Category: Playlist

Every month, I make a new playlist, and post the previous month’s list here.

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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: October 2016

It just now feels like it’s getting towards the end of the year, it’s weird.
5AM – Amber Run
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
SWORD – ΔUGUST
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October
Sight – Sleeping At Last
Touch – Sleeping At Last
All I Want – Kodaline
Half Light – BANNERS
Be Somebody – Kings of Leon 1
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Atlas – Coldplay
Ghosts – BANNERS
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
 Remains (Bastille Vs. Rag N Bone Man Vs. Skunk Anansie) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
When The World Sleeps – Lowland Hum
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Better Man (Feat. Peter Gregson & Iskra String Quartet) – FYFE
Kill V. Maim – Grimes
Kusanagi – ODESZA
Live in This Moment – Kakou
Little Higher ft. Xavier Dunn – Terace 2
Postcards feat. Sam Island – Equal
Folding Hills feat. Xavier DUnn – FØRD
Stay High – One Room
Summer Heat – Solidisco
Division – Tycho
Gods in Heat – Tobacco
The Void – IAMX
Haunt / Bed – The 1975
Two Blue Eyes – Tall Heights
Fallingforyou – The 1975
Saturn – Sleeping At Last
Where’s My Love – Syml
Dead In This House – IAMX
Lethargy – Bastille
Speed Of Sound – Communist Daughter
Killer Queen – FIL BO RIVA
Campus – Bastille
An Act Of Kindness – Bastille
Warmth – Bastille
8 (circle) – Bon Iver3
Doing the Right Thing – Daughter4
Worth It – Moses Sumney
America – XYLØ
Slack – Tycho
She Way Out – The 1975
 22 (OVER S∞∞N) – Bon Iver5
Receiver – Tycho
Atlas: Life – Sleeping At Last
City Club – Los Growlers
Facedown – The 1975
Let It Happen – Tame Impala
Reality In Motion – Tame Impala
 715 – CRΣΣKS – Bon Iver
Paranoicosis (Whale Roads) – Polymath6
Fossa – Daughter
White Ferrari (Vasta Remix) – Frank Ocean
Pluto – Sleeping At Last
Masters – Local Natives
Field – Tycho
Neptune – Sleeping At Last
Actualized – DANAE
Direction [Acoustic] – DANAE
29 #Strafford APTS – Bon Iver
You Don’t Get Me High Anymore – Phantogram
Sun – Sleeping At Last
Small Crimes – Nilüfer Yanya7
Fake It – Bastille
Precious – Kevin Garrett
Light – Sleeping At Last
Everybody Knows – RAEKO feat. Mating Ritual
Brooklyn Baby – The Code
Mine – Tony Pops
Jellyfish – Local Natives
Hallelujah – Pentatonix8
Emphasis – Sleeping At Last
All We Do – Oh Wonder
No Care – Daughter
Horizon – Tycho
Epoch – Tycho

  1. They have a new album out but I haven’t acknowledged it yet, so don’t expect anything from that in here. ↩
  2. Other than “make it less of an awful pile of crap” I think my main request for the iTunes team would be “better metadata for multiple-artist songs.” ↩
  3. The song names on this album are the most “pretentious hipster” thing ever. ↩
  4. Props to Taylor for making me listen to Daughter, I’m a fan. ↩
  5. No, seriously, I’m just copy/pasting this over, I’m too lazy to dig through the ‘insert special character’ thing for this. ↩
  6. Now that is how you do a weird song name. No obnoxious characters to type. ↩
  7. “ü” doesn’t count as a weird character by my definition, because I have to type umlauts a lot. I’m in Austria. ↩
  8. Not my favorite version of this song ever, but that goes to the version I sang in my senior year of high school, which I don’t think is recorded anywhere because copyright law is fun like that. ↩
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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: September 2016

Definitely writing this a few days early, but it’s not like I’ve never done that before, and I’d rather do it a bit early and need to tweak it than post it late because I was on a plane to England.1
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Midnight – Lane 8
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
SWORD – ΔUGUST
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October
Sight – Sleeping At Last
Hearing – Sleeping At Last
Let Me Go – Albin Lee Meldau
Touch – Sleeping At Last
All I Want – Kodaline
Half Light – BANNERS
Be Somebody – Kings of Leon2
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone3
Atlas – Coldplay
Ghosts – BANNERS
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
9 Crimes – Damien Rice
Wake the Dead – Nassau
Remains (Bastille Vs. Rag N Bone Man Vs. Skunk Anansie) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
When The World Sleeps – Lowland Hum
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Thinkin Bout You (Frank Ocean Cover) – Midnight Pool Party
Better Man (Feat. Peter Gregson & Iskra String Quartet) – FYFE
Shots Fired – House of Heroes
Kill V. Maim – Grimes
Kusanagi – ODESZA
Roma Fade – Andrew Bird
The Box – Damien Rice
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field4
Fever – Roosevelt
Live in This Moment – Kakou
Little Higher ft. Xavier Dunn – Terace
Ghost, Teacher, Girl, and I – White Violet
Postcards feat. Sam Island – Equal
Folding Hills feat. Xavier Dunn – FØRD5
Gold in the Dirt – DANAE
Stay High – One Room
Summer Heat – Solidisco
All4You – The Palms
Find You – BAYNK
Division – Tycho
Gods in Heat – Tobacco
The City – The 19756
The Void – IAMX
Haunt / Bed – The 1975
Thankfully – White Violet
Prove – DANAE
Two Blue Eyes – Tall Heights
Eternity – IAMX
Umbrellas – Sleeping At Last
The Spring – Sleeping At Last
Trend – Polymath
Hallway – White Violet
Fallingforyou – The 1975
Saturn – Sleeping At Last
Turning Crimson – IAMX
Porcelain – Sleeping At Last
Glory – Bastille7
Where’s My Love – Syml
Dead In This House – IAMX8
Your Mothers Eyes – The Head and the Heart
Lethargy – Bastille
Speed Of Sound – Communist Daughter
Blame – Bastille
Undo – The 1975
Killer Queen – FIL BO RIVA
So Far (It’s Alright) – The 1975
Campus – Bastille
The Currents – Bastille
An Act Of Kindness – Bastille9
Warmth – Bastille
Four Walls (The Ballad Of Perry Smith) – Bastille
Soundtrack To The End – Communist Daughter
Seasons – Klangstof
Woman – The 1975
Doing the Right Thing – Daughter
Worth It – Moses Sumney
Arctic – Sleeping At Last10

