If there’s one thing that gets people more excited than Christmas during this time of the year, it’s the release of Spotify Wrapped. Wrapped takes your annual listening statistics and curates a personalised playlist of the music that you’ve had on repeat, as well as a slideshow spotlighting your most played songs, artists and podcasts. It also presents other interesting listening habits including new music you’ve discovered, and peak months spent with your top artists that year.

This year Spotify has introduced the ‘Me in 2023’ feature, categorising your streaming style into one of twelve possible ‘characters’. The music team at aAh! includes a considerable number of Time Travellers, as well as a Cyclops, an Alchemist and a Hypnotist.

These, along with other discoveries of aAh! music team’s 2023 Spotify Wrapped, can be found below for your reading pleasure.

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Ameena Ceesay – Journalist and photographer

“This year, I listened for 52,476 minutes, although given that I’m religiously on Spotify, I expected it to be more. I didn’t anticipate Tove Lo to make it into my top artists, as there were others I thought I had spent more time listening to. However, David Bowie as my top artist came as no surprise; I’m actually in the top 0.5% of listeners. I never appreciated his artistic genius until I got older, but in 2023 I dove deep into his discography and found multiple songs I enjoyed, beyond the usual suspects.

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“My most played song was 7 Words by Deftones. While I’m a fan of Deftones and 90s alternative, there are other songs I could have sworn I’d played more.

“I was identified as a Cyclops with a loyalty to one genre, which is unsurprising as alternative rock has been my favourite genre for a few years – I’ve rarely listened to anything outside of that this year.”

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Jess Berry – Journalist and social media coordinator

“I spent 47,701 minutes, or 33 days, listening to Spotify this year. That feels right; I spent summer working festivals back-to-back, listening to live acts and terrifying witchy techno in Norfolk fields, so days off required silence. Hozier has taken my top artist spot for three years running, and following an album release and seeing him live three times in 2023, it makes sense that he takes first place. I’m actually in the top 0.1% of Hozier listeners.

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“When Unreal Unearth was released in August, I was on the bus home from a night out and forced all my friends to listen to it at 4am. This album offers a clever exploration of personal and political issues through the story of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

“Surprisingly, my most listened-to song was Good Lies by Overmono, from their 2023 debut. Following a hideous start to spring, this song got me up and moving at a time when I could have Bridget Jones’d my life away.

“I was dubbed a Time Traveller and considering I spent days at a time blasting Fiona Apple, among other ‘sad girls’, I could have been called worse!”

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Ian Burke – Music editor and journalist

“According to our algorithmic overlords at Spotify, I have listened to 46,768 minutes of tunes this year.  A mere 32 days. For top artists, I’m surprised that Saint Jude is my most listened-to, although it did soundtrack plenty of my sessions on my most-played game of the year, Dorfromantik. In fact, I’m a Saint Jude top 0.5 percenter (out of around 75,000 monthly listeners) and I’d recommend giving their album Signal a whirl; it’s an eclectic mix of grime, downtempo and sadcore, and infinitely better than I’ve just made it sound.

“My top song was the Sweeping Promises’, Good Living is Coming for You, a no-fi masterpiece with a brooding bassline, Lira Mondal’s hurricane-strength vocals, and a chorus that practically redefines ‘anthemic’ – I’ll forever associate their album with starting at MMU.

“Spotify identified my listening habits as an Alchemist. Mixtapes for days.”

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Josie – Section editor, photographer and journalist

“I spent 46,823 minutes listening to Spotify this year. I thought this would be more, but I do also spend a good chunk of my life re-watching Friends and going to live gigs. I’m not surprised that Reverend and the Makers are my top artist, or that I’m in the top 0.05% of Reverend listeners. I’ve grown up listening to them with my dad so it’s our ‘thing’ to see them live at every chance we get and their new album – Heatwave in the Cold North, has been on repeat at home.

“Another one of my top artists, my Macklemore obsession stemmed from seeing him live when I was reviewing and photographing him for aAh! Magazine. I also achieved my dream of photographing one of my top 5 artists, AJR, this year – even managing to meet their talented photographer Austin Roa.

“My most listened-to song is Home For My Heart by Cat Burns and Arrdee. Spotify also deemed me a Time Traveller, forever wandering back in time and listening to songs on repeat. The best tracks never get old.”

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George Wainwright – Journalist

“I spent 85,939 minutes listening to Spotify, around 60 days, which I’m quite proud of – I’m hoping to surpass 100,000 in 2024! I know The 1975 haven’t been fashionable of late, but they have been my top artist for three years in a row. I was also in the top 0.05% of their listeners, spending 8,492 minutes with the band – no surprises there.

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“Say what you like about Matty Healy, but their latest record Being Funny In A Foreign Language is a piece of art. I’m happy to see Blur breaking into my top 5, I had the pleasure of seeing them at Wembley over the summer – I actually managed to see each of my top 5 artists live throughout the year. My most listened-to song was Teal by Wunderhorse. In my opinion, Wunderhorse’s Jacob Slater is one of the best lyricists of our generation and I implore all to listen.

“According to Spotify, I’m a Time Travelling listener. I’m a very nostalgic person, so I create playlists at every opportunity to capture the twists and turns of my life, and it’s cathartic to revisit these to remind myself how I felt when I curated them.”

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Jen Grace – Music editor and journalist

“As for myself, I spent just over 54,300 minutes with Spotify this year. In spite of my incessant listening to post-punk and guitar bands, my love for the pop girls came out on top, as did my love for Chopin, whose classical piano accompanies me in study and slumber.

“I had the pleasure of being in the top 0.5% of Miley Cyrus listeners and following her release of Endless Summer Vacation, I’m not surprised that album track Violet Chemistry pipped the rest to the post.

“As for streaming habits, I was identified as a Hypnotist who loves to listen to an album from beginning to end.”