28 days. Exactly four weeks. Started on a Monday and ends on a Sunday. Welcome to February 2021.
Welcome back to the playlist breakdown, aka all the music I’ve been consuming this month. The link is here for all you lovelies to follow along :)
Debriefing:
It’s a short one again. 17 tracks. I guess I’ve been heavily in my thoughts and feels this month, so naturally I process less things but more deeply. I’m a HSP (highly sensitive person), sometimes for my own good I have to limit my external stimuli or it gets super-overwhelming.
I love each and every track on this playlist. There’s an EP by Rita Ora on here that I actually made my first YouTube react too (not even a serious one, it was just a bit fun) and it was so nice to see the response so, I may actually start doing these seriously! We’ll see...
Anyways, into the music we go!
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Neyo’s Miss Independent is proving to be one of my all-time favourite tracks. I go back to it so often it’s unreal. There’s a new concept I’m exploring: don’t ask me what my favourite thing is, or what I love, because I won’t know. You gotta ask me that question in 10-15 years and I’ll be able to tell you what stood the test of time. So far, this song has done exactly that. God, I miss when music sounded like this. If I could find a producer to work with and we could churn out old school tracks, I’d be all over it. I’m old school in every aspect, this is what I’m starting to realise about myself… and it’s been making me rethink everything I know and thought I wanted. Also, this track makes me think of a certain someone and so that in itself comes with more heavy emotion. I think back to one night, where we were all in the car. Little blue polo on Oxford Street, and this was the song on the AUX. Crazy how much music does this to you right?
The next track is also a lingerer.
I fell in love with Inesquecível back when I first heard it on the radio in Portugal. I love the beat, I love the rhythm. It also makes me think of the same person. It’s a song that semi grasps how I feel and articulates what I feel. I struggle to unravel my own brain sometimes. Sometimes I unravel it so much that I find a new core I didn’t know was there and it’s like boom. New thing to unravel. This shit is exhausting. Sometimes I just need feel good music which is exactly what the following track is...
Burna Boy’s Bank on It from his 2020 project, Twice as Tall, feels like church and redemption to me. Maybe it’s the gospel choirs in the chorus. The whole thing sounds like oceans and high mountains to me. I love it. I’ve been feeling claustrophobic these days, so listening back, this song feels like liberation and vastness.
The next four tracks I discovered through an Apple Music “NMD” (New Music Daily) playlist.
American Cliché stood out to me because of the full band sound. Cymbals, drums, trumpets. I love it. It got me out of my head and into that space. A marching band, a parade. If I close my eyes, I see a miniature version of me rolling around in the bass drum, feeling every beat in my body, like it’s pumping life into me.
Easier Said Than Done sounds very atmospheric, that’s what drew me to it. It’s got these cool guitar riffs. Keep your head up baby you’re doing fine / I know you got a lot on your mind / but some things are easier said than done. I can see myself driving down a straight on autopilot almost, just immersed in this track.
Recap I loved instantly and then figured it made sense as it features Kito amongst two others. I adore Kito’s work. She’s a female producer who has produced a lot of Fletcher’s work. I think she’s genius. I had this track on repeat during one of my daily walks, just bopping to the beat. It’s an escape too. I love it.
As you all know, I listen to pretty much everything. People are very quick to put me in a pop box when the reality is, I like good music. It just happens that there’s a lot of good pop. The fourth track isn’t pop though. It’s an RnB joint from Young Rog and Summer Walker. Summer sounds brilliant on B******t. She gives me Kiana Ledé vibes– it’s that same buttery, melodic vocal. I really wish you’d hear me from a different side, but there’s no tellin you nothing cos you’re always right… it’s not even the lyric in this because I’ve only just searched it up meaning I had no clue what she was saying before– it’s Summer’s delivery that is ravenous.
The following five tracks come as a little package deal with the same origin story.
Roses was a record that I adored in Portugal over the summer. Again, I felt alive in the car with this playing. Turns out, Rita loved it as much as I did. She reached out to Imanbek, the DJ behind the Roses remix, and they put together a four track EP, Bang, for us.
What. a. masterpiece.
I’ve reacted to this already here, so by all means, do check it out because words cannot do this EP justice. All I can say, is Rita is SUCH a bad bitch and I fucking love her. I want to see her rise every time. She’s the kind of female I’d feel intimidated by even though I know she’s a softie. It’s hard when you’ve got someone who is so intensely both. Both small yet large, soft but powerful. She’s multifaceted and I’ve got a real thing for these women. I see myself in them... intense, unpredictable, but predictable, because you know she’s not going anywhere. She’ll shock you with something new, you just don’t know what it will be yet. How can you not love it? She’s evolution incarnate.
Oh god, I forgot this next song was on here.
I felt nostalgic and went back to listen to Camila’s 2018 debut album. Something’s Gotta Give was one of the tracks that made me cry when I first listened to it, and to be honest, with all my own trials and tribulations, it still makes me cry. No reason to stay, is a good reason to go. / If it doesn’t hurt me, why do I still cry? If it didn’t kill me then I’m half alive… Camila sis. I love you little one. I really do. The piano in this is still stunning. The opening line hits just as hard as it did on first listen. I understand why she doesn't perform it, but it is a beautiful track.
Only Want You is similar to SGG in that aspect.
I struggled when I first heard it… there was a lot going on and it kinda hit the nail on the head. I still struggle with it today because well, that situation hasn’t really changed. I still only want the same person. Shawn, can we talk please friend?
Fire For You is a closing track in Netflix’s Never Have I Ever series.
I cannot not tell you guys how incredible Never Have I Ever is. It’s funny, topical, and it’s also a Mindy Kaling creation. Mindy is a writer, comedian and producer that I have come to adore in recent times and as it happens, we share the same sun, moon AND rising! Double cancer, gemini rising. (This is why I’m sensitive guys, the suns and moons played me big time.) But look at how amazing my natal chart twin is! That’s got to mean something. Sonically, Fire For You is brilliant. The melodies are beautiful, and the lyrics are hard hitting. This is another song that just captured what I couldn’t quite articulate.
Wasted was also introduced to me via Netflix.
This one came from Malcolm and Marie. I fell in love with the song. I feel like Malcolm needed to go to that place that I mentioned Bank On Me takes me to… I don’t blame him either. Malcolm and Marie is intense. My friend literally said “you’ll like it, but be careful because it’s triggering.” It was so triggering. Especially for someone like me. It’s hard to see your relationship played out to you and realise how fucked up it was for both of you. The constant make up break up, all the trauma… yeah it’s intense. No wonder Malcolm needed to go to church.
The last song on this playlist is Adele’s ethereal rendition of I Can’t Make You Love Me.
This song has appeared on a previous playlist too. Again, it’s one of my favourites ever. I just love beautiful things.
That wraps up February. I wonder what March will bring! It feels like months are flying by and I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing yet. It’s probably both. Where I’m at now, I just want to keep slowing down. I’m exhausted.
I will see you guys in the next one, and I’m going to be making weekly music reacts to both new and old albums. I’ve got Madison Beer, Justin Bieber and Anselmo Ralph lined up over the next couple months, but do let me know if there’s an album you’d like to see me check out! Recommendations are always appreciated, I just can’t promise I’ll love them as much as you do haha, but I will always check them out.
All the love always folks. Your friendly neighbourhood,
S.
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