I considered not making one of these playlists this year, but someone said that traditions are most worth protecting when everything else has changed. My instinct with traditions is sometimes just to snap old things off and find something new to do. Maybe a couple of years of therapy will tell me why, but until then, I figured it was pretty low stakes to just make one.
And to my surprise (happens every time), it was an enjoyable exercise and I’m reasonably happy with the result, even though it contains some really basic hits and I probably left out a whole lot of other great stuff.
One thing I noticed as I was pulling in favorites I’d saved throughout the year: there was a tendency towards quiet or mid-tempo songs this time around. Probably a reflection of staying home amidst an apocalypse unfolding in slow motion. In trying to balance that out, I rediscovered a few songs I’d saved but never got back to, like the opening song Don’t Die. As usual, I tried to build in continuity of themes and good transitions, and there are a few intentional jokes in the sequencing of titles.
Edit: Looking back, I discovered many of these songs serendipitously outside of recommendation engines and so on. Apple Music does offer personalized weekly new music picks, but I tend to find new songs by tuning in to the Apple Music 1 live radio station (née Beats 1), or checking in on their curated genre playlists. Algorithms, don’t trust them.
Listen on Apple Music | Spotify
- Don’t Die — NOBRO
- Shook Shook — Awich
- Cool With Me (feat. M1llionz) — Dutchavelli
- Inside Out — Grouplove
- Together — beabadoobee
- Mood (feat. iann dior) — 24kGoldn
- fuck, i luv my friends — renforshort
- you broke me first — Tate McRae
- PAIN — King Princess
- Say So (Japanese Version) — Rainych
- Laugh Now Cry Later (feat. Lil Durk) — Drake
- I Dunno (feat. Dutchavelli & Stormzy) — Tion Wayne
- Apricots — Bicep
- The Hill — Model Man
- People, I’ve been sad — Christine and the Queens
- Kids Again — Sam Smith
- Eugene — Arlo Parks
- Lover — G Flip
- Young Americans — Durand Jones & The Indications
- Lockdown — Anderson .Paak
- It’s Hard (feat. Email Sandé) — Giggs
- Show Me Love (feat. Miguel) — Alicia Keys
- snow jam — Rinne
- Holy (feat. Chance the Rapper) — Justin Bieber
- death bed (feat. beabadoobee) — Powfu
- Devil That I Know — Jacob Banks
- Believe — Anna of the North
- the 1 — Taylor Swift
- You’re Still the One — Okay Kaya
- Good News — Mac Miller
Comment section
Don’t Die — NOBRO
Not only a fun song with a great animated video, but an obvious message to open with? Don’t die!
Shook Shook — Awich
I don’t understand why someone whose husband died from being shot would make a song that appears to glorify gun violence, but it’s a banger.
Continue reading “Listening Remembering 2020”