Subway Songs and Sing-A-Longs

It’s my favorite time of the year: “Year in Review” season.

I am a sucker for data visualization and nostalgia, so seeing friend’s top artists and songs beautifully formatted in their Instagram Stories brings me so much joy. I write down the names of artists I don’t know and smile at similarities in tastes. Especially after a year like this, it’s nice to see what small things made life a little more manageable. For me, I listened to the song “Somewhere” by The Blaze seventy-five times.

My birthday was on Monday, and ever since I got Spotify, I’ve made a playlist for each year of my life. I’ll put songs I discover and like, songs that fit what I’m going through, and songs to remind me life gets better in a “perfect” order to tell the story of that year of my life – in exactly 100 songs. The day before my birthday, I’ll listen to the playlist all the way through, reminiscing about what the past year has held and how much has changed.

But after a year like this, things are a bit different.

In early August, I deleted my “twenty-two” playlist. Every song reminded me of the toxic relationship I had been in for so long, and I didn’t want to sit and remember all of the pain and sadness I had gone through. I will never need a place to keep all of the song that categorized and defined my feelings during this time. My heart will break as my hand reaches for the skip button before I slip down a rabbit hole of regret. No, I have healed too much to let myself self-destruct like that anymore.

After a month of living in my new apartment, I was being introduced to new music from my roommates, boyfriend, and friends I’ve been able to reconnect with. My music taste has developed so much in the past few months, and now, I have a playlist of everything I’ve discovered while I’ve been discovering pieces of myself in this exciting place. I’m so happy to have an ever-growing music library that associates songs not only with emotions but with memories and adventure and happiness. I’m very happy that I’ve started a new playlist that doesn’t have an end date and holds endless opportunities of discovery and growth.

So here it is – the songs I am riding through to the end:

1.     “Pop Song” by Perfume Genius

2.     “Greener” by Topiary Creatures

3.     “Astronaut” by Uma

4.     “Call Your Name” by Tora

5.     “Every Other Freckle” by alt-J

6.     “3 Nights” by Dominic Fike

7.     “Homonormo” by Arthur Moon

8.     “Lifetime” by Romy

9.     “Our Love” by Sharon Van Etten

10.  “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals

Whatever combination of melodies or artists have gotten you through this quarantine, I hope that you’re able to find the songs that make you smile, remember someone you hold close, or just allow you to escape for a minute. We all could use a break to just vibe a minute.