Looking Closer's Annual Favorite Albums Lists

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings of 2022: The Top Ten

This year, my countdown of the previous year's best music has been a marathon of four posts: Honorable Mentions, #36 through #21, #20 through #11... and now this one. Here are my ten favorite albums of 2022. Sample tracks from each one and see if any of them speak to you. Then, post notes about your

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2022: #20 – #11

Are you up for a treasure hunt? Here we go with one of the last two parts of my 2022 musical review.

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2022: #36 – #21

You're likely to find some new favorites here in this wildly diverse list of albums and selected tracks from my favorite 2022 recordings.

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2022: Part One — Honorable Mentions

As I'll need some time to prepare my post on my Top 30 Favorite Recordings of 2022, I hope that this substantial feast of "Honorable Mentions" leads you to many hours of new musical discoveries.

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2021: Part Three (#15–#1)

You are arriving at the summit of my 2021 Music Mountain. These are my fifteen favorite albums of 2021

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2021: Part Two (#25–#16)

For those who love year-end lists like this, and those who also love the Insta... I bring you good tidings of great joy! Okay — maybe that's a bit hyperbolic. I bring you some unremarkable tidings that might interest you? Looking Closer now has an Instagram account: @OverstreetReviews. Follow

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2021: Part One (Honorable Mentions and #36–#26)

It has finally begun! On January 20, Looking Closer's look back at favorite recordings of 2021 has begun! Keep watch for Part Two and Part Three, coming soon.

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2020: Part 3 (#20–#1)

[This post is dedicated to the Looking Closer Specialists — especially Laure Hittle, Timothy Grant, and Winston Chow — whose contributions make this website possible.] The word for this year was survive. The Holy Scriptures caution us that with increasing wisdom comes increasing pain, and that to love is to suffer. The

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2020: Part 2 (#35–#21)

The countdown continues! Having listed my Honorable Mentions, I move on to my list of 35 favorite recordings from 2020. This post counts down #35–#21.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2019

Here it is — a music festival, a playlist, a countdown of my favorite albums of 2019.

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2019: Honorable Mentions

A prelude to my countdown of 25 favorite records fro 2019, here's a long list of albums that probably deserve to be in that top 25 but... well... math is unforgiving. Explore. Listen. Discover some new favorites.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings of 2017

Before you correct me, let me explain: This really is my 2017 list, posted here more than a year late. In 2017, I posted my favorite recordings countdown on the Looking Closer Facebook page and enjoyed conversations about those records with my community there. But then, somehow, in the busyness

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2018

I've been keeping year-end music lists since I was thirteen or fourteen years old. When I look back through those lists, it's like reading a diary: Memories of albums inspire memories of the contexts in which I experienced those songs. I remember hearing The Joshua Tree

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2018: 35 Honorable Mentions

I gave substantial attention to more albums this year than in any previous year — nearly one hundred records. And I heard so many impressive things that I almost gave up on the annual ritual of making a Favorite Recordings list — a ritual I began when I was 13 years old.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings of 2016 (Post 1 of 3)

I've been publishing lists of my favorite albums annually since I was eleven years old. In the early days, I published them in little magazines that I wrote for an audience of one. Today, I offer them to you as treasure maps. You're invited to explore.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2015 — Part Two

Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar, Torres, Courtney Barnett... and many, many more make up my Favorite Recordings of 2015 countdown. Listen to your favorites and make some new discoveries.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2015 — Part One

How to compare them? They're apples and oranges — and pears, peaches, lemons, and pineapples, along with some nutritious helpings of vegetables. To try and rate them in a single list is pretty much pointless... ...unless you perceive this as a way of recommending them to you with different

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2014 — Part Two [Updated Feb. 2015]

Albums I wanted to hear every week; albums I would be happy to own in a variety of formats; albums I would like to put in the trunk of my car so that I can give them away to everyone I know; albums that made a significant difference in my head and heart this year.

Music Reviews

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2014 — Part One

Overdoing it? Yes. As long as War & Peace? Yes. But here it comes anyway: The list of my favorite recordings of 2014. I look forward to this every year. I started making "Favorite Music of the Year" lists when I was about 12 years old. I never

Looking Closer's Annual Favorite Albums Lists

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2013 — Part Two (#10-#1)

What music meant the most to you in 2013? Here are my personal favorite albums of the year— a top ten list for a year that was overflowing with great music.

Looking Closer's Annual Favorite Albums Lists

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2013 — Part One (#25-#11)

I've narrowed this year's list of my favorite records down to 25 titles that I would have happily included in a Top 5 list at the end of a typical year. I invite you to listen to standout tracks, counting down from #25 to #11.

On Movies & Media

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2012

I'd invite you all to a New Year's Eve Listening Party, but there are just too many of you. So allow me to deliver this party to your doorstep. Here is some music from my favorite recordings of 2012.

Film Lists

Overstreet's Favorite Albums: 2001 (10 years later)

Listening to music is, for me, a treasure hunt. The whole journey is worthwhile, with highs and lows, unforgettable discoveries and a whole lot of unremarkable scenery. What I love most is an album that just keeps opening up, like a house full of secret doors, so that ten years

Music Reviews

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2011

I didn't hear any records this year that filled me with a zeal to shout from the rooftops. (Last year's The Long Surrender by Over the Rhine did that, and it remains my favorite record of the last several years.) Nevertheless, 2011 was still a year

Film Lists

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2010

1. Over the Rhine - The Long Surrender They've been my favorite band for several years, and I love all of the albums they've released in a 21-year career. But they get better every year, and this is, in my opinion, the finest album they'