#one day i'll actually make playlists that are a little more cohesive

[suchaspookyginger]

'just on a whim' || a torao/lawlu playlist

track lyrics below the read more (it's long though)

secrets i have held in my heart are harder to hide than i thought || i'm sorry, brothers, so sorry lover; forgive me, father, i love you, mother || save your breath - half your life, you've been hooked on death || i fell in love, 'cause no one saw me the way you did || i wanna know what it's like to be awkward and innocent, not belligerent || there's a box in your heart where you keep your feelings hidden || and maybe it's the past that's talking, screaming from the crypt || tremble, little lion man, you'll never settle any of your scores || i know this whole damn city thinks it needs you, but not as much as i do || i'm no good on my own anymore

left my soul in his vision, let's go get it out || last night i had a dream we were inseparably entwined || i'm on my guard with the rest of the world, but with you i know it's no good || i lose my voice when i look at you, can't make a noise though i'm trying to || can you hear me say, "don't throw me away"? there's no way out || best friends, ex-friends til the end, better off a lovers and not the other way around || in the morning you'll learn i disappeared off into the night so quietly || i'm exhausted by my heart || when the road began to crumble in front of my eyes, there was only one person i wanted to find || can't stop thinking 'bout the nights that i still regret

and the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up || my friend says "you're not alone," but that skin still doesn't feel like home || reaching for the deep end but i can't swim || it's not that i don't feel the pain, it's just i'm not afraid of hurting anymore || i've been on the run since i was a boy, but i'm now done running, got another thing coming watching my enemies get destroyed || who am i without this weight on my shoulder? oh god i'm dying to know || i've been running away i forget what i'm running from, but it still scares me today what i found in you love || smitten's a bad look on me || in the name of the father, the skeptic and the son, i had one more stupid question || i don't know where i'm going, but i don't think i'm coming home

a half-empty [boy] don't make me laugh i'll choke || my eyes want you more than a memory || it's actually pretty easy being nice to a bitter boy like him || god knows where i would be if you hadn't found me sitting all alone in the dark || your dark brother wrapped in white, says it's good to be alive, but now he rides a comet's flame and he won't be coming back again || i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take || this was the place i grew up, now it's ashes to ashes || i've been ripped up and tossed like a mouse, wrestled with the heavens and the devil himself || why drink the water from my hand, contagious as you think i am? || i just want to make it vanish, but the notes of an old mistake still ring louder every day

you're always getting curious and leaving town || i could never define all that you are to me || i wouldn't test you, i'm not the best you could have attained || i can't process what i'm feeling now, this skin i can do without || i woke up with the sun, thought of all of the people, places and things i've loved || love of mine, someday you will die, but i'll be close behind || they say an end can be a start, feels like i've been buried yet i'm still alive || i'm chasing down my demons, i can hear them breathing. but who knew you would bring me comfort? || i won't fight for anyone until you move my hand || rainy days and bad luck comin' my way, i look for when i'm lost so i don't go insane

this is all your own battle to win, this is your ship and you are the captain || i'm feelin' like i'm messin' it up, i'm callin' out your name and god help me 'cause i'll never love again || got my heart in your hands and your hands on my chest || strange life i live, but it's what you've decided, i'll give it all into your hands || i won't make the same mistakes that i've made for fifteen years || oblivion is where i'm headed, my mind is on the brink of going supernova || and as the world comes to an end, i'll be here to hold your hand. 'cause you're my king and i'm your lionheart

[lotlvision]

Dora 2024 first(ish) listens!

