My Favourite Songs of 2021

Featuring Charli XCX, Yves Tumor, Big Thief and more!

Here are 40 songs I really loved from 2021. When I look back on this strange and uncertain time years from now, it will be soundtracked by these tunes.

For my favourite albums list click here.

40. Wet Leg - Chaise Longue

The term “industry plant” (an artist or band that tries to appear as if they have organically become popular but in reality have been handpicked by a label to be molded and heavily marketed) had something of a renaissance in the discourse this year after the TikTok account for the band Tramp Stamps went viral for all the wrong reasons. Their comically inept attempts to be edgy and real drew both laughs and accusations of them being a failed industry plant. At the end of the day, I think they met resistance more for them being very corny rather than being an industry plant, because I don’t think people much care about that stuff anymore. The same way people don’t people really care as much about “selling out.” Not to say that people still aren’t hyper-fixated on artist’s parentage (you cannot even bring up Mitski these days without someone chiming in that her dad was in the CIA) but that no one is naive enough anymore to believe that you can rise to the top without playing the game of the system. Plus, what if the industry plant actually makes good music?

What I find more sinister than any rumoured industry plant is the emergence of things like Spotify’s Discovery Mode: a feature for artists Spotify rolled out last year where artists will receive a “promotional royalty rate” (i.e. a smaller royalty) for specific songs in exchange for those songs being algorithmically favoured on the platform and thus more heavily promoted. As one report by Pitchfork detailed, this is not unlike the old radio practice of “payola” which has long been illegal. This pay-to-play style system Spotify has developed has been met with ire from many musicians and even American congress as the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet is potentially forming a probe to investigate the legality of Discovery Mode. Despite its critics, there are definitely artists using it to their advantage.

This all leads me to Wet Leg: a British indie duo who came out of nowhere with their sharply produced single “Chaise Longue.” They have faced multiple accusations of being an industry plant. They arrived seemingly fully-formed with very polished (i.e. expensive) visuals and sound. They have no record of really existing before “Chaise Longue” came out. And they played big festivals and made late night talk show appearances despite at that point only having only two songs.

Spotify’s Discovery feature is almost certainly the reason I heard it. It came up on my Spotify mix seemingly out of nowhere despite never having heard of the band, or interacted with them, or even listening to music that particularly sounded like them in that moment. It was all very conspicuous to say the least. But I’m glad that it came up because, you know what, I think it’s a great song! It’s witty, but not self-serious. In fact, it’s knowingly stupid at times. Like the opening lines: “Mommy, daddy, look at me/I went to school and I got a degree/All my friends call it "the big D"/I went to school and I got the big D”. I find it hard not to appreciate opening a song with something so brazenly juvenile.

Wet Leg is part of an explosion of U.K. post-punk influenced bands that has been happening in recent years and seems to have reached a new peak in 2021. Sing-talking has truly made a comeback. Many great songs have come from this milieu. I’d give tracks “Scratchard Lanyard” by Dry Cleaning and “Narrator” by Squid honourable mentions for this list. But I chose “Chaise Longue” as the one to make the list because 1) I listened to it the most out of these types of songs and 2) because it’s a fascinating convergence of these 2021 trends.

39. Benny the Butcher and Harry Fraud - Plug Talk (feat. 2 Chainz)

Less a song and more an immaculate object. Harry Fraud’s beat is beautiful, yet practical, like some sort of luxury sports utility vehicle. And there’s Benny in the driver’s seat boastful and vindictive with his passenger 2 Chainz who at point raps, “I only care about me/I tell you happy birthday on the wrong date.” The disrespect!

38. Planet 1999 - Party - A.G. Cook and Baseck Remix

Starts off very starry-eyed and wistful, then halfway through it sounds like a robot overheating and about to explode. I love it!

37. dltzk - let’s go home

18-year-old wunderkind of the digicore scene dltzk makes music that really feels like being inside the mind of an 18-year-old. Which is to say, it can all be a bit much! But their skill at crafting together an affecting and complex avant-garde pop song is undeniable. “let’s go home” is a mini-masterpiece of video game sound effects, fuzzed out guitars, and blistering angst. It feels equal parts indebted to Lil Peep, Porter Robinson, and Neil Cicierga. It might be a song that contains the single cringiest lyric I’ve heard all year (“Still have no fucking clue what I'll do when I'm older/ Too busy making out with the devil on my shoulder”) but that’s part of it’s strength. Emotional honesty. Singing about embarrassment without any embarrassment.

