a spotify biopsy

short lil nuggets about all 1,749 (and counting) songs in my library written in the time it takes to listen to them 

[spotifybiopsy]

18) 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

[spotifybiopsy]

17) You Get What You Give - New Radicals

God, I really dislike this song. I will write this swiftly so it won’t play any longer. The only reason it’s 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’s annoying, screechy and it just makes me think of a shopping mall escalator and I cannot figure out why.

3.2/10

[spotifybiopsy]

16) 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

[spotifybiopsy]

15) You Make My Dreams (Remastered) - 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 having sex with the world’s most disappointing actress. 

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.

7/10

[spotifybiopsy]

14) You See Me - Childish Gambino

With “This Is America” pushing Glover to some NEXT level shit, it reminded me to head back to Camp, which is still my favorite project of his despite Pitchfork shitting on it if I remember right. Could be wrong, don’t really have time to look it up. It’s not his uh most lyrically and stylistically impressive song, but it still never fails to get me pumped up pre-workout. Also- the line “I’ve got swag out my ass” is absurd and bad and amazing.

6.4/10

[spotifybiopsy]

13) You’re Welcome - Wavves

Oh let’s 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 Nathan announced “there are more of us than THEM” and shit went bonkers. He also talked about jacking off the moment he got on stage. 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.

7.8/10

[spotifybiopsy]

12) Young - Air Review

A nice lil whistly (?) tune that is a little too generic for my taste. I like most 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 boring synthier stuff I listened to beginning of high school.

5.2/10

[spotifybiopsy]

11) Young & Wild - The Strumbellas

I fucking hate this album cover and I’m not quite sure 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 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.

6.3/10

[spotifybiopsy]

10) Young Chasers - Circa Waves

Circa Waves makes me think 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.

6.8/10

[spotifybiopsy]

9) ZIPPER - BROCKHAMPTON

Certainly not the first song I listened to from the group, as that honor goes to BOOGIE, but nonetheless still makes my car bounce whenever it comes on. Any song that samples a police siren always weridly intoxicates me?? LMK what is going on with that. The flow on ZIPPER is tasty enough that it draws me back time and time again.

7.2/10

[spotifybiopsy]

8) 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

[spotifybiopsy]

7) Younger - Seinabo Sey

G o       d DAMN. 

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. 

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

[spotifybiopsy]

6) 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 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

[spotifybiopsy]

5) Your Time (feat. KAYTRANADA) - Nick Murphy

FKA as Chet Faker, Nick Murphy always delivers music that feels slick and sharply produced. Since the transition from his previous alias, I feel less less connected. “Gold”, “Talk Is Cheap”, and “Melt” all remind me of late night drives, alone on roads in Honeoye Falls. There’s a surreal element of the soft piano and undulating beats that put you immediately at ease. “Your Time” is not that song, and it’s okay, because it isn’t trying to be. It feels like coming down from a long high, crashing all at once. 

6.5/10

[spotifybiopsy]

4) Youth - Glass Animals

I am always heavily conflicted when rifling through How To Be A Human Being. “Youth” is arguably their most well known single off of the album, warranting critical attention and commercial success, but for me, it struggles to click with me like so much of this album did. For me, it moves in too many different directions at once. When I find a track I really enjoy, I can usually visualize it. I’m sitting in the back of my car with the roof open on a muggy night, I’m slow dancing in a basement, or maybe laying in the college green. “Youth” conjures up none of those illusions, and it makes me bitter I cannot love this like I love so many songs on this album.

5.5/10

[spotifybiopsy]

3) Youth - Daughter

Aw hell, this song kills me every listen. I always think I’m tough enough not to take a feels trip. “Youth” has a double impact for me because Kweku Collins sampled it in “Lonely Lullabies”, so the first few seconds always get me super excited. Am I going to be vibing now, or am I going to be questioning every life choice I’ve ever made? It’s usually the latter, not that I’m complaining. Daughter was one of the first bands I stumbled across on Spotify, and they’ve always remained a classic in my mind. 

The cutout of the vocals for the first somber chorus always makes me feel like my stomach is sinking through my back, straight into the ground. Beautiful and haunting, a ghost of past love, “Youth” always strikes a chord with me.

8.5/10

[spotifybiopsy]

2) Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Okay, so I always wrote off Yeah Yeah Yeahs because “Maps” greatly upset me for being an underwhelming song that was revered by an absurd number of people. (Important- The Fray’s cover will always be vastly superior in my mind). 

The album cover of the egg being crushed is still one of my favorite pieces of album artwork I’ve seen on Spotify. The intro always pulls me in right away, with Karen O’s shaky sounding vocals catching my ear. Beyond that, there’s not a lot I can say for why I’ve kept this in my library. It’s decent, yes, but it doesn’t have any value to me, and would never be a track I would snag to make a playlist for anyone. 

4/10