Monday Mixtape, Vol. 84

I am getting married in 12 days. It's a surreal feeling to finally be headed somewhere I also dreamed. She's a very special person, and all I know is I feel warm when she is near. I've been working a lot on the music for our wedding, and I will share some of the playlists to our wedding in a few weeks.

All I know is throughout my time with her, music has played an integral role in our relationship, in our life. She has an unending passion to explore what she doesn't know, which makes me so happy when she falls in love with Tame Impala, Kendrick Lamar, and loves seeing Radiohead live. And I've learned a lot of country diddy's that I never knew.

As usual, I have curated a list of songs to play for this week, many drastically different than the next.

LCD Soundsystem came out of retirement (let's be honest, no one actually expected them to retire. No one believes music retirements anymore, and I've become more skeptical of them as money grabs to go on farewell tours. I'm sure some are sincere and others aren't) and released a great album which I still need to digest, but I was running recently when this song came on, and I had the "DAMN, who is this??" moment. Great track. 

The War On Drugs released another incredible album that seamlessly plays from front to back. The modern day Springsteen, or that's what some say. 

I'll put basically every single Frank Ocean song on Monday Mixtape, so this is another example of his brilliance. 

Bryson Tiller's sophomore album was a bit disappointing given how much I loved his first album. Nonetheless, there are some jams on his new one, particularly "High Stakes," his Jay-Z-like "December 4th" coming of age track. 

XXXTENTACION gets the annual award for worst name. I can't pronounce it nor understand it and I just feel old reading it. But I do like this track. 

Happy Monday all, love somebody! 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 36

Anderson Paak’s Malibu was the first album I listened to in 2016. It immediately became a Top 25 Album of the year for me. There’s no way this album will fall off the list. The real question is how high can it go? Paak’s influences are varied and his nasal rapping and sweet singing may bring comparison’s to other double-threat rappers, but his sound is his own. What a cool album. If “Celebrate” doesn’t get you feeling great, I don’t know what song will.

Lola Marsh is a new band I know very little about save for their four song EP. “You’re Mine” is my favorite of the four songs. 

If you like either of the Allan Kingdom tracks I’ve put on the last two mixtapes, check out his album.

I just started listening to Bryson Tiller, the musical man-child of Drake and Future with Miguel as an older brother. “Rambo” is one of my favorite songs from his debut album, but I love his plodding beats and auto-tuned but still human vocals. 

Abi Reimold is for all my rock fans. She kicks some ass. 

I read about the young Sunflower Bean in the recent Rolling Stone. Their debut album is coming out soon, and I thought “Human Ceremony” was a trippy track.

My (work) life has been crazy busy for the past three months, and I have not been able to provide a ton of content on here outside of the mixtape, so I apologize for what has become the new normal, but thank you for reading and listening!