March 6, 2024

226 That What Is Not

  1. "Human" The Human League; this may have appeared on one of my mix tapes over the last 30 years, but sometimes I have to say eff it. This year I learned that this song was written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the team that produced those Janet Jackson classics. Totally blew my mind!
  2. "Hawaii" Public Image, Ltd. A sweet love song from John Lydon to his wife! I had to include a non-caustic song from PiL.
  3. "Right Back To It", Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman
  4. "All I Want Is You" "So Cruel", U2 after seeing U2 live at the Sphere last month, I am eager to include U2 songs that have never appeared on one of my playlists. I did a perfunctory search through my mixtapes for "All I Want Is You", didn't find it, added it here, then three weeks later, I was listening to my ninth mix, from June 1993, and there it was! I musn't beat myself up for forgetting a choice I made 30 years ago...so I replaced it with "So Cruel".
  5. "Me and Mrs Jones" Billy Paul
  6. "It's Only Love" surely a 'work song' from The Beatles, but I find it charming. It feels like Lennon tried to salvage a weak song by adding some lightness bordering on humor to a song that may feel regressive compared to his other recent serious songs like "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away". 
  7. "Missing You" Diana Ross; inspired to include this after hearing it on the Hit Parade podcast
  8. "Head Over Heels/Broken" One of my favorite songs of the era, I was surprised to find this Tears for Fears song has never appeared on a mix tape of mine? Maybe I didn't try to hard to rule it out...
  9. "Texas Hold 'Em" I thought doing a Verizon ad for the Super Bowl was below Beyoncé - she's too big a star to stoop that low - but it did inspire me to include her country-ish single.
  10. "Shakin' Shakin' Shakes", Los Lobos
  11. "The Steps", Haim
  12. "One Hit (To The Body)" I just won an online auction for an original vinyl pressing, still sealed in its red cellophane, of this marginal Rolling Stones LP.
  13. "New Romantics" Taylor Swift
  14. "It's Only Love" Bryan Adams & Tina Turner; another single I suspect has appeared on a mix tape before, but I didn't look to hard for it.
  15. "Boy's A Liar Pt. 2" PinkPantheress, Ice Spice; appearing in the luxury box next to Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl inspired me to include this song.
  16. "Making A Fire" Foo Fighters; Dave Grohl may be the nicest rocker in the business, but I find a lot of Foo Fighters songs feel "samey" over the last 20 years. I enjoyed reading his memoir (thanks Em for the Christmas present) so I'm trying to include a few more Foo songs from this century.
  17. "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone" always room for a energetic Aretha Franklin song!
  18. "Cupid" (Twin Ver.) FIFTY FIFTY; I generally don't like K-Pop, I often find it to be the worst variety of prepackaged corporate pop. I hope that's not too xenophobic of me? This song is too catchy to ignore.
  19. "Cast Iron Skillet"; Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Love Isbell, trying to dive deep into his catalog this spring in advance of his appearance at Solid Sound in June! Not totally confident in this song's placement within this playlist.
  20. "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" R.E.M.

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