Music

Yes, I know, shameless plug. Here are a few of my playlists. Feel free to ask me for editorial comments.

If you prefer the URI, it's typically spotify:playlist:XXXXX where XXXXX is that long list of letters and numbers that comes after playlist/ in the URL)

If you want to follow me on Spotify, my profile is here

At least once a year towards the end of the year, I share a compilation of some of the songs I liked, or that were particularly anthemy or catchy and that I hadn't gotten tired of yet. The songs range from new releases shazamed on that "you know you love it when you first hear it" crush, some from movies I saw this year, some older songs that somehow popped for me this year, a few from travels that got stuck in my head, and a few discovered by reading and listening to lots of recommendations, checking out random lists, and letting Spotify, Pandora, Youtube Music and even traditional radio go wild. As always, lots of anthems [blush]. Most have stood the test of repeat-play. And some are from reviews on Metacritic or Pitchfork, which I still occasionally scour for new finds.

Long list of possible disclaimers for what I did NOT include even though it was hot this year (even if I might have liked it).

Key disclaimers:

Not sure how this works with digital rights in other countries - I've seen weird things on Spotify where all of a sudden songs disappear from my playlist when I'm traveling. Let me know.
If you like music, I know we don't often buy albums anymore, but please support the artists and the ecosystem however you can -- by talking about the music to your friends, going to a show, or subscribing to commercial-free music services like Spotify Premium, Youtube Premium, Apple Music, or Amazon Prime.
I previously ranted about the stupidity and filter-bubbliness of most music recommendations, But I'm over that - Spotify, for example, makes excellent recommendations in their Daily Mixes and Release Radar (although there is definitely a bias towards recently listened-to items and genres). Until recently, my best discoveries came from reading general-audience stuff and listening to unfiltered shows and random playlists/channels, rather than from stuff recommended to me, but that is changing rapidly. So for all you budding data scientists out there, seems like the window of opportunity has passed.
Finally: I've been making "mix tapes" since I was like 12. It's a bit tricky because I tend to deviate from mainstream too much for some, or am too close to it for others; too easy for some, too weird for others. The choice of these songs does not mean that this is the only stuff I like - I have an annoyingly broad taste (not an omnivore, but definitely willing to try anything). I hope you like it, or at least discover a song or two you like through it!

YouTube versions:

My Youtube Channel: @suermondt