What I'm Listening to This May

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

Hey y'all!

2025 is absolutely blurring by, honestly. I blinked and it was June. In fairness, the [redacted] whirlwind dominated about 90% of my thinking for about three to four months, and then I caught up on many human to-dos and relished being in a routine.

Mostly, my weeks and weekends have been pretty quiet, which has its pros and cons. So I don't have all that much new to report other than my usual—work, create, go until I get tired then inevitably love/hate the few days of slowness it takes me to recover from whatever sprints I've been doing, a little haunted by ten other hobbies or goals I'd rather been doing. But I can also love a sleepy Saturday that's just sun and chores and maybe a walk at the tail end, so overall just really love the shape of my life where I am.

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And then, over the summer, I have the hobbies I get to lean into. Figure drawing in town. Doing more calligraphy and stocking prints in local cafés. Going to dance classes, et. al. Writing more style articles.

It's such a pleasure to get to embrace more of the artistic/visual side beyond just straight-up words (but, of course, I churn out so many words. I'm considering tracking what all I produce this summer and I'm sure the end tally will be just egregious.)

I'm reluctant to let go of my routine for travels—so it's been a very domestic 2025, more so than usual, majorly more so than last year—but did get a zing of thrill the other day from booking flights.

I haven't been off-island since a week in Québec in February, which is the longest stretch I can remember since 2023. (I'm a travel journalist, in case you didn't know—along with product reviews, style, etc,.) I've just been extra appreciative for O'ahu and this period lately.

Long-winded way of saying that I am excited to head to my annual family vacation in Canada in a few weeks. It very much looks like I will be working during it (genuine vacation is rare for me), but even WFH at the cottage unwinds me like nothing else. Both my twin sister and I agree that it's one of the few places we fully relax.

setting the scene, because there is nothing I love more than an outdoor shower!

The Current Playlists

Black Island 2024

It sounds like summer! Like motown and country and like a 9pm sunset making the lake water pearly. This is the collaborative playlist from my sisters and I last year, and a good primer for the up-ahead. It, of course, includes some JULY 2024 playlist fixations that did not make it to the blog because the new design was under construction last year. Some favorites, both time capsules and evergreen:

Notable Songs (Evergreen):

• Midnight Train to Georgia — Gladys Knight & the Pips
• Howling at Nothing — Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
• Leave the Pieces — The Wreckers
• Hurricane — The Band of Heathens
• Heaven Can Wait — Dean Martin
• Just to See You Smile — Tim McGraw
• Talladega — Eric Church
• Record Year — Eric Church
• I Run to You — Lady A
• Night Moves — Bob Seger
• Chicken Fried — Zac Brown Band
• (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher — Jackie Wilson

Notable Songs (Last Summer Time Capsule):

• Solo — Myles Smith
• A Bar Song (Tipsy) — Shaboozey
• The Door — Teddy Swims
• My Fault (ft. Noah Cyrus) — Shaboozey, Noah Cyrus
• There's Your Trouble — The Chicks
• I Just Want a Lover — Noah Cyrus
• We Chanting — Kealamauloa Alcon

Black Island 2025

My siblings don't know I've already started on this year's, but I've been adding to it as I hear a song that's like "Oooh, that's a Black Island song." This year, I've been especially into Shaboozey, Nathaniel Rateliff, Billy Currington (for some reason?), and then there are some constant Grace staples like Eric Church and Leon Bridges.

Notable Songs:

• VEGAS (A Color Show) — Shaboozey
• Heads Carolina, Tails California — Jo Dee Messina
• Wide Open Spaces — The Chicks
• Don't It — Billy Currington
• Would You Go With Me — Josh Turner
• Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay — Otis Redding
• Tomorrow — Shakey Graves

ALL-TIME FAVORITES

Admittedly, this favorites playlist is so old that it's majorly outdated. In some ways, it's time capsule-ish in that it captures a specific sequence of years. If I were to vet it right now, I'd remove or add different songs, but for that reason—I should leave as-is, for posterity.

Of course, there are some gems on here. The other day, I turned it on because I just sort of forgot that it existed, and loved some of the moments the songs dragged me through. So I figured I'd share a snippet.

Notable Songs:

• Trippin' — Futurebirds
• I Wish I Missed My Ex — Mahalia
• Juvenescence — Verzache
• Sympathy for the Devil — The Rolling Stones
• Deep Dark Valley — Jon Bryant
• Losing Keys — Jack Johnson
• Just Kids — Mat Kearney
• Your Song — Ellie Goulding
• Call Me — Saint Paul & the Broken Bones
• When I Get My Hands on You — The New Basement Tapes
• Our Love — Nico & Vinz
• You and Tequila — Kenny Chesney, Grace Potter

Aside from that, I've basically had my gym playlists and cormac fucking mccarthy or SUN GUILT II (COVE II) (since I very much plot my books musically) on repeat.

It's a little wild, but I haven't gone back to the MOUNTAIN SOUNDS or MILLER. In general, those two playlists comprise the bulk of my "daily listening" music taste i.e. folky singer-songwriter—but it's been so nice to get a break from that atmosphere, and I think it'll be fresh and exciting to go back to that mode after a break. It's just funny because those two playlists were on repeat for approximately five-plus years, so the need for sensory variation within my process is so obvious.

P.S. Did I mention Words Like Silver is on Spotify?

I've been doing voice notes lately, which might book club or riff off of a recent review or read. I like them, I don't think too hard about them, but they do an effective job—I think—stoking a layered conversation based on whatever I've been covering on the blog itself. I like calling them voice notes rather than podcast episodes because it removes the pressure to be too polished with them, and that's helped me build a new creative muscle.

Yesterday, I recorded a musing on East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which absolutely just became one of my favorite books. I talked about love and understanding, projecting or creating "the idea of" somebody, and how we decide we actually know those we love. So if you're more of a listener than a reader, it may be up your alley. (I have thirteen followers on Spotify, and each one of them makes me so beyond happy. I know this for myself, but there's something gratifying to me about the genuine knowledge that I don't run WLS for the stats. I just get so much satisfaction from it.)