10. Music for Running
I just recently started running in an effort to hold off extinction. So far, nothing gets me moving like Art Angels by Grimes. Standouts: Kill V. Maim, World Princess Pt. 2, Flesh Without Blood
9. Music for writing
Admittedly, I haven’t done much writing this year, and music to write to typically depends on what is I’m writing, but when I have had the inspiration I’ve usually had Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear pouring through my headphones. Standouts: Chateau Lobby #4, The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt., Bored In The USA, Holy Shit
8. Music for designing / tasking
For design and layout work, I need music that I can throw on, maybe absentmindedly sing along to, but not be (too) distracted by. This year, that’s been a lot of music, but the one that springs to mind first is Poison Season by Destroyer. Standouts: Dream Lover, The River, Times Square
7. Music for editing
Here, I need something that I can totally throw on and into the background. Preferably something without vocals. My old standbys are the soundtracks to Upstream Color and The Social Network. This year, I added The Leftovers Season 1 Soundtrack by Max Richter to the mix. Okay, the record actually came out in 2014 but it was December. So close enough. No standouts. This record stays on beginning to end, because that’s kind of the point. Side note, the music for season two was fantastic — much like the season itself. Get caught up if you’re not.
6. Music for not remembering
It’s been a relatively good and fun year, but it hasn’t been without it’s stresses and heartbreaks. Jamie XX’s In Colour has done a surprisingly good job of distracting me from the shit I sometimes need to be distracted from. Standouts: Stranger In A Room, Gosh, I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times).
5. Music for not forgetting
And of course, sometimes the best way to deal with stress / heartache / depression / the blues / whatever you want to call it is to face it head on. There’s no one record I turned to this year, but tracks from The Decemberists’ What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World usually made their way into my listening. Standouts: Lake Song, 12/17/12
4. Music for when i want to hear my bloody valentine and sonic youth but can’t decide which one
Leaper by Beliefs. Seriously, this album sort of nails both of them in equal measure. And in doing so it creates something new at the same time. Something familiar and unfamiliar all at once. Standouts: 1992, Leaper, Ghosts
3. Music for starting the day
I mostly work from home, so Earl Sweatshirt’s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside felt (at least title-wise) appropriate. But I dig the way the album starts of kinda lazy and more and less stays that way. It eases in, just like a day should. And it ends with a track featuring Vince Staples, which is perfect for number one on this list. Standouts: Huey, Faucet, Wool
2. Music for ending the day
Blood by Lianne La Havas. Good wind-down music. Goes well with a glass of whatever and making it feel like you did enough that day. And even if you didn’t, well you’re listening to Lianne La Havas and learning to chill, and sometimes that’s enough. Standouts: Ghost, Wonderful, Unstoppable
1. Music for everything in between / everything else / everything
Summer ’06 by Vince Staples. I listened to this record more than any other this year. It put me in good moods. It fed me when I was in bad moods. I sang along. I moved my head. I turned it up and rarely turned it off. Standouts: Norf Norf, Loca, Lemme Know, Surf
Troy Palmer is the founding / managing editor and creative director of this here publication. He also writes sometimes. His next story, a nonfiction piece about a time he met Iggy Pop and which may or may not make mention of an alleged attempted bank robbery, will be in our forthcoming music anthology, A Mixtape of Words.
