February 2023 Playlists + Tyler Lyle of The Midnight Interview

Plus my 1,000 Favorite Songs of the 1970s!

Last December, I recorded a Carefully Curated episode with singer / songwriter Tyler Lyle, who is one half of The Midnight. I sat on it for a while because of the holidays & then I wanted to release it with more episodes. This is the last episode that will be released for now, but I will be recording more soon.

Tyler was kind enough to invite me to his studio to record our conversation. It was great hearing stories behind some of the songs from Heroes, the latest album from The Midnight which was released last September. He also talks about recently doing DJ sets & some of the songs that have influenced those.

The Midnight are about to embark on an EU/UK tour & will be playing Bonnaroo in June. If you have the chance, go see them!

Top Albums & Songs - February 2023

Here are my top albums from last month featured on the "2023: Favorite Songs" playlist:

And here are the Top 13 songs from last month:

M83 tops the Top 13 chart for the second month in a row. Their new album Fantasy arrives next week & it’s safe to say it will end up as on of my favorites this year. The build up to 5:03 in “Earth To Sea” is one of my favorite moments from any M83 song.

Caroline Polachek’s “Pretty In Possible” is a modern day “Tom’s Diner”, which means it’s an absolute earworm. I went with deep cut picks for Paramore & Tennis from their great albums. Militarie Gun goes punchy power-pop. Kelela shines with vulnerable ambient pop. CHVRCHES & Depeche Mode return to form. Joy Oladokun helps with your apocalypse anxiety. PONY brings the fuzz-pop hooks. Frankie Rose shines with her hypnotic synthpop. Men I Trust aren’t messing around with that bassline. And Young Fathers will make your hips shake!

If the Top 13 songs of the month aren’t enough, I’ve been posting weekly Top 13 charts over on Instagram & TikTok.

The Dark Side of the Moon turns 50!

Last week, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon celebrated its 50th birthday. That’s a big one. I always use album anniversaries to revisit the album, especially if I haven’t listened to it in a long time. Pink Floyd was my favorite band as a teenager. I was hooked by their story. Back then, when I would read about bands from 25 years ago, they seemed larger than life & I was hooked.

I don’t listen to them much these days, but I knew the 50th anniversary was looming. I decided to purchase a different copy of Dark Side on vinyl. I went with an original Japanese pressing, complete with an OBI strip, posters, book & postcard. I was lucky and got a beautiful copy. I listened to it in full for the first time in many years and it still holds up. There’s a reason it’s considered one of the greatest albums of all time. When you think of albums that should be listened to in its entirety, this has to be near the top of that list. The songs flow seamlessly into one another. There’s sounds of clocks, random voices, cash registers pinging from one ear to another. Nothing sounded like this at the time.

I recently changed my 1,000 favorite songs of the 1960s & 1970s playlist to just the 1970s. I spent the last several months working on making it strictly songs of from the 70s. (Hopefully I’ll add a 60s one in the future)

It made sense to me to re-release that playlist on the Dark Side anniversary. I added “Time” to the top, which is my favorite song from that record. And of course you can hear many other songs from Pink Floyd on this playlist! Let me know some of your favorites that I may have missed.

New Music

And of course, if you’re looking for new music, look no further than my Heavy Rotation playlist. It’s updated almost daily as new music is released. I added new music this morning from Bartees Strange, Angel Olsen, Beach Fossils, Ratboys, dayaway, & Manchester Orchestra to name a few. It also looks like we’ll be hearing new music from Nation of Language & Hatchie this week so make sure you’re following to hear these songs as they drop!