Alen Đuras - "A tamburitza lullaby" I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm always biased against songs in English, but I have to admit that it's pretty catchy - I'm also a big fan of the actual backing. It does feel a little bit more special than a pop song, so I'll give it 7/10

Baby Lasagna - "Rim tim tagi dim" I'm immediately taking back my English bias, this is SO fun. I think the staging will be really important to sell this as a winner, but I can hear the Cha Cha Cha influence so I already adore it. 9.5/10

Barbara Munjas - "Nepobjediva" Not a fan of her vocals... I assume they're a stylistic choice? The song feels like a mishmash of several genres and not in a cohesive way. I mostly zoned out of listening to it, so it's not bad background music if nothing else! 4.5/10

Boris Štok - "Can we talk" I'm not sold on this song. Sad white man singing about a break up without the Taylor Swift pizzazz I like in my breakup songs. Useful lyrics to steal for fic titles, but that's about it. 5/10

Damir Kedžo - "Voljena ženo" Song five and FINALLY some Croatian! That said, it's not my personal preferred style. It's definitely got strong vocals, and with the right staging it could do well. I'm not sure how the Dora votes are split, but if it's 50/50 Jury and Public then it'll do well with Juries! 8/10

Erna - "How do you love me" Immediately back to singing in English... I hate the breathy whisper-singing, and the song itself doesn't really have anything special about it. Sorry Erna, but this is not a song for me. 5/10

ET - "Pametnom dosta" Time for the (apparently) mandatory club song! It doesn't really build or climax the same way similar Eurovision songs have (thinking Lights Out), and it doesn't feel like there's anything particularly special about it. 6/10

Eugen - "Tišine" Not my style again, however I am reaching for my phone to turn the light on and wave my arm slowly back and forth. I think it could do well with Juries, and well with the Public too. It's got a nice build toward the end. 8.5/10

James Night - "Nebo plače" This is definitely just a pop song. The vocals don't seem as strong/polished as some of the others so far, however these are all recorded rather than live, so there's no telling how they'll sound on stage. It's not super special, but it's an earworm and I'm enjoying it. 6.5/10

Lana Mandarić - "More" This song is definitely a builder. I'm not a huge fan of the style, but I can understand the appeal behind it. Staging will really make or break this. 7.5/10

Lara Demarin - "Ne vjerujem ti" I was enjoying myself and then some guy started rapping over Lara's lovely singing. I don't feel like that added anything - more it just detracted from what was a nice song. 6.5/10

Let 3 - "Babaroga" Let 3 are already back! This song isn't anywhere near as good as Mama ŠČ!, and having heard them live the autotune stands out even more than it does just listening. They sound more like dolphins than humans. However, I love the weird shit in Eurovision, so this is right up my street. 8/10

Lu Dedić - "Plavi leptir" This is not my vibe for listening to on a regular basis, however as a standalone song for one night it really could be my winner. With the right staging, lighting, costumes, choreography I could want this to win. It gives me the same vibes as I get during the wedding in Miss Saigon (this is an AMAZING thing, it's so soft and beautiful). 9/10

Marcela - "Gasoline" I do really enjoy this song. It is in English, and it is just a pop song, but the vocals are really strong and the lyrics are very catchy. It might not do well, but it'll be going onto my playlists. 7.5/10

Mario Battifiaca feat. Robert Ferlin - "Vodu piti trizan biti" When a song on eurovisionworld has a 1.5 star rating you're either in for a treat, or you're going to listen to something truly awful. This is just boring, and slow, and the longest 3 minutes of my life. 2/10

Misha - "One day" This song isn't very special. It's a pop song, but without the really upbeat and fun nature of a pop song. It's catchy, but that's about it. 5/10

Natalie Balmix - "Dijamanti" This is a fun song! I think the current rating is maybe a little bit high, but there's a lot of potential and I think it could be a contender with the right staging. For now, 8/10

Noelle - "Baby, baby" It's just a pop song. It's nothing special, there's nothing that makes it a real Eurovision entry, but there's nothing overtly bad about it either. 6/10

Pavel - "Do mjeseca" I am SO upset at the low rating for this. Sure, the vocals aren't the best, but the song has such an ABBA vibe to it! It's so fun! This is the guilty pleasure song of the 2024 NF season, I'm calling it now. 7/10 and everyone giving it less can (affectionately and light-heartedly) go fuck themselves! (My vote on the website took the song from 1.6 stars to 1.8 stars my power omfg)

