Record Crates United

Record Crates United

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The Best Releases I Heard in 2023

Well, it’s been quite a year. From getting the opportunity to chat with some of my favorite artists ever, to hosting an absolute dream of a house concert, to covering countless incredible records on the site and the RCU streaming radio show, we’ve had some great times in 2023. I just wanted to pause to say a deep and sincere thank you to every single person that has ever read one of my posts, listened to the show, came out to one of our concerts or even went the extra step and became a Patreon patron. No matter how you’ve supported Record Crates United, I appreciate you.

I also greatly appreciate all of you who listened to and purchased music by the artists I’ve featured on RCU. In a world where it seems like the powers at be want to keep musicians and artists totally unemployed, the real power is in your hands. Please continue to support the bands you love. Buy their music and merch if you can, come to their concerts, share their music with others, etc. Listen adventurously.

While I may not have had enough time this year to properly cover all of the stand out releases that I would have liked, I still listened to an overwhelming amount. Here’s a list of some of the best releases I picked up on in 2023, as well as links to where you can buy your own copies:

I don’t typically pick a “best song of the year” or anything like that, but I can say that “I’ll Wait Outside For You,” by Brigid Mae Power, from her striking Dream from The Deep Well album, might have moved me the most and has certainly been played the most in my household in 2023:

I’m not sure what 2024 will bring for RCU, but I do know that I’m going to scale it back considerably. I’ll still keep the website and social media accounts up, but the frequency of posts will be greatly reduced, as I need to focus more time in other areas in my life. I would like to continue the site’s streaming radio show going on Electromagnetic Radio for the time being, and I’m going to try to present more occasional concerts in the future, so please keep an eye and ear out for those. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the website, so you’ll get notified when new things are happening. I’ve had a good run here, and I’m so thankful for everything I’ve been able to build over the last decade and all of the wonderful people I have met as a result, but I think it’s time for me to start to bring more balance to my life.

That being said, I’m going to keep writing about music, especially as a paid freelancer. If you need any copy written for a press release, liner notes, a Bandcamp page, an artist bio, or anything else along those lines, please contact me at Recordcratesunited@gmail.com and put “Freelance Writing Inquiry” in the subject line.

Thank you all again for your continued support, and I wish you and yours happy holidays and a good New Year,

KH

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Record Crates United

Keith Hadad, the creator and manager of RCU, has been a contributing writer to Elmore Magazine and Thewaster.com and maintains a regular column, “Keith Hadad’s Choice,” in Blicker magazine. His writing has also appeared in the Smithsonian Folkways’ Guest Blog and the Optical Sounds Fanzine. Also, please check out the blog’s super-active Instagram account, @recordcratesunited for daily blurb-styled music reviews.

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