2025 - tMT
A few days ago I started the yearly routine of reviewing The Playlist. Which, due to generational reasons, I will, below, refer to as The Mix Tape (tMT). I formally started making the yearly tMT in 2010, meaning I have 16 now that 2025 is coming to an end.
The criteria for a song to appear on tMT is that it must have connected with me emotionally in a personal way at some point during the year. These are akin to musical Cupid arrows. I never see it coming until it hits me square in the heart. And then I can never unsee it.
Some songs were released this year. Some are incredibly specific live tracks. Others are callbacks or connections to other art that evokes the music. Some remind me of relationships, or the state of the world as I’ve experienced it, for this most recent trip around the sun.
Starting the yearly tMT routine requires listening to the tracks as I’ve added them over the course of the year. In this sense, it’s an audio chronology of the year. When December lands it’s a matter of arranging the pieces to create a story that makes sense of my experience. It’s not something any other person could possibly be connected to the way I am, because the nuance is deep. But general themes often emerge, providing consistency across the year. Not always, or even often, themes that feel good. Sometimes because the themes are connected to recent wounds, or others because they point the way to learning and becoming more of myself, which is a place I’ve always most easily associated with fear. That is to say, the present is a weird place.
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You’ve made it to the point I’d like to make. Which is, for me, tMTs are functionally tattoos. I have zero physical tattoos. I’ve toyed with the idea for years and played over options but never quite landed on something that felt right. And I’ve wondered, as I do, why that is the case.
I think it’s because these yearly playlists are my tattoos.
They each tell a story tied to a past moment. They evoke emotions connected with many different phases of life. They remind me of who I was, and who I wanted to be. Sometimes I’m not proud, after the fact, of a song that landed on a particular tMT years ago. But it reminds me of who I was and how I’ve grown. It’s a way that I’ve stitched together a relationship with my past self, and it’s my belief that whatever helps us do that is beneficial.
Reordering the tracks this year was particularly satisfying. I see the songs as the idea of the tattoo, but the track ordering to be the design. Great idea with a poor design lands you on Reddit. Bad idea with great design is a crap shoot. Good idea with great design and you have something worth showing off.
Here’s my attempt to show off my newest tattoo.
Happy New Year
2025 tMT Notes:
It’s possible, in Apple Music, to modify the start and stop times for a given track, which I find to be incredibly helpful. But these changes are local per account, so the modifications I’ve made don’t automatically transfer to you. Spotify doesn’t have this feature at all. The following stop times have been set for these three tracks:
- Ahead By a Century - 5:10
- Black Sheep - 7:31:5
- Chonkyfire - 5:12