

Discover more from Leland's Monthly Music Recap (also a blog)
Favorite Music of 1H 2023
Here's the comprehensive list of my favorite music for the first half of 2023.
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).
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.
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:
Alicia Keys (feat. Queen Charlotte's Global Orchestra) - If I Ain't Got You (Orchestral Version)
Tame Impala - Wings of Time (from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves)
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:
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.