Playlist of the Month: September 2024

My dad died this month.

When I joined choir, when I got a music scholarship and started the music major, we all joked that nobody knew where the signing talent came from. Wasn’t on mom’s side, wasn’t on dad’s. It’s still a mystery.

It wasn’t until now that I realized, there’s no question of where I got my love of music. Growing up, my dad always had music going. A big hi-fi system in his living room, a rack of CDs beside it; binders upon binders of CDs in the backseat of his car, and my sister and I often had the opportunity to play DJ. He gave me my first MP3 player, and later my first iPod. When ripping CDs was all the rage, he gave me a hard drive with hundreds of gigabytes of music on it — he and his friends had, apparently, been ripping every CD they could get their hands on for months, and that was the fruit of their labors. I got to experience the infinite selection of streaming music a decade before anyone else did.

He wasn’t a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination, but he was my dad, and he loved me.

So here’s to you, dad. I love you, and wherever you are, I hope you’ve got a good sound system.

Hallelujah Anyway – Luke Sital-Singh on Hallelujah Anyway – Single

Call Your Mom – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

Machine Learning – J. Maya on Machine Learning – Single

Beneath Oak Trees – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP

Can I Ask – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Under The Surface – Sultan + Shepard & Nathan Nicholson on Endless, Dawn

Boys Of Faith (feat. Bon Iver) – Zach Bryan on Boys Of Faith – EP

Kalahari Down – Orville Peck on Bronco¹

Let Me Drown – Orville Peck on Bronco

Daytona Sand – Orville Peck on Bronco

Want You (living room floor version) – Yoste on Want You (living room floor version) – Single

One More Light – LINKIN PARK on One More Light

Carson – Harry Strange on Carson – Single

Bones Shake – Hazlett on Bones Shake – Single

Believe Again – Luke Sital-Singh on Believe Again – Single

The Age of Believing – Aron Wright on The Age of Believing – Single

I Don’t Want To Lie (living room floor version) – Yoste on I Don’t Want To Lie (living room floor version) – Single

How Far Will We Take It? – Orville Peck & Noah Cyrus on Stampede

Stay High – One Room on Lagoona

Stay Out of Trouble – OPLURE on Stay Out of Trouble – Single

I AM BLACK – BERWYN on I AM BLACK – Single

Little Bit of Magic – Thorin Loeks on Little Bit of Magic – Single

Little Homies – Vince Staples on Dark Times

Midnight Ride – Orville Peck, Kylie Minogue & Diplo on Midnight Ride – Single

Louder – Kygo, Julia Michaels & Chance Peña on Louder – Single

Far As I Can Go – Ian Harrison on Far As I Can Go – Single

Can’t Just Be Me – Vincent Mason on Can’t Just Be Me – EP

Macbeth – Max McNown on Macbeth – Single

Coming Home – ORACLE & Holochrome on Coming Home – EP

Mother – Allman Brown on Second Son, Pt. 2 – EP

Neptune – Beauvois on Dimensions – EP

Kaya – Yoste on Kaya – Single

Asymmetry – Axel Flóvent on Away From This Dream

Zzz – EDEN on Zzz – Single

Better Without You – Dixon Dallas on Happy Anniversary

Pink Pony Club – Chappell Roan on Pink Pony Club – Single

I Love You Always Forever – Donna Lewis on Now In a Minute²

JOYRIDE – Kesha on JOYRIDE – Single

places to be – Fred again.., Anderson .Paak & CHIKA on places to be – Single

Rhinestone Cowboy – Orville Peck, TJ Osborne, Waylon Payne & Fancy Hagood on Stampede³

Ever You’re Gone – Orville Peck & Teddy Swims on Stampede

My Kink Is Karma – Chappell Roan on The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

Love Me Back – Max McNown on Love Me Back – Single

Swallows – Bailey & Lonely in the Rain on Swallows – Single

Tamly Maak – Amr Diab on Tamally Maak

Good God, Hot Damn – Hayden Blount on Good God, Hot Damn – Single

Until The End – Yoste on Until The End – Single

Circles – Sines of Summer on Circles – Single

Time Well Wasted – The Fray on The Fray Is Back – EP⁴

ten – Fred again.., Jozzy & Jim Legxacy on ten days

All-American Boy – Steve Grand on All American Boy

Sleeping All Alone – Dixon Dallas on Happy Anniversary

Faded Evergreen – Ed Prosek, Portair & Driftwood Choir on Faded Evergreen – Single

