End of Year Shuffle

There’s something about late December that makes you want to hear music that’s already a little sad. Architecture in Helsinki, Anna Ternheim, some others whose names I’ll probably forget by January—none of it is new, all of it has been on some rotation for years, but somehow it lands different in December. The year’s winding down, the light’s gone by four in the afternoon, and you’re not fighting the mood anymore, you’re just sitting in it.

I don’t have much to say about what makes these artists work. Ternheim’s songs are small and careful. Architecture in Helsinki is brighter but still melancholic underneath. They do what I need them to do. That’s really it.

I’ve been playing the same mix for weeks without changing it. That’s usually the sign that something’s actually resonating rather than just filling space. By January I’ll move on to something else, and this batch will go dormant until next December rolls around.