THE FIRST FIVE SONGS ON SHUFFLE
since there's nothing else going on this week
Though I’m a chronic playlist-maker, I’m not much of a chronic playlist-listener. I prefer to peddle the drug than to use it myself. When I want to listen to non-specific music, I go to my Liked Songs on Spotify, which totals 3,521 tracks as of this morning when “Why Do I Cry” by Margo Guryan got added to the mix. Scrolling through that playlist, if you can even call it that, I can recognize phases in my life based on what songs were added. There’s some residual John Mayer in there from a college breakup, a section from a 2021 trip to Spain that was scored by Remi Wolf and The Go! Team, and down at the very bottom “Rich Girls” by The Virgins sits as the first song I ever added, a relic from my pre-Spotify iTunes library days.
I had planned to write something a little more thoughtful and fleshed out this week before ~what went down~ went down, so I’m allowing myself to be a little lazy. I’m going to hit shuffle on my liked songs on Spotify and write up some thoughts on the first five that come up. This mix of thousands of songs is really chaotic and as broad as my taste in music. I’ve got video game soundtracks in here, classical music, boom bap, and surely dozens of songs that I’ve totally forgotten about. I’m not going to edit these shuffle results at all—you’re getting the raw, unfiltered Action Potential that the world has been clamoring for. There’s a chance this is either extremely boring or a little too revealing.
Simple Times — Frank LoCrasto
We’re off to a great start: I don’t remember this song at all. Apparently this track is off our friend Frank’s 2011 album El Dorado, and it’s also his most popular on Spotify with 1.9 million listens. Nice job, Frank.
According to our friend Frank’s website, he’s a Brooklyn-based “busy sideman” who has performed and toured with The Fruit Bats, The Grateful Shred, Parquet Courts, and more. Unfortunately it looks like Frank hasn’t updated his about section, since it says he’s “making the most of pandemic life.” I guess he doesn’t have to update his site because the COVID-19 pandemic really hasn’t ended—4,038 people have died globally due to COVID-19 in the last 28 days, according to the World Health Organization. Three thousand of those deaths came from the USA, which is more than any other country. Still number one, baby!
I should probably write something about the song itself here. I like it. The same, slightly uncertain piano part loops endlessly throughout the song with other instruments and tracks layered over it. It’s relaxing and easy to listen to, and I think the album art of an open field with mountains in the distance conveys the liminal but peaceful mood of the song well. I don’t know if I’ll be going back and listening to Frank’s entire discography, but now this song will stick out when it pops up on shuffle because I’ve written about it here. You’ll be with me forever, Frank. Or at least until Spotify goes down one day.
At Home — Slow Pulp
This is one of two songs named “At Home” in my playlist, the other being by Crystal Fighters. Slow Pulp is an interesting artist. I have three of their songs saved: “At Home,” “Movey,” and “Cramps.” All three are almost nothing like each other, especially “Movey,” which is a groovy, experimental and percussive track that I really enjoy. Slow Pulp is one of those groups that I like every time I encounter them, but I’ve never really explored their discography or felt inspired to. The few times this group has come up in conversation, it usually plays out the same, getting an “oh yeah, that band’s alright” and sort of ending there. I wouldn’t be surprised if I Shazamed this one at a coffee shop one day. The band released an album called Yard last year that I haven’t heard anything off of, so I’ll take this as a sign to finally take the plunge and see how it shakes out.
Decks Dark — Radiohead
My first girlfriend got me A Moon Shaped Pool on Vinyl for Christmas in 2017 even though I didn’t own a record player. When she brought me a laundry hamper filled with my things that had accumulated at her apartment after we broke up in 2018, the record wasn’t among them, so it’s forever lost to me. And I still don’t own a record player.
Anyway. I don’t know that I’ve actually listened to A Moon Shaped Pool all the way through since it came out in 2016, but I adore “Decks Dark,” which taps into a dark and ephemeral vein that Thom Yorke kept exploring in his 2018 soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria.
There’s a lot of talk about what the best Radiohead album is. I’ve heard a lot of arguments from old heads that it’s Ok Computer, one of their last guitar-forward albums. But the one I keep coming back to no matter where I am in life is In Rainbows. Under that idyllic name, In Rainbows hides anxious, itching songs like “15 Step,” “Faust Arp, ” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” that explore all of that frantic mood’s colors. I also adore the second disk, which has one of my favorite Radiohead songs “Bangers + Mash.” I put that one on a playlist I made a few years ago called songs to fight someone to. get those hands at the ready.
After Silver Leaves — Smut
Smut deserves more attention. The Chicago band’s 2022 album How the Light Felt was partially produced by a longtime producer of The Cranberries, and is just as floaty and wistful as songs like “Dreams” but maintains its independence with catchy refrains (like Silver Leaves’ “You call me by her name / But I was here first) and pained lyrics. The album was written after frontwoman Tay Roebuck’s sister passed away, and that grief cuts into some of How the Light Felt’s dreamiest moments with sour chord changes, giving this shimmery album a knotting, twisted feel. The whole album is worth a listen. Some of my favorites are “Soft Engine,” “Believe You Me,” and “Morningstar,” which goes for a heavier synth and bass sound than anything else on the album. I first heard this album last year and am eagerly waiting for whatever they put out next. I am advising BUY on Smut.
Yoko Shimomura — Galdin Quay (from the soundtrack to Final Fantasy XV)
Final Fantasy XV isn’t one of my favorites in the series, but it had a pretty good score. Galdin Quay evokes the idyllic, beach-at-golden-hour vibes of the tiny resort location it shares its name with. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite track from this game—I love the Sunset Waltz and the decadent, overdramatic APOCALYPSIS NOCTIS—but it’s an easy tune that I rarely skip when it comes on shuffle.
In FFXV, you spend a lot of time driving around in a fancy car called The Regalia with your bros. You can buy the soundtracks from other Final Fantasy titles to listen to on your drives—which was maybe a poor decision since it causes FFXV to shelve some of its own identity in favor of catering to nostalgia for previous titles—which means I spent the majority of my 2016 playthrough listening to the soundtrack from my favorite Final Fantasy (and favorite game of all time), Final Fantasy XIII. Speaking of FFXIII, I just recently finished a playthrough of it on my Steam Deck that gave me some fresh perspective on the game. I’d write something up about it, but one of my favorite critics Charlie Cade recently made a video diving deep into the game that summarized my love, admiration, and criticisms of the game better than I ever could. It’s far from one of the best entries in the Final Fantasy series, but I played it at a formative time in my life, and it will always remind me of the close friends I shared that experience with.
I’ve already gone a bit long here, but I can’t close this out without writing about Yoko Shimomura herself, who is one of the best composers working in games at the moment. Shimomura is best known for scoring Kingdom Hearts, which has gone on to become one of the most iconic and sonically identifiable series in video game history. Even if you aren’t into games, it’s worth listening to The Afternoon Streets, a gorgeous and melancholic track that captures the end of adolescence.
That’s all for now. See you next week!