A Taste of the 2010s: Behind the Mix

What we're beginning to see is that I really like 2010s music. The height of progressive house. Recession pop. Corny rock. I love it all.

This is the start of a new mix series (hopefully). I was initially going to call this series "iPod Shuffle Surprise." Instead I decided to crib on a line from "No Broke Boys." Regardless, the gist remains the same: My entire music library gets shuffled. I dump the first 15-20 songs that are played into a playlist. Then, I have to come up with a mix that doesn't make your ears bleed.

That's it, that's the whole thing.

Doing it to prove you can mix anything into anything. But should you? I dunno. You'll have to listen to find out.

This explanation will be less "why did I pick this song" and more "why I have this song in my DJ library" (since Apple Music on shuffle is the reason the songs made it!)

1. "I Won't Let You Go" by Snow Patrol: I am a corny person. I love corny songs. Snow Patrol is PEAK corny. Snow Patrol is poetic. Snow Patrol is soulful. Snow Patrol is writing goals. "I Won't Let You Go" is not my favorite Snow Patrol (that's "If There's a Rocket, Tie Me To It"), but it is perhaps one that is the epitome of the band.
2. "Imposing" by Ruben Prince x "Sparks Fly" by Taylor Swift: This is the peak part of the set for me (I know..... peaking early? Probably the wrong move). "Imposing" is some generic progressive house tune I downloaded because I liked the record series "Housepital Heroes" (I'm easily amused). I wanted to make a mashup with it since it's a very upbeat, unknown track. I tested out other songs that had come up on shuffle (there were 20 songs I took from shuffle into a playlist and only used 9 for this mix), but none of them worked. I believe I tried "Sparks Fly" last because I was convinced it WOULDN'T work. It's Taylor Swift when she was still more country. It's not that upbeat. But then once I got it lined up, I was like, this brings me a lot of joy, actually. It's dumb, but I like it. It shouldn't work. Maybe it still technically doesn't work. But I like it so I went with it.
3. "I Could Be the One" by Avicii and Nicky Romero: The amount that I listened to this back in the day when it hadn't even been officially released yet is quite a lot. An iconic progressive house anthem. See, I did manage to still kick it up a notch from the silly mashup!
4. "We Won't Go Home" [The Jane Doze Remix] by The Colourist: I miss progressive house remixes of genuine indie and alternative songs. Both genres are languishing in more recent years. I also miss The Jane Doze. They were one of the first female EDM producers/remixers I really loved, back in a time where femme producers and DJs were even more scarce than they are now. (And they're still REALLY SCARCE!)
5. "Memento" by Buddygirrl: Buddygirrl was one of those producers inspired by deadmau5 back in the day. You feel it, right? More down tempo but very pretty. As I miss The Jane Doze, so too do I miss Buddygirrl. She also made music under the name Skyelle if you dig her sound.
6. "River Flows in You" by Jasper Forks: I've heard many iterations of "River Flows in You." I know it's originally an iconic piano piece, but this version is my canonic version of the song. Sorry not sorry.
7. "Cold Water [Midnight Kids Remix]" by Major Lazer ft. Justin Bieber and MO: Midnight Kids were the soundtrack of the COVID-19 pandemic summer for me. I would take walks around the neighborhood listening to their remixes and original works. So, I was a little late to the party on them. Better late than never. Bops are bops are bops.
8. "Chase This Light" by Jimmy Eat World: We began the mix on a soft rock song, so I wanted to end again on a rock song. This one keeps our romantic mix of present focus and nostalgia going. I hope you enjoyed chasing this light with me.