Rooftops Above January

The first Monday back after the holidays has a texture all its own—grey, slightly hostile, the warmth of December already evaporating. Whatever you planned to do differently this year hasn’t started yet. The city is full of people going through identical motions, and nobody’s thrilled about it.

The Big City Rooftops mixtape lands right in that gap. D E N A, Jamie xx, Boat Club—a selection that feels nocturnal even in daylight, the kind of thing that makes a miserable commute feel like a scene from a film you’d want to watch. Jamie xx especially has that quality: he finds emotional weight inside electronic music and doesn’t apologize for it. I can think of worse ways to survive a January Monday.