Category: Playlist

I’m back with another of my playlists! Be excited.
This time, I’m reading the songs off of my phone, instead of hopping back and forth between iTunes and a writing app on my laptop. This is ever so slightly easier.

Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift. I did mention that this one would pop up again.
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field. Seriously, this is one of my favorite songs.
Fix You – Coldplay. The first part of these lists is always full of repeats, I start each one off by scrolling through the previous month’s list.
Violet Hill – Coldplay. Coldplay, much?
Cemeteries of London – Coldplay. Not one of their most famous songs but still one of my favorites.
Sheets – Damien Jurado. Jurado, not Rice. I know this now.
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay. There will be more Coldplay, don’t even worry.
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone. Another perennial favorite of mine.
Fast Car – Tracy Chapman. Exactly as sad as I like my music.
Travelin’ Soldier – Dixie Chicks. Also sad! I like sad music, okay?
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky. This is the “Friday Night Lights” version, but the original is just as good. I tend to switch back and forth between the two.
Night of the Hunter – 30 Seconds to Mars. I finally looked up what the bit of french at the start of the song is and it’s just ‘the night of the hunter.’ Oh. Okay.
Vox Populi – 30 Seconds to Mars. Crowd effect!
Atlas – Coldplay. What, you thought I was don with Coldplay? You must be new here.
Viva La Primadonna [Marina and the Diamonds and Coldplay] – phenste. Mashups!
Zombie – The Cranberries. I’m sure I’ve listened to more than one song by The Cranberries, but I couldn’t name another, so here we are.
Up in Flames – Coldplay. Slightly plaintive, I think.
Safe and Sound – Capital Cities. Apparently I wasn’t tired of this song yet?
Pyres of Varanasi – THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS. Yes, I do have “30 Seconds to Mars” and “THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS” as two separate artists in my phone, still.
Viva La Vida – Coldplay. I’ve sung an a cappella version of this song. It was fun.
Scream My Name – Tove Lo. That’s a fun name to say.
It Takes A Lot To Know A Man – Damien Rice. Rice, not Jurado. I know this now.
No Medicine For Regret (Pye Corner Audio Mix) – Mogwai. Hmm. Needs more Mogwai.
Mutatis – Blueneck. Definitely needs more Blueneck.
2013 – Daniel Kim. Pop Danthologies are great.
2014 – Daniel Kim. Still where I get most of my pop music listening.
Arrows (feat. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) – Fences. I’m fairly certain this one is only in here because I kept listening to it and going “is it about being gay or not? WHAT DOES IT MEAN”
Immortals – Fall Out Boy. Probably one of the ‘hardest’ songs in this list.¹
Always In My Head (Live At the Royal Albert Hall, London) – Coldplay. Okay, okay, I think this is the last bit of Coldplay this time around.
Hero – Darren Hayes. “Ladies and gentlemen listen up please, I don’t want to be your hero.”
Thunderstruck – 2CELLOS. I feel a little bit bad for their bows in most of their songs.
Mombasa – 2CELLOS. For some reason my brain just notices this song at weird times. That, or Shuffle in iTunes really likes it, because it seems to come up a disproportionately large amount of the time.
I Will Wait – 2CELLOS. I’m just… not even going to comment on these three songs.
Glad You Came – Bryson Andres. It’s a cover! I love me some instrumental covers.
Hold My Hand – The Fray. Helios was a great album.
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray. These two were, I believe, my favorites off the album, but the whole thing is worth a listen.
Grizzly Bear – Angus & Julia Stone. They’ve got an album or two that I don’t have yet and I need to get on that.
Paloma – Carbon Leaf. Also really good at getting stuck in my head.
Fun – Troye Sivan. Troye pops back up in my playlists from time to time. I think he’s got a new album coming out soon?
Arcadia – The Kite String Tangle. My sister told me about this song. Months later, it popped up on a popular radio station. She was mad.
Oblivion (Slinger Remix) – Bastille. I don’t think I have any Bastille songs that aren’t remixes, now that I think about it.
Run Boy Run – Woodkid. If you listen to Woodkid and don’t watch the music videos, you’re doing it wrong.
I Love You – Woodkid. Seriously, look it up. They’re epic.
Don’t Wait – Mapei. I’m not sure what the vocal effect in this song is – it slips past my mind a little bit, or something – but I like it.
