I don’t know exactly when did I get the habit of creating playlists. I just love doing it that I already created 35 of them on my Spotify. My love for music started when my father gave me a USB stick MP3 player when I was in elementary school. Back then I didn’t know what genre is and I just listened to the files my father put inside of it. Classic 2000s popular songs as I recall. Like M2M’s The Day You Went Away, Evanescence’s Bring Me to Life, and Linkin Park’s Numb. Now that technology of streaming services like Spotify is here, I don’t get the hassle of moving files to music player devices. But surely it would be much cooler if I were born in the 80s because I would go everywhere with a Walkman listening to my own mixtape.

Maybe, movies that have really good soundtracks like 500 Days of Summer and The Hunger Games series did influence how I listen to music. Because I almost never shuffle my music. It has to be in a sequence that shares the same vibe. Or maybe, I just like being delusional, thinking that my life is cinematic with the help of music of my own curation. Nevertheless, I’m excited to share them with you.

melumah was initially a request from my friend, Jo, who asked for some recommendations of music to wind down. Turns out I’m very much fond of this playlist in the end. It features my #1 song of 2020, An Invisible Bridge Above the Ocean by Bin Idris which has been very helpful when my sleep fragmentation recurs. You should cop the super cute merch of the song. I already did! I added two tracks of nature sound as an intro and interlude to give it some peaceful notes.

The second one, wounds forever, is more of a compilation than a playlist. This is my go-to. Everything’s sad, tearjerker, and melancholic. I will always be down for it. Before I made this compilation, I always played Fauzan’s protect me from what I want. But it’s limited to 50 songs. I’m that sadcore bitch so I made my own with more songs. Still, his playlist breaks me and one of my favorites ever.

The song that I need to highlight on the playlist is boygenius’ Souvenir — my #2 of this year followed by Angel Olsen’s Chance and Moses Sumney’s Me in 20 Years. I can’t count how many times I have cried to this song. boygenius trio managed to tell my personal story starting from the first two lines, “Dreamcatcher on the rearview mirror / Hasn’t caught a thing yet” which relate to how my life pursuit’s going — not good and the pandemic made it worse — to the last verse “Pulling thorns out of my palm / Work a midnight surgery / When you cut a hole into my skull / Do you hate what you see? / Like I do” which explains my struggle with internal issues and how people have been taking it not seriously. To give this compilation a more dramatic effect, I put Peter Hujar’s Orgasmic Man as the cover.

On the flip side, this one was made to lift up my mood. I usually play this in the morning before I start the day. I intentionally added happy tunes that feel nostalgic to give a ‘when days were simpler’ vibe. My junior high school days were spent to stan Owl City and Vierra. I was much more indifferent during my teens. You know, because “We don’t even have to try, it’s always a good time”.

Last year my beloved friend, Lazuardi, asked to do a playlist trade. I came up with the blue stone which correlates with his name, Lapis. Since I adore the color of blue — even an obsession — so I chose songs that can be the company while driving under the clear skies. Although I still like playing it during the wet season because of my longing for sunlight.

I scraped the earlier songs and replaced them with my recent favorites. Adrianne Lenker’s anything is one of the best songs released this year. The albums songs and intrumentals were created in a cabin where she isolated herself. Isn’t that amazing? These sweet lines from anything, “I don’t wanna talk about anything / I wanna kiss, kiss your eyes again / Wanna witness your eyes looking” have turned my yearning mode on.

The last playlist that I would like to share the backstory is on a t-rex, killing with a spear. This playlist is dedicated to killing the deadlines. Inspired by the RPG I recently finished, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy V. Most of them are metal and high tempo, perfect for beating bosses — not your literal boss, I mean the deadlines. The intro of this playlist, Hell Riders by M83, has a badass album artwork of a warrior riding a dinosaur to a pyramid by Frank Quitely.

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I would like to give shoutouts to Daniel’s blog and Fauzan’s blog. They are the ones I look up to when it comes to music reviews.