2022+ Playlist, featuring "I Don't Live Here Anymore" by The War on Drugs ft. Lucius, Wednesday, January 19, 2022

In October of last year, The War on Drugs returned after four years with their critically-acclaimed album, I Don't Live Here Anymore. The title track and lead single features indie pop group Lucius as backing vocals on the chorus. Like their previous works, such as A Deeper Understanding (2017) and  Lost in the Dream (2014), The War on Drugs is able to play two chords back to back for six minutes and create a song that you never want to end. Those two chords create a warm cadence that's like a bonfire on a cold fall night. And that's reason enough to curl up with a blanket and enjoy The War on Drugs all day long.

I NEED A CHANCE TO BE REBORN. However, unlike their previous works, today's song "I Don't Live Here Anymore," to me, sounds like an anachronistic '80s or early '90s hit. It's kind of like what Mic the Snare said about "Blinding Lights": "It's just like that one song. Uh? Which one?" Is it "The Boys of Summer"? something by Springsteen? In some alternate universe, "Blinding Lights," "Run Away with Me," "Somebody That I Used to Know," and "I Don't Live Here Anymore" were '80s hits, and that's certainly going to be a playlist in the future, but that's another time. There's certainly a lot to dig into this song: the fact that it's actually a song about moving on rather than dwelling in the past, the fact that this beautiful album was recorded in a cabin in snowy Upstate New York, or the fact that Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius were back up singers for Roger Waters. But instead, I'm going to reference some podcasts at the end of the post and get on with the tall order of starting my 2022 hits playlist: 2022+.

A CREATURE VOID OF FORM. If you remember the rules from 2021+, 2022+ include songs from 2020-2022; however, unlike 2021+, 2022+ will be updated. Today, I'm going to post the original track list. I'll add to the playlist as I talk about new songs. Right now, it's going to be pretty similar to 2021+ as "I Don't Live Here Anymore" is really the only new song added and the 2019 tracks will be left off. With all that said, here's the Spotify playlist:



1. "I Don't Live Here Anymore" by The War on Drugs ft. Lucius. Today's song.
2. "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."
3. "Dead Flowers" (Resurrected) by Demon Hunter, an acoustic reworking of their 2013 hard rock hit.
4. "This Is Heaven" by Nick Jonas. A smooth RnB sleeper hit that is interesting in the context of the Jonas Brothers' religious past.

5. "Video Game" by Sufjan Stevens
6. "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.

7. "Lilac" by IU. As the former K-pop star turns 30, she gives us this springtime anthem.
8. "Better Now" by The Juliana Theory is an uplifting ballad released early last year. Also check out 2020's "Can't Go Home."
9. "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.
10. "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."

11. "River of Music" by Denison Witmer from his 2020 album American Foursquare.
12. "Art & Vida" by Ian Mahan ft. Aaron Marsh. An artist I discovered this year when checking out Aaron Marsh's solo work. 
13. "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.
14. "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. I'm bending the rules a bit with this one, but it was technically released in 2020...

15. "Love in Summer" by George & Cosmic Boy.  With an EP titled Love in Summer released in September of 2020, this year is the first summer we really got to enjoy this vibey track.
16. 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.

17. "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.
18. "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.
19. "Weekend" by Taeyeon is an anthem for impending laziness. “When the weekend comes, I can do whatever I want!” Look out for her new single that came out this week.
20. "Animal" by Kye Kye
21. "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 this year.

22. "Am I the Only One" by SF9. No not Starflyer 59. This K-pop boy band's 2020 song is pretty catchy.
23. "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.
"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.
24. "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.
25. "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.
26.  "Sprite" by COIN. I'm still confused about the title. It's a nice quarantine track though.

27. "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.
28. "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!
29. "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.

30. "Two Graves" by Anberlin is their first new song in seven years. Of course they were dropping live-steam albums like crazy last year, but "Two Graves" was our first honest-to-goodness new Anberlin track! And it's possibly their second heaviest track after "Dissenter." New album in 2022?
31. "All Too Well" (10 Minute Version) by Taylor Swift. 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!" 
32. "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 it for today. Except for The War on Drugs, of course:

Live on Ellen:

Song Exploder:




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Photograph" Ed Sheeran, Saturday, February 3, 2024 (updated repost)

Image
  Before " Shape of You ," Ed Sheeran was known primarily as a singer-songwriter. His albums + and X took clear influence from The Beatles , Carole King , Elton John , James Taylor , and the ballad writers of yesteryear. But he had a knack for throwing in a few rap bars along the way. With every record, Sheeran gained more acclaim. His sophomore record produced the mega Billboard #2 hit , " Thinking Out Loud ," which won two Grammys including Song of the Year. The final single from the album, " Photograph " was written in collaboration with Snow Patrol 's Johnny McDaid . Sheeran drew inspiration from his long distance relationship with singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt (the featured musician on Kodaline ’s acoustic version of “Brand New Day” ). The two spent five months apart. They would eventually break up, but the song remains a gem on Sheeran's second best-selling record.  LOVING CAN HURT . "Photograph" was the song that introduced m
Read more

“Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry (reworked post), Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Image
When I was a Christian teenager, a book started circulating in my church youth group. Joshua Harris wrote about youth with wisdom and authority that seemed logical and categorical for every situation to the young women who read I Kissed Dating Goodbye . The book’s thesis argued that dating was a worldly alternative to the more purposeful Christian concept of courtship. Dating fueled erotic passions, which must be saved for a heterosexual marriage. Dating is casual, even preteens dates. Courtship was about vetting a marriage partner and would happen in the late teen years or early adulthood.  YOU THINK I'M PRETTY WITHOUT ANY MAKEUP ON .  Josh Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye was part of a movement I’ve written about a lot: purity culture. How much this movement influenced young Katy Hudson, a pastor’s daughter in Southern California, touring with a slew of Christian rockers on the heels of her debut, self-titled album , I can only speculate what went through the 17-year-old star’s
Read more

"All of Me Wants All of You" (Helado Negro Remix) by Sufjan Stevens, Sunday, February 27, 2022

Image
I've talked about how Carrie & Lowell , Sufjan Steven 's 2015 masterpiece, is a quintessential portrait of dealing with grief and forgiveness when I wrote about the first two tracks, " Death with Dignity ," and " Should Have Known Better ." By the third track on the record, " All of Me Wants All of You ," explores grief in a different way from the previous two tracks. As with most songs on the album, "All of Me" appears to be deeply personal to the artist. But being personal doesn't stop this track's language from being the most obscured with allusions to geography and possibly an allegory from a little-known Spanish play. ALL OF ME THINKS LESS OF YOU.  There's a debate   on Lyrics Genius about the meaning of this song, especially surrounding the identity of the only other character mentioned by name in this song, Manelich. Is he the one the song is about? Stevens has written vaguely about homosexual attraction throughout
Read more