Curating Playlists Is The New Journaling

Back in January of this year (2026) I decided I wanted to make monthly playlists that highlighted the songs that mattered to me as well as the songs I kept on repeat for each month. These are notably not the same thing, as often the songs that left the biggest impression on me can be very upsetting to have on repeat for a whole month and I like to pretend I’m working on my mental health more than I am. 

My playlist for January I titled “January Notes” and it ended up being an hour and forty minutes long. A lot of the songs on it ended up being more directly political then I normally listen(ed) too. Some highlighted songs around the political theme of January's playlist include “Have you heard the news today?” By Earth to Eve, “fuck ice” by Chrissa Sparkles, and “Don’t Look Away (ICEy Roads) by Val Merza. I also had just watched K-POP Demon Hunters under the recommendation of a cousin of mine who is still too young to be able to read, so “Golden” and “How It’s Done” from the movie’s soundtrack ended up on the list for January too. Some of the general artists I listen to regularly made it as well including Chappell Roan, Kenzie Cait, Gracie Abrams, and Maisie Peters.

For February I ended up titling the playlist “February Thoughts” and it contained some repeat songs from January Notes. Those include “Twin Size Mattress” by The Front Bottoms, “sound in my head” by Chloe Lilac, and Paris Paloma’s cover of “It’s Called: Freefall” originally by Rainbow Kitten Surprise. February’s playlist also includes some long time favorites including “I Like Mondays” by Taylor Bickett, “I Don’t Want It” by Crawlers, “Serotonin” by girl in red, and “Rather Be feat. Jess Glynne” by Clean Bandit. It also includes new artists I had quite literally never listened to until February including biz barclay and her song “Dead Man’s Daughter”, Ella Red and her song “Representative”, and Beach Bunny and their songs “Prom Queen” and “Sports.” I was also doing some heavy work in therapy back in February which means the tone for February’s playlist is.. a bit more heavy then I expected it to be. As for artists I’ve already liked for a while prior to February I haven’t already mentioned, that list includes Xana and Twenty One Pilots.

It’s still March when I’m writing this, and I’ve already gone ahead and titled March’s playlist “March Vibes.” It contains a similar pattern to January and February.  Two songs were carried over from February that were also on January’s playlist: “Twin Size Mattress” by The Front Bottoms, and Paris Paloma’s cover of “It’s Called: Freefall.” I also had more that were relevant to current events in March  such as “Miyazaki” and “Labour: the cacophony” both by Paris Paloma. I also ended up listening to the soundtrack for season two of Arcane (the TV show) and some songs are highlighted from that as the reason I was listening was due to me experimenting with writing horror. I also have some entirely new artists such as Griff and their song “Earl Grey Tea”, Sushi Soucy and their song “Rock in God’s Shoe", as well as Chase Petra and their song "Prologue.” For artists I’ve liked long term,  I don’t actually have any I haven’t already  mentioned other  than a few songs by Noah Kahan and “Hayloft II” by Mother Mother.  Because it’s not quite done yet, the playlist for March as of writing this is currently sitting at an hour and twenty minutes.

This has been really interesting to do so far as a year long project! I know folks talk about how yearly recaps can feel like they didn’t highlight things accurately, which is part of why I wanted to give this project my best effort. I love to journal and create art around how my life is going, so this playlist project is just an extension of that. After writing this article, I’m considering also making my own yearly recap playlist just to be able to highlight meaningful songs beyond just the ones that had the most listens.