The fact that I’m joining our great editorial team this year to write down my first annual review when I’ve listened to exactly one (1) artist on repeat sounds absolutely silly at first. But I’m using this opportunity to finally inform the internet HOW GOOD I think his music is. You’ll find out which artist I’m talking about in a moment. Grab some gingerbread and/or a cup of coffee (both replaceable with anything you like) and immerse yourself in my musical year 2023.
Anyone who knows me just a little bit or follows me on social media already knows what’s following and will probably now take an annoyed breath when I tell you that my entire annual review will be about Hazlett. Not because I didn’t want to dedicate an article to him anyway but just because no one had accompanied my musical year 2023 as extensively as he did. According to my Spotify Wrapped I listened to his music for 114,227 minutes, which means 79,3 days in a row. Well. What does that say about me? I have no idea. Maybe I’ve finally gone mad in 2023. But do I think I’ve found someone who does the perfect soundtrack for my heart? Definitely.
A little journey through time
But let’s rewind to summer 2022, the Acoustics Concerts are in full swing and I’ll be there as often as I can. On 12/07/2022 my friend Anoki is playing, of course I won’t miss it. On stage with him: Masha The Rich Man and… Hazlett. If I had known back then what this evening would entail, I wouldn’t have believed myself. There’s this Australian living in Stockholm in dungarees with his guitar on stage in front of the Spree and the 23rd city tour ferry while the sun slowly sets. I didn’t know him or his music but as always I was more than open to new artists. His set sounds folky, I love his voice straight away, he tells funny anecdotes between the songs and fills the stage to capacity even on his own. But he still seems a little awkward, in the most pleasant way. And then he plays his unreleased song “Everybody Hates Me“ – which hits me like a bolt of lightning and which I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. Looking back I think that this moment was the first time I really fell in love with music.
The beginning of a (well-intentioned) obsession
Until “Everybody Hates Me” is released a month later I browse through his previous discography. And I don’t listen to just one song that I don’t think is incredibly beautiful? You probably know this: There’s your favorite band and you adore everything they do but there’s this one song that doesn’t quite grab you. That’s totally fine, no problem. But that’s absolutely not what happened here. Every single song sounds PERFECT to me and spoiler: One album and one EP later that still hasn’t changed. In September 2022 I saw Hazlett live again in Berlin when he played the Indiean Summer Tour 2022 at Privatclub, with a small band line-up this time. He personally touches me even more when he plays acoustic with his guitar but this set also fires up my nascent obsession.
The debut album “Bloom Mountain“ was released in January 2023. Days before l aready knew that it would be at the top of my lists of the year. Since then I’ve been taking a running jump into anything with “Hazlett” on it. I know every damn interview I could find online, I’ve watched every video on his YouTube channel at least a million times. I bought a vinyl of his 2020 released EP “Thundering Hopes“ in a average looking online shop for an unreasonable price. The fact Hazlett told me afterwards that he thought it was actually sold out didn’t really increase my hope of not being fooled. But not to draw an unnecessary bow here: It took forever to arrive but it’s now in the front row of my vinyl collection. I didn’t fall for a fake shop in 2023, check!
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No distance is too far for me but some are just too expensive
Whenever I’ve noticed Hazlett playing live in my area I was there. I’ve to admit that it was unfortunately only one more time, on 12/09/2023 in Berlin’s Privatclub when he played support for Wild Rivers (afterwards I spent an above-average amount of time thinking about why he’s almost always playing in Privatclub and whether he thinks that we only have this one location in Berlin?) I injured my foot really badly a few days before this concert and could hardly walk – but thanks to crutches that made it possible for me to sing the life out of my lungs along to every single song (and humming along to every chord) in the front row. At the end of the evening I bought a “Bloom Mountain” vinyl from him and had a really nice chat about train journeys in Denmark and other interesting topics. Sounds incredibly random but was wonderfully normal. In the absence of other Berlin concerts I won’t deny that I was on the verge of travelling to Stockholm for one of his shows. I couldn’t afford it, but the will was absolutely there!