Saša Lozar - "Ne plačem zbog nje" The song isn't very memorable to me, it doesn't really stand out. The only noteworthy thing I can think of saying is that this guy looks like if Fred from KEiiNO got hit by a car. Which is maybe quite rude but oh well. 5.5/10

Stefany Žužić - "Sretnih dana dat' će Bog" Another fairly unremarkable song. A lot of the songs later in the list online seem to be rated quite lowly. Another 5.5/10

The Splitters - "Od kad te sanjam" I'm quite conflicted about how to rank this song. I feel like, even as I continue to listen to it, it's growing on me and I'm wishing I gave it a higher rating on Twitter than I did - but I've already sent the tweet and submitted my vote. The song is, objectively, not the best, but it makes me feel more than the other pop songs I've rated similarly so I feel like I should've ranked it higher? But it's not that good! Argh! I'm conflicted! 6.75/10

Vatra - "Slatke suze, gorka ljubav" This song is like exactly my taste, however I also recognise it's not objectively the best in this line up and that it's not a Eurovision song in the slightest. I'm going to enjoy it, but I'll give it a hopefully unbiased 6/10

Vinko - "Lying eyes" In the least insulting way possible, this sounds like Lin Manuel Miranda trying to cover a Coldplay song: Fix You specifically. Honestly, the guy even looks like a Coldplay/LMM lovechild. I'm not a fan. 5/10

[mowu-moment]

i feel controversial & i care too much, so here's my des rocs complete tierlist

ranked list & reasoning (ish) under the cut

1. WAYNE: hoholy shit wayne. can hardly put into words how explosive this one is to me. the intro sets a Whole Mood before swiftly (& cleanly) smacking it down into an Absolute Banger and i don't use the term lightly. very hard not to scream along with it. only detriment is that wayne the person is kinda an ass in the mmc video but that's no qualm

2. POS: basically the same thing as wayne (oh both have great lyrics btw, this one more so), only gets points knocked for being 2 minutes long and having 30 seconds of that being intro & outro. go danny give us nothing

3. WHY WHY WHY: there's a theme among my top picks--they're all hard-hitting w/ killer guitar. the lyrics are absolute batshit in a good way, but the chorus is a lil flat & i feel like in general it just needed a touch more spice to score the top spot. or maybe it's just seniority & it'll have a coup a few months out idk

4. DEAD RINGER: similar killer guitar & lyrics but this one is Groovy as Hell. don't particularly like his singing in this one & it's too repetitive if i'm feeling grumpy but there's something so magic about after the bridge. top 10 songs to twirl a flag to

5. NOTHING PERSONAL: the minute long outro irks me & it's a little bit empty but plays into that well. groovy, great lyrics, the Sexiest Guitar Solo of the lot, the screaming's a minus but it does have an emotion there. not entirely sure what one but it's there.

6. LET ME LIVE / LET ME DIE: his first time being all over the goddamn place, history was made. amazing guitar, a little worse lyrics than 1-4 i'll admit, the intro Slays me both in a good and bad way. must be a joy to play live where he can just drag out that intro & bridge as long as feels right. at least i liked it in the digital concert like that. would actually kill me in a physical concert, imagine how much stomping gets going to that beat. bonus points for presumable cowbell

7. PIECES: for once not this high for the guitar & lyrics, they're both kinda basic. idk what's about this one but it just takes me to a separate dimension & i love it so much for that. really fills those earholes. also a bit of personal meaning, heard it for the first time on the day we moved into the house i'm currently split-custody-living in (is that tmi?) & the first music video of his i saw. man i love some spaghetti on the wall

8. SLO: basically the same as dead ringer, but knocked points for a kinda lame outro & the subject matter being a little less interesting to me. still lovely.

9. HANGING BY A THREAD: not my normal fare really & the way that the ends of the verses don't really fit in the pacing of them is bleh, but it's just so reminiscent of the songs my brother puts on whenever we hang out together that it just makes me all warm & fuzzy. it's also nicely put together which is something i'll have to start saying for. the later list.

