New year means new music. This also means that I will continue to listen to the same songs I was listening to last year because apparently, that’s what makes my brain happy. Every month I make a new playlist, which mostly consists of older songs that I’ve rediscovered or just discovered for the first time and some newer ones. So here is what I listened to all last month!
Let us not address the fact that as I wrote this a bunch of new music came out and now my brain is overwhelmed !!
Here are a few songs from my January 2020 Spotify Playlist!
1. The Power of Love – Céline Dion
Favorite lyric: The sound of your heart beating / Made it clear / Suddenly the feeling that I can’t go on / Is light-years away
What can I say, I love an Aries queen. She’s a visual, vocal legend, the reason why Titanic is what it is. Yes, seeing Kate Winsley let go of Leonardo DiCaprio was sad, but hearing My Heart Will Go On is the only reason I have cried all eight times I’ve watched that movie.
This might be my Celine song of the year. Last year, it was It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, which once again, I absolutely love the 2009 visuals, but The Power of Love is just feeling different right now.
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Céline Dion – The Power Of Love (Official Video)
2. you were good to me – Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler
Favorite lyric: Swear I’m different than before I won’t hurt you anymore
This song is in every Instagram edit I have seen and I absolutely love it. 2020 is my time to be soft and feel all kinds of love. ← this is the part where someone says they love me.
The music video is equally as soft and sad as the lyrics themselves and sometimes in the midst of all the other mess that is my music taste, I need a little sad and soft to balance everything out. The music video also gives me “freshman year Delia, trying to be an art hoe” vibes, and that’s always a fun time to remember.
you were good to me – Jeremy Zucker, Chelsea Cutler
3. Lie – BTS
Favorite lyric: I am here, the same person I was from before, but an overgrown lie is trying to swallow me whole
If anyone thought there was going to be a playlist without a single BTS song, I’m sorry to disappoint but it is what it is.
Aside from all the visuals, vocals and dance that Jimin presents, the message in the song itself makes me enjoy it even more. I originally put the song in my January playlist because I randomly started listening to it again, but thinking about it now, it makes sense for it to be here now.
One of the lyrics in the song is “caught in a lie”, pertaining to the idea of presenting yourself in a certain way for such a long time that it becomes progressively more difficult to be your genuine self. That’s definitely not something I want to bring into 2020, or at any other moment in my life, but it’s difficult. Especially in college (and with anxiety), where you’re constantly trying to find friends, it’s very easy to mold into their interests, that sometimes you can lose sense of your own.
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BTS (방탄소년단) WINGS Short Film #2 LIE
4. A World Alone – Lorde
Favorite lyric: Maybe the Internet raised us or maybe people are jerks
I miss Lorde. That’s it. I feel like because Royals was such a popular song back when Pure Heroine came out, I neglected the rest of her songs, up until Melodrama, which was absolutely beautiful. But I think this goes back to the whole, I listen to the same 3 songs over and over again, that I forget that artists are constantly putting out new work.
Then again, Pure Heroine came out in 2013, so the only thing I was listening to was Big Time Rush. Which is totally valid, do not judge me.
The song is attached to the story that Lorde tells in her album, but even separately, I can still find some things to relate to I suppose. While Lorde does emphasize a relationship in this, and I have no experience in such, I relate to the feeling of isolation in any aspect of my life. She references the difference between the career path she’s chosen and the ones her friends have chosen and the intense competition that comes with her career, which is often dismissed. The arts are constantly looked down upon by so many others, that I don’t think people understand how intense the competition is. Like sure, business is competitive, science is competitive, but art shouldn’t be excluded from that just because it might not “make as much money”, which that in of itself is a whole different thing.
Anyway, stan Lorde.
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5. SUGA’s Interlude – Halsey ft SUGA of BTS
Favorite lyric: The dawn before sunrise is darker than anything but never forget the stars you hope for only appear in the dark
Perhaps I’m stressed about my career choices, or really, any choices that I make because there’s always that question of “did I make the right one or did I just make everything 10 times worse?”. College students spend the majority of their time working towards this career that they have decided, because sure, it’s interesting to them. Maybe it’s something they’ve wanted to do for as long as they remember, or maybe it’s a recent newfound interest. Nonetheless, sometimes it seems like I spend so much time working towards being a writer (of something because I am not sure what I want), that I occasionally think to myself, what if I’m suddenly not happy with it?
Despite the song bringing up some of those fears, halfway through, it also reminds the listener that there is nothing wrong with someone’s dreams changing, as you are also always changing. It’s normal to question yourself but it’s also valid to have a change of heart and mind.
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Halsey – SUGA’s Interlude (Official Audio)
6. Eleven – Khalid
Favorite lyric: If you’re waitin’ on love, then you waitin’ for a while
This wouldn’t be a playlist done by me if there were no signs of Khalid. His first song of the year and it’s already making me wish I wasn’t scared of cars. He has said before that he enjoys making music that people can drive to, as it reminds him of moments where he’s heard songs like that. While I cannot do that, I can, however, lie in bed and daydream about driving. Do you know who’s not possibly dying in the devil’s machine? Me. Ha.
Even though the song has all the things I cannot relate to (see above for driving and further up for lack of love life or even slight interest), there’s nothing more soothing than hearing Khalid’s voice.
Check out the rest of my playlist, which is probably still growing!