36. EST Gee - Lick Back Remix (feat. Future and Young Thug)

Future has a lyric about codeine consumption and the female body here that is so absurd and so, shall we say, ribald that I feel awkward even thinking about it let alone writing it out.

Though Future and Thug both turn in impressive guest verses, it is the song’s primary artist EST Gee that commands the most attention. The upstart rapper (and, as I just discovered, former Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker!?!) from Louisville is in full control delivering a breathless verse that is menacing and funny in equal measure. “I talk so much shit/I need a Tic-Tac.” Truer words, EST Gee. Truer words.

35. Drake - Lemon Pepper Freestyle (feat. Rick Ross)

Drake raps about his son going to French immersion, says the city loves him like DeMar DeRozan, and refers to ScotiaBank Arena as the Air Canada Centre. Pandering? Absolutely. But I’m an easy mark for this shit. Drake’s been at this long enough to know exactly what buttons to press. All of this plus a Rick Ross verse? Pretty much impossible for me not to love it. Sorry. 

34. Lorde - Stoned at the Nail Salon

The key to unlocking Lorde’s Solar Power is also its best song. For everyone who thought that Lorde was suddenly happy when she dropped the lead single, they clearly weren’t listening to the follow up which is nothing short of morose. It has that dreadful feeling of a wasted Sunday afternoon before having to go back to work the next day. Lorde was always very good at pairing big sounds with big emotions. Throughout Solar Power she’s pairing low-key sounds with low-key emotions and she does it no better than on here. Her lackadaisical delivery matches perfectly with the pared down production and easy acoustic guitar. There’s a morbid bit of fun in being heartbroken. There’s none of that here. The highs are chilled and the lows are draining come-downs rather than dramatic rock bottoms. You can belt along to “Supercut” or “Perfect Places” till it feels like your heart is going to burst out of your chest. The languid “Stoned at the Nail Salon” does not provide such easy catharsis. It’s all a lot less fun, but no less impressive. 

33. Young Thug - Stupid/Asking

Young Thug takes a page from his close collaborator Future and does his own version of “Throw Away.” It’s an acidic, heart-on-sleeve break-up ballad bleeding out all of his worst influences. There’s even a beat switch halfway through! “Stupid/Asking” features what has to be one of Thug’s most accomplished vocal performances. Boys don’t cry, but slimes do.

32. Shygirl - BDE (feat. slowthai)

This year’s “WAP”: a comically explicit rap song with an abbreviated title. If “WAP” was a cartoon funhouse of perversion, “BDE” is more like a grimy alley. Or an abandoned slaughterhouse that has been converted into a rave club. There’s a real menace to it that nevertheless finds eroticism in the cold, abrasive soundscape crafted by producers Karma Kid and Sega Bodega. Shygirl’s animatronic verse makes her sound like a pleasurebot that demands pleasure for herself. This is counterbalanced by slowthai’s verse which is more hotblooded and animalistic. I read one YouTube comment for the music video that went, “slowthai’s verse took my v card.” Folks, it’s that kind of song.

31. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

“Africa is the victim of so many crimes… if we stay silent it will be the end of us.” So goes the refrain on Mdou Moctar’s righteous piece of protest music and guitar heroics. Moctar has been an outspoken critic of past French colonialism and the negative effects it continues to have throughout Western Africa. He has also spoke openly about his fear in the rise of dangerous forces, such as the rise of Boko Haram and the military response to this, in his home country of Niger. In an interview with PBS, Moctar had a very clear-eyed answer to a question about his politics and his music: “I feel like, I don't know which day this is going to stop because the world doesn't take matter. I feel like the justice doesn't exist in the world. It's what I'm feeling. Music, it's like good way to to send in the message, but it's not obligation to someone to like understand that message.” Moctar understands his platform. What he does might not make a lick of difference, but he’s someone who people might listen to, and he may as well try. When you have a song as powerful and marvellous as “Afrique Victime,” you can only hope people understand the message.

30. Doss - Strawberry

Swirling guitars. Looped piano. Robotic voice. A trance-like experience.  A glimpse into the future of automated emotions.

29. IAN SWEET - Sword

Jillian Medford (aka IAN SWEET) called “Sword” their, “Ultimate Fighter manifesto.” It’s a kiss-off song. Basically saying, “I’m tired of trying to please you, so now I’m telling you to fuck off.” It’s empowering. It’s catchy. It’s great.

