XOXO Leah: My On-Repeat Playlist
Artists I’ve been loving recently
By Leah Keith
Hello St. Kate’s, and welcome back to your favorite ever advice column, xoxo Leah. These two weeks apart have been challenging, but don’t worry, I have more advice for you all!!! This week, we will be diving into one of my favorite topics: music. As the co-president of Swifties United and an all-around opinionated teenage girl, I could talk for ages about this topic. However, I will try my very best to answer this question without rambling too much:
“What are you listening to these days? I am missing music in my life that is serving.”
With Taylor Swift releasing a new album over the weekend, I need to start off with a “Midnights” discussion. So, let’s talk about it. Since Miss Swift just released this album over the weekend, I have not been able to fully digest the album in its entirety. However, I will try my best to give an overview of my thoughts. My credentials for these opinions: I run a Taylor Swift club, my older sister had a swiftlybae tumblr account and Taylor Swift followed it. I am smart.
My thoughts on Midnights …
I love the dark pop ‘80s sound of this album—if “1989” and “Reputation” had an emo baby, that would be “Midnights.” Although this is not one of her most lyrically profound albums, I love the vibes of each song.
I struggle to name favorite songs since the album is still so fresh, but I will say “Karma,” “Sweet Nothing” and “Mastermind” are initial favs. I can sense my song opinions shifting with each listen, so I will not go into any more specifics.
Taylor Swift is SO millennial in this album. Her singing “draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man” made me gasp, laugh, cry, etc.
Lana Del Rey deserved a full verse, not just back up vocals. Taylor Swift always does this thing where she gives other women in the industry back-up vocals while giving men full verses, with Phoebe Bridgers in her song “Nothing New” being the only exception. Taylor Swift is so weird.
The sound of this album is incredibly different from her last two albums, so I understand if some people do not like it. However, I am a pop girly at heart, so I will be streaming.
Those are my initial disorganized thoughts!!!! Cannot wait to listen to “Midnights” more because so far I am loving it.
The rest of this rec list will not be as in-depth as my Midnights review, but I just needed to get that off my chest. Now, I will give you my favorite artists/albums and a brief description of why I am obsessed.
MUNA
MUNAAAAA!!!!! My favorite alt-pop happy gay music. This was my album of the summer and let me tell you, I became hotter, funnier, cooler, overall more content with life after listening. Seeing them in concert changed my life.
Hard to pick favs but
“What I Want”
“Anything But Me”
“Solid”
“Loose Garment”
Flo
Speaking of summer songs, FLO released their debut EP during mid-July, and OMG I could not stop listening. You might recognize “Cardboard Box” as their viral song, but you should definitely check out the rest of their EP. Their debut music is already incredible, so I can’t wait to hear more from them in the future!
The EP has 5 songs, so just listen to all of them :))))
boygenius
If you know me, you know I love everyone from boygenius. Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker??? So good. Although these are probably my favorite artists, I did not want this review to simply be a boygenius rec list, so I am giving you my current fav songs from each artist.
boygenius: “Ketchum, ID”
Phoebe Bridgers: “Killer”
Lucy Dacus: “Christine”
Julien Baker: “Go Home”
Haim
Okay, I won’t be the first to admit that I started listening to Haim when Taylor Swift featured them in “No Body No Crime,” but I wish I started listening sooner! Again, Taylor Swift only gave them back-up vocals. Interesting … Anyway, I love this sister girl group so so so much.
Always on repeat
“Don’t Wanna”
“Gasoline”
“Man from the Magazine”
Julia Jacklin
Julia Jacklin released this album a few months ago, and I immediately became obsessed. I just love the way she describes intimacy in both romantic and platonic friendship—incredible. As the only artist on my rec list who’s not a part of a band, trust me when I say Julia Jacklin is amazing on her own.
Current favs
“Lydia Wears a Cross”
“Ignore Tenderness”
“Be Careful with Yourself”
Okay, I definitely did not cover all of my favorite artists, but honestly, I could talk about this for ages, so I’ll stop myself. My list consists of artists from both my summer and fall playlists, but you can definitely listen to whatever you want all year round. For example, Muna. I will be streaming Muna 24/7/365 because duh. I love them so much.
Now that you know what I have been listening to lately, I want to know what you all are listening to! So, here’s a link to a collaborative playlist on Spotify where you can add your own songs. You can either add songs or just listen or both—whatever works best for you. Hope you enjoy!
I cannot wait to see what we come up with!
xoxo Leah
