october wrap-up

October has officially reached an end, and with that, it means one of my favorite things I look forward to at the beginning of a month. My wrap-up of my monthly music stats. Now this is a little controversial, but I use Apple Music, so I don't have a receiptify. Instead, I just have to rely on my monthly stats at the end of a month. Normally, it takes about a week or two to load, but surprisingly enough, it's already out. Now, I've heard a lot of complaints about monthly stats via Apple Music from friends and how it can be kind of inaccurate, that being said I don't think it's entirely inaccurate. But maybe it's not the greatest, either way, I wanted to write about my monthly stats and go a little in depth with some of the artists or songs.

I had some predictions about my stats this month and I wasn't completely far off, some of them were still surprising though to say the least. This month I had 3,396 minutes of music listened to, which is a normal average amount for me, but I truthfully was expecting to have a little bit more for this month. Now, to keep up my trend that I've had every month since July (accidentally), for the fourth month in a row, my number one artist is the Marías. This is a little bit surprising to me, in the past months 4 out of my 5 most listened to songs were by the Marías, and this month only my number 5 most listened to song was by them. So I wasn't entirely anticipating them to be my number one most listened to artist again.

The Marías via Spotify

As for my number two artist, I wasn't surprised at all, as it was Magdalena Bay. Now I've been listening to this iconic duo for some time now. But I went to the King Princess album release listening event at Reckless Records with a friend, where I bought Imaginal Disk on CD, and lately I've had it on repeat. Leading me to say "Death and Romance" was my number one most listened to song of the month of October. Which is actually my third favorite from that album, my first two are "Vampire in the Corner" and "Killing Time." I have a sneaking suspicion those are gonna be in my most listened to for November, though.

Lana Del Rey was my third most listened to artist, and to go hand in hand with that, my third most listened to song was "Thunder," off of her album Blue Banisters. Now this song has been stuck in my head, and mainly for the lyrics, my favorite lyric being "If hello just means goodbye then, baby, better walk away." That being said, another favorite of mine that I have been listening to recently that is also off of Blue Banisters is "Dealer," and it may appear for November's monthly wrap-up.

Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay (2024)

Now, for my second most listened to song of the month of October, I kept coming back to the song "Ms. Brightside" by Lust Online. Now I've known about this song for a couple of months now, since it came out last October, but it came on on shuffle halfway through the month, and it transcended me when I remembered its existence. It's an amazing song with a vibe that feels just right for walking outside in somewhat cold weather at night in the city, and that's exactly what I've done while listening to the song. Listening to it just makes me grateful for being where I am now and reminds me to just look around and take everything in, even if it's feeling the cold wind hit my face.

Now as for my number 4 song I listened to the most was "II. Shadows," by Childish Gambino, truth be told his album Because of the Internet, is his best one and there is no competition. I'm not entirely sure if this is my favorite song from the album, but it's definitely one of the more notable ones to me. My fifth most listened to song falls into the pattern of the Marías I was talking about earlier, and it's "Paranoia." This song is definitely in my top three favorites of Submarine. That being said I feel like it doesn't entirely match the vibe of all the Marías songs I like, I feel as though it sounds a little bit more upbeat. Now the lyrics are still a little depressing, don't get me wrong. But the song produces another vibe than the absolute heartbreak that is so evident in some of their other songs. Whereas for "Paranoia," you really have to listen to the lyrics to notice this.

Now, to end this off, my fourth most listened to artist is The Greeting Committee, a band I've loved dearly for quite some time now. They're from Kansas City, where I'm also from, and I've seen them live twice, most recently back in August, and I was barricaded both times. I even met the lead singer outside of the venue before the concert started for the more recent concert. This band has made it into my top five artists every month for well over a year now, and I want others to experience this band as well. To wrap this up, my number 5 most listened to artist was Clairo. Now, if you know me, you know I absolutely adore Clairo. One of my favorite concerts was last October when I saw her live with a friend, and I didn't know I was going until the week off. I also had an exam the same day and left the exam and went straight to the concert.

But anyway that's my wrap-up for October,

AC