28. SPELLLING - Boys at School

Seven and a half minutes of high fantasy boarding school drama. If you were going to choose any song on this list to turn into a miniseries it would be this one, but I don’t think they could ever properly translate the wicked guitar solo at the end to the screen. 

27. Turnstile - DON’T PLAY

Not many hardcore songs where you get to the chorus and ask yourself, “is that a marimba?” That’s what makes Turnstile special. 

26. St. Vincent - …At the Holiday Party

The best song on Annie Clark’s Daddy’s Home: an admirable, yet flawed, foray into the world of ‘70s AM Gold. “…At the Holiday Party” feels like the clearest crystallization of what Clark is going for throughout the entire album. It has an easy groove that the other tracks lack. Clark has always made very angular sounding music. I would even call it stiff. It’s built on a foundation of tension and release; rigorous sounds that eventually devolve into chaos. There’s traces of that stiffness in almost all the songs on Daddy’s Home and that holds them back. It doesn’t have the easiness of that soft rock sound she’s trying to capture. “Holiday Party” is completely rubbery with that perfect sense of ease. Put it on your Yuletide playlists for next year.

25. Doja Cat - Kiss Me More (feat. SZA)

I already wrote at length about the guilt I harboured enjoying this song. But Doja recently announced that she’s no longer going to be working with Dr. Luke. So you know what, feel free to enjoy what was undeniably the best radio pop hit of the year knowing that less morally complicating music will be ahead!

24. Tyler, the Creator - LEMONHEAD (feat. 42 Dugg)

Everything that’s great about CMIYGL in one song. A two-minutes surge of energy filled with disrespectful roasting and flagrant boasting (my personal favourite: Tyler saying he was on the first one to, “put a bike rack on a Rolls”). All punctuated at the end with 10 seconds of what sounds like elevator music. All of his humour, brashness, ambition, and sentimentality is on display.

23. Bad Boy Chiller Crew - Don’t You Worry About Me

UK bassline trio Bad Boy Chiller Crew once described themselves as, “the explicit Vengaboys.” I couldn’t come up with a better hook myself. Just try and listen to this song without smiling and bopping your head. I’m not sure it’s possible. 

22. Illuminati Hotties - MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA

It is no secret that we must adapt multiple personalities to get by in our Late Capitalist era. Different personas for different environments are necessary if we are to survive and advance. Sarah Tudzin isn’t saying that explicitly here, but it’s definitely implied by the manic commotion of her lyrics and elastic vocal performance where she changes registers, tones, and voices at the drop of a hat. “If you're not laughing, baby, then you’re not making money,” she screams at the song’s end. The world is a cruel and hopeless place. All you can do is chuckle… and hopefully turn a profit.

21. Magdalena Bay - Hysterical Us

Qollage asks: Is “Hysterical Us” by Magdalena Bay a yacht rock song? 

Magdalena Bay sounds like the name of a yacht rock band, but they are decidedly not. They’re closer to Grimes than they are to Little River Band. Yet when I first heard their song “Hysterical Us,” I had to ask myself: “Is this a yacht rock song?”

To determine answer to this important query, I will using be using the set of criteria laid out by J.D. Ryznar, Steve Huey, Hunter Stair, and David Lyons, the creators of the term “yacht rock.”

High production value: Magdalena Bay started out as a very much a DIY project, and that spirit has not gone away, especially in their visuals. But in terms of the music, the production value is sterling. Noticeably crisper and cleaner than past projects and in general noticeably crisper and cleaner than most pop projects. 

Use of "elite” Los Angeles-based studio musicians and producers associated with yacht rock: Members Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin produce and perform all their own music, however they are Los Angeles-based so perhaps this count. 

Jazz and R&B influences: Jazz no, R&B yes. 

Use of electric piano: There is electric piano all over the damn place. 

Complex and wry lyrics: The group says this a track is about, “our anxieties, paranoias, and existential musings.” The lyrical content skews a tad darker than your typical yacht rock track, but reading the words they are definitely “complex and wry.” 

From the first verse: 

“Down the road where the kids don't play alone

Or in your home

There's a fog, it's a shadow, a smoking gun

That something is wrong” 

Too intense for Kenny Loggins or Daryl Hall… but I could hear these words spouted from the silver dulcet voice of Michael McDonald on one of his solo projects. 