  1. Oh yeah, that’s a thing I’m doing on the 1st. Exciting! ↩
  2. I think they’ve got a new album coming out soon, and I am very excited. ↩
  3. I heard a remix of this song in a steampunk-themed restaurant in Prague, and I want to figure out which version it was because I liked it. ↩
  4. Definitely just made someone watch Warehouse 13 the other day, so I’m looking forward to a few weeks from now when they’ll look sad when I play this song. Because how can you not, it was used so well in the show. ↩
  5. The fact that iTunes doesn’t have a metadata field for “featured artist”, or allow multiple entries in the “artist” field really annoys me, and is one of the things I’d add if I were to design a music library management app. Not that this is something I think about doing all the time or anything. ↩
  6. I know I’m way behind to The 1975, okay, you don’t have to tell me ↩
  7. Oh my god their new album is so good ↩
  8. This song always plays at weird times and I’m a little bit worried about what it makes my host-family think of me ↩
  9. Listen to this one with headphones on, they do some fun stuff with panning that doesn’t really come across on speakers. Unless you have an iPhone 7, in which case maybe it will? ↩
  10. Definitely got a bunch of Sleeping At Last music as a birthday present, in case you couldn’t tell by the sudden influx of it here. ↩
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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: August 2016

I really should’ve written this up over the weekend when I had more time, but oh well, here we are.
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand in Mine – Explosions in the Sky
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Midnight – Lane 81
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
SWORD – ΔUGUST
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October
Jericho – Westerman
Thursday – LostBoyCrow
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau
Sight – Sleeping At Last
Hearing – Sleeping At Last2
Let Me Go – Albin Lee Meldau
Touch – Sleeping At Last
All I Want – Kodaline
Half Light – BANNERS
Be Somebody – Kings of Leon
Withdrawn – White Morning
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Atlas – Coldplay3
Ghosts – BANNERS
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
White Square (Demo) – Rebecca McDade
9 Crimes – Damien Rice
Wake the Dead – Nassau
 Remains (Bastille Vs. Rag N Bone Man Vs. Skunk Anansie) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille4
When The World Sleeps – Lowland Hum
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Fly Away For A Summer (Achtaban Remix) – FLAUSEN feat. Ben Cocks
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Control – Mountains Like Wax
Sunlight (Jody Wisternoff Remix) – Lane 8
Monster – Mumford & Sons5
Thinkin Bout You (Frank Ocean Cover) – Midnight Pool Party
Better Man (Feat. Peter Gregson & Iskra String Quartet) – FYFE
Shots Fired – House of Heroes
Kill V. Maim – Grimes
Kusanagi – ODESZA
Roma Fade – Andrew Bird
The Box – Damien Rice6
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
Fever – Roosevelt
Live in This Moment – Kakou
Stop Us (Radio Edit) – SIYYU
Little Higher ft. Xavier Dunn – Terace
Ghost, Teacher, Girl, and I – White Violet7
Second Wind – White Violet
Since You’ve Gone (Original Mix) – Loframes feat. Anoraak
Postcards feat. Sam Island – Equal8
Folding Hills feat. Xavier Dunn – FØRD
Gold in the Dirt – DANAE
Stay High – One Room
Love’s Song – KIDS
Summer Heat – Solidisco
 Years & Years – King (Røse Summer Edit) – Røse
Outside – Tender
That’s Not Me – CONDITIONER
Something More – RALPH
All4You – The Palms
Find You – BAYNK
Golden Grave – Leo Islo
Don’t Panic – Coldplay
Antichrist – The 1975
The Attic | Demo – Rebecca McDade
Division – Tycho
Gods in Heat – Tobacco9
Mothers – Daughter

  1. I call these first five songs “the steadfast” in my head. ↩
  2. At least once a week throughout all of August I had a conversation with someone about how amazing Sleeping At Last is. ↩
  3. People dissing Coldplay is the number one cause of me saying “fight me” in public. ↩
  4. I haven’t typed this name in a while, I just copy/paste it out of iTunes. ↩
  5. Fun story: I’ve got a Mumford & Sons poster on my wall right now. Turns out my host family is full of people who like their music. ↩
  6. Now that I’m copying over links from previous posts, instead of just searching Amazon for them each time, you wind up with little blobs of songs like this. Mostly because, if I like it enough to link to it, I also like it enough to keep it in the next month’s playlist. ↩
  7. Even if I didn’t like this song I think I would’ve had to include just because the name is cool. ↩
  8. This one gets stuck in my head, but in a good way, y’know? ↩
  9. “Not the best thing to listen to with a hangover” – the friend I sent this to ↩
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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: July 2016

I got so caught up in everything going on at the end of the month that I nearly forgot to put this post together, oh my. It’s been a busy couple of weeks.
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Midnight – Lane 8
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
Disintegration Anxiety – Explosions in the Sky
SWORD – ΔUGUST1
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October
Jericho – Westerman
Hold Me Down – YOKE LORE
Daydream – Leo Kalyan
stard(us)t – johan
Thursday – LostBoyCrow
Shouldn’t Have Done That – Two Another
The Lucky One – Blue October
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau
Sight – Sleeping At Last
Hearing – Sleeping At Last2
Let Me Go – Albin Lee Meldau
Touch – Sleeping At Last3
SeeThroughDreams – Kellen
Lovers – Albin Lee Meldau
Darling – Albin Lee Meldau
Someone Like You – COBRYAMA feat. Gibbz
All I Want – Kodaline
Half Light – BANNERS4
Be Somebody – Kings of Leon
Teardrop – Massive Attack
Withdrawn – White Morning
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Atlas – Coldplay
Ghosts – BANNERS
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
White Square (Demo) – Rebecca McDade
Wona – Mumford & Sons
Mood – Porches
Crimewave – Crystal Castles
9 Crimes – Damien Rice
In the Dark – JUDY
Wake the Dead – Nassau
 Remains (Bastille Vs. Rag N Bone Man Vs. Skunk Anansie) (Crossfaded Version)  – Bastille, Rag N Bone Man, Skunk Anansie
When The World Sleeps – Lowland Hum5
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Fly Away For A Summer (Achtaban Mix) – FLAUSEN feat. Ben Cocks
Fast Car – Navarra
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid6
Three Strikes (feat. Jack McManus) – Afrojack
There Will Be Time – Mumford & Sons
Control – Mountains Like Wax
Untitled – Mountains Like Wax
Sunlight (Jody Wisternoff Remix) – Lane 8
Monster – Mumford & Sons
Fountain of Youth – Local Natives
I Don’t Know You – Uniform Motion
My Ride with the Enemy – Uniform Motion
3-4 Eyes – Uniform Motion
Thinkin Bout You (Frank Ocean Cover) – Midnight Pool Party
The Dawn Has Hit the Summit – Uniform Motion
Walk Away – Uniform Motion
South Seas – Ménage À Trois
Better Man (Feat. Peter Gregson & Iskra String Quartet) – FYFE7
The White Shirt – Uniform Motion
God – House of Heroes
Shots Fired – House of Heroes
We Make Our Stars – House of Heroes
Get Away – House of Heroes
Holocene – Bon Iver
Kill V. Maim – Grimes8
Kusanagi – ODESZA
Clearest Blue – CHVRCHES
Roma Fade – Andrew Bird
The Box – Damien Rice9
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
Fever – Roosevelt
Live in This Moment – Kakou