Ain’t No Friend – Lower Than Atlantis. Oh man, I forgot about Lower Than Atlantis.
Oasis (Vocal Mix) – Mitis & Crywolf. Someone gave me a Mitis song last summer. This is a delayed result of that.
Got Love – Tove Lo. Is this one a repeat? I don’t know if it is.
Ignition – Casa Murilo. This one is fun to sing along to!
My Favourite Faded Fantasy – Damien Rice. More Damien Rice! He’s gonna wind up back in my current playlist, at this rate…
Set The Fire To The Third Bar – Snow Patrol. Ugh, Snow Patrol. So good.
Break Your Plans – The Fray. More of Helios!
Same As You – The Fray. And more! Such a good album.
La La Latch – Pentatonix. It kept getting stuck in my head and I finally gave in and put it in here.
Lina – Casa Murilo. Oh, Lina…
Final Masquerade – LINKIN PARK. Similar to 30 Seconds to Mars/THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS, I’ve probably got Linkin Park and LINKIN PARK as two separate artists in my iTunes.
The Trooper (Overture) – 2CELLOS. It just makes me think of the ‘mom’ cover of the William Tell Overture that some comedian did.
Wake Me Up – 2CELLOS. More instrumental covers!
Shape of My Heart – 2CELLOS. It’s so quiet.
Oaso San-Voyou Remix – Totorro. Very rythmic, in such a way that it’s also in my ‘sleep’ playlist.²
Satisfaction – 2CELLOS. It’s so not quiet.
They Don’t Care About Us – 2CELLOS. It’s… not really quiet or loud? I dunno man.
Favorite Record – Fall Out Boy. It took me a while to listen my way through this entire album – good songs, but just… louder than what I tend to like.
Street Spirit (Fade Out) – 2CELLOS. This one is pretty quiet.
Time – 2CELLOS. Alright we’re clearly past TWO cellos here, that’s like ten or twelve.
Immortal – Marina and The Diamonds. Second song about immortality in this list! Go me.
Weeds – Marina and The Diamonds. Marina is wonderful.
Forget – Marina and The Diamonds. Although I think she wears the exact same dress in all of her music videos, which makes me wonder if they just did all of them in one shoot or something.
Take Me to Church – Hozier. Almost entirely sure this is in here because of the music video. Considering the content of the video, the actual lyrics of the song are… very heteronormative.
Shots – Imagine Dragons. This song just seems less catchy than they were actually trying for.
Savages – Marina and The Diamonds. Probably one of my favorites off this album.
Smoke And Mirrors – Imagine Dragons. This one came out better than Shots, I think.
Die Young In The Cave (Bootie Edit) – DJ MikeA. More remixes! It’s wonderful, and the album art I’ve got for it is hilarious.
Never Too Late – Bryan Rice. Suddenly, Danish pop!
Can’t Pin Me Down – Marina and The Diamonds. An interjection from Marina…
Bomb Shelter – Bryan Rice. And back to Denmark.
Stay Awake (feat. Bryan Rice) [Radio Edit] – Bryan Rice & Guéna LG. I may or may not have gotten in a small Twitter fight with this guy at one point.
These Arms – Bryan Rice. I was in a bad mood, don’t mind me.

So, that was February. The Fray, Marina and The Diamonds, 2CELLOS, and Bryan Rice were the big winners, from the look of things.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I should see if I can get iTunes to give me a CSV dump of these playlists.³ Those could make some interesting graphs.
Coming whenever I’ve got time: March!

So, I’ve mentioned once or twice¹ that I make a new playlist every month. The system, to be more specific, involves two parts. First is a folder, within iTunes, for each year. Within that folder, I have a playlist for each month. The playlist first gets created on the first of the month, and I use it – both for listening and for filling in music – for the duration of the month. At the end of the month, I make the next playlist and the whole thing starts over.
I had a request to share some of these playlists, so I guess I’ll start doing that! It seems like fun, and it means I’ve got a bit of a backlog to get through, so here goes.² For your listening pleasure, January 2015.

Look After You – The Fray. A classic.
Travelin’ Soldier – Dixie Chicks. In case you’re feeling too happy.
Fireflies – Owl City. I dunno man, it’s just there.
Twisted Logic – Coldplay. There’s always gonna be Coldplay, with me.
Speed of Sound – Coldplay. This one gets stuck in my head a lot.
What If – Coldplay. Now I feel like listening to this one again. I inception’d myself.