How to: Becoming a fangirl again at age 31
If you ask me what it is that makes me, now 31 years old, become the 16-year-old fangirl again (less screaming) I once was, I can’t give you a comprehensible answer. Because, I have to admit, I actually don’t really like the kind of music Hazlett makes – without getting into genre thinking. But when Spotify asks me to FINALLY listen to “similar artists” because of my delusional listening behavior I invariably don’t like it that much. So what is it about his music that captivates me? I really don’t know. But over the years I’ve realized that I feel music even more when I “get to know” the artists behind it. And I think that’s a big point here too. Hazlett is one of the most likeable artists I “know”. Very grateful, very approachable. He involves his community in almost every process, if they want to be involved. He speaks in “we” when he releases new songs, referring to his fans who are obviously just as much a part of this project as his producer is. This feeling of community does a lot to me. A few days before the album-release he did a prelistening session on Zoom so his fans could talk directly and unfiltered about what came to their mind after listening to the full album. This is just wholesome to me.
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The words in my head aren’t mine
No matter whether I was sad, angry, frustrated or happy, motivated and beaming with joy in this year, Hazletts music has always accompanied me. I don’t know how many times I sang along fervently or listened to his songs to fall asleep. It just never got boring, even after the 20th time of listening to a song you still discover new subtleties. And if you ask me, I’m also recommending one of the best word acrobats to you:
„I wear my heart on my sleeve /
I’m sick and tired of trying to change clothes for you“
(„Part Time Lovers“)
„I wanted to be / A little bit more
Someone you see, who you adore /
But happy sleeping on your floor“
(„Even If It’s Lonely“)
„It’s heaven sent / Then left on read“
(„Slow Running“)
I could go on like this forever. It’s these lines that I have in my head 24/7 and that constantly change their meaning for me. A few days ago my best friend said to me: “I’m sure you’ve put more thought into the songs than he has”. It would be totally weird and snooty to agree with that – but somehow I can’t really deny it either. I’ve thought about his music for an inordinate amount. Apart from the fact that I naturally listened to a lot of other songs for untoldency, I rarely had the desire to listen to other music in my private life. Because I was able to keep myself so busy with Hazletts and inhaled everything I could get – and that was a lot this year, his output was insane. The weekend the album came out he just wrote another one. By the time you read this it’ll be one more day until his new EP “Goodbye To The Valley Low” will be released. You can imagine who is already excitedly charging their headphones here.
I would do it again!
Overall, 2023 was a strange to difficult year for me, both mentally and physically. But the fact that I found someone who unintentionally had the right tone and the right words for every situation made a lot of things easier. I don’t know if any of you can relate to this but I hope you all find artists or albums that give you what Hazlett gives me. I am eternally grateful for this day in summer 2022 where it all began. I don’t know if I would have survived 2023 so well if I hadn’t had this musical branch to keep me afloat. That sounds pathetic but I don’t know how I could put it any more aptly. All I want to say is: Thank you, Haz!
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Hard to believe, but…
… of course I don’t want to deprive you of the few artists I’ve been listening to in between. At the top of this short list definitely is Paula Carolina, I really liked her EP “Heiß/Kalt“. I also think LINs “Gradient“ is incredibly strong. My top artists 2023 also includes well-known favorites from previous years such as SALÒ, Anoki, Paula Hartmann or Jacob Leo. My favorite new discoveries includes Serpentin, MODULAR and Fiese Luise. But also classics by R.E.M., Lana Del Rey and Drangsal made it into my ears (at least briefly). And a very recent addition: MIKA released his new album “Que ta tête fleurisse toujours“ last friday, I’m really loving it right now even though I don’t understand a single word. But do you always have to understand everything? Probably not.
More than 1,600 letters later I’m coming to an end. I’m really glad you’ve made it this far. I don’t know if I could’ve done it myself. Actually we’re now adding a playlist created especially for this reviews so you can also listen to our musical year. But let’s be honest, that would really be pointless here. So I’ll just add the playlist that accompanied me in 2023 – with exactly all of Hazletts songs available on Spotify. I’d be delighted if you take a listen. And if his music gets you just a little bit please slide in my DMs so we can talk about it!
But the really last paragraph is dedicated to my great untoldency team – I know how difficult this year has been for all of us. And yet every single one of you has given everything possible for this magazine. I am eternally grateful and I hope you know that. Lots of love! 💚