  1. This song is the reason that I’m copy/pasting the links in from last month’s playlist – it is stupid to try to find on Amazon. ↩
  2. I seriously love this album so much. The songs are beautiful and peaceful and I just really like them, okay? ↩
  3. “Touch” and “Sight” are actually tied for my favorite of the album, but “Hearing” is close behind. ↩
  4. Seriously, BANNERS is great. ↩
  5. I really wish this song was longer, because it’s so fun to sing along to. ↩
  6. Apparently this is called the ‘acoustic’ version, but I like my label better. It’s got more character. ↩
  7. This is, I think, my favorite song that I found this month. And that was a tough competition. ↩
  8. This song is so fun, I actually looked up the lyrics at one point so I could sing along more accurately. I’m gonna have to find some more music by Grimes. ↩
  9. Another in the “super fun to sing along to” category. ↩
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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: June 2016

This month has been a bit interesting for my iTunes Library – I’ve been using it as the primary data source for a bunch of neural network research. That said, it hasn’t changed much, doing all that, other than the fact that I sat down for an hour and cleaned up the ‘genre’ tags of everything. Beyond that, it’s been a read-only operation.
Anyhow, here’s the list:
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky1
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Midnight – Lane 8
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako2
Disintegration Anxiety – Explosions in the Sky
Sorry – Liss
SWORD – ΔUGUST
Heart Go Bang – Blue October
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October
Jericho – Westerman
Hold Me Down – YOKE LORE
Daydream – Leo Kalyan
stard(us)t – johan
Insomnia – IAMX
Elodie – Ten Fé
Hands On You – Tony Pops
Thursday – LostBoyCrow
Atlantique Sud – M83
Used To Be – Beauvoir
Shouldn’t Have Done That – Two Another
LATE AT NIGHT – GENERIK
The Lucky One – Blue October
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau
Fools and Their Gold – PLGRMS
Cold to the Touch – RALPH
Sight – Sleeping At Last3
Smell – Sleeping At Last
Memory Lane – KOLIDESCOPES
Hearing – Sleeping At Last
Let Me Go – Albin Lee Meldau
Touch – Sleeping At Last
SeeThroughDreams – Kellen
Lovers – Albin Lee Meldau
Darling – Albin Lee Meldau
Someone Like You – COBRYAMA feat. Gibbz4
All I Want – Kodaline
Half Light – BANNERS5
Riptide (String Quartet Tribute to Vance Joy) – Vitamin String Quartet
Be Somebody – Kings of Leon6
Wilder Mind – Mumford & Sons
Hopeless Wanderer – Mumford & Sons
Uprising – Muse
Elysium – Mendum7
Teardrop – Massive Attack8
Withdrawn – White Morning
They Shall Be Called (Part II) – White Morning
They Shall Be Called (Part I) – White Morning9
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift
Thru – Vallis Alps
Atlas – Coldplay10
Ghosts – BANNERS
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray11
White Square (Demo) – Rebecca McDade
Wona – Mumford & Sons
There Will Be Time – Mumford & Sons
Mood – Porches
Crimewave – Crystal Castles12
9 Crimes – Damien Rice
Burning In The Skies – Linkin Park
In the Dark – JUDY
Wake the Dead – Nassau
Remains (Bastille Vs. Rag N Bone Man Vs. Skunk Anansie) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille

  1. The “Friday Night Lights” version. ↩
  2. It’d be interesting, at the end of the year, for me to go back and pick out the songs that were the most permanent. And hey, since I’ve been doing research using my iTunes Library, I know how to automate that process pretty well now, I guess. Hmm. ↩
  3. I’m gonna wind up buying everything by Sleeping At Last at some point, based on the little ‘senses’ series of songs alone. They’re all wonderful. ↩
  4. This song makes me want to listen to Kings of Leon. ↩
  5. The lowest star-ranking I’ve given a song by BANNERS is 4 stars. I have, I believe, every song he’s put out. ↩
  6. I blame “Someone Like You” for this song being back in here. Not that it’s a bad thing at all. ↩
  7. I’ve been digging back through some of my playlists from the past couple years. That’s my favorite part of doing these monthly playlists, actually – the fact that I can do that. ↩
  8. My sister and I watched a lot of House when we were kids; both the show and this song are, in a strange way, a bit of a ‘happy place’ for me because of that. ↩
  9. I’m glad I don’t have comments enabled at the moment, because I know some of you would complain about these being out of order. ↩
  10. Someone told me that I was losing ‘hipster cred’ by listening to Coldplay. I have never before said “I don’t care” with such vehemence. ↩
  11. Seriously, Helios is such a good album. ↩
  12. I spent a while listening through some of my older playlists this month. And by ‘some’ I mean ‘all, in order.’ I do a lot of listening to music at work. ↩
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Playlist

Playlist of the Month: May 2016

Since I’m working a desk job at the moment, you’d think I’d have more time to listen to music, but I have even less. There’s a lot of audio involved in that desk job. My headphones are in, but not hooked up to iTunes. Sad day.
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield1
Midnight – Lane 8
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
Afterlife – XYLØ
SCRAM – Mogwai
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau
Tangle Formations – Explosions In the Sky2
Disintegration Anxiety – Explosions In the Sky
Hallucinations – dvsn
Logic of a Dream – Explosions In the Sky
Sorry – LISS
Land of All – Woodkid
I’ve Fallen For You – Tom Redwood
SWORD – ΔUGUST3
Break Ground – Blue October
Driver – Blue October
Heart Go Bang – Blue October
Houston Heights – Blue October
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October
Jericho – Westerman
Cara Mia Addio – Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory
Landing Cliffs – Explosions In the Sky
Hold Me Down – YOKE LORE
Pripyat – Mogwai
Daydream – Leo Kalyan
Coal Makes Diamonds – Blue October
Heart Go Bang (Night Mix Prod. by The Egg) – Blue October
stard(us)t – johan
Insomnia – IAMX4
Happiness – IAMX5
The Background Noise – IAMX
Bridges – Koresma
Say Hello Melancholia – IAMX
Elodie – Ten Fé6
Hands On You – Tony Pops
Thursday – LostBoyCrow
Atlantique Sud – M837
Used To Be – Beauvois
I Want It – Blue October
Shouldn’t Have Done That – Two Another
LATE AT NIGHT – GENERIK
The Lucky One – Blue October
Road Blaster – M83

