I Reviewed Every Song on My Spotify Wrapped (Part 1/4)
My thoughts on songs 100-76 from my most-listened songs of 2024.
Spotify Wrapped Day, that annual event in late November or early December where the massive streaming app reminds you of your listening habits that year, might be one of my favorite social media-age unofficial holidays. Each year’s playlist marks a chance to reflect on the music that held my attention during this trip around the sun, and how my taste has and hasn’t changed. This year, I’ve decided to commemorate my Wrapped by giving each song in the playlist a micro-review, and hopefully learn some broader lessons about what kind of music fan I am.
To prevent myself from cramming too many thousands of words into a single article, I will publish this list in increments of 25. Below are my thoughts on songs 100-76.
100: +44- “When Your Heart Stops Beating”
Scratching the bottom of my Wrapped playlist is “When Your Heart Stops Beating,” the title track from +44’s 2006 album of the same name. +44 was formed during blink-182’s mid-aughts hiatus, and features frontman/bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker alongside non-blink guitarists Shane Gallagher and Craig Fairbaugh. Driven by Hoppus’ recognizable voice and songwriting and Barker’s signature rapid-fire drums, +44 sounds pretty similar to blink. But where blink’s music often married its catchy pop-punk with a fun-loving, juvenile sensibility, +44’s sound is icier, with a bitter, melancholy edge, reflective of the turmoil engulfing blink’s former members during their split.
99: Fall Out Boy- “What a Time to Be Alive”
I’m honestly a little surprised that “What a Time to Be Alive,” a track from Fall Out Boy’s 2023 album So Much (For) Stardust, made it here. While SM(F)S was one of my favorite albums of last year, and dominated my Wrapped, “What a Time to Be Alive” was, initially, one of my less-loved songs from the LP. But the song’s ironically upbeat tone, singing about the chaotic zeitgeist of the 2020s amid a soundscape that marries the band’s raucous pop-punk sound with orchestral flourishes and disco groove, proved to be a real grower.
98: blink-182- “Reckless Abandon”
A lot of my listening this year (as with every year, to be frank) was driven by preparation for concerts, and can be taken less as my true preferences as much as a reflection of which acts I saw live. Such is the case for “Reckless Abandon,” a track from blink-182’s 2001 album “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket;” I had the track on repeat to prepare myself for blink’s concert at Citi Field in July. “Reckless Abandon,” an energetic, bittersweet ode to youthful indiscretion sung by co-frontman and guitarist Tom DeLonge, is about as close as I can imagine to a platonic ideal of a blink-182 song: upbeat drumming, immature lyricism, catchy, simple guitar riffs.
97: Ateez- “HALAZIA”
Speaking of concerts I saw at Citi Field, Ateez’s August show there might just have been the most visually impressive production I’ve seen in a long time. Despite an hours-long rain delay, Ateez’s concert production featured musical theater-level staged interludes, a massive onstage tower with three-dimensional projections, animatronic sea monsters, a glowing sword, and a truly absurd amount of pyrotechnics. A song like “Halazia,” a December 2022 single from the boy band’s EP “Spin Off: From the Witness” is the kind of song worthy of such theatrics. With grand church organ accents, thundering techno beats, and soaring high notes from main vocalist Choi Jongho, it’s the sound that’s made Ateez among my favorite contemporary K-pop acts.
96: Weezer- “Endless Bummer”
While I also saw Weezer in concert this year, on the 30th anniversary tour for its 1994 classic self-titled album, this song wasn’t on the setlist. Instead, “Endless Bummer,” the closer to the band’s underrated 2016 self-titled album, is simply a perennial favorite of mine. The song’s first two-thirds are a soft ballad, driven by acoustic guitar as frontman Rivers Cuomo reminisces on moments of youthful angst and a love that could have been. In its final minute, though, the track builds. Crashing drums bring it to a cathartic climax, with a lengthy guitar solo as the cherry on top. Summer is often romanticized in pop culture, but whether it’s a desire to escape hot weather or the hope that a change in season will mark a new, better chapter in life, sometimes, you, as the song’s lyrics repeat “just want this summer to end.”