Til Kingdom Come [Hidden Track] – Coldplay. Another one that I wind up singing a lot.
Zombie – The Cranberries. I dunno the lead singer’s name, but I love her accent.
Vox Populi – 30 Seconds to Mars. Gotta love that crowd effect.
Fix You – Coldplay. Admit it, you sing along.³
Night of the Hunter – 30 Seconds to Mars. I’ve got like three different versions of this song, I think…
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field. This shows up in a lot of my playlists and I love it. If you want to know why, go watch Warehouse 13. You’ll know.
Viva La Primadonna – phenste.⁴ Mashups are fun, and I may or may not have an acapella version of this as an Evil Plan for the future.
Sheets – Damien Jurado. A good one for singing.
Viva La Vida – Coldplay. It’s a classic!
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions in the Sky. This is and forever will be the single greatest song of all time.
Cemeteries of London – Coldplay. Man, that was a good album overall.
Violet Hill – Coldplay. Like I said, a good album.
Pyres of Varanasi – THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS.⁵ This one is fun.
Safe and Sound – Capital Cities. You are already humming the one riff from this song.
Atlas – Coldplay. This list is, what, half Coldplay so far?
Up in Flames – Coldplay. Mylo Xyloto!
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift. This one also shows up in a lot of these lists. I just enjoy it a lot.
Abraham’s Daughter – Arcade Fire. The Hunger Games soundtracks are all really good, to be honest.
Hero – Darren Hayes. This pops back into my head at random.
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay. Also great for singing along to!
Try – Colbie Caillat. The music video for this one makes me smile.
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan. Oh god, mah feels.
Fast Car – Tracy Chapman. This one was a ‘what was that song my dad always used to play?’ find.
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone. There’s like ten words in this whole song but it’s so great.
Ignition – Casa Murilo. Ooh, I forgot about this one.
The One Moment – OK Go. Somebody told me to listen to OK Go, so I did.
Giving Up – Haerts. Haerts is a strange word to say, even in my head.
Plastic Covered Furniture – Have Mercy. I like the beginning of this song but I’m not sure about the rest of it.
Long Long Way – Damien Rice. I think I downloaded this because I thought it was Damien Jurado?
Trusty And True – Damien Rice. I mean, clearly it was a good decision.
The Box – Damien Rice. Seriously, though.
I Don’t Want To Change You – Damien Rice. I’m actually adding this one back into my current playlist. It’s gone self-referential already.
It Takes A Lot To Know A Man – Damien Rice. Last one. I think.
Let It Go – Saint Saviour. No, it’s not Elsa.
Adrift – Tarwater. I can’t remember if this is post-rock or ambient, and I’m too lazy to move the window I’m typing in over to see. What does that say about me?
Mutatis – Blueneck. Oh man, Blueneck.
Father, Sister – Blueneck. I’m flashing back to the bus rides I had all January.
Broken Fingers – Blueneck. I’m adding some of these back into my current list again, dang.
Man Of Lies – Blueneck. Fun fact: I’ve pulled a Damien Jurado/Damien Rice kind of confusion with Blueneck and another band.
King Nine – Blueneck. The other one, whose name I can’t remember, was screamo I think?
Sirens – Blueneck. Needless to say, it was very different.
Counting Out – Blueneck. Alright, last one I think.
Shut Up and Dance – WALK THE MOON. According to Wired, I believe, this is the song of the summer. It just… came out forever ago?
Animal – XOV. Ooh, we’ve hit the Hunger Games again.
Scream My Name – Tove Lo. This is too energetic for me to listen to right before I go to bed.
The Leap – Tinashé. I really just couldn’t remember which song this was.
Lost Souls – Raury. I was going to say something about this song but now I’m thinking about Rory on Doctor Who.
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) – Major Lazer. I also completely forgot about this one.
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde. I have an instrumental cover of this somewhere.
Dead Air – CHVRCHES. Just… try to say ‘CHVRCHES’. Like, “Chvrches” I mean, not “churches.” It’s fun!
Lesser Oceans – Fences. And another chunk of one album.
My Mountain Is Cold – Fences. Like I said.
Sunburns – Fences. Don’t remember this one.
Running Off The Gods – Fences. Or this one.
Arrows (feat. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) – Fences. I’m still unsure on if this one is supposed to be a gay allegory or not.
The Lake – Fences. I do remember this one. A bit of an earworm, I think.