10. SUICIDE ROMANTICS: this is where i start griping about head voice & higher pitches in general. don't like em so the pre-chorus is a lil annoying. also not my normal fare but it's tender & the ending is awe-striking. imo better live where he's loud on that last line before the final chorus. not enough to bump it up though. shoutouts to love and a smoking gun, i still am dying to hear that one

11. THE PAST HAS PASSED AWAY: my favorite lyrics out of the first 2 ep's. only thing wrong with it really is the bridge getting kinda repetitive. love that last chorus heehoo. same schpeel as the Banger Category

12. MMC: this one's lower than the rest of the Bangers for being pop punk which is something the radio has made me dislike, i guess. that trope with the guitar in the second half of the chorus just kills me so much. improves greatly during & after the bridge, love that lil ragtime piano. generally the same bit as before but i do love him doing something un-romance-related. yeah fuck the establishment!

13. THE DEVIL INSIDE: reminds me A Lot of the electronic-ish cassettes i've got from the early 90's but that's just me. this one will probably move up as i get more used to it, but only a little bit. the first part of the second verse makes me like. genuinely uncomfy? but the second part of it's fantastic. ending's ass though what happened to the instrumence. bonus points for using 'reverie' that's an SAT word (maybe). good singing but returning to the gripe at higher pitches, just a little bit though

14. THIS IS OUR LIFE: feels shockingly generic for a des rocs song tbh but there's nothing really wrong with that. adore the bridge. singing's alright. kinda miffed that he doesn't pronounce the 'f' in the second 'life' in the chorus, but it makes sense here. that sort of thing won't later so i'm bringing it up now. guitar's nothing spectacular but fits nicely into the song, probably one of the most cohesive of his (especially in recent history).

15. OUTTA MY MIND: really lives in the same space as slo and dead ringer do in my head (most likely the 'songs to twirl a flag to' zone), but this is by far the worst of the three for when i'm grumpy. just. Very repetitive. back to great lyrics here but it's kinda hard to pick them out (i've heard the song at least 100 times by now & i'm still missing a few lines). still groovin'

16. RUBY WITH THE SHARPEST LIES: what the fuck actually goes on in this song by the way? not the premise or whatever it's just. so all over the place. the verses are incredible but bringing in another vocalist just for one line kills me. bridge is really cool but that one part i don't remember where it is, the one that alternates basically nothing & an Electronic Piano Chord blaring at ya? ruins it. partially anyhow. also can someone tell the people on genius that it's 'carved it in my skin' not 'crawled down in my skin'

17. GIVE ME THE NIGHT: same repetitive issue as outta my mind but it's not groovy enough to save it, shame. feels like a trial run of all the wackshit stuff he's been doing recently, with the additional vocal bits at the end & the kinda weird lyrics. it still has a place in my heart don't get me wrong but it's just fallen in favor of stuff that Commits to banger or batshit (or actually pulls off both strongly, yyy). oh yeah nice guitar alright singing etc etc

18. USED TO THE DARKNESS: similar story to give me the night. i love it i do, but it's just lackluster nowadays. also remember that under-pronunciation thing i brought up in this is our life? this is where that comes back. rampant i tell you! that second verse he just doesn't finish the words & i hate it!

19. DON'T HURT ME: i honestly don't know why this one isn't in D. the chorus bit where he just cuts it short is irksome. the lyrics aren't anything special. i don't know what i like about it. but i can tell it does exactly what it set out to do if that makes sense. respect, respect. and using missile in an analogy, he's getting creative with the vocab

20. LIVING PROOF: kinda got a vendetta against this one i think? i don't know why i hate this one but i do. it's just kinda, blah. like the perfect sort of thing to nightcore up. sentiment's lovely & i do love the lyrics even if they aren't impressive but like. it bores me to an extent

21. TICK (LIVE): separating the version i heard in the digital concert just to give it some credit, this one was actually kinda nice. another one with a nice sentiment & what he was going for is great. no clue what the second part of the second verse has to do with any of this though. and it also begins our final group, the songs that just feel empty. like there's not nearly enough going on. this one's alright though i was just hoping the studio version would add some flair. you can see where that one is though.