  1. For some reason, this song isn’t on the Amazon version of the album, so I’m linking to it on iTunes instead. Weird. ↩
  2. I’ve just noticed that some of their songs are filed under “Explosions In The Sky” and some are under “Explosions In the Sky.” Dangit iTunes. ↩
  3. Still not done laughing at the fact that this group is named “?UGUST” in Amazon’s database. ↩
  4. Note that this whole album is distinctly NSFW, if you listen to the lyrics. ↩
  5. I’m linking this one, though, because I find the lyrics hilarious. ↩
  6. I’d be more annoyed about how often this one gets stuck in my head, but it helps to drown out the stupid clocktower here, so I’ll take it. ↩
  7. I wasn’t too much a fan of their new album, but this one was nice and calm compared to the rest. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: April 2016

Oh man I need there to have been more of April, I’m not done with things yet.
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky1
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Midnight – Lane 8
You Can’t Save Me – Johnny Stimson
But Now A Warm Feel Is Running – Fhin
House for You – LOYAL
Maps For the Getaway – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
I Feel The Weight – Miike Snow
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
Afterlife – XYLØ
SCRAM – Mogwai
Run – TOURIST
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea – XYLØ
Fat Man – Mogwai
America – XYLØ
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau
Communicate – The Dunwells
Black and White Movies – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Tangle Formations – Explosions In The Sky2
Disintegration Anxiety Explosions In The Sky
I’m Not Right – XY&O
Hallucinations – dvsn
Logic of a Dream – Explosions In The Sky
Flare Gun – Woodkid
Dusk Talks – Woodkid
Sorry – LISS3
Tracker – Woodkid
Que Te Mate el Desierto – Woodkid
Weak Force – Mogwai
The Infidelity of Language – Steve Benjamins4
Solitude – M83
Infinite Orbit – Explosions In The Sky
Are You a Dancer? – Mogwai
Land of All – Woodkid5
I’ve Fallen For You – Tom Redwood
Wilderness – Explosions In the Sky
Jump – Woodkid
The Ecstatics – Explosions In the Sky
Bitterness Centrifuge – Mogwai
Shoot Them Down – Woodkid
We Know Where You Go – Blue October
SWORD – ΔUGUST6
Hey Now – The Dunwells
Break Ground – Blue October
Driver – Blue October
Heart Go Bang – Blue October
Houston Heights – Blue October
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October7
Jericho – Westerman8
Cara Mia Addio – Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory910

  1. The “Friday Night Lights” variant. ↩
  2. Oh man I am so happy about this album ↩
  3. Note: this link is to the explicit version. ↩
  4. I just really love that name for a song. ↩
  5. This whole soundtrack is pretty great, actually. ↩
  6. This was hilariously hard to find the Amazon link to – their database apparently isn’t unicode-safe. Weird. ↩
  7. I’d call this my favorite song off of the album so far, but I am so excited about this album. I love Blue October. ↩
  8. Soundcloud link, as I couldn’t find it on Amazon. Which I’m not happy about – Soundcloud doesn’t allow artists to monetize very easily, while Amazon is just like “sure, we’ll sell your stuff for a small cut.” ↩
  9. I wrote a paper about this song for a class – might publish that here, actually, it was pretty interesting. And it’s just a delightfully weird song! ↩
  10. This one’s free to download – you can get the entire soundtrack off their site! ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: March 2016

I’ve decided that, for some of these things, I’m going to include links to buy the songs1 – make it a bit easier for y’all to find the songs, if you’re interested, and throw a bit of support to the artists.2
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony3
Trusty And True – Damien Rice
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
Elysium – Mendum
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield4
Midnight – Lane 85
Summer Heart – Pretty Haze
Fire – Jack Garratt
You Can’t Save Me – Johnny Stimson
Ghost ft. Patrick Baker (Lane 8 Remix) – Lane 8
But Now A Warm Feel Is Running – Fhin
Haven, Mass (B-Side) – Bon Iver
Canyon Moon – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
House for You – LOYAL
Maps For The Getaway – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness6
Animal – The Dunwells
Your Call – Duck House
In the Air – Star Slinger Remix – Ten Fé
We Were Happy Once (feat. Bess Rogers) – Anya Marina7
Man Of Lies – Blueneck
Broken Fingers – Blueneck
Father, Sister – Blueneck
I Feel The Weight – Miike Snow
Back Of The Car – Miike Snow
Monster – Mumford & Sons
I Will Wait – Mumford & Sons
Hopeless Wanderer – Mumford & Sons
Little Lion Man – Mumford & Sons
Ghost feat. Patrick Baker (Lane 8 Remix) – Lane 88
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako9
Klara (Theo Kottis Remix) – Lane 8
Afterlife – XYLØ10
SCRAM – Mogwai11
Run – TOURIST
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea – XYLØ
Fat Man – Mogwai
America – XYLØ12
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau13
Communicate – The Dunwells14
BLK CLD – XYLØ
Lucky Ones – The Dunwells15
LA Love Song – XYLØ
She Whispers – The Dunwells
Tzar – Mogwai
Smoke Signals – Hotel Garuda16
MERCURY – YATES17
U-235 – Mogwai18
Will You Wait For Me – The Dunwells
Sunlight (Jody Wisternoff Remix) – Lane 8
Ether – Mogwai