95: Marina and the Diamonds- “Oh No!”
I’m admittedly pretty late to the work of the Welsh alt-pop singer-songwriter Marina Diamandis, currently known mononymously by her first name. But the single “Oh No!” from the 2010 album The Family Jewels, released under her previous stage name, Marina and the Diamonds, is a delightfully arch electro-pop self-empowerment ode. As I’ve begun my first “real” postgraduate job this year, lyrics like “Don't do love, don't do friends/ I'm only after success” have served as tongue-in-cheek proclamations of embracing hustle culture to the detriment of my personal life. Despite this ironic edge, “Oh No!” also works as a genuine pump-up track, made all the more fun by Diamandis’s charismatic, theatrical vocal performance and the song’s in-your-face pop hooks.
94: blink-182- “Always”
Blink-182’s songs don’t always fit into the upbeat, immature mold I’ve previously described; indeed most of my favorite tracks of theirs don’t. Such is the case with “Always,” a single from the band’s 2003 untitled album. The track eschews many of the band’s sonic trademarks for a melancholic, lovelorn lyrical tone and wall-of-sound guitars that blend with new wave-style synths in the song’s massive chorus. This style feels like a precursor to the darker, more synth-driven style that ⅔ of blink would explore shortly afterwards with +44. On a personal note, I play the drums casually, and Barker’s speedy percussion on this track is a ton of fun to play along to.
93: Ateez- “Say My Name”
While by now, Ateez are practically veterans of the K-pop scene, I got into them fairly early in their career, with their second release, 2019’s Treasure Ep. 2: Zero to One and its lead single “Say My Name.” Even over five years later, “Say My Name” remains Ateez’s signature song to me, its blend of melody and bombast, combining pop, hip-hop, and clattering industrial-driven techno synth textures. The track is also an effective showcase for the group’s diverse range of vocalists, most centrally its two rappers, group leader Kim Hongjoong, recognizable for his nasal, nimble flow, and Song Mingi, whose gruff baritone also takes center stage on the song’s hook, as well as Choi Jongho, the earlier-mentioned main vocalist, whose powerful tenor brings the song to soaring heights.
92: Bring Me The Horizon- “Drown”
Among all the acts on this list I saw live, Bring Me The Horizon is decidedly not one of them; the UK pop-metal titans seem nearly allergic to touring stateside as of late. Nonetheless, they remain major favorites of mine, and “Drown,” a single from 2014 later included on the 2015 LP That’s the Spirit, is one of their best. The song sees the band at their most melodic, without losing their rocking intensity. Frontman Oli Sykes, known for fierce scream vocals, showcases the softer side of his singing in lyrics that lament mental health struggles. The band pairs this heartfelt subject matter with one of their catchiest choruses, its melody backed by a wall of guitars and choral harmonies for a sound that feels best heard in a massive venue with thousands singing along.
91: Tomorrow X Together- “Miracle”
For another entry in the “songs I saw to prepare for concerts” column, I spun “Miracle,” a track from Tomorrow X Together’s April EP minisode 3: TOMORROW in preparation for seeing the K-pop boy band live at Madison Square Garden back in June. The quintet has taken on a wide range of styles in the years since their 2019 formation, but “Miracle” falls into the lane I find suits them best, that of wistful, punchy pop rock. In terms of the concert’s structure, “Miracle” was part of the encore, and it’s a song that feels purpose-built for such a setting, its chant-along energy conjuring imagery of large crowds, light sticks, phone flashlights, maybe even the rare lighter, all waving along.