O (Live At Royce Hall, Los Angeles) – Coldplay. More Coldplay!
Oceans (Live At E-Werk, Cologne) – Coldplay. I’m not actually much of a concert-goer.
Another’s Arms (Live At the Beacon Theatre, New York) – Coldplay. And yet, all this live music.
Midnight (Live At the Royal Albert Hall, London) – Coldplay. I wonder how long it took them to make this album?
True Love (Live At the Enmore Theatre, Sydney) – Coldplay. I mean, we’re at, like, three continents already?
Always In My Head (Live At the Royal Albert Hall, London) – Coldplay. Oh good, they got multiple songs from one concert at least.
On the Frame – Beta Radio. I don’t really remember this one…
First Began – Beta Radio. But I do remember this one. Slightly nostalgic, somehow.
I Am Mine – Beta Radio. And I remember singing this one in the shower. Huh.
The Lord is Out of Control (Nils Frahm Remix) – Mogwai. Ugh, yes, this song.
No Medicine For Regret (Pye Corner Audio Mix) – Mogwai. I love Mogwai’s names. Just… for everything.
Re-Remurdered (Blanck Mass Remix) – Mogwai. Seriously, that name.
Teenage Exorcists – Mogwai. I mean, this is the band that brought us “The Sun Smells Too Loud” on the album The Hawk is Howling, so…⁶
Better Not Wake the Baby – The Decemberists. I think the best word for this one is ‘rollicking.’
Carolina Low – The Decemberists. Definitely not rollicking.
Cavalry Captain – The Decemberists. Now that I think about it, the lead singer’s voice kinda reminds me of the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie.
The Singer Addresses His Audience – The Decemberists. This is one that you should listen to the lyrics closely, it’s funny.
Strong Hand – CHVRCHES. “Chuh-ver-ches?”
Recover [KDA Remix] – CHVRCHES. I have a weakness for remixes of songs, I think.
The Days – Avicii. How did I even get Avicii?
Remains (Bastille Vs. Rag N Bone Man Vs. Skunk Anansie) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille. This is hopefully the longest song title in this list.
Weapon (Bastille Vs. Angel Haze Vs. F*U*G*Z Vs. Braque) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille. I’m looking forwarded to how confused my Markdown processor gets by the third name in there.⁷
Axe To Grind (Bastille Vs. Tyde Vs. Rationale) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille. What’s the non crossfaded version sound like?
The Driver (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille. This one would probably be the easiest to do that comparison on, I assume.
Bad_News (Bastille Vs. Mnek) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille. My laptop really doesn’t like ‘Mnek.’
Bite Down (Bastille Vs. Haim) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille. Last bit of Bastille for a while.
Silver – The Neighborhood. I’m glad I don’t have to type the album name, because that would also confuse the crap out of Markdown.
Oaso San – Totorro. Isn’t that a movie?
Motte-Rock – Totorro. The band name, I mean.
Home Alone – Totorro. I mean, I know I’ve got Google right here, but actually checking sounds like a lot of work.
Return – The Phoenix Foundation. I have… no memory of this song.
Driving Home for Christmas – Blueneck. You thought we were done with Blueneck, didn’t you?
Miracles – Coldplay. Okay, apparently we were.
2014 – Daniel Kim. Pop. Dan. Thology.
2013 – Daniel Kim. Fun fact: these are where I first hear a large chunk of the year’s pop hits.
Immortals – Fall Out Boy. I have a sped-up Fall Out Boy song somewhere that’s better than the original.
Novocaine – Fall Out Boy. I’m slightly bothered that ‘fallout’ isn’t one word.
The Kids Aren’t Alright – Fall Out Boy. To be honest, this song is probably here by dint of the name alone.
Centuries – Fall Out Boy. Thanks to the internet, they probably will be remembered for centuries!
Irresistible – Fall Out Boy. I don’t remember this song at all.
Springworlds – Inventions. Don’t they have an album out now? I should look that up.
Mombasa – 2CELLOS. I feel like using a cello as a drum is slightly cheating.
Thunderstruck – 2CELLOS. On the other hand, this is some impressive cello music, so whatever.
I Will Wait – 2CELLOS. And a cover! Isn’t that how they got started? Who knows! (The internet does.)
And there we go! That big long list is my January playlist. That took longer to type than I thought, my fingers are tired.

I’m heading to bed now folks. Enjoy the music!