Musical Retrospectives

When 2018 ended and when 2019 began (as has been the case for the past many year-ends since the onset of digital music), social media was flooded with people’s musical favorites from the past year.

I always felt this was selling out the mix-tape. To me, a mixtape had a private message or declaration or credo. We now broadcast these things in the way we do everything else, via social media. It feels a step too far, but maybe that’s a sign of my age.

I use Spotify and I don’t even really know how to use or share playlists. Some people have sent me playlists, which I know how to listen to, but I haven’t really explored the feature set much. I mostly just add songs I like to my saved list, and shuffle all. Admittedly, that is cumbersome, and I end up skipping a lot of songs.

To be a little contrarian, and even though it’s almost a month late, here are 10 songs I like from the early 90s by Canadian musicians I’m still enjoying:

1. Denial – Pure
2. Hayden – Bad as they Seem
3. Tragically Hip – Thugs
4. Sky – Love Song
5. Crash Test Dummies – Superman Song
6. Odds – Someone Who’s Cool
7. Philosopher Kings – Charms
8. Alanis Morissette – Hand in my Pocket
9. Bryan Adams – Please Forgive Me
10. Justin Bieber’s Fetal Heartbeat 
11. 54-40 – Ocean Pearl