I do not really make an effort anymore to “scrobble” everything I listen to to Last.fm. Last.fm used to be fun with a radio, recommendations, etc., but since a few years the only function of Last.fm is keeping track of what I play. In spite of over 100.000 “scrobbles” (indexed tracks) since late 2008, Last.fm still cannot manage to recommend music that I do not already know or even inform me of new releases of artists and projects that I do know.
My Spotify account is still connected to Last.fm, so a portion of what I listen to is still indexed by Last.fm. I no longer keep track of what I play on cd, vinyl or tape (but that is not all that much) or even Bandcamp, so Last.fm statistics are probably off. Especially with for example Haus Arafna. Some of their material I can play through Spotify, some not, so not every time I listen to them, Last.fm ‘is aware’ of that.
In any case, judging my profile, my most played artist in 2022 is Michael Idehall. 130 Tracks listened in a year’s time. Next up is… Haus Arafna (108 “scrobbles”), Gnawed (102) (no releases in 2022), A Place To Bury Strangers (99) and Der Blutharsch (90).
Both Arafna and Idehall I probably listened to more. Of Gnawed I bought the entire Bandcamp discography of the time a while back. A part of that back catalogue found its way to my “Vocalised noise” playlist that I listen to quite a bit (you can add local files to Spotify playlists) Der Blutharsch; I had not listened to them a lot, but apparently the death of Albin Julius brought quite a peak is “scrobbles”. Perhaps that was mostly me trying to find tracks for my In Memoriam mix.
The way Last.fm shows most played album is odd. When an album has 20 very short tracks, the band will not only be a more played one, but the album will also appear higher. Therefor it is no surprise that “See Through You” is my most played album in 2022.
The next one is an odd one: “Epic Loon” of Pryapisme. I doubt I will have listened to the whole album more than two times, but this weird band is in a few of my Spotify playlists and apparently I came to playing 48 times a track from that album.
Next up is the latest Haus Arafna, Michael Idehall’s great “No Man’s Land” and as last, the somewhat odd “Mörkrets Ton” of an artist I have never yet reviewed Yabibo Hazurfa.
Finally, top tracks. Both number one and two are for Am Not, respectively “Autopia Now” (10 “scrobbles”) and “Bioluminence” (9) of the “Auto” 7″ (from 2021). Then we have “Here In The Gut” by Years of Denial (9), “Burning The Hive” by Gnawed (8), “Meniscus” of Talker (8) and “Modern Silver” of Ulwhednar (8).
These last tracks show that I listed to the dark side of “industrial techno” frequently, mostly in the form of my excellent Spotify playlist “Electronic Doom”.
That last list (tracks) shows the weird counting of Last.fm for albums. I have 50 “scrobbles” for the latest A Place To Bury Strangers, but none of the individual tracks appear in most played tracks list.
Looking at my own archive I can see that I wrote 12 reviews of albums that were released in 2022. There are some pretty good albums there too. Gruntsplatter & Underneath The Deadlight – Predation Monoliths (2022), Am Not – Cold + Disloyal (2022), Dødsmaskin – Herremoral | Slavemoral (2022), Thorofon – Gladio (2022), Sühne Mensch – Schmerzportrait (2022), A Place To Bury Strangers – See Through You (2022), Hadewych – Mes (2022) and Brighter Death Now – Everything Is Gonna Be Alright (2022).
This is perhaps not entirely fair. I hear a lot of music that is not ‘worth reviewing’. I no longer review everything that I hear, only releases that I want to draw some extra attention to.
So there you have my 2022 in music.