The '95 Playlist + What's To Come
A look back and a look forward for Quarter Notes
It’s been an absolute joy discovering the music of my birth year over the last few months of Quarter Notes. So in celebration of 1995, here’s a 112 song survey playlist I’ve put together. I’ve tried to highlight a lot of new favorite discoveries while keeping a healthy dose of what defined 1995 in real time. I think it’s a blast. Hope you enjoy!
I ended listening to around 100 albums from 1995 during this journey, and as we wrap up the year, I also want to share my favorites. Some are old favorites, others are new discoveries I will absolutely be returning to:
94Diskont - Oval
Alien Lanes - Guided By Voices
The Bends - Radiohead
Daydream - Mariah Carey
Different Class - Pulp
Do You Want More?!!!??! - The Roots
I Should Coco - Supergrass
The Infamous - Mobb Deep
Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette
Liquid Swords - GZA
Me Against the World - 2Pac
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… - Raekwon
Post - Björk
Soul Food - Goodie Mob
Til Shiloh - Buju Banton
Tindersticks (II) - Tindersticks
To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot - Sparklehorse
Washing Machine - Sonic Youth
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory - Oasis
Wrecking Ball - Emmylou Harris
And so with that, we’ve put a cap on 2020. Thank God. Now as we look ahead to 2021, I want to set some expectations for the shape of Quarter Notes to come.
Quarter Notes was initially created as a weekly newsletter focused on music turning 25 years old. While I loved writing with that focus the last few months, I’ve found myself wanting to broaden the scope and write about new releases, older music, whatever comes to mind. As I look back on my Quarter Notes entries, a running thread emerges among my favorites: I love writing about the reasons we make music (like when I wrote about Music As An Act of Thanksgiving), the ways we make music (like when I wrote about Noise Rock), and the ways in which listeners deeply connect to that music (like when I wrote about Expectations).
I’ve been thinking a lot about the scene in the new Disney/Pixar movie Soul where (spoilers) the protagonist, Joe, finally feels the connection between the mundanities of life (a tree seed, a bagel quarter) and the music he creates. Music doesn’t work without life; life doesn’t work without music. They profoundly inform each other. And so, to dive deeper in our understanding of one subject certainly should enhance our understanding of the other. This is what I want to focus on in Quarter Notes.
I also love the idea of writing in a series format, something I did early this year for a project on prayer in hip-hop. And while there will most likely be some one-off essays (as I don’t have a series in mind just yet), I will attempt to expand on topics over longer periods of time in 2021.
All this being said, in 2021, Quarter Notes will look a little different than it did in 2020. Going forward, I plan on releasing biweekly essays rather than weekly. Full subscriberrs will still continue to receive the Bonus Notes monthly recap in addition to the biweekly essays. For 2021, I hope to focus on what makes music tick and why we love it. So I may write a series on an overarching theme within a genre, or a recurring lyrical theme in a particular artist’s work, or why different types of music make us feel a particular way. I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I look forward to the journey. I hope you might look forward to it too!
See you in a few weeks!