a spotify autopsy

thoughts/feelings/opinions/anecdotes and the ilk about all 2,372 (and counting) songs in my spotify library written in the time it takes to listen to them. sorted from Z-A.

[spotifyautopsy]

26) Your New Twin Sized Bed - Death Cab For Cutie

The ultimate break-up song that can bring back old memories of hurt and anger with the first strum.

I find something special and different in Gibbard’s vivid description of the bed as the end of the relationship. There are hundreds upon hundreds of songs that try and strike a chord with the lovesick who have been heartbroken- none are quite like “Your New Twin Sized Bed”. In a much more refined sense, this song makes me think of that Facebook post that is supposed to be sad: “Baby shoes for sale- never worn”. You really don’t know the whole story, but it tries to convey the message in a unique fashion. The baby shoes don’t resonate with me- but the bed does.

8.0/10

[spotifyautopsy]

25) You Could Be My Girl - Shwayze and Cisco

This was certainly on one of numerous backyard playlists. I loved to make these sprawling spreads of songs that I would play on my iPod shuffle when I was in middle school and bLARE them through our outdoor speakers while I attempted to do a flip on my trampoline when my mom was away.

There is not much going on here- it sounds like how a Corona taste. Beachy and not much else.

5.9/10

[spotifyautopsy]

24) You Don’t Have To Believe Me - Eric Hutchinson

I don’t really know if Eric Hutchinson is just a soulful, cooler Jason Mraz but I think he was. Who even knows? Found this track because I would share iTunes with my sister when I was in middle school and all of her music would get downloaded onto my iPod. She preferred “Okay It’s Alright With Me”, I still like the horns in this song much better. The song’s sound as a whole is not something I would find myself gravitating toward today, but I can still respect a bit of nostalgia once and awhile.

6.9/10

[spotifyautopsy]

23) You Get What You Give - New Radicals

God, I really dislike this song. I will write this swiftly so it will not play any longer. The only reason it is in my library is because I made a 90s one-hit-wonder playlist six years ago because that VH1 countdown of the top 100 90s songs kept looping at like 7am, which was when I was getting ready for school.

It is annoying, screechy and it just makes me think of a shopping mall escalator and I cannot figure out why.

3.2/10

[spotifyautopsy]

22) You Go Down Smooth - Lake Street Dive

I can’t even remember how I first started listening to Lake Street Dive- I do remember trying to replicate the album cover my senior year at a cross-country banquet. Regardless, this is still one of my all-time favorites. Her voice is got some like DEEP stuff to it and the whole bass line makes me want to get up. The little breakdown at the end where it like accelerates raPIDLY and all of a sudden it launches back into the chorus is one of my favorite 30 second sections of a song ever. A true American tragedy that tickets to see them at the Jazz Fest are $40 and I am currently exclusively living off of rice and beans.

8.7/10

[spotifyautopsy]

21) You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates

This is (500) Days of Summer and that is all this song will ever be to me. It will only be JGL celebrating sleeping with the world’s most disappointing actress Zooey Deschanel. That movie was also a part of my early adolescence that I look back at think “woof that is problematic and kind of gross”. 

It also reminds me of a Canadian rap group called Down With Webster sampling Rich Girl and simply butchering it, but not enough that 8th grade me didn’t think it was tiiiiiiiight as hell.

7.5/10

[spotifyautopsy]

20) You See Me - Childish Gambino

With “This Is America” pushing Glover to the next level of public conciousness, it reminded me to head back to Camp, which used to be my favorite project of his despite Pitchfork shitting on it if I remember right. Could be wrong, do not really have time to look it up. It’s not his uh most lyrically and stylistically impressive song- like I enjoyed at one point in my young life Camp but am a little less proud of that fact now.

4.4/10

[spotifyautopsy]

19) You’re Welcome - Wavves

Time to hit the MF yeet button. I will always have a special spot for this song and album because I saw Wavves live once and it descended essentially into a riot where frontman Nathan Williams announced “there are more of us than THEM” and things went considerably south after that. He also talked about masturbation the moment he got on stage. Also he jumped into the crowd to fight a security guard who had begun to choke a man. It was the first show he had done after the release of the album, so you could say it went well.

Song overall is certainly not my favorite of Wavves, but nonetheless it’s still a good jam. Partially because of the riot. Maybe all because of the riot.

