People seem to like these and it’s been a few weeks since the last one, so here’s another mix tape. I might just be wired differently, but I’ve always preferred Emily Haines’ dour solo work to Metric’s glossy bombast. When given some room to breathe she has a knack for elucidating the tired and helpless sides of adulthood, even to the point of letting the mood become oppressive, which is a risk I sense fewer songwriters taking without the aid of over-produced atmospherics these days. Even though it’s fairly soft in the middle—Haines, Sade, ambient Eno, etc.—this one does lean further toward ‘classic’ (not Classic) rock.

http://spoti.fi/xKDcHU

This is another mix tape I made for you. If you caught the last one, you can maybe see the habits I’ve developed over the years with these things. I like to keep them around a dozen songs each—long enough to try out some different things but not so long that it loses a sense of cohesion (I like when mix tapes feel like albums and I try to sequence them as such)—as much for the sake of attention spans as anything else. I like to emphasize bookends, too. First and last songs are important because they tell you what kind of journey you’re going / have been on. Like a joke with a well-timed punchline or a catchy melody, there should be a lyrical sense to the way songs feel in a certain order. That’s my goal, anyway—you listen / think of it however you want.

http://spoti.fi/yStCZF

Because I like you. But also because I wanted to try out this Spotify thing everyone’s so keen on. Plus, I needed a mental break from year-end list things. The songs on this mix are ones I’ve enjoyed recently that—for the most part—are either older than one year or aren’t really in consideration for listing / blurbing. A few songs here border on cheese (Huey, Alessi), but that’s because I have a soft spot for certain brands of sincere goofery. Besides, “Heart and Soul” is far more poignant and existentially conflicted than people want to give it credit for, and “Oh Lori” was sampled by Cities Aviv so that makes it sort of cool.

Anecdotally, it’s a mix about this: the windows in my apartment face south, so in the mid-afternoons the sun makes its way across them and throws a blinding glare in our eyes and against any and all computer screens. We each have our own way of dealing with this. Roommate 1’s solution is to stay in his room, Roommate 2’s is to tilt his hat to the side to at least get it out of his eyes, and mine is to wear just the hood of my hoodie, letting the rest hang over the back of my chair, also to keep the sun out of my peripheral vision. Curtaining the windows has not occurred to us. Some time between 3:30 and 4, the light evens out and the glare goes away.

http://spoti.fi/veSPcE