Noor Al Ain – Amr Diab on Noor Al Ain

5ever – EDEN on 5ever – Single

Sad Girls (feat. Rema) – Clean Bandit & French The Kid on Sad Girls (feat. Rema) – Single

Majuy – Hayden Calnin on All Kinds of Light

American Nights – Zach Bryan on The Great American Bar Scene

28 – Zach Bryan on The Great American Bar Scene

Will You? – The Irrepressibles on Be Wild – Single

Bass Boat – Zach Bryan on The Great American Bar Scene⁵

Moon River – Aquilo on A Quiet Invitation To A Hard Conversation

Where Are We Now? – Orville Peck & Mickey Guyton on Stampede

Want You To Want It – Aquilo on A Quiet Invitation To A Hard Conversation

Don’t Look Down – The Fray on The Fray Is Back – EP

Edge of Saturday Night – The Blessed Madonna & Kylie Minogue on Godspeed

i think you can save me – Dimside on i think you can save me – Single

Dance (‘Til You Love Someone Else) – Sam Smith on Love Goes

Back At Your Door – Orville Peck & Debbii Dawson on Stampede

Heavy – Peach PRC on Heavy – Single

High Tide – Hayden Blount on Good God, Hot Damn – Single

Glowing – Matias Roden on The Plea EP

California Dreamin’ – Diana Krall on Wallflower (Deluxe Edition)

My Mind (Now) – Paris Paloma on My Mind (Now) – Single

Nobody’s Soldier – Hozier on Unaired – EP

I Forgot What’s Love – Petit Biscuit & Cub Sport on Discipline

Chasing Cars – Sleeping At Last on Covers, Vol. 2⁶

OUTLAW – Cameron Hawthorn on OUTLAW – Single

Version of Me – Harry Strange on Version of Me – Single

Devil on My Shoulder – Dylan Marlowe on Mid-Twenties Crisis

Northern Thunder – Zach Bryan on The Great American Bar Scene⁷

The Way Back – Zach Bryan on The Great American Bar Scene

July – Hozier on Unaired – EP

This Feeling – Axel Flóvent on Away From This Dream

I Had Some Help (feat. Morgan Wallen) – Post Malone on I Had Some Help (feat. Morgan Wallen) – Single

5AM – Amber Run on 5AM (Deluxe) WEB

Calamity Song – The Decemberists on The King Is Dead

Sabrina (I Am A Party) – Fred again.. on Actual Life (April 14 – December 17 2020)

Instant Crush (feat. Julian Casablancas) – Daft Punk on Random Access Memories

Lazy (12: 00 Version) – Elliot Moss & RUBIO on Lazy (12: 00 Version) – Single

Eat The Acid – Kesha on Gag Order

Hurt – Johnny Cash on American IV: The Man Comes Around

Little Talks – Of Monsters and Men on My Head Is An Animal

Sumarið sem aldrei kom – Jónsi on Shiver⁸

O Superman (For Massenet) – Laurie Anderson on Talk Normal: The Laurie Anderson Anthology (Remastered)

Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky on Friday Night Lights [Original Movie Soundtrack]⁹

1. Went to this concert with my sister. This was the one we both cried through—Peck introduced it as the feeling of homesickness, and not being able to go back. Yeah. Yeah. ↩
2. music blasting with the top off the jeep over in central Oregon ↩
3. I’m putting together a playlist for the celebration of life, and both this and the original version are on there. I think he would’ve liked this cover. ↩
4. I considered putting How to Save a Life on this playlist but couldn’t do it. Time Well Wasted doesn’t have the same poignancy; “and I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life” still hurts too much.
   That whole album is… the feeling of walking down the hall into his office in the house he lived in when I was in elementary school. ↩
5. I don’t actually know if dad listened to this album at all. I hope he did. It was on my list of things to tell him about next time I talked to him; it seemed like it’d be right up his alley. ↩
6. This song was already gonna make me sad, so what the hell, why not have the Sleeping At Last version, his covers always turn of the depression quotient. ↩
7. This was the first country song I could start listening to again. It’s the feeling of fond remembrance, not just sad. ↩
8. This is just some good “put your headphones in, crank up the volume, and cry” music. ↩
9. I had tickets to see Explosions in the Sky when they were in Portland, and went to the concert fully expecting to cry when they played Your Hand in Mine. Turns out they did an extended version! More crying than planned.
   I love this band, and very clearly remember dad playing this at night sometimes. I was insomniac as hell as a kid, and this was one of the things that could help me get to sleep. ↩