22. IMAGINARY FRIENDS: also got a vendetta against pop. kinda hate the sentiment here (contrast!), the chorus just falls short of what the verses prime me for, head voice is rampant, and yet i still swing along to it. it's infectious props to him. love the outro though, monkey laugh and all.

23. MAYBE, I: another empty one, like it's a four-note progression what is that. love his singing in it, and the chorus parts do round it out, but like. eh? it doesn't even give me much to say.

24. BORN TO LOSE: another flop on the chorus! too smooth i say! and i absolutely Despise the pitch-shifting thing going on. not something i was expecting him to express so points there, lyrics are nothing fancy to my Literary Mind though. initially good singing but the chorus he's just sloppy over it. the instrumental is lovely but the vocals just throw it so hard into the bin which is a right shame. fuck that outro too i hate that gimmick

25. I KNOW: here's where the bad batshit comes in. singing is some of his worst imo, does the other-vocalist thing for that bridge, genre i'm not fond of, just a soup of Stuff I Don't Like. not one i'd kill someone over putting as #1 like i can see where it comes from but. mmmmmhhhh bad. cover does NOT help his case.

26. HVY MTL DRMR: empirically i should put this one higher. but the chorus flops so goddamn hard it deserves to be in the bottom of the barrel. the verses are lovely for what he was doing back then! but then just... nothing!

27. RABBIT HOLE: i was so excited for this name but it's just sad boi hours playlist curated by some corporation you hate. probably the most nothing of them all, genuinely where are the instruments. what happened. was this one just shoehorned in as the final track just to pump numbers up. and i swear he had some autotune or something which only makes his voice worse it's fantastic naturally. also that's not what a rabbit hole is! that's not the idiom! a rabbit hole is when you go on a wikipedia spiral from jennifer lopez to group theory! not when you just have a shitty night's sleep or whatever this is! i'm not just miffed i'm downright annoyed

28. TICK (STUDIO): what the fuck happened des. how did you release this. it sounds like a 3rd grader singing for the school talent show it's so out of rhythm. singing's honestly kinda bad & the instrumental has the same problems i talked about in the live version. the last chorus is fine, i guess, but no i don't forgive him for what he did to tick.

[artofdying1970]

music tag time :)

thank you for the tag fiona @odearjohn mwah

Who was your first favourite artist? katy perry 100%!! i remember me and my cousin would watch her music videos on her ipad when we were around seven :)

Who are your current favourite artists? phoebe bridgers, mitski, taylor swift and simon & garfunkel ! and the beatles .. i guess 🙄

Are you into musicals? Which ones?/Why not? not really. back in 2016-2017 i was your stereotypical Theatre Kid that liked hamilton, heathers, dear evan hansen etc etc all of those with notoriously bad fandoms lol. i guess it was really cathartic for me because i haven't bothered getting into musicals again, but i'm open for suggestions !! :)

Are there songs you consider so special you only listen to them very rarely? i think 'a burning hill' by mitski is such an intimate and fragile song for me that makes it hard for me to listen to it whenever. i have to be in a certain headspace if that makes any sense LOL

What's your preferred way of listening to music? (time of day, medium, situation) while i do homework ! but the music i like just makes me want to get up and sing at the top of my lungs so sometimes i have to stop lol

What would you say is the most niche music you listen to? this band/duo/thing called girlpool ! they haven't dropped anything since last year but i'm holding out for a new album soon :) i don't think their stuff is for everyone, especially their earlier projects (the delivery on their vocals and harmonies can be kind of annoying) but i think you should check them out if you like the sort of music they play in indie coming-of-age films where nothing happens lol

What's your favourite music related movie/TV show that's not a musical? almost famous !