  1. From iTunes or Amazon Music, as those are the two stores I ever use- I used to use Google Play, but haven’t since I switched to iPhone. And I’ve got a Thing against Spotify. ↩
  2. The exact metric by which I’ll decide which ones to link is “randomness with a bias in favor of less-popular groups.” And a good bit towards “new to these lists,” as well. ↩
  3. Fun story: while trying to verify that this was the correct version of the song to link to, I accidentally hit ‘play’ and iTunes started playing a totally different song while the Amazon sample was playing. “This is not at all the right remix,” I thought, before realizing what I’d done. ↩
  4. “I’d normally never listen to Lorde, but I’d listen to an album of you doing Lorde covers.” – someone complimenting me when they heard me singing along to this. Thanks, friend! ↩
  5. This song is so calm, it’s up there with “Your Hand In Mine” in my favorite songs to listen to when I need to defuse a bad mood. Or diffuse it. Either way. ↩
  6. The first few times I listened to this song, I was biking, and what with the wind and all that I couldn’t quite hear the lyrics right, so I spent a while thinking this song was about planning a heist. ↩
  7. For some reason, this song reminds me of a lullaby that I’d listen to as a child. Which is weird, considering how depressing it is. ↩
  8. Why yes, this is the second time this song is on here – one version is the Soundcloud rip (sorry!), and one version is from the actual album. ↩
  9. Another one my roommate gave me, I love this song. ↩
  10. Things I’ve learned today: how to type an uppercase Ø. Shift+option+o, for those wondering. Leaving out the shift gets you the lowercase ø.
    Interesting note about this: you can’t type that character into the Amazon search field. ↩
  11. This whole album is all ‘nuclear history’ references and it makes me so happy ↩
  12. Why yes, I am linking to multiple songs off this album. I’d’ve linked to ‘Afterlife’, as well, but Amazon only has the explicit version and I have very strange ideas about what level of censorship it’s necessary for me to have on this here blog. ↩
  13. The only thing I don’t like about this song is how dang short it is. I want mooooore. ↩
  14. This song is basically how I respond whenever my friends complain to me about their relationship problems. “JUST COMMUNICATE” ↩
  15. For some reason, my laptop saw fit to change ‘Lucky’ to ‘Luckyy.’ … Okay? ↩
  16. This one reminds me of that song. “If our love is tragedy,” yadda yadda. If you lived through, what, 2012? Yeah, I think that was the year. Anyways, if you lived through that year, you know this song. ↩
  17. WHY ARE WE SHOUTING ↩
  18. Get it, because uranium isotopes? heh, I have a weird sense of humor. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: February 2016

How did February go past so quickly, when did that even happen? Weird.
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Fast Car – Navarra
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony
Trusty and True – Damien Rice1
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay2
Spark – Amber Run
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
The Hanging Tree – James Newton Howard
Elysium – Mendum
Ghosts – BANNERS
Start a Riot – BANNERS
Shine a Light – BANNERS
Back When We Had Nothing -BANNERS
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield3
Midnight – Lane 8
Summer Heart – Pretty Haze
Fire – Jack Garratt
You Can’t Save Me – Johnny Stimson
Ghost ft. Patrick Baker (Lane 8 Rework) – Lane 84
But Now A Warm Feel Is Running – Fhin5
Haven, Mass (B-Side) – Bon Iver
Canyon Moon – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness6
House for You – LOYAL

That’s it for this month – I’ve been so busy with the choir tour and the start of classes7 that I haven’t had a whole lot of time for messing around with my playlists. Hopefully next month’s will be a bit longer.

  1. I did a bit of digging into my old playlists at one point, this one came up. ↩
  2. I didn’t watch the Halftime Show while it was going on – I was actually on a bus, driving away from San Francisco at the time – but I did watch it about a week later. Impressive. ↩
  3. One of the best compliments I got this month was as I was singing along to this- someone told me “I’d never listen to Lorde, but if you did a cover of Lorde I’d listen to that.” Flattering, in a weird way. ↩
  4. Lane 8 was probably my top find for this month, even though it’s only these two songs by them that I actually enjoy. I’m subscribed on Soundcloud, hopefully they’ll release more stuff in this vein. ↩
  5. This is listed as “Deep House” but on name alone I think it deserves honorary standing as “Post-Rock” ↩
  6. Anecdote time: I wound up with this song because I was editing a video for a class and it needed to have some sort of upbeat song playing in the background. But this is me, I don’t have happy music, the closest I get is, like, energetically depressed. I asked Chase if he had any, and this was the only upbeat song he had. We have similar taste in music. ↩
  7. And the various extracurricular nonsense that I choose to get myself embroiled in. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: January 2016

How is this month already over? I’m still writing ‘2014’ on my papers sometimes, good lord.1
Slow It Down – The Lumineers
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Fast Car – Navarra
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run2
I Need My Girl – The National
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift
Thru – Vallis Alps
Arcadia – Great States
West Egg – Great States
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony
Trusty and True – Damien Rice
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) – Major Lazer
Atlas – Coldplay
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky3
Just for Now – Pentatonix
The Birds Are Chirping – Beware of Safety
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay4
Amazing Day – Coldplay
Spectre – Radiohead
Spark – Amber Run
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
Heaven – Amber Run
Kites – Amber Run
Breathe In – Frou Frou
The Hanging Tree – James Newton Howard5
Elysium – Mendum
Valentine’s Day – Linkin Park
Ghosts – BANNERS6
Start a Riot – BANNERS
Shine a Light – BANNERS
Back When We Had Nothing – BANNERS
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield7
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield8
Gold Dust – BANNERS
Midnight – Lane 8

And that’s 2016 begun. A shorter list than the rest, but I’ve been keeping a strange schedule and not gotten a whole lot of new music this month, so oh well.

  1. It takes me a long time to adjust, okay? ↩
  2. I’ve gotta say, Amber Run was probably one of my best finds for all of 2015. ↩
  3. This is the variant off the Friday Night Lights soundtrack. I still haven’t watched that show, actually – the quality of the soundtrack wavers back and forth between being enough to cancel out the fact that football bores me. ↩
  4. I just saw the music video for this one the other day. I liked it! ↩
  5. I believe he’s actually the composer, and that it’s Jennifer Lawrence singing, but that’s how the soundtrack shows up in iTunes, so whatever. ↩
  6. Actually a different version of it than what I had, since he finally released his EP so that I could replace the Soundcloud rip. ↩
  7. I really wasn’t sure that I was going to like this one, and then practically overnight it became the song that I’d skip past a bunch of others to get to. ↩
  8. I’ve never heard the Lorde version. I should probably look that up at some point, if only for comparison. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: December 2015

