Story behind the playlist: Love, 2022
The first playlist I ever made for friends, in honor of 2022
Every playlist I make is designed to be listened to from beginnng to end and without interruption. They are labors of love that usually take me a few months to put together. I started working on this one in July, 2022 and finished in early December.
This was the first playlist I ever made for friends. I find music to be a great way for me to express myself and my identity.
Ever since Yotto released his A Very Cold DJ Set in March, 2021, that opening song he plays had been stuck in my head. Since it wasn't released, I would open the set and listen to first ten minutes, just so I could hear the song. It was a vibe and a mood. When he finally released "The Valley" in May, 2022, I wanted it on my repeat list. Pretty sure I listened to it on a non-stop loop for a solid week.
I think about playlists as having an emotional narrative, going up and down, telling a story in the specific order of songs. Each song should serve a purpose in the story, whether as a peak, valley, or somewhere in between. Below is the complete mental map for how I thought about the emotions I was feeling while writing Love, 2022 and reflecting on the year. I wanted each peak and valley in my mind to have a song that reflected the moment. At the same time, I wanted the songs in between to be part of the narrative.
It's not that each peak song is happy or each valley song is sad; indeed, Hold Tight byBLOND:ISH & Nico De Andrea (feat. Darla Jade), is a banger in its own right. I plucked that one out of the opening of theBLOND:ISH x DAYBREAKER: Antarctica Expedition set on Youtube.
Ever since YOTTO released his A Very Cold DJ Set in March, 2021, that opening song he played had been stuck in my head. Since it wasn't released, I would open the set and listen to first the ten minutes, just so I could hear the song. It was a vibe and a mood. It was a covid winter and the safest place to be was outdoors near no one. You know where you can go that's outdoors and has no one for miles? Lapland, Finland in the middle of winter. When he finally released "The Valley" in May, 2022 I listened to it nonstop.
The first song on a playlist is so important. It sets the tone for the whole set and shapes the narrative to come. With The Valley, I had a call-song of the wild. 2022 started out as a seemingly good year - I had just poured my Soul into cathartic and self-defining Love, 2021 letter and felt like I was starting on a fresh foot. The Upper West Side Thoughts name had just been born and I felt like it was gonna be a good year. Things were looking up.
With the exception of The Runner by Yubik, I discovered pretty much every song from a full set I had discovered or was listening to a lot. Hypnolation and Innellea's remix of Her Entrance from Innellea's April 2021 Cercle set at Jaisalmer fort, in Rajasthan; Lilith and About You from Mira's set for the Mayan Warrior x Robot Heart link-up at Burning Man in 2019; Osama and Beach Ball from BLOND:ISH's April 2022 set for DAYBREAKER from an Antartica expedition boat. Rythym (Of The Night) is the closing song of Miss Monique's October Cercle set at the Biosphere Museum, in Montreal, Canada .
I had tickets to go to the Cercle show in M0ntreal. I had been wanting to go to a show since I discovered Cercle and this was finally one close to him. Long covid took it away from me; it was October 2022 and my recovery was still nascent. Not being able to go is becoming one of the biggest regrets of my life because that set is one of my all-time favorites from the Cercle collection.
I plucked these songs out and parked them in a holding playlist for songs I like. Before I knew I would make a playlist like this, I just had them set aside. I don't listen to individual songs too often, I much prefer a set because it presents a flow for a sustained period of time. A lot of these are songs I might not have otherwise found; both Spotify and Beatport are rubbish for music discovery unless you know exactly what you're looking for. Spotify's "suggested for you" is often just songs you've been listening to recently. Not helpful!
The flow, after reaching the lowest points, builds towards the grand finales: Somebody by Sebjak and Fahlberg and YOTTO's Rhythm (Of the Night). I was ending 2022 on a strong note: I was getting my long covid under control and things were really starting to look up. I was back on my bike and was slowly biking longer and further. I wanted to end with a 1-2 bang bang and leave the listener feeling good.
And, you know what? That's exactly what I did.
