2021+ Playlist Edition featuring "Counterfeit" by Wolves at the Gate and 41 other songs, Saturday, January 8, 2022

I decided to do something a little different today. I'm going to present my first playlist within a playlist: 2021+. When my friend Stephen Barry chooses his top songs of a given year, he gives two years of wiggle room for the records he missed. My format is not like Mr Barry and his Orchestra, but I thought that it would be interesting to make a playlist of the best songs I blogged about about last year that fit within a two year time frame. I'm going to stick to one entry per artist as usual and leave links for the posts. Today's song, "Counterfeit" by Wolves at the Gate, comes from a 2019 album, so it barely makes the list. First, I will post the Spotify playlist:

The songs listed on this playlist:

1. "Cold Air" by Acceptance. The lead single from 2020's Wild, Free is a song about a community torn apart by prejudice. Also check out "Wasted Nights" and "Dark Age."

2. "Counterfeit" by Wolves at the Gate from 2019's Eclipse is the representative song of the day.

3. "Dead Flowers" (Resurrected) by Demon Hunter, an acoustic reworking of their 2013 hard rock hit. From their Songs of Death and Resurrection, released early last year.

4. "Around the Corner" by Mike Mains & the Branches from their 2019 album When We Were In Love. 

5. "This Is Heaven" by Nick Jonas. A smooth RnB sleeper hit that is interesting in the context of the Jonas Brothers' religious past.

6. "Video Game" by Sufjan Stevens

7. "Machines" by Paradise Now

8. "Yosemite" by Lana Del Rey. Chem Trails over the Country Club and Blue Banisters were a little tough to get into, but "Yosemite" offers hits of the artist that I have come to love over the years.

9. "Lilac" by IU. As the former K-pop star turns 30, she gives us this springtime anthem.

10. "Better Now" by The Juliana Theory is an uplifting ballad released early last year. Also check out 2020's "Can't Go Home."

11. "Rings & Roses" by Dabin ft. Conor Bryne. Canadian DJ Dabin's 2019 single recalls a nursery rhyme to invoke nostalgia.

12. "Soothsayer" by Of Monsters and Men is the final track from their 2019 album Fever Dream. This Icelandic band brings the '80s feels on this track.

13. "Me to You" by Tim Be Told. Former Indie CCM singer/songwriter Tim Ouyang writes about his early same-sex attraction and falling in love on this 2020 track from the album Love and Happiness.

14. "Crashing" by ILLENIUM feat. Bahari. Not bad for a song mostly known from a teen Netflix original movie. 

15. "Madness" by Anchor & Braille. Stephen Christian's surprise 2020 release of A&B's 4th album Tension flexes the singer's pop sensibilities. Also check out the surprise Christmas present track he dropped, Mariah Carry's classic, "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

16. "River of Music" by Denison Witmer from his 2020 album American Foursquare.

17. "Art & Vida" by Ian Mahan ft. Aaron Marsh. An artist I discovered last year when checking out Aaron Marsh's solo work. 

18. "My Bad" Advanced ft. Shaun, Julie Bergan. A 2019 single by Korean singer Shaun that was remixed and sung in English by singer Julie Bergan. I'm partial to the drop in the original and Shaun's vocals saying "미안해" or "I'm sorry" at the end of the track.

19. "How Do You Sleep?" by Sam Smith. Another 2019 single that was originally supposed to be part of the album To Die For, which was ultimately scrapped because of the pandemic. It was included as a bonus track on Smith's 2020 album Love Goes.

20. "Love in Summer" by George & Cosmic Boy.  With an EP titled Love in Summer released in September of 2020, last year was the first summer we really got to enjoy this vibey track.

21. "High Line" by Tyson Motsenbocker is the opener to 2020's Someday I'll Make It All Up to You, the singer-songwriter's sophomore effort. "High Line" is a storytelling folk song about the park in New York City opened in 2009.

22. "Three Hour Drive" (A COLORS SHOW) by Alicia Keys ft. SiR. Originally written and performed with Samphra, this version of the track I discovered from Netflix's Song Exploder sounds a little smoother on Key's 2020 album Alicia.

23. "Chemical" by The Devil Wears Prada is the metal band's venture into active rock.

24. "The Great Adventure" by Kevin Quinn & the cast of A Week Away. No this was not a good song in the least. The movie was...nostalgic or possibly triggering if you went to Christian camp. But it was a fun discussion.

25. "Rose" by D.O. One of the sexiest voices in not only K-pop but in music has to be D.O. I wrote about this on December 31st in the song "Oasis" by EXO.

26. "Weekend" by Taeyeon is an anthem for impending laziness. “When the weekend comes, I can do whatever I want!”

27. "Addict" by Sik-K from his 2019 record FL1P.

28. "Animal" by Kye Kye

29. "Childhood Bedroom" by Ben Platt. Dear Evan Hanson may have been a flop, but the 28-year-old Book of Mormon star did put out a pretty good album last year.

30. "Sunflower, Vol. 6" by Harry Styles. I'm still amazed how good this 2019 album was. It took me a few listens, but I started to pick up Beatles vibes, particularly in the latter tracks.

31. "Am I the Only One" by SF9. No not Starflyer 59. This K-pop boy band's 2020 song is pretty catchy.

32. "good 4 u" by Olivia Rodrigo. Possibly one of the most talked about artists of last year. Sour sparked hope that maybe, just maybe rock n'roll is here to stay.

33. "Bad Habits" by Ed Sheeran. There have been a lot of haters coming out of the woodwork for this song, and it's kind of understandable that the "Shape of You" singer would have haters. But the video is awesome, and it's not blaring from every f***ing phone store, so it's great. Rick Beato's cringe, though, is kind of fun to watch.

34. "Take My Breath" by The Weeknd. I'm sure that I'm going to write about Dawn FM, which came out yesterday. The concept of listening to the radio in the wee-hours of the morning before you die. It reminds me of playing Grand Theft Auto all night for some reason. But we'll talk about that later.

35. "Death of Me" by Pvris. How would you classify this band? Is it rock? Dark pop? I think I'm going to have a lot of great times getting into their music.

36. "Sprite" by COIN. I'm still confused about the title. It's a nice quarantine track though.

37. "Easy on Me" by Adele. Oh boy. This is the first Adele song that I immediately fell in love with. Of course I love her other work. Who doesn't? But the rest of the album? Well, that's going to take a little getting used to for me.

38. "Silk Chiffon" by MUNA ft. Phoebe Bridgers was one of the "it" songs of last year. It's made several critics lists. And all that coming from a band that I delved into for the first time last year. Seriously, lesbian love songs are the future of music!

39. "Bad Love" by Key is a space-aged '80s retro track as SHINEE went back on hiatus for Taemin to complete his mandatory military service.

40. "Two Graves" by Anberlin is their first new song in seven years. And it's possibly their second heaviest track after "Dissenter." New album in 2022?

41. "All Too Well" (10 Minute Version) by Taylor Swift. Of course Taylor also released her own version of Fearless, but Red certainly overshadowed it. We'll never forget the two months when Swift dated Jake Gyllenhaal and didn't even come to her birthday party! And also, "Fuck the patriarchy!" 

42. "My Universe" by Coldplay ft. BTS. Though I personally preferred "Higher Power," the BTS featured single brought Coldplay back to the top of the Hot 100.

And that's my 2021+ Playlist. Stay tuned for my 2022+ Playlist, coming soon. It will be an updated playlist featuring the latest tracks from artists I blog about from 2020-2022.