This one is a bit weird, because for a good chunk of the month I wasn’t actually listening to this list – I was going back through the rest of my playlists for the year, in chronological order. Still, it was pretty fun! Anyhow, here’s the December list:
Pacific – Sleeping At Last
Slow It Down – The Lumineers
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Fast Car – Navarra
Ghosts – BANNERS
I Found – Amber Run1
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
Not Alone – Linking Park
I Need My Girl – The National
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Social) – Coldplay
King Nine – Blueneck
See You Soon – Coldplay2
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
Fireproof – The National
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift
Thru – Vallis Alps
The Running of the Bulls – Tall Heights
Careful Where You Stand – Coldplay3
Woods – Bon Iver
White Winter Hymnal – Pentatonix4
Sleigh Ride – Pentatonix
That’s Christmas To Me – Pentatonix5
Mary, Did You Know? – Pentatonix6
Silent Night – Pentatonix
D to E – MOGWAI
Earth Division – MOGWAI
Arcadia – Great States
West Egg – Great States
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony
Petals – Biblio
Heart Beats Slow – Angus & Julia Stone
Stay With Me – Angus & Julia Stone7
Driving Home for Christmas – Blueneck
Strong Hand – CHVRCHES
Trusty And True – Damien Rice
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) – Major Lazer
Scream My Name – Tove Lo
Set The Fire To The Third Bar – Snow Patrol
Atlas – Coldplay
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky8
Mary, Did You Know? (feat. The String Mob) – Pentatonix9
Just for Now – Pentatonix
The Birds Are Chirping – Beware of Safety
Rug – Sleeping Lion
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay10
Army of One – Coldplay11
A Head Full of Dreams – Coldplay
Start A Riot – BANNERS
Joy to the World – Pentatonix
Amazing Day – Coldplay
Birds – Coldplay
Mi (Soul Channel Rework) – Nils Frahm
808s & birthdaycakes – Tim Legend
La (Sebastian Freij Rework) – Nils Frahm
Re (Helios Rework) – Nils Frahm12
Spectre – Radiohead

That’s all for the year, folks! I’ve now got an entire year of consistently making a playlist for each month!
Well, okay, I had that as of August, but now I’ve got a calendar year.

  1. I’m supposed to be learning this song for voice lessons, but I keep singing one of the low harmonies instead of the melody. I can’t help it, they’re nice harmonies! hashtag-choir-kid-problems ↩
  2. Acoustic version. ↩
  3. Acoustic version. ↩
  4. It wouldn’t be Christmas without a bunch of acapella christmas music. ↩
  5. This song is a lot harder to sing than you’d think. ↩
  6. This one is… pretty much exactly as hard to sing as you’d think. I have a mental block against learning my part. ↩
  7. This song and the one before it are off the Spotify Sessions ↩
  8. This is the 4:11 version off the Friday Night Lights soundtrack. ↩
  9. I keep forgetting I’ve got both versions of this song – with strings and without – in this playlist, and I get confused whenever this version comes on because it’s got more sounds than what I’m expecting. ↩
  10. Me, singing along: “I’m feeling drunk and high, so high, so high…”
    My mom, sitting beside me in the car: “Nice song.” ↩
  11. I really feel like this is two different songs that just happen to share the same lyrics – the bridge in the middle should’ve been a track break. ↩
  12. The fact that ‘Helios’ is in the name keeps making me think of the album cover from the same-titled album by The Fray. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: November 2015

I’m writing this one up on the 29th, but I’m not going to have any free time until the 5th, so doing it a bit early won’t hurt much.1 Here goes:
Pacific – Sleeping At Last
Slow It Down – The Lumineers2
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra
Ghosts – BANNERS3
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
Shiver – Amber Run
Little Ghost – Amber Run
Not Alone – Linkin Park4
I Need My Girl – The National
Pools – Harrison Brome
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Social) – Coldplay
Father, Sister – Blueneck
King Nine – Blueneck
Sparks – Coldplay (acoustic version)
See You Soon – Coldplay (acoustic version)5
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
Fireproof – The National
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift6
Thru – Vallis Alps
The Running of the Bulls – Tall Heights7
Everything – Zuke Duhon8
Do Not Resuscitate – Tall Heights
Careful Where You Stand – Coldplay (acoustic version)9
Bleed – Tender
Creepy – Oyster Kids10
Never Let You Down (feat. Lykke Li) – Woodkid
Woods – Bon Iver11
White Winter Hymnal – Pentatonix12
Sleigh Ride – Pentatonix
That’s Christmas To Me – Pentatonix
Mary, Did You Know? – Pentatonix13
Silent Night – Pentatonix
D to E – MOGWAI
My Father My King – MOGWAI
The Sun Smells Too Loud – MOGWAI
Earth Division – MOGWAI
We’re No Here – MOGWAI
Adventure of a Lifetime – Coldplay14
Arcadia – Great States
West Egg – Great States
Christmas Steps – MOGWAI
Mexican Grand Prix – MOGWAI15
Arrows (feat. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) – Fences
Harder Without You – Deutsch Duke
Travel Is Dangerous – MOGWAI
Remurdered – MOGWAI
Friend of the Night – MOGWAI
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Auto Rock – MOGWAI
Take Me Somewhere Nice – MOGWAI16
Hasenheide – MOGWAI
Rano Pano – MOGWAI
Hungry Face – MOGWAI
Shadowplay (Album Verison) – The Saint Johns
Burn Girl Prom Queen – MOGWAI
I Know You Are But What Am I? – MOGWAI
Carraway – Great States
Forgiven – Millesimal Remix – Wolf Colony
Petals – Biblio
The Lord is Out of Control – MOGWAI
Heart Beats Slow – Angus & Julia Stone17
Stay With Me – Angus & Julia Stone
Little Whiskey – Angus & Julia Stone
All This Love – Angus & Julia Stone18
Everglow – Coldplay
Driving Home for Christmas – Blueneck19
Strong Hand – CHVRCHES
Trusty And True – Damien Rice20
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) Major Lazer
Scream My Name – Tove Lo
Set The Fire To The Third Bar – Snow Patrol
Atlas – Coldplay21
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky22

That’s the playlist for this month. Now I’m going to go investigate some of the concerningly strange emails I got while I was writing this whole thing, that’ll be fun. Happy holidays, everyone!