90: Stray Kids- “MIROH”
Stray Kids are undeniably among the top names in K-pop today, but their singles have only on occasion found themselves on repeat for me. While I respect them for carving out a distinct style, much of their oeuvre is a bit too focused on sonic impact over melody for my taste. That being said, their 2019 track, “MIROH,” from the EP Clé 1: Miroh is an undeniable modern classic. Taking its title from the Korean word for maze, “MIROH” is an EDM track with a huge, propulsive build and equally energetic climax that features thundering bass, buzzsaw synths, and a genuinely catchy chorus refrain to boot. But perhaps the song’s most memorable moments are in its pre-choruses, where rappers Changbin (in the first verse) and Han (in the second) deliver machine gun-rapid flow as the percussion builds before the beat drops. So long as I have a playlist of pump-up gym anthems, “MIROH” will be on rotation.
89: Box Car Racer- “There Is”
After years of acrimony and splits, blink-182 is back to its best-known lineup of Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker, and to honor all chapters of the band’s history, on their recent tour, they incorporated two tracks from their side projects: the aforementioned “When Your Heart Stops Beating” by +44, and “There Is,” a single by Box Car Racer, the 2002 project consisting of DeLonge and Barker alongside David Kennedy and Anthony Celestino. “There Is” showcases a more stripped-back sound than blink’s usually raucous material, with DeLonge singing and playing acoustic guitar, backed by a propulsive marching-band drumbeat from Barker. DeLonge’s unique, nasal voice is full of palpable nostalgia and emotion, and the song’s melody is so sticky that blink reused it a decade later on “Ghost on the Dance Floor.”
88: Olivia Rodrigo- “So American”
The music of Olivia Rodrigo is one of the few places where my listening patterns overlap with the Top 40. “So American,” a song from the expanded reissue of Rodrigo’s 2023 album GUTS, is, in contrast to Rodrigo’s often angst-ridden discography, an upbeat, euphoric pop-rock love song with a groovy bassline, jangly new wave guitars, and a propulsive drum beat. I don’t keep up with much celebrity gossip, so I have no idea who the object of Rodrigo’s affection in the song’s starry-eyed lyrics may be. Regardless, Rodrigo’s great strength as a performer is that, beyond being a technically gifted vocalist, she’s also a gifted actor with a taste for the exaggerated and arch, twisting her voice into unexpected intonations to immerse listeners in a track’s emotion.
87: Porter Robinson- “Everything Goes On”
EDM DJ-turned-singer-songwriter Porter Robinson was another of my most-streamed artists this year, largely owing to his new album, SMILE! :D, and my preparation to see him live in concert. “Everything Goes On,” a standalone 2022 single Robinson released in collaboration with the video game League of Legends, is among the least electronic tracks in Robinson’s discography, instead taking on an indie pop style, though with a rich synth soundscape belying his production background. The song’s sentimental, melancholic lyrics are accented with twinkling piano riffs and synthesizer beeps, while an uptempo drumbeat keeps time. By happenstance, this song was also heavily in my rotation this past May, when my cat of nearly 17 years fell ill and died, and thus its sentimental sound became inextricably tied to my grief, leaving me unable to listen to “Everything Goes On” in full without crying.
86 Bring Me The Horizon- “n/A”
This song is from Bring Me The Horizon’s album POST HUMAN: NeX GEn, which came out back in May, and we’ll be seeing a lot of that record’s tracklist in this countdown. On a record full of hyperactive production, the swaying hard rock of “n/A” is comparatively stripped back. The song’s title is a likely reference to Narcotics Anonymous and its lyrics see frontman Oli Sykes discussing his struggles with addiction, particularly the contradiction he feels being idolized by others while feeling so low himself. As Sykes’s ruminations escalate, so does the song itself, growing from acoustic guitar strumming to chugging metal riffs and blasting drumbeats.