Lyrics about heartbroken, foolish men, particularly involving the word "fool":  

From verse 3: 

“Play it cool

Play the man who won't play the fool

But they're playing you” 

It’s starting to like this baby is docked at the marina, ready to take sail. 

An upbeat rhythm called the "Doobie Bounce”: Here is where the crux of the argument lies. You get into the chorus and the electric piano plays a rhythm that is undeniably Doobie-like. In both pattern and melody, it is very similar to the famous keys laid down by Michael McDonald on “What a Fool Believes.” It’s unmistakable!  

I think it’s conclusive. “Hysterical Us” is a yacht rock song. And not only that, it’s one of the best songs of the year. 

20. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Being Alone

The epic 12-minute long centrepiece of DJ Sabrina’s triumphant Makin Magick II, “Being Alone” is a song about… well… being alone. Starting with a sample of a young woman talking about she has no friends, the song builds and builds, adding more samples and more hooks covering the wide range of feelings that loneliness has to offer. Yes, there’s the sadness. But there’s also the strangeness, the weariness, and even the freedom. Being alone can be exultant just as it can be excruciating. In an interview, DJ Sabrina noted how it’s a recurring theme on her album: “a complete lack of friends or socialization whatsoever at any point in your life and not really being able to exist in a normal sense because of it. It’s not the worst possible concept I could think of, but rather a very real and accurate depiction of how it feels.” As someone who has definitely felt that way before, I can confirm that there is an authenticity that “Being Alone” evokes. If only the sensation was always so danceable.

19. Lucky Kilimanjaro - エモめの夏 (Emo-eyed Summer)

Look sometimes you just put a song on your year-end list for no other reason than it sounded really good. It makes me happy to listen to, not gonna try and stretch this one out any further.  Next!

18. No Rome - Spinning (feat. Charli XCX and The 1975)

Who is better right now than Charli at playing both the heartbroken and the heartbreaker? She’s in the latter mode on “Spinning”, a dizzying, propulsive collaboration with Dirty Hit founders The 1975 and the label’s rising star No Rome. The song finds Charli singing to some ex-lover or another and more-or-less pitying them for not being over her. But ultimately she can’t blame them! “I look so good dressed in nothing/you ended up falling” she coos matter-of-factly as if this was evident as water being wet. As the listener, we are put in this submissive position of being the little puppy yapping at Charli’s heels. And she makes us love it.

17. Cassandra Jenkins - Ambiguous Norway

The death of musician David Berman is felt throughout Jenkins’ album An Overview on Phenomenal Nature. Her close friend and collaborator died by suicide just before she was supposed to embark on a tour with him as part of his Purple Mountains project. Coping with this loss is one of the central themes of the project, and it is most apparent on “Ambiguous Norway.” After Berman’s death and the cancellation of the tour, Jenkins briefly lived with friends in Norway on the island of Lyngør. This song is recollection of that strange time in her life filled with musings about the nature of existence and a haunting yet peaceful arrangement of folk and jazz tones (the saxophone in this is particularly gorgeous.) The simple summation of grief that punctuates the song, “no matter where I go / you're gone, you're everywhere,” is sad, but hopeful. We might never get over the death of a loved one, but they’re still with us. If only floating in the ether of Northern skies.

16. Playboi Carti - F33l Lik3 Dyin

Kanye West executive produced Whole Lotta Red and nowhere can his influence be more felt on the final track “F33l Lik3 Dyin.” It even samples Bon Iver! A classic Kanye move. But this is no MBDTF clone. It’s pure Carti: squealing and chirping his way through a free associative digital world. Carti feels like dying, so he makes what sounds like heaven.

15. Lucy Dacus - Thumbs

“Thumbs” is a brilliant, but tough, listen. Pairing raw diaristic lyricism with skeletal production. Dacus recounts an occasion where she accompanied a friend for moral support while they were visiting their abusive, deadbeat father in a bar. The titular thumbs make an appearance when Dacus sings about how she wants to jab them into the father’s eyes. It’s violent, shocking, and the pain Dacus conveys on behalf of her friend is heartbreaking. But above all, it’s a testament to friendship, and how the bonds we choose to make with the people we really love mean more than any DNA relation every could.

14. Illuminati Hotties - Pool Hopping

The buzzy, rollicking opener of Let Me Do One More packs a lifetime of social and romantic insecurity into one summer day. Melting ice cream, backseat trysts, going off the literal and proverbial deep end. It’s sticky sweet melody and instantly quotable lyrics makes it an irresistible slice of sunshiny power pop.

