Leland's Monthly Music Recap (also a blog)

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Favorite Music of 1H 2023

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Favorite Music of 1H 2023

Here's the comprehensive list of my favorite music for the first half of 2023.

Leland (They/He)
Jul 14, 2023
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Favorite Music of 1H 2023

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Welcome to the third Favorite Music issue! I understand that not everyone has the time to go through weekly nor monthly new music releases, so this issue is a way for me to provide a concise summary of new music that everyone should check out.

I’m listing my top singles and projects for the first half of 2023 in no particular order (other than alphabetical). Similar to Monthly Music Recap, each issue might differ in terms of number of entries, as this will depend on the number of new releases. The number for this issue is 30 (thirty). If you’re reading this via email, I do suggest reading this on the website instead, or you can click “View Entire Message” to read the entire email (It’s very long).

Thanks for reading Leland's Monthly Music Recap (also a blog)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.


Monthly Music Recap

Here are the issues for each Monthly Music Recap for your reference and convenience, in case you missed them. I will use these issues as the base for the Favorite Music list. April 2023 is intentionally omitted as I did not publish an issue during that month, do note that I have taken that month into account too.

  • January 2023

  • February 2023

  • March 2023

  • May 2023

  • June 2023


Top Singles

I would mention that the singles are removed from consideration if the artist releases a project that includes the single by the end of June 2023, so if you don't see a worthy single that I should have mentioned, take a look further at the top projects where I might have listed the entire project instead.

Here are my top 30 singles for the first half of 2023:

  1. Alicia Keys (feat. Queen Charlotte's Global Orchestra) - If I Ain't Got You (Orchestral Version)

  2. ArrDee & Cat Burns - Home For My Heart

  3. Astrid S - Fuck Off

  4. BABY GRAVY (bbno$ & Yung Gravy) - You Need Jesus

  5. CG5 & David Archuleta - IDONTUNDERSTAND

  6. Chiiild & Lucky Daye - Good For Now

  7. CHVRCHES - Over

  8. Ciara - Da Girls

  9. Conan Gray - Never Ending Song

  10. Demi Lovato - Cool for the Summer (Rock Version)

  11. Doja Cat - Attention

  12. Dua Lipa - Dance The Night

  13. FLO (feat. Missy Elliott) - Fly Girl

  14. Hailee Steinfeld - SunKissing

  15. Halsey - Die 4 Me

  16. Hozier - Francesca

  17. LANY - Love At First Fight

  18. Lizzo (feat. SZA) - Special

  19. Olivia Rodrigo - vampire

  20. Omar Apollo - 3 Boys

  21. Portugal. The Man - Dummy

  22. Qveen Herby - Barbie Girl

  23. Rina Sawayama - Eye For an Eye (from John Wick: Chapter 4)

  24. ROSALÍA - LLYLM

  25. ROSALÍA - TUYA

  26. Tame Impala - Wings of Time (from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves)

  27. Thundercat & Tame Impala - No More Lies

  28. Victoria Monét - On My Mama

  29. Victoria Monét (feat. Lucky Daye) - Smoke

  30. Voices of Fire (feat. Pharrell Williams) - JOY (Unspeakable)


Top Projects (Albums, Mixtapes, EPs)

Here are my top 30 projects for the first half of 2023:

  1. Adam Lambert - High Drama

  2. Anne Dorko - Never Going Back

  3. Arlo Parks - My Soft Machine

  4. Astrid S - Felt Cute Might Delete Later

  5. Ava Max - Diamonds and Dancefloors

  6. boygenius - the record

  7. Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

  8. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (10th Anniversary Edition)

  9. Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust

  10. Hozier - Eat Your Young

  11. Jake Shears - Last Man Dancing

  12. Janelle Monáe - The Age of Pleasure

  13. Kali Uchis - Red Moon In Venus

  14. KAROL G - MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO

  15. KAYTRAMINÉ (Aminé & KAYTRANADA) - KAYTRAMINÉ

  16. Kelly Clarkson - chemistry

  17. Kesha - Gag Order

  18. Labrinth - Ends & Begins

  19. METRO BOOMIN PRESENTS SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (SOUNDTRACK FROM AND INSPIRED BY THE MOTION PICTURE)

  20. Miley Cyrus - Endless Summer Vacation

  21. Milky Chance - Living In A Haze

  22. Qveen Herby - THE MUSE

  23. RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

  24. Rebecca Black - Let Her Burn

  25. ROSALÍA & Rauw Alejandro - RR

  26. Sabrina Carpenter - emails i can't send fwd:

  27. salem ilese - Team Sport

  28. Sam Smith - Gloria

  29. SG Lewis - AudioLust & HigherLove

  30. Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy


And there you have it, my top singles and projects for the first half of 2023. Again, my intention is to provide a summary so that people can check out music if they don’t have enough time to do so. This list also gives you a taste of my favorite genres, and I hope you enjoy every one of them like I do. The next Monthly Music Recap will happen at the end of July 2023. Until then, happy listening!

P.S. If you want to actually stalk what I’m listening to at any time, feel free to do so on my Last.fm profile here. You can also check out my Musicboard profile here, where I track my backlog (under Listen Later) and reviews for music releases. Don’t worry, the long reviews are here to stay and I do also crosspost the long reviews there too.

On a less music-related note, I have a Letterboxd account here in case you’re interested in seeing which films I’m watching along with my brief film reviews. I also have a Serializd account for TV shows here. If you're into reading, I have a LGBTQIA+ story published on Tapas, featuring an aroace agender character which you can check out here.

Thanks for reading Leland's Monthly Music Recap (also a blog)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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