video, featuring another Max Gumdrop track.
My Most Played Tracks in 2021
Included in this list is at most one track per artist.
5. Therefore I Am – Billie Eilish
As mentioned earlier, Billie Eilish was one of my most played artists of the year. The track of hers I listened to the most in 2021 was Therefore I Am, because of the reference to that great quote, “I think therefore I am.” I like it when a song refers to thinking. There’s not enough thinking in the world.
4. Two Dogs Tethered Inside – Emily Wells
I’ve been a fan of Emily Wells since I discovered her by way of Pillowfight, a side project she was in with Dan the Automator. I love the Pillowfight album. I wish the two of them would release another one. In the meantime, I get to listen to her voice on her solo efforts. Two Dogs Tethered Inside grabbed me on first listen with its haunting notes.
3. Memories of Yuki – Max Gumdrop
I hadn’t realized until I looked at the stats on Last.fm that I’d listened to any one track from our album, Antiviral, much more than the others. Memories of Yuki is the first track from the album, and perhaps that’s why I’ve listened to it more than the others. I don’t like the version of the track I hear on Tidal. For some reason, their version is very low quality. I don’t have the top level plan on Tidal, and I hope a better version of the track is played for those members with the top level plan. The version on YouTube is much better than what I hear on Tidal. We haven’t made a video for the track yet.
The Japanese vocals included in the track are purely intended as another instrument we had at our disposal. We don’t even know what the words mean. Ha. But the vocals reminds me of my favorite Japanese pop singer, Yuki, who was once the lead singer for a Japanese band called Judy and Mary, before Yuki went solo. I can find Judy and Mary songs on Tidal, but not songs from Yuki as a solo act. I still remember some of the videos I used to be able to watch of Yuki’s solo music, but can’t find anymore on YouTube. She has added some newer ones, I’ve recently discovered. I noticed there’s a bunch of official audio releases of hers on YouTube, just put there in the last few months. Anyway, she’s the inspiration for the Max Gumdrop track, Memories of Yuki. It’s our tribute to her, even though our instrumental accompaniment to the vocals in our track isn’t anything like what she’d do. We could only wish.
2. Don’t Assume What You Don’t Know – Grace VanderWaal
Grace VanderWaal’s voice has matured, and wow does she get down on the bass in Don’t Assume What You Don’t Know. Anyone who has followed her career knows she’s a musical prodigy. I can’t wait to see what she brings us next.
1. (L)only Child – Salem Ilese
After I discovered salem ilese, I found myself often getting stuck on her song, (L)only child, and couldn’t stop listening to it. The beat is infectious, and I love the strings of high notes.
And there’s my lists for 2021. Sorry to have missed posting any for 2020, but that was such a crazy year. Not that 2021 hasn’t had its share of craziness. Here’s to a musical 2022. Maybe the craziness will tone down some this coming year, but I’m not holding my breath. Best wishes to all for a happy new year!