7.8/10

[spotifyautopsy]

18) You’ve Got Me - The Greeting Committee

Brass always grows on me on repeat lessons. I held a disdain for the vocals on this track for quite some time before realizing one day that I was smooth-stepping my way to class to the beat unconsciously. The voice crack on “I love you so much” makes the song feel like it was nervously sung at a college coffee hour. This is good music, I like this.

7.7/10

[spotifyautopsy]

17) Young - Air Review

A nice lil whistly (?) tune that is a little too generic for my taste. I like most of my music to stand out in some way, and I guess “Young” fails to do that for me. Seems to fit in perfectly with all of the plainer indie stuff I listened to beginning of high school.

5.2/10

[spotifyautopsy]

16) Young & Wild - The Strumbellas

I fucking hate this album cover and have yet to discover a legitimate reason why.

Like I dislike it enough that I spent 54 seconds trying to find it when I only have like 4 minutes to explain this. anyWAYS it’s a very pleasant song with a nice shouty chorus that makes me think if someone spiced up a Lumineers concert, so if you like your folk rock with a little more stomp and clap than the bearded man drinking IPA next to you, it might be worth your time to check out. 

6.2/10

[spotifyautopsy]

15) Young Chasers - Circa Waves

Circa Waves makes me think of a British version of Hockey Dad, which gets me yoked everytime. I originally stumbled on this because of the song T-Shirt Weather that a friend of mine from freshman year of HS showed me, as she said “We have Sweater Weather in the fall and now we have T-Shirt Weather!” Anyways, song is too short for it to be a real ripper in my eyes, like Wavves can get away with that style but not quite sure here.

6.9/10

[spotifyautopsy]

14) Young Volcanoes - Fall Out Boy

Okay- I might have found this while playing a knock-off of Flappy Bird? Which is weird and embarassing in its own right, but REGARDLESS, I think this is my favorite track off of Save Rock And Roll. The line “We will teach you how to make boys next door out of assholes” is certainly one I remember loving to maybe belt out alone in my car on 5:30am car rides to school. Angsty 11th grade me looks on in pride.

6.8/10

[spotifyautopsy]

13) Younger - Seinabo Sey

Seinabo Sey always sends those kind of shivers down my spine that make me think of late-night starry drives with the windows rolled down. The build-up to the chorus everytime makes me stand a little taller, believe in myself a little more, and shoot a little higher. Of course, this is fueled by existential dread as all things in my life are: “Some answers are better left unspoken / When you know you ain't getting any / Younger Younger Younger”. 

I remember seeing a stat on my Spotify Year In Review for 2015 that had me listening to “Younger” 17 times in one day. I think that summarizes the memories and feelings I have for this song.

8.8/10

[spotifyautopsy]

12) Your Body Is a Weapon - The Wombats

Hands down, the loudest show I have ever been to. I saw the Wombats in Buffalo shortly before I started college and it remains one of the defining shows I have had the fortune to attend. I remember hearing the initial staccatoed (not a word but rolling with it) drum kick in and the mood of the bar rose. At the towering chorus, it all surmounts to giving into the one you love. There is this super weird back-and-forth dynamic occurring throughout the song- Matt Murphy sings almost simultaneously of dropping everything for his love yet demands to be stopped, evident by the repeated outro: “Someone protect me from the one I love”.

8.6/10

[spotifyautopsy]

11) Your Dog - Soccer Mommy

Sophie Allison does some awesome stuff on this album. “Your Dog” included. The majority of her music is inauspicious in the sense that you are not particularly upset by what she puts out- but that is what makes “Your Dog” all that more fucked up in my eyes. It is a tale of a manipulative and abusive relationship and her desire to be pulled back. Jarring would be how I would describe the lyrics’ relationship to the actual production- over a lo-fi sound, she ends the song with this: “I want a love that lets me breathe / I’ve been choking on your leash”. Woof.

7.9/10

[spotifyautopsy]

10) Your English Is Good - Tokyo Police Club

I went through a phase of music my freshman year of high school where I seemed to exclusively listen to Tokyo Police Club’s “Breakneck Speed”. I eventually ruined the song (albeit briefly) by playing it aggressively whenever my teenage self felt the slightest bit melancholy, and thus I found myself exploring Elephant Shell and finding “Your English Is Good”. In my eyes, it is a funky jam since it would never be one I would ever rattle off on my list of favorite songs, but I always find myself gravitating to it. Fourteen year-old me would be proud that this is still one of my go-to’s.

7.5/10