What I'm Listening to This July

Tune In's a monthly-or-so column for me to share what I'm listening to (and sometimes watching.)

Words are not working today. In fairness, I'm a tad jet-lagged, although I normally pride myself on being a resilient traveler who can adjust to sleep deprivation.

But the writing brain is a tricky little beast; there are plenty of tweaks I have to make or sacrifice at a given time to know how I write best. For example:

• I am smartest first thing in the morning and get progressively dumber throughout the day. Therefore, I need to do my hardest article/edits/whatever first.
• My writing quality tanks when my sleep quality does. I used to be a glass-of-wine-with-dinner gal, but nowadays it never appeals because of how it affects my REM. So I’ve been more stringent about bedtime, workout timing, all that.
• If I'm stuck, I need to go for a walk or do something (art, instrument, etc.) that's completely nonverbal. I'm thinking about getting into needlepoint or knitting again or some similar activity that will keep my hands busy.
• etc..

On any given day, I can produce an obscene amount of words—by accident, even. If I'm not working on a book, I'll still hit that word count in journals and scraps of blog posts that flow out of me before I can get my brain to shut the hell up (said fondly.) So on the days my brain doesn't want to, I try to pivot but often fail at not writing. Instead, I end up just frustrated that the words aren't sounding particularly polished or articulate (like now.) Thus: a music article is a good go of things.

Right now, I'm having the gleeful moment musically of realizing all my playlists feel so fresh and energizing. It's like I got the reset button after being a little overly familiar with all them for so long.

Which means my swimming workouts for the next few weeks are about to hit and also I'm having moments of sensory freshness I deeply appreciate.

I'm on an audiobook kick, which I plan to write about, and am mostly just circling around the same few playlists. So this month, I wanted to just share some songs that popped up again that made me go "oooh, I forgot about that one."

I'm not saying I have good taste—just that I have some good memories.

Some songs I forgot about

In the summer, I listen to a lot of country (that's a year-round bit, but especially in summer) and then I also recently realized that all of my playlists from, say, 2018-2021 feel fresh again. So that's exciting. For now though, I threw some forgotten songs on a playlist named for our family boat in Canada, which now has survived about fifty-plus years of chaos. Meet the Miss B Haven.

Notable Songs:

• Someone Like You — Adele
• I Believe I'm Fine — Robin Schultz, HUGEL
• Let Me Down (with Chelsea Cutler) — Quinn XCII
• As Long As You Love Me — Justin Bieber, Jay Sean
• What Can I Say — Brandi Carlile
• Don't Matter — Akon
• Carry On — Pat Green
• These Days — Rascal Flatts
• Sixteen — Thomas Rhett
• Round Here — Florida Georgia Line

Some songs I've put on various playlists recently—

+ a study playlist because I've decided I need to start my mornings in focused classical mode in the name of interoception.

Playlist name is such because my twin sister's the coolest.

Notable Songs:

• Plus tôt — Alexandra Streliski
• The Consolations of Philosophy — Max Richter
• Cruel, Cruel World — harf.
• Hell is a Dance Floor — Vincent Mason
• My Way — Queen Key
• Oysters In My Pocket — Royel Otis
• secrecy — Ethan Regan
• Easy Does It — Goldford
• do re mi — blackbear
• Afraid — The Neighbourhood
• Halfway Up — The Brook & The Bluff
• Anyone For You (Tiger Lily) — George Ezra
• In The Wind — Lord Huron
• Lights Down Low — Maejor, Waka Flocka Flame

Re: the last: I am absolutely obsessed with the Lights Down Low choreography by Kiana Tangonan. For some reason, I have a visual earworm with this dance. Every time I see someone doing it, I can't stop watching. By default, I think my algorithm will tell me I've listened to this song approximately 30 times in the span of 24 hours.

Enjoy!!!