Poll: Did you like this year’s Spotify Wrapped?

Everybody who is anybody is doing year-end recaps right now. We just saw Google Photos get in on the action, and earlier this week Amazon joined the ranks of music streamers doing recaps with its inaugural Amazon Music Delivered. But the granddaddy of all of these, and arguably the gold standard against which all other find themselves compared, is Spotify Wrapped.

This year saw Wrapped take a slightly different direction than in years past, with the introduction of “Your Spotify Wrapped AI Podcast.” Featuring synthetic DJs counting down your top songs across the year, we actually had a pretty good time with Spotify’s Wrapped podcast. But even as we were enjoying the experience, cracks were already beginning to show themselves in this glossy AI exterior — like the way Spotify’s hosts struggled to naturally talk about the way some of our listening tastes remained consistent month-to-month.