We find ourselves in mid-December, staring into the void that is the impending new year, and by and large we seem to get reflective around this time, so it’s no shock that @dustin@linernotes.club has made a call for music reflection:
It’s December 2023 and I want to know what Your Own Personal Song of the Year is. I don’t mean the biggest song of 2023 in the popular imagination (although if its that for you, that’s cool). I don’t even mean “your favorite song that came out in 2023” (although if your song of the year came out in 2023, that’s cool too).
I mean the song that hasn’t left your head since you first heard it in 2023. It could be Greensleeves for all I know. Put it in the thread. I’ll make a playlist.
https://linernotes.club/@dustin/111557509235265718
This is the type of question that usually sends me to a quiet corner for a few months’ contemplation. I have a horribly difficult time assigning ranks to songs under the best of circumstances, and we’re talking about everything I listened to this year? That’s not a small amount of music. But, in the spirit of the request, and as a testament to the power of the question asked, I have an answer that immediately popped into my head.
I’m not sure when in the year I first had this song come into my ears, but I know that I’ve listened to it weekly since at a minimum, and often multiple times a day – multiple times back to back even, the dreadfully obsessive Track Repeat ON mode of life where I have to drill into a song on every level until I’m sated. This song, it just fits. It fits this year, it fits the current state of the world, it fits the big vibe I get from those with whomst I choose to spend my time. Not because it’s of this time – it’s a track released in 2012. Not because it’s jazz and therefore timeless – this is a pop song, and not even one that was released as a single as far as I know, just another album cut.
But the lyrics.
The lyrics bring what I needed to hear, over and over, throughout 2023, an acknowledgement and an optimism that pulls me back away from the crushing realities of The State of Things and gives me a chance to exhale and reaffirm my place on the side of the optimistic fighters.
This is “Inevitable” by Scissor Sisters from their 2012 album “Magic Hour”.
The weatherman said today There’s a slight chance of rain I had to laugh to myself, Cause on any given day it’s been a hurricane Knocking down my power lines Shaking my foundation Breaking all my window panes I’ll build again and I’ll send you a letter Self-addressed so you know Exactly where to go Please don’t reply, just arrive With the future in your eyes I adore Show me what they’re for This is inevitable, oh When will you believe This is inevitable, oh Time may turn the leaves It’s so inevitable that we Will eventually see Another spring again On that you can depend
Yeah. That.
Don’t forget that. We got this. All of it.