13. SPELLLING - Little Deer

Deers have long had an association with love in the English language. Of course, “deer” and “dear” are homophones. But there is also the archaic word “hart” which in Old English meant a male red deer. The homophone between “hart” and “heart” has been played on many times throughout the annals of literature, and though the direct use of the word is never actually used in “Little Deer”, the amorous undertones of the title animal make themselves known throughout the song.  

Opening with a luscious suite of strings before collapsing in on Tia Cabral’s distinctive sharp and nasally voice, “Little Deer” features 17(!) distinct acoustic instruments and at times has more in common with an orchestral piece than a pop song. As for a lot of Cabral’s music from The Turning Wheel, the Kate Bush comparisons are hard not to bring up. Especially here, where her love song for a wounded deer immediately evokes the “fox caught by dogs” whose “little heart beats so fast” from another animalistic love song, “Hounds of Love.” But Cabral’s song is all her own. A deeply weird, deeply personal love song that could only come from the mind of SPELLLING.

12. Doja Cat - Get Into It (Yuh)

Just the absolute beat of the year. So wildly infectious. Give producer Y2K some sort of award for the work he did throughout Planet Her, but especially for this. Of course Doja tears it to shreds, too. Doing her best Nicki impression mixing a rapid fire pitter-patter flow with wonderfully silly punchlines. The fact I listened to it so much (it was one my girlfriend’s most listened to songs on Spotify this year and I was there for a lot of those listens in addition to the times I listened to it by myself) and I never got sick of it is a testament to its greatness.

11. beabadoobee - He Gets Me So High

I didn’t have many thoughts on indie rocker beabadoobee before she released Our Extended Play this year besides, “that’s a silly name” and, “she’s popular on TikTok right?” Well, now she’s got my attention because I found the 4-song collection, co-produced by Matty Healey, to be very strong. Drawing on the alt-rock boom of the 1990s, beabadoobee puts her own voice to a well-worn style. She does it no better than on “He Gets Me So High.” A song that I’d put right on par with the classic Tal Bachman track “She’s So High” in terms of being able to sing along with it with windows rolled down. It’s just so energetic! Born in the year 2000, she wasn’t even alive during the 1990s! How is she so good at recreating that sound?

10. Japanese Breakfast - Be Sweet

Feels like this will go down as Michelle Zauner’s signature song. And honestly, hard to do better than it!

9. Caroline Polachek - Bunny is a Rider

I’m immediately skeptical whenever I hear a pop song with a whistle in it. It’s a cheap trick to get a song lodged in your brain and/or featured in a commercial for soda or a car. Fitz and the Tantrums should be sent to the Hague for making “The Walker.” So when I first listened to “Bunny is a Rider” and I heard a whistle in the first few seconds I braced for the worst.   

I was silly to doubt Caroline Polachek and producer Danny L Harle. The whistle is not used as a blunt force hook, but as a sly motif. An invocation of the playful, taunting nature of the song.

And what a playful and beguiling object this song is. The rubbery bassline, neon production flourishes, and Polachek’s siren-like voice combine to make a potently mysterious pop gem with a neo-noir atmosphere. Who is Bunny? Why is she on the run? Why is she undetectable by satellite? Looking for answers? Well don’t go asking Polachek. She’s not interested. Better to just let the unknown of the song sweep over you and appreciate it for what it is. Like all the best noirs, it doesn’t really have to make logical sense to be enjoyed.

8. The War on Drugs - I Don’t Live Here Anymore (feat. Lucius)

Every once in a while you hear a song that feels like it's actively striving for a certain type of greatness. Almost like the artist wrote it with the intention of getting the next edition of the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs list. Adam Granduciel is one of the brightest and most apt students of his rock forerunners. Drawing direct inspiration from 1980’s arena rockers (and using the same equipment they did) he made a song that shoots for the stars and can be heard all the way back in the rafters. It’s so ambitious yet so traditional that you can only marvel at it and air guitar along.

7. Porter Robinson - Musician

“Musician” is all of Porter Robinson’s best impulses in one song. A mea culpa for not releasing any new music for over half a decade, Robinson combats doubts from family and the burnout of the artistic process through his love of music and his excitement to create. He also refers to himself by name at one point in the lyrics and I’m sorry, but I’m a sucker for when singers do that trick to create immediate emotional intimacy. It just works!

