Preface
Every year, there is a tier of songs which I just can't help but to be a little obsessed with every time they come on. For me, these tracks are different from the most-played tracks that wind up on year-end playlists generated by music platforms or last.fm, and also different from the earworms that captivate me for a week straight and then make me want to puke every time after that. Whatever it is, something about each of these songs made me want to keep it close to me for months and months.
In short, this is a small and very personal diary of those thirty songs which I kept with me for all of 2021.
I wrote these entries in a handful of places over a handful of weeks—an empty In-N-Out in the middle of the night, in the rain in the Nobu parking lot, waiting in line at the COVID test site on Alvarado, & curled up in a blanket out on the balcony, looking out over downtown & thinking about everything that happened & everyone I met this year. I can't be thankful enough for all of the people I got to spend 2021 with, most of whom were still strangers to me back last january. Many of these songs came into my life because of them, and as you can see, it's hard for me not to associate them together (along with, I am discovering, every street I drove on).
You can find my playlist for this project here.
NOTE: the entries in this list are in random order, & will shuffle if the page is reloaded or revisited.