17-12-2023
Elton John shared his favorite 2023 Rocket Hour tracks during the latest episode of the Apple Music show, and 2b sent in some key takeaways. Elton says: “I look back and pick some of my favorite songs that I played on the show this year. It was really hard to choose because there were so many great songs this year.”
CamelPhat & Ali Love – Calculation
CamelPhat are a production duo from Liverpool. We've played a lot of stuff from them before on the show, but this is taken from their new album “Spiritual Milk”. This track is fantastic and features a sample from Kraftwerk's iconic 'Computer Love'.
Jalen Ngonda – Come Around and Love Me
Jalen is a soul artist born in the USA but now living in the UK. I love the sound of it because it reminds me of all the great soul records from the 1970s. I saw Jalen play live at the Nice Jazz Festival in July. If you've never seen him live – you need to go see this guy. He is absolutely incredible.
Baby Queen – We Can Be Anything
This is the lead track from Baby Queen's album 'Quarter Life Crisis', which is one of my favorite album titles of the year. I absolutely love her. He is from South Africa and now based in London. Her music has featured a lot on the TV show 'Heartstopper' which is fantastic.
Chappell Roan – Red Wine Supernova
Chappell Roan is a new pop artist that I'm really excited about. I love her because her music is original, it's fun, it's cleverly written and it's brilliantly produced. She was a guest on the show in September and has an absolutely brilliant record called 'The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess'. If you haven't heard this record, please go out, stream it, buy it, whatever. He will become a big star.
David Kushner – Daylight
This is an excellent record. I can say that there are a lot of pop records that I listen to that are really empty, but this song is a beautiful song. The production, the voice, the video. It's really great to see someone as young as David doing something special, writing a special song.
This was a huge hit earlier this year, and funnily enough it's starting to become a huge hit in America after all this time.
ANOCHNI – Must change
This is a classic record and classic records don't come around very often. ANOHNI and the Johnsons released a great album this year called 'My Back was a Bridge for You to Cross'. When ANOHNI wrote this song she said that Marvin Gaye's “What's Going On”? was heavy on her mind.
Romy – She's On My Mind
Romy is a member of The XX. Her wonderful album 'Mid Air' is probably one of my favorite albums of the year. Every piece is a winner. I love the lyrics. They are so honest and they are so wonderful. And the tunes. Everything about this record just clicks.
Mitski – My Love Mine All Mine
Mitski made one of the best albums of the year with 'The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We' and this was the single that really raised the roof and put her in the UK top 10. Mitski has been around for quite some time, but I have a feeling she's going to follow in Lana Del Rey's footsteps and have an incredibly loyal and huge following. I love her to death.
Gabriel – Offer
Jacob from Gabriels came and sang with me at Glastonbury, which was one of the highlights of my life. Thank you for doing it Jacob. It's so great to see them doing so well. We received them very early in rocket time and it's great to see them soar.
James Blake – Loading
This piece completely blew my mind. I think this is one of the best things he has ever done. I'm a big fan of James Blake. When he's in that genre, he's untouchable.
Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (Live at Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI, 7/24/2022)
Joni Mitchell released a live album recorded at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022 and this version of her song 'Both Sides Now' is so moving. I was privileged to be a part of her vocal recovery, singing again with Joni Jams at her home in Los Angeles. If you don't feel moved listening to this song, there is something wrong with you because it was such a beautiful song to begin with, but her voice on this is much lower than her original voice and makes it sound even more meaningful. If you're not moved by that, you can't be moved by anything.
Stormzy & RAYE – The Weekend
Wow Stormzy and RAYE. What a voice RAYE has and Stormzy is like champagne. It's like a Rolls Royce. He is simply brilliant.
BERWYN – Bulletproof
BERWYN played with me in Hyde Park a few years ago. It's one of my favorites. He is a Trinidadian born, London based rapper, songwriter, producer. He says this piece is about the people around him for whom he is willing to do anything. How sweet is that?
Tom Odell – Black Friday
This song really moved me. It's the lead single from the singer-songwriter's next album, due out in January. Recently married – congratulations Tom! He is one of the nicest, most talented boys in the world. We love him very much.
boygenius – Not strong enough
boygenius is an American supergroup consisting of the wonderful Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. They've had the most fantastic year and it's so great to see these girls producing such great music both live and on record.
Listen to Elton John's Rocket Hour radio show live on Saturdays at 9am. PT / 12 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. GMT or anytime on demand on Apple Music 1 on apple.co/_RocketHour.
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