  1. Watch the new Coldplay album drop on the 30th and me be proven horribly wrong. Oh well. ↩
  2. This is one of those songs that I couldn’t figure out where it came from until I remembered that a friend had made me a “rainy day” playlist, and all the songs in there got swept into my ‘unrated songs’ playlist. ↩
  3. BANNERS had a new song featured on an episode of The Royals but it isn’t out anywhere yet and I’m really upset about it. ↩
  4. No, computer, I don’t mean ‘Linking Park,’ but thank you for helping. ↩
  5. Note to self: apparently I only have to type the word ‘acoustic’ twice before it stops sounding like a word. ↩
  6. During Thanksgiving Break my sister and I binge-watched the entire Hunger Games movie series. Good lord that’s some good soundtrack there. And the scene with “the hanging tree”? Goddamn, that’s a tear-jerker. ↩
  7. This song is so much fun to sing along to. ↩
  8. Do you ever see a picture of an artist for the first time and you’re like “that is not at all what I expected them to look like”? Yeah, that’s what I did with Zeke Duhon. Somehow I’d avoided seeing the album cover for, like, months. ↩
  9. Acoustic. A-cou-stic. Acous-tic. Ugh, this is worse than “vacuum.” ↩
  10. Having these two songs in a row always entertains me, for some reason. ↩
  11. I mostly know Bon Iver from “Holocene” and let me tell you this is an entirely different sound. Still so good, though. ↩
  12. Yes, the Christmas music has begun. I’m a choir kid, Christmas music starts in October. ↩
  13. This is the Best Christmas Song, folks. This one right here. ↩
  14. I don’t actually keep up to date on when people are releasing new albums or anything, so it’s always the most incredible surprise when it happens. ↩
  15. I swear, all post-rock bands are in a secret competition to come up with the weirdest name for a song. ↩
  16. I hadn’t realized how much Mogwai was in this playlist. No wonder I keep getting chunks of three or four Mogwai songs in a row, even on shuffle. ↩
  17. This was originally “Angus And Julia Stone” but I changed it to an ampersand because I want everything to line up right in my iTunes Library, c’mon. ↩
  18. My only problem with these four songs is that they’re live recordings and people feel the need to leave the crowd’s applause on those things. Eventually I’m gonna get annoyed enough at these and use iTunes settings to get rid of that. ↩
  19. Because, y’know, I feel like Christmas music should sound like the desolate wastes of Siberia. ↩
  20. I managed to typo this one as “Trust7 And True” which would’ve been a completely different song. ↩
  21. Why yes, I am on a Hunger Games kick. That series is the most beautifully depressing thing ever. ↩
  22. It’s back! And, for reference, this is the Friday Night Lights version, not the album version. I switch those out at random. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: October 2015

I almost did this write-up last weekend before realizing there was another week of the month left. Whoops.
Anyways, hope y’all weren’t expecting anything too spooky – the only ‘themed’ stuff any of my playlists ever get is a little bit of Christmas music in November/December.
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
All I Want – Kodaline
Kingdom Hearts – Dearly Beloved – Vitamin String Quartet1
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Wolves Without Teeth – Of Monsters And Men
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Everybody Knows – RAEKO feat. Mating Ritual
Fly Away For A Summer (Achtaban Remix) = FLAUSEN feat. Ben Cocks
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra2
Ghosts – BANNERS
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck3
The Knife – Deprival
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
Good Morning – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
Little Ghost – Amber Run
Hurricane – Amber Run
Don’t Wanna Fight – Amber Run4
Not Alone – LINKIN PARK
I Need My Girl – The National
Don’t Swallow The Cap – The National
Heavenfaced – The National
Pink Rabbits – The National5
Pools – Harrison Brome
Harbor – Tropics
You’re Beautiful – James Blunt6
Shine A Light – BANNERS
Demons – The National
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Special) – Coldplay
Father, Sister – Blueneck
King Nine – Blueneck
Sparks – Coldplay (acoustic version)
Gravity (Time To Run) Zeke Duhon
See You Soon – Coldplay (acoustic version)
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
Fireproof – The National
Calypso – Sarah Kirkland Snider7
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars – Taylor Swift
Downtown – Majical Cloudz
Hell and High Water – Tall Heights
Thru – Vallis Alps
The Running of the Bulls – Tall Heights
Everything – Zeke Duhon
Do Not Resuscitate – Tall Heights
Careful Where You Stand – Coldplay (acoustic version)
Bleed – Tender
Creepy – Oyster Kids8
Three Strikes (feat. Jack McManus) – Afrojack
Never Let You Down (feat. Lykke Li) – Woodkid
Iron – Woodkid9
Auto Rock – Mogwai
Man of Stone – Tall Heights
Woods – Bon Iver10
D to E – Mogwai11
My Father My King – Mogwai

And that’s October! Looking forward to putting together my November list now. And, come February, you’ll have a full year’s worth of my playlists to read through. I might have to make an infographic or something.

  1. One of my choir kids (and yes, I’m aware that habitually claiming ownership of them is a bit strange, but I’ve done it for years and I’m not going to start now) was playing this song (not the VSQ version, just the original) on the piano, and I was rather proud of myself for recognizing it. ↩
  2. I’ve noticed that this version has neatly eclipsed the original as my favorite. Hmm. ↩
  3. The rate at which my interest in Blueneck is going, I might wind up having another huge appearance of them in December. Maybe winter just makes me feel like listening to exactly this kind of ‘desolate’ music? ↩
  4. Hmm, I wonder if I like Amber Run or not. They’ve only been present in huge amounts for a couple months… \</sarcasm> ↩
  5. Big blobs of a single artist like this don’t tend to bug me, mostly because my phone has been on ‘shuffle’ since I got it a year-and-change ago. ↩
  6. This is the explicit version. My roommate got mortally offended by the simple existence of the censored version. ↩
  7. That’s the composer, not the actual performer(s), but I don’t know who performed it and I do know who composed it. I pulled this from her website. ↩
  8. Okay, this song and the one before it are slightly in tune with Halloween, but whatever. ↩
  9. I had a fun and confusing conversation about this song when it started playing and the other person in the room went “wait, you listen to Kendrick?” and I went “who?”
    Long story short, Kendrick Lamar sampled this song for one of his songs. ↩
  10. I was really confused as to how this wound up in my iTunes library before I realized that it was from the “rainy days” mixtape that my friend made for me. I’m still waiting for a good sitting-indoors-reading rainy day to listen to the whole thing. Today was supposed to be rainy, but mostly it’s just clouds and wind. C’mon, weather, step it up. ↩
  11. Even if I didn’t like this song I’d probably have it in this playlist just because we’ve been talking about modulations a lot lately in my music theory classes. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: September 2015