Albums or playlists? both ! but tbh i tend to lean towards the first. most of the playlists i have up on my profile i don't actually like use? they're mostly just for show i don't trust myself to know what songs go well together lol. but sometimes listening to an album on loop can be quite boring if it has a Very Cohesive Sound so i'll put something on shuffle

Favourite albums? revolver (1966), bookends (1968), the idler wheel... (2012), bury me at makeout creek (2014), be the cowboy (2018), punisher (2020)

Is there an artist you're trying to get into? frank ocean ! would appreciate some song recs/albums to start :)

Whose music do you find overhyped? hngnghh ed sheeran ik it's trendy to hate on him nowadays so it's not really an unpopular opinion but i just. Don't See The Appeal

What's an underrated song? remember my name by mitski .. stream <3

What's a thing a bunch of songs do that you love every time? i don't know any like. music terms but i love love love it when a song starts out relatively calmly and it slowly builds up until it reaches a MASSIVE climax it makes go !!!! (ex. i know the end, bridge over the trouble water etc etc)

What song is better acoustic? does while my guitar gently weeps count?? the album version is obviously iconic but the demo version hits a little harder idk

What's the worst song of all time? achy breaky heart

Do you put individual songs on repeat? If so, for how long and how often? i do it pretty often! mostly for about an hour or so, more if i really like it. i really should stop because i'm going to make myself hate a song i really like (semi-related story: my friend and i were obsessed with 'hard times' by paramore back in eight grade and i played it so much it's STILL my most streamed song of all time accordijg to my spotify stats even though i haven't listened to it in like a year. yeah)

Do you make your own playlists? If so, what's your most entertaining playlist title? i do, but they don't really have fun titles or anything. they're mostly from poems or song lyrics that fit the theme :/ pretentious much ?

Headphones or earbuds? not opposed to either ! but you can't go wrong with the classic wired girlies :^)

Do you always sing the lead vocal or do you harmonize sometimes? If you harmonize, do you ever invent your own harmony? i do a mixture of both . it's a bit of a mess ☹

A music confession jack antonoff isn't that bad of a producer imo. he has a really inconsistent output but that doesn't necessarily mean he ruins everything his production touches :* (this year has been rough for him though lol like chemicals over the country club + solar power were both So underwhelming) i will admit that yeah. he tends to recycle stuff quite a bit lol

tagging the besties (no pressure obviously !!) @mithranqueer @belldog @aerialballet1968 @runofthemilldemo :)

[musicoccurred]

Mixtapes

The mixtape, a word that is dependent on who's using it and when. I'm middle-aged and came up in the 80s and 90s so it means something different to me than a kid today or a band camp rapper. Having said that, let's take a look at the different usages of mixtape and see if we can crown a winner of the top type of mixtape.

For those of us with achy knees and patches of gray in our hair, a mixtape was, first and foremost, actually on a tape. Now there were themes involved just as there are now with some of the others I'll mention in a bit. For instance, every Sunday there was Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 radio show. I would often drop a blank cassette in my boom box and hit record. I would then go watch TV in the living room and keep an ear out for the telltale 'click' of the tape running out. I'd run back to my room, flip the tape, and hit record again. You have to understand, before the internet, geez that never not sounds old, the radio ruled. Even with albums, cassettes, and later CDs you still listened to the radio all the time. That's why I love XM so much, there's something about having someone curate music for you. And even today with every song available at the tap of a finger there's something awesome when your jam comes on the radio. It just hits different. I digress. So now at the end of the countdown you have the top 40 songs of the week, or however many you had enough tapes for... You can now make a mixtape of your favorite tracks. Radio also had "Request and Dedication" shows where you could call in and request a song and give a little dedication to your amore. You could record that and toss it at the beginning of the mixtape and good things happen. Another type would be artist specific. Say you were a Michael Jackson fan, you could take Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad and make a tape of your favorite songs from each. Another would be genre, when I was first getting into blues and jazz, I'd borrow tapes from my Mom and friends to make mix tapes. And last but not least, the mixtape for your love interest. These were the ultimate, you'd diligently record songs from the radio and mix in a song or two from either an artist she didn't know or an obscure song from a known artist to show you were a deep brother. You weren't done yet! You'd then work hard on the label and of course the note to go along with those 10 songs that perfectly sum up your feelings for that person. On a side note, I'd like to take this opportunity to say if you were the object of my unrequited affection and received one of these, I apologize. Unless you liked it, then, hey girl.