85: Real Friends- “Our Love Was Like A Sad Song”
I’ve been a fan of the Illinois-based pop-punk quintet Real Friends ever since I first saw them perform at Self Help Festival in 2019 in Worcester, Massachusetts, where I was covering the festival on assignment for my college newspaper. Over the years, I’ve felt that their music has only gotten better, and I’ll see them whenever they’re on tour, which, thankfully, has been quite often. They were on the lineup for Sad Summer Festival 2024 this past summer, on a bill headlined by Mayday Parade and The Maine, playing at the Rooftop at Pier 17, an open-air waterfront venue that’s one of my favorite places to see a show in New York. In between sets, I visited the indoor merchandise area for an air-conditioned respite from the summer heat and found myself chatting with Kyle Fasel, the band’s bassist and main lyricist, at the Real Friends merch tent. Fasel expressed appreciation for my support of the band and offered to play me an at-the-time unreleased track of theirs. That song was “Our Love Was Like A Sad Song,” which was ultimately released as a single a few weeks later and included on the band’s October album Blue Hour. As its melancholic title suggests, “Our Love Was Like A Sad Song” is a mournful yet uptempo track, with energetic guitar riffs and pounding drumming underscoring vocalist Cody Muraro’s raw recounting of a doomed relationship.
84: Sum 41- “Over My Head (Better Off Dead)”
Back in May, I went to see Canadian pop-punk titans Sum 41 on their farewell tour, which made a stop at the Brooklyn Paramount (a gorgeous venue I hadn’t previously experienced). In my years as a teenage emo kid, I wasn’t the most well-versed in Sum 41’s discography. I knew and loved their biggest singles, and it was this knowledge that provided the impetus to get tickets in the first place, but before the show, I had plenty of preparation to do. One song that was new to me was “Over My Head (Better Off Dead),” a track from the band’s 2002 album Does This Look Infected?. It’s a short and sweet pop-punk track, clocking in and under two and a half minutes, with simple, effective hooks and a rollicking energy.
83: Porter Robinson- “Divinity (featuring Amy Millan)”
This is another one that found its way back into my rotation as I prepared to see its performer live in concert. “Divinity” is a single from Porter Robinson’s 2014 debut LP Worlds. A six-minute-long electronica track with only sparing vocals, it’s a far cry from the more pop-driven material Robinson would go on to make. Yet its rich production atmosphere and emotional sensibility reflect the creative impulses that made Robinson a standout artist in his field. The ethereal beat drop that comes roughly halfway into the song’s runtime still makes me feel like I’m levitating every time I listen.
82: The Maine- “Bad Behavior”
The Maine is one of those acts I’ve seen several times, but only at festivals, so I’m only ever seeing festival-length sets, never getting deep into their discography. In preparing to see them at Sad Summer Festival this past summer, I put some songs of theirs I didn’t already know well on repeat, and “Bad Behavior,” from the band’s 2017 LP Lovely Little Lonely proved especially sticky. The Maine, largely by virtue of other bands they’re closely associated with, are often thought of as an emo or pop-punk act, but I’ve always thought that their breezier pop-rock style made them not quite a perfect fit for that scene. Regardless of how you classify The Maine, “Bad Behavior” is a perfect summer rock song, a carefree ode to reckless love and good times.
81: Paramore- “Burning Down the House”
It’s rarely a good idea to cover a song as beloved and classic as “Burning Down the House,” originally from the 1983 Talking Heads album Speaking in Tongues. Hew too close to the original, and what’s the point of a new version? Change too much, and you lose what people liked about the song to begin with. Paramore’s version of “Burning Down the House” threads that needle. The cover was recorded for Everyone’s Getting Involved, a star-studded Talking Heads cover album released in conjunction with the 40th anniversary rerelease of the seminal Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, and also features artists like Miley Cyrus, The National, and Lorde. Instrumentally, Paramore’s “Burning Down the House” captures a slightly warmer, live band feeling than the original recording, making full use of Paramore’s expanded touring lineup of multi-instrumentalists. Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams is known as one of the most technically proficient singers in pop and rock, with a powerful belt, a stark contrast from David Byrne’s idiosyncratic, often borderline-sprechstimme voice. In singing lines originated by Byrne, Williams is able to unleash her more unconventional side as a performer, letting out growls, yelps, and howls that don’t seek to painstakingly imitate Byrne, but rather to channel his off-kilter energy.
