Wild, Wild, Wild | January Playlist

Of all of the recurring posts that happen on this blog, my monthly playlists are something that I will never let die. I love them too much and to let them go would mean letting go of a piece of myself! Just kidding, that's super dramatic, but I just like music a lot and it's fun to share what I'm listening to. Plus, I'm one of those annoying types of people who listens to everything and thinks she has the greatest taste in music of all time. Which I do. So. You should trust me, I won't steer you wrong.

This is probably the first month I got back into listening to random songs. The past few months have seemed to be shorter playlists, usually revolving around a certain artist because of the release of their new album or one of my nostalgic streaks. You know when you fall down the rabbit hole of listening to old music that you listened to years prior and realize that it has somehow consumed you for weeks on end? That happens to me a lot with hit pop songs from the mid to late 2000s and also pop-punk music from when I was a teenager. Those are my musical weaknesses.

Truth be told, a lot of this playlist is random songs that Spotify recommended to me on Discover playlists or that played after the music I was listening. I feel like my music taste can be split into three discernible categories: BOPS™, songs that make me cry, and songs that make for really great background and chill music. I constantly have music playing, no matter what I'm doing, but some songs are just more distracting than others. While I'm not overly picky with music, I have my very specific tastes for certain times of day or to tailor to what I'm doing.

Since this month was a fairly productive month for me and involved a lot of reading and writing, there was a pretty big increase in the amount of more "random" tunes that showed up on my playlists.  If you're the type of person that just likes a good (this is probably subjective but my music taste is literally one of the only things I'm confident about so I'm working with this) playlist to have on throughout your day to day life, this might be for you.

In terms of standouts on this playlist, I've been really into Hayley Kiyoko this month. Yeah, that's right, Hayley Kiyoko from Lemonade Mouth who also sings "Girls Like Girls" and "Cliff's Edge" and a lot of other really solid tunes. If you like sort of indie electro-pop, homegirl is fantastic. Also, we've already talked about this on the blog, but even if I think the Fifty Shades franchise is trash, the lead single from the soundtrack "For You" by Rita Ora and Liam Payne is a certifiable bop that I have to listen to at least once a day to feel like I'm alive.

As for a new discovery this month, I'm IN LOVE with EVA's music aka Eva Tolkin. This was one of the artists that Spotify recommended to me at random and I fell in love. She has three songs out and they're all incredible. If you like Haim and Carly Rae Jepsen and also just good music in general, her song "Another Lover" is on this playlist, but her EP Evergreen is worth the ten minutes it takes to listen, and then the 100 minutes you'll spend listening to it ten times in a row because it's just that catchy.

Born Ruffians and The Wombats also have new songs, which is always a good time. Two solid bands if you're into pop-indie-rock. And I'm aware that I constantly create new genres that could potentially piss off artists but...I don't care? Genres are silly and create weird superiority within music. Just because you're rock and not pop-rock doesn't make you any cooler, just FYI!!!

Anyways, I digress, for a throwback, "Gossip Folks" by Missy Elliott and Ludacris is honestly one of my favorite songs from the month even if it actually came out in 2002. We all know "Work It" from her album Under Construction, but this one is worth a listen or ten. And also, while you're there, relive the early 2000s and just listen to it in full. And just to rapid fire a few more songs, both of Troye Sivan's new songs are great and I'm proud of my little South African nugget. Chloe x Halle's song "Grown" for the Grown-ish theme song is ace, as is the new collab between Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey. Maren has the most beautiful crossover voice and I'm just so into the song.

Honestly, this whole month has just been a good month for music so just kick back, relax, and play this on shuffle if you want to have an enjoyable four hours and three minutes, approximately.

What were your favorite songs from January?