Next up we have the burned CD mixtape. It is the evolutionary cousin to the cassette mixtape. While it took a while for CD burners to become ubiquitous, they eventually showed up, primarily in PCs. What was lost in recording from the radio was picked up by being able to download from Napster and pass along. Additionally, you could write or draw on the CD itself and the labels, if you went that route, were larger for track listing and any other info you wanted to toss in there.

Now we're moving on to the streaming portion of the discussion:

Note: I'm using playlist and mixtape interchangeably here.

One step removed from the burned CD and what seems lightyears beyond the cassette technologically is the custom, personally curated playlist. This can be a playlist you do for yourself; I have several in Spotify. I will sometimes dump an entire artist's collection in there to shuffle, or perhaps include only the tracks I like best. I also have one for jazz and one for funk called 'greasy.' But in the spirit of this piece, I'm thinking of a playlist that you create for someone else and share the link with them. I actually like this, not only can you send them a custom mix of songs that can express how you feel about them, but you can update the playlist anytime. It can be romantic or simply sharing new tunes with a homie.

Next, we have the algorithmically created playlist. When you sign in Spotify (I'm assuming other services offer similar features) and you get the daily list or the multiple "just for you" selections, this is what I'm referring to. Spotify uses the data from your listening habits to create playlists with songs from artists they think you'll like. It's pretty accurate with a few swings and misses. I have to say I'm a fan of including these playlists as well as listing other artists similar to the one you're listening to. I've discovered so many new bands this way. Alternatively, there are playlists that are created based on other factors. I work out with playlists on Spotify and XM such as Hip hop workout or Lithium Workout. These are likely created based on a beats per minute count. Some don't really fit the workout but have a faster beat. Overall, I like this style of mixtape/playlist.

Finally, we have the artist mixtape. This is generally hip hop but isn't necessarily limited to any specific genre. I relate it to an EP being released prior to an LP back in the day. Some of these have very rapid turnarounds, like a day or two so sometimes the quality of the mix isn't that great but topically it's right on time.

So how do these rank in terms of which mixtape format is best? Let's find out!

5. Artist Mixtape - This may be one of those "not for you" cases but I'm not a fan of most of these I've heard. Some are pretty good, but most feel rushed or worse, don't have a cohesive feel to the tracks. The ability for artists to drop tracks near instantly is pretty amazing and I do like the idea of it. We'll see how that continues to develop.

4. Algorithmically created playlist - While I use these pretty much every single day, they lack the human touch - hello, algorithm - which is what makes the mixtape great.

3. Burned CD - I probably surprised you here with this at number 3. I do think it has a lot of strengths and is still a physical object that gives the human touch. But there were some issues. If you're old enough to have gone through the burned CD era, you'll know the pain of burning a CD for it to simply not work. Sometimes the person you gave it to had a CD player that wouldn't play those or you needed a CD -R or +R or RW, it was awful.

2. Personally curated playlist - While fully digital and not that personal this does have the ability to add and remove songs as you go. Plus, when you email the link to the person you can toss in a nice note about how you thought about them when making it.

1. Cassette - I mean come on, it's called a mixTAPE right? Clear winner here. Yeah, I'm old but there was something about it.

Epilogue:

I listen to either streaming music or records. I'm resisting the urge to get back into cassettes even though I have a couple decks and tapes. My cassette collection didn't survive growing up. Honestly, I have no idea where they went. I still have my CDs but before I would play a CD, I would stream it. There's something human about playing a record or a cassette. We are a touching, feeling creature and it means something to flip that tape over or to hold the liner notes on a record. I think that's lost on the younger folks. As everything is digitized and available on a screen it loses some of its meaning. I like buying concert tickets online but man, there's something about lining up at Macy's or JC Penney's or wherever your ticket office was and buying a physical ticket they handed you. When I have the option, even if it's a couple bucks more I still try to get physical tickets. In 20 years, I can look at that stub and remember the show, I can't do that with a barcode on an app.

What's your favorite format or mixtape/playlist?

-js