80: Pierce The Veil- “Circles”
Another one for the “listened to this song to prepare to see it live” column. Pierce the Veil is another one of those bands with whom I have a passing familiarity, but whose discography I’ve never dived into. When they were announced as the opening act for blink-182’s summer stadium tour, I found them an odd match; blink are the poster boys for sunny, light-hearted pop-punk, Pierce The Veil hail from the screamier, metal-inflected world of post-hardcore. But these two genres are siblings with a shared punk rock ancestor, and often find themselves crossing over. Case in point, “Circles,” a track from Pierce The Veil’s 2016 album Misadventures, is pure pop punk, with catchy hooks and bouncy rhythms hiding an inner darkness– in this case, the song’s lyrics being inspired by the 2015 Paris terror attacks.
79: Porter Robinson- “Is There Really No Happiness?”
This song comes from Robinson’s new LP SMILE! :D, and is one of several tracks from that record that will be making an appearance on this list. Sonically “Is There Really No Happiness?” couldn’t be further from an earlier track like “Divinity,” with its pop stylings and Robinson’s vocals taking center stage. Yet what it shares is that sense of wistful melancholy, as the song sees Robinson reflecting on memories from his past and contending with nostalgia as a coping mechanism, even telling himself in a spoken-word outro that “some people die of nostalgia.” “Is There Really No Happiness?” also features co-writing and co-production from James Ivy, an indie pop act who opened for Robinson in 2021 and featured in an article I wrote earlier this year on up-and-coming Asian American singer-songwriters.
78: Hadestown Original Broadway Company- “Way Down Hadestown”
I’m not necessarily the biggest musical theater fan. This is despite my best efforts; I’ve gone to plenty of acclaimed Broadway musicals and come away nothing more than mildly amused and unable to recall a single song the next day. But Hadestown is one that truly connected for me, and ever since I first saw it in September, its songs have been in constant rotation for me. Written by Anaïs Mitchell, Hadestown retells the classic Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Persephone in an ambiguous setting that invokes a Great Depression-era South, enhanced by the quintessentially American influences of folk and jazz in its score. “Way Down Hadestown” is a number primarily performed by the character Hermes, played by André De Shields on the original cast album and Stephanie Mills in the cast I saw this year. The song is imbued with a sinister charisma as Hermes explains the desperation the show’s characters face, and the hardship that would make signing away your soul to Hades an appealing proposition. While De Shields is an absolutely singular talent, it’s also remarkable how malleable the character of Hermes has proved, with subsequent performers bringing a wide range of energies to the part, none of which detract from the show’s timeless tragedy.
77: Twenty One Pilots- “The Craving (Jenna’s version)”
As a longtime fan of Twenty One Pilots, I’ve come to expect one love song on every album, addressed to Jenna Joseph, the wife of frontman and multi-instrumentalist Tyler Joseph. For their most recent record, Clancy, “The Craving” is that song. The parenthetical (Jenna’s version) is to differentiate it from the song’s previously released single version, which features percussion and a more upbeat tempo. Jenna’s version is more stripped down, featuring only Joseph’s voice and the sound of a ukulele. Clancy sees the band, both members now in their mid-thirties, take more mature perspectives on the recurring topics of their discographies. In contrast to the intense puppy love of albums past, on “The Craving,” Joseph worries that his mental struggles have held him back from being a good partner to Jenna, confessing in raw terms that he “hate(s) to put this on her” but swears to “give more than I take.”
76: Green Day- “American Idiot”
This year marked the 20th anniversary of Green Day’s iconic 2004 concept album American Idiot. But, to be completely honest, that’s not at all why this song made my Wrapped. This isn’t much of a political blog, so forgive me for going out on a limb, but I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. I might even go as far as to say that I think he’s quite bad, and that I was very dismayed when he won the election! All that goes to say that, on November 6th, which, contrary to popular belief, is still within the window for Wrapped to be collecting data, I could only bring myself to listen to “American Idiot” on repeat. Make of that what you will.
Stay tuned for part two of this countdown, coming on January 3rd!