For various reasons lately I've been nostalgic about the days of playlist curation, by which I mean the years from middle school through late college that I spent painstakingly crafting mix tapes and then mix CDs for my friends and crushes and, like, people I had just met, in order to show them how cool and fun and clever and adorable I was (worked every time, I swear). One of those reasons is this entry in NPR Music's Roséwave series written by friend-of-the-blog (lol) Margaret H. Willison, aka @mrsfridaynext. Margaret is clearly a devotee of the art of the playlist and you can sense that she had a lot of fun putting together this piece.
narrative playlist storytelling—what a queen 👑
The other big reason is that I've been watching some television that makes extremely good and thoughtful use of music, specifically the new Sharp Objects miniseries on HBO (see also the Big Little Lies adaptation from the same executive producer that came out last year) and a rewatch of Mad Men, which is even better than I remembered, beeteedubs.
I LOVE YOU, PEGGY
In another world, music supervisor for TV sounds like an amazing job that I bet I'd be great at, but that is not this world, so instead I just made you all a playlist of some stuff I've been enjoying, and that I think sounds like driving around with windows down in the summer (in a variety of different moods and across many times of day). Most of these songs are not new releases (I'm just not that hip), but I hope at least a few will be new to you and that you might enjoy (and think I'm cool and fun and clever and adorable). And of course I'm always looking for new music suggestions, so feel free to share your new faves and tastefully curated playlists with me in the comments or on social media. Happy summering, all!