Gonna be honest, almost forgot I had to do this – that’s why I’ve got a repeating reminder set up. Without the variety of apps that remind me when I have to do stuff, I’d forget to eat.1
Anyhow, here’s September:
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
All I Want – Kodaline
Kingdom Hearts – Dearly Beloved – Vitamin String Quartet
Vetus Memoria – God Is An Astronaut
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Wolves Without Teeth – Of Monsters And Men
Black Water – Of Monsters And Men
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
We Sink [explicit] – Of Monsters And Men
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Human – Of Monsters And Men
Crystals – Of Monsters And Men
She Is In The Air – Green River Ordinance
The Arsonist – Tyler Stenson
This Too Shall Pass – Tyler Stenson
Everybody Knows – RAEKO feat. Mating Ritual
Fly Away For A Summer (Achtabahn Mix) – FLAUSEN feat. Ben Cocks
Cheerleader – Pentatonix
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra
Ghosts – BANNERS
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck
The Knife – Deprival
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
Good Morning – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
Little Vessels – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
In the Open – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
Say No More – Tyler Stenson
Little Ghost – Amber Run
Big Hearts (Remix) – Tyler Stenson
Hurricane – Amber Run
Don’t Wanna Fight – Amber Run
Not Alone – Linking Park
I Need My Girl – The National
Lightning Strikes (bonus) – Dawn And Hawkes
Twine – Lowland Hum
Don’t Swallow The Cap – The National
Heavenfaced – The National
Pink Rabbits – The National
Pools – Harrison Brome
Harbor – Tropics
Quietly – Dawn And Hawkes
Silly Things – Wild Child
Ten Leap Years – Dawn And Hawkes
Hard To Find – The National
White Stone – Lowland Hum
War Is Over – Lowland Hum
You’re Beautiful [explicit] – James Blunt
Trusty And True – Damien Rice
Shine A Light – BANNERS
Demons – The National
Faith And Hope – Zeke Duhon
This Is The Last Time – The National
Always Is Now – Zeke Duhon
Fireproof – The National
When The World Sleeps – Lowland Hum
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Special) – Coldplay2
Somewhere I Believe – Tall Heights
Father, Sister – Blueneck
King Nine – Blueneck
Sparks – Coldplay3
Gravity (Time To Run) – Zeke Duhon
See You Soon – Coldplay
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
To Be Young – Tall Heights4

Normally I write these before I start the new playlist, but I did it in the reverse order this time, so I’ve got a bit of foreknowledge when I pick the Big Winners this month, since I can just flip to the October list and see what I already put in there. Still, I’ll go for it:
The National’s I Need My Girl was the reason I got the entire album – my roommate was playing it one day, and I just said “I need this.”
My favorite song for the month is a toss-up between Amber Run’s I Found and BANNERS’ Ghosts – both of those were incredible, and the reason that I picked up Amber Run’s album and downloaded every bit of music from BANNERS that I could find.
It was a good month for the more acoustic sounding folk, Tyler Stenson, Lowland Hum, Dawn And Hawkes, etcetera, but that’s ending: October started off with a bias towards the more-produced sounds of BANNERS and Amber Run and Blueneck. It’s one of those back-and-forth motions of history, I suppose, where two influences never quite balance out. We’ll see.
Anyhow, that’s it for this month. Hope y’all find some music you enjoy from these lists, and be sure to send some love towards the artists!

  1. Originally I said ‘forget to breathe,’ which was actually a joke, but I do legitimately forget to eat sometimes. I’m very absent-minded. ↩
  2. My roommate tracked down a copy of Coldplay’s ‘Acoustic’ album and gave it to me for my birthday – it’s a bit of a rarity, since it was a limited production run and none of the songs were sold digitally, as far as I could tell. Either way, I’ve got the album now and I love it. ↩
  3. This, and the one other Coldplay song to follow, are the versions off the Acoustic album. ↩
  4. A quick note about Tall Heights: I saw them live in concert, and it was a very interesting experience – I was one of the sound techs for the event, actually, so I had the excuse to look at their setup, and let me tell you, their cellist had some fancy stuff going on. The cello was on a shoulder strap, so he could play standing up, and he had it hooked up to a full pedalboard like you see with electric guitars. He produced some incredible sounds like that, and I was honestly disappointed when the album didn’t feature more of that sort of thing. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: August 2015

I’m writing this one up on August 30th, a little bit early, but classes start on Monday and I don’t want to assume I’ll have a lot of free time. Here goes:
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Dream – Imagine Dragons
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
England Skies – Shake Shake Go
Like a River – Will Young
All I Want – Kodaline
Love Like This – Kodaline
The Soul Serene – Villagers
All Comes Down – Kodaline
Work for Me – Pfarmers
Make Peace – Howie Day
Kingdom Hearts – Dearly Beloved – Vitamin String Quartet
Vetus Memoria – God Is An Astronaut
no – Gordon’s Tsunami Weekend
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Slow Life – Of Monsters And Men
Wolves Without Teeth – Of Monsters And Men
Black Water – Of Monsters And Men
Third Eye – Florence + The Machine
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Backyard – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
I Don’t Want To Change You – Damien Rice
Which Witch (Demo) – Florence + The Machine
Winter Sound – Of Monsters And Men
Tonight – Magic Man
Princess of China (Acoustic) – Coldplay & Rihanna
We Sink1 – Of Monsters And Men
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Human – Of Monsters And Men
Crystals – Of Monsters And Men
Honeymoon – Lana Del Rey
As the Crow Flies – Tyler Stenson
She Is In The Air – Green River Ordinance
The Arsonist – Tyler Stenson
This Too Shall Pass – Tyler Stenson
Everybody Knows – RAEKO feat. Mating Ritual
Mind Over Mater (RAEKO Remix) – RAEKO2
The Purge – Explosions In The Sky
A Strange World – Explosions In The Sky
Hold Me Together (b-side) – Green River Ordinance
Ain’t Afraid Of Dying – Green River Ordinance3
Cheerleader – Pentatonix
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra4
Fool For You – Green River Ordinance
Original Script – Derrival
In Motion – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
Go – Down Time
Cannery River – Green River Ordinance
Romanticized – Derrival
Ghosts – BANNERS
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck
The Knife – Derrival
Best Laid Plans – Tyler Stenson
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Canvas – Derrival
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC5
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
Kites – Amber Run
Heaven – Amber Run
Noah – Amber Run
Brothers – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Shoes Grow Smaller – Derrival

Big winners this month: Of Monsters And Men, Green River Ordinance, Tyler Stenson, Amber Run. OMM to such a degree that, since we also moved into a new town this month, I’ll probably associate their new album with the new town for a long time.
Anyhow, until next time. Go listen to some good music.

  1. In iTunes, this is actually called “We Sink [explicit]” because it’s explicit, something I need to know for when I hook my phone up to the sound system at work, and because iTunes won’t let you add the little red ‘E’ to stuff manually. ↩
  2. Original song by Young the Giant. ↩
  3. Every time I type this name, it comes out as ‘ORdinance’ for some reason. ↩
  4. Original song by Tracy Chapman. ↩
  5. Using the Birdie cover of the song by Bon Iver. ↩