In 2024, two things were (are) true.

I traveled Europe. Living in Madrid and going on at least one weekend trip a month. I saw the snow of the Balkans and the salt of the Mediterranean. Rode camels in Morocco and threw up cigarettes in Spain (do not tell my mother). I also moved back home, to America, where I dove headfirst back into corporate advertising. I’ve had so many ups and downs. A million rapid and sudden and drastic life changes.

And I added a song to a playlist every day.

Looking back these songs have become a sort of time capsule. Launching me back into a memory of January 8th or March 17th. I thought I’d capture those moments before they slip under the waves of my short-term memory, while also giving you some fire (and also deeply cringe) song recommendations.

So, buckle-up and switch on that flux capacitor as I take you back to January of 2024, starting with…

I found this album by listening to melancholy Christmas music- leading me to Pheobe Bridgers- leading me here. It’s a boygenius cover of an old Scottish drinking song. It completely arrested me, and I found myself listening to this album on the train from the Christmas markets in Bordeaux to Toulouse. Looking out the window and watching gloomy winter terrain pass by. Trying very hard not to fall asleep with a stomach full of crepes and mulled wine, and the drowsy thought that I wanted it played at my funeral promptly filled me with overwhelming existential dread… Anyway, it remained on repeat all through December and was my most listened to song of that month. When I started this project, a song about saying goodbye felt like a good place to begin.

Right after Christmas, I started writing a book. At this point, it was only the sliver of an idea. I was brainstorming through little paragraphs and snapshots of moments. I was studying story structure. I was visiting my parents for the Holidays and walking my dog Louie in circles trying to crack the plot. This song watered my seed of a story.

A nostalgia pull. I had just turned twenty-four and this was my jam when I was fourteen. Ten years removed; I have a lot of sympathy for who I was when I was fourteen.

I’ve loved Viva La Vida since 2007, when I heard it on the radio sitting in the backseat of the minivan. I found this live version and it instantly made me regret being in third grade instead of seeing Coldplay in concert. I love live versions of cool songs, because I like to listen to them and imagine myself as the lead singer on my sold-out world tour. Or just stunting on my extended family and estranged friends at a High School or Family Reunion. We all have our daydreams, ok?

I was watching Blue Eye Samauri. Commemorated it with this song, in which it features. (In a really awesome scene by the way). Later, I’ll imagine the final fight scene in Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir to this song- but that won’t be until later.

This is the song that played in my Air Pods as the plane back to Madrid took off. Maybe I’m a masochist. I wouldn’t see my parents again for six months.

Everyone on TikTok was saying this was the quintessential winter song. They were right- even if the repetition started to annoy me after a while.

I loved this song in High School. I’ve always had a little story going on in my head. A secret ongoing daydream- usually related to whatever I was hyper fixated on at the time. When I was sixteen, I listened to this song and thought about the book I would write when I was eighteen and scrap when I was twenty. At twenty-four, I thought about Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Go figure.

A Tiktok reminded me this song existed. It still slaps, and I have the extremely common opinion that Nickelback is over-hated.

As a chronically, perpetually, forever single girl- this one hits hard. What if it’s not meant for me! I listened to this song on repeat and romanticized my lack of romance on my unbearably long commute to tutor a second-grade girl. I would later drop out of tutoring her because two hours on the metro wasn’t worth 15 euros.

I was on the bus, on the way to work, when I heard this song and was struck by lightning. I’d heard it before, but this time it was different. Remember that book I mentioned way back on January 2nd? I was a few weeks into it now, and this song so perfectly captured the heart of the story I was trying to tell. It inspired and propelled me to continue writing it.

Another one of my High School daydream songs. And yes, I did daydream about Six of Crows to this one too. When I listen to it now though, it takes me back to Arguelles. To my walk towards the bus stop. Underneath the arches next to the Spanish Air Force building. On a cold day where the sky was gray, and I’m bundled up in my coat.

Nothing much to say here. The song goes hard.

This is the day I finished watching Succession. I think this song suits the Roy family well.

Not to be that person, but I liked Nothing But Thieves before you liked Nothing But Thieves. I found this band on their EPs, before they even released their first album, way back when I was fourteen. I’ve liked them ever since, but I hadn’t listened to their most recent album, Dead Club City, yet. I went through the whole thing on my bus rides to and from work that day, and this is the song that I chose to commemorate the album. It’s a good record- you should give it a listen.

I don’t know I guess I was horny?

I was thinking about Cardan Greenbriar from The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black a lot. If you’d read it this makes sense

I think this was a new release. I liked it and put it on the playlist. I find myself skipping over it a lot.

This song is what inspired me to write this series. Every time I listen to it I’m launched back to Budapest. It was the first time I truly traveled alone- and the first time I went to Eastern Europe.

It was magical.

I was there over a weekend- so only one full day, and it snowed the whole time. A fluffy, perfect snow that you only see in movies. My Texas-self was cold, but I was also absolutely enchanted. I started my morning by going to the hot baths, where I talked to a guy visiting from Mexico City. He was celebrating graduating from college. I wandered the city. I ate incredible goulash. I had a brief love affair with a man from London who was staying at the same hostel as me (which was also delightful and felt like a cozy attic). We drank soju at a Korean restaurant, where he and his friends taught me British drinking games. We continued the party at the Ruin Bars.

And the whole time, I listened to this song.

It was my best friend’s birthday, so she got to pick the song.

I return to this song every once and a while to daydream about a cool car chase.

Just a good song to listen to on the bus. (Foreshadowing).

Another nostalgia pull. Lemonade Mouth is better than High School Musical and I stand by that.

This song makes me want to get married. It is so sweet and earnest. I considered using it in my own wedding one day, but my little sister’s name is also Margaret, and her birthday is December 18, so she might have dibs.

Freddy Carter said in an interview that he listened to this song to get into character as Kaz Brekker in Netflix’s Shadow and Bone- so naturally, I had to listen to it. That was three years ago though. It’s just a good song. (Sidebar, I will never ever forgive Netflix for butchering Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows. Whoever was making those decisions is public enemy number one).

…no comment

My best friend introduced me to this song as we drove to Six Flags Fiesta Texas when we were nineteen. I return to it now when I need a pick me up.

I watched Saltburn. A gorgeous soundtrack seasoned with a bit of bathwater.

I was definitely daydreaming about being in a bar fight. And winning. Duh.

This is a song I listen to when I want to feel like a badass. I’m not- but this song helps.

I always end up listening to Preacher’s Daughter. If you haven’t yet, it’s a concept album featuring fictional character Ethel Cain’s journey from runaway preacher’s daughter to victim of cannibalism! A Southern Gothic masterpiece. In a few weeks, I would listen to this song and obsessively think about Harrowhark Nonagesimus and Gideon Nav from the Locked Tomb Series by Tamsyn Muir. But not yet- at this point I was still on the first book.

That was my January. Stay tuned for February and recommend new songs of the day in the comments!