Hey another OCTA playlist that a) nobody listens to b) I forget to update after a few weeks. This one will be a weekly playlist. I will post a new set of 23 songs that are dear to me every weekend (and old ones will be removed, so make a note for yourself, if there’s something you really like). Mostly new, but occasionally there will be older favourites as well. Just because I think it might be a bit of struggle to come up with 23 new songs each week. But the good thing here is that this way I can share more songs from every album instead of just the one that I love the most. I was kind of raised by a weekly radio show (or at least my music taste, but it was also more than just that), so perhaps this is sort of an attempt to do something similar where you can share a different song from a great new album 2-4 weeks in a row. Except that in this case probably nobody listens. But hey, the work I will put in this will be just listening to lots of new music. And I do that anyway and I love that anyway. So even if this leads to nowhere and I quit the whole thing, I really haven’t lost anything.

There will always be some overlap with the best of 2018 playlist. I haven’t really figured it out yet, but maybe I will make it a bit harder to get on that best of 2018 list from now on, because I have this weekly thing too. Maybe this will all start to make sense at some point. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe every week is too much and I’ll change twice in a month. Maybe I quit the blog altogether and throw my computer and phone to the ocean and move to antarctica. Who knows, but let’s see how this goes. You can follow both playlists, just one or neither.

Dear 23 is an album by The Posies. So that’s where the name for the feature comes from and that’s why there will be 23 songs each week. The Posies are my all-time favourite band and they also made my all-time favourite album. Which isn’t Dear 23 though. It’s Amazing Disgrace.

Anyway, here’s the Episode 1 of Dear 23 (aka 23 songs that I hold dear). Hopefully not the last episode:

1. Clay Parker and Jodi James– Katie’s Blues (The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound, 2018)
2. Fred Thomas – Good Times Are Gone Again (single, Polyvinyl, 2018)
3. Lauren O’Connell – In on the Joke (Details, 2018)
4. Lac Belot – Crybaby (single, Solina, 2018)
5. Ryan Culwell – The Last American (single, Missing Piece, 2018)
6. The Skiffle Players – Jonny Todd (Piffle Sayers EP, Spiritual Pajamas, 2018)
7. Rayland Baxter – Without Me (Wide Awake, ATO, 2018)
8. Izaak Opatz – Duck Lake Road (single, Mama Bird, 2018)
9. Michael Nau – On Ice (single, Full Time Hobby, 2018)
10. Erin Rae – Love Like Before (Putting On Airs, Single Lock, 2018)
11. Jennifer Castle – Tomorrow’s Mourning (Angels of Death, Paradise of Bachelors, 2018)
12. Emily Fairlight – Sinking Ship (Mother of Gloom, 2018)
13. Mountain Lions – Dirt and Dust (single, 2018)
14. Erin Enderlin & Tara Thompson – World Without Willie (single, 2018)
15. Austin Lucas – Immortal Americans (single, Cornelius Chapel, 2018)
16. Michelle Mandico – Ptarmigan (Ptarmigan, 2018)
17. Aaron Lee Tasjan – Heart Slows Down (single, New West, 2018)
18. Lori McKenna – The Lot Behind St. Marys (The Tree, CN/Thirty Tigers, 2018)
19. Caroline Lazar – Georgia (single, Reading Past Bedtime, 2018)
20. Chris Crofton – Everywhere You Should be (Except For In Love) (Hello, It’s Me, Arrowhawk Records, 2018)
21. Dusty Stray – Through The Atmosphere (single, Great Waters, 2018)
22. Matt Dorrien – All I Wanted To Say (In The Key of Grey, Mama Bird, 2018)
23. My Terrible Friend – Switch (I Tried To Be Kind EP, 2017)