6. Big Thief - Little Things

Big Thief continue to level up. In 2021, they released 7 new songs as singles ahead of next year’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. Aside from “Sparrow “(a complete miss for me) they’ve all been excellent; showcasing the divergent range of their folk repertoire. The best of these songs is the lead single “Little Things”, which may prove to be their best song yet. What maybe no working band does better than Big Thief is grounding the cosmic in the current day. “Little Things” soundscape is transcendental, but the lyrics keep things always in touch with the mundanity of the human experience. The city is crowded. You see an ex-lover drinking a beer. It can be overwhelming, but that’s life.   

5. Soccer Mommy and Kero Kero Bonito - rom com 2021

I’m a sucker for remixes that chop up the original vocals. Soccer Mommy’s original take on this song song, “rom com 2004”, is already a pretty great grunge ballad, anchored by Sophie Allison’s disarming vocals. But the urgency, chaos, and sense of fun introduced by Kero Kero Bonito’s hyperpop take on the track takes it to the next level. When Allison’s voice blares out, “I need you to see/ That you make me crazy like no one else could be/ And baby I'm yours/ if you're crazy for me,” it cuts through digital cacophony. The original is bracing and intimate, but this one is even more powerful because the message has gone through so many levels of abstraction yet still reaches the intended target. It’s the difficulty of making a connection, but still not giving up.

It also really really catchy.

4. Sharon van Etten and Angel Olsen - Like I Used To

To me, these are the same image.

3. Charli XCX - New Shapes (feat. Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek)

Completely baffled by the relatively lukewarm response to this track. Charli’s other single “Good Ones” made all the year end lists (not my favourite of hers to be honest) while this one languished. Are people just finally tired of the invented ‘80s sound that has had a grip on pop music for well over a decade now? If that’s the case, they should get over it because this song is so fucking good. Listen to those synths! You tell me you don’t like those synths? You don’t like those violin stings? Get out of here!

Each artist here gets to showcase their own unique approach to dealing with a dysfunctional, yet passionate, relationship: Charli is blunt, Christine is abstract, and Caroline makes things cosmic likening herself to, “a star in space.” She gets the best line to end things off, too. “But honestly life would be better/If I never met you in the first place.” Powerful!

I don’t know, maybe I’m alone on this. But I listened to it nonstop when it came out and will be listening to it nonstop throughout at least the next year. What I want? This song’s got it.

2. Yves Tumor - Jackie

Yves Tumor continues to expand on the glam rock persona they honed on last year’s Heaven to a Tortured Mind, and in doing so they reach a new high. A torrid song about a love so toxic they can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t speak. It’s all so dramatic that it might make you roll your eyes if Tumor didn’t sell it. We don’t know who “Jackie” is, but the pains in Tumor’s voice makes it clear that this person is tearing them apart from the inside. The music is nothing short of apocalyptic it. An industrial, syncopated drum beat paired with squalling guitars. The sounds of a brain on fire. It’s positively magnetic.

1. Cassandra Jenkins - Hard Drive

I have tried on numerous occasions to get into mindfulness and meditation. It started in my first year of university where I decided that it might be a good way to help deal with the stress of my new environment. I downloaded the app Calm which, if I recall correctly, I saw highly recommended in an A.V. Club article. For about two weeks I used it every morning before I went to classes. When asked about it I would say it was working. This was a lie. I just sat in silence for 10 minutes with my thoughts racing and not getting much out of it. Then, and every time I’ve tried to meditate since, I am left cold. Always envious of the people who practice it and have said it has profoundly benefitted their lives. I’m not trying to find nirvana, but I wouldn’t mind finding some feeling of serenity.

When I listen to “Hard Drive,” I find that serenity I’ve been searching for. If only for 5 minutes and 27 seconds.

Comprising of recollections of four conversations Jenkins had during a tumultuous time in her life, “Hard Drive” is part jazz-inflected indie song and part guided meditation. Listening to it feels like surrendering to the enormity of life and finding serenity, but without the obliteration of the self. Jenkins’ world is populated by individuals, just as yours and mine is. Unique characters whom we share chance interactions with that have the opportunity to radically alter us in ways we might not even realize at first.

Existence is beautiful and complicated. But even if it’s the only thing we’ve got, it’s important not to get too worked up about it. Because in this life, the mind is just a hard drive.