Currently Obsessed Vol. 1 (Music Edition)

What I've been listening to lately

Photo by Joyce G on Unsplash

Buckle in. My ADHD is raging.

I’m just going to start with a short story. If you are wondering what kind of mother I am… Wednesday, as I was picking the kids up from school, we were discussing our plans to go get “adult happy meals” at McDonald’s for the Minecraft stuff. Side note: when we did, I got yelled at for saying “adult toys” out loud in McDonald’s. My middle son started telling a story about how he had a bad experience at the McDonald’s in the neighboring city where their dad lives, and they go to school. He was talking about how he had walked to McDonald’s and how long he had to wait for a Shamrock Shake.

He said, “All I wanted was a Shamrock Shake.”

I interrupted with, “All I wanted was a Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me. All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me…”

He started laughing and asked me what I was singing. So, of course, as I was driving, I had my youngest type in “Institutionalized” on YouTube.

A few minutes later, he asked if he could finish his story. Ope. Yep!

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More days than not, a song is playing in my head when I wake up in the morning. Some days a couple or a few songs will shuffle through my head, fighting for the space. Sometimes, it will be one song for a whole week (or two or more).

Some days, I’m surprised that my kitchen Echo doesn’t come back with “Seriously?? Again??”

I obsessively listened to Tracy Chapman’s first (self-titled) album after the election in November.

Music is my coping mechanism. It helps me to get through each day. Sometimes (like now), when life is challenging, I go deep into the obsessive listening.

I’ve been obsessing over vinyl lately, too. Last summer, I dug out my vinyl collection and cheap suitcase record player to participate in a local brewery’s “femme fatale” themed vinyl night. This brewery does vinyl night every Wednesday, where people can sign up to spin a 20-minute set. Once a month, they will have a themed night (you don’t *have* to play a themed set). I mainly go on my kid-free Wednesdays (during the summer, I go on some kid weeks, or if it’s a theme I really want to participate in, I will get an easy dinner, ditch the kids, and go [they are 14, 15, and 17]). The Wednesdays that I do go are my favorite days of the week. The first thing I do when I wake up on those days is to put together my 20-minute setlist.

A couple of months ago, the theme was “drinking songs.” I immediately thought of three songs - one that I was currently obsessed with: “Dial Drunk” by Noah Kahan.

I so completely love this version with Post Malone! I’m still pretty obsessed with this song, and also added “Stick Season” to my list of songs on repeat.

The second song I have been obsessed with (also still in my regular rotation) was Hozier’s “Too Sweet”

The third song (actually the first that went through my mind) was “Happy Hour” by The Housemartins, which I thought I had on vinyl.

But, it turns out the album I have by them doesn’t have this song on it (The People That Grinned Themselves to Death).

It was hugely disappointing to check and see that neither the Noah Kahan nor the Hozier song were on their regular vinyl releases, but both were on special extended versions that were very pricey. These were both released as singles, so I’m not liking that at all. If you release something as a single, it should absolutely be on the standard version of the album. I will just continue my obsessive streaming.

The drinking theme night was on a night I had kids, and as it would happen, my car decided to do some random weird shit that day that kept me home.

What else I’m currently completely obsessed with!!

I woke up with Lola Young’s “Messy” in my head several mornings over the past week.

I’ve been obsessed with this song for WEEKS now! It hit #1 on the alternative charts last week.

I’ve been listening to the local alternative radio station a lot over the last year for a couple of reasons. First, and primarily because there’s an issue between my car and phone. If my phone is plugged in, more often than not, it will pause whatever I’m playing (and continue to immediately pause after I hit play again). No issues when it’s connected by Bluetooth. Apparently, it’s some kind of issue where your phone is trying to go into voice mode or something. I Googled, of course, and the fix is to call someone and hang up. Ha! I’m not doing that every time I get into my car. Sometimes, it works plugged in while I have the navigation going (not always, though). Unless I have a good battery percentage (not typical), I just play the radio. I do make sure it’s charged enough for the kids to each play a song on the way to school every morning since they all use YouTube for that. (I always end up with weird car problems).

Side note: my kids are also obsessive listeners (especially my youngest). They will play either the same song all week, or alternate between a couple of songs (usually by the same artist). I’m just so glad my boys finally got over their obsession with the “Rap Battles of History.” I try really hard to be supportive of their musical tastes. My youngest has been obsessed with Kanye West for the past few months (specifically albums 1-3 and 5). The middle son has been recently playing Mac DeMarco and Tyler the Creator. Before that, it was a combination of Tame Impala and Tyler the Creator. My daughter had a wild week this week as there wasn’t one song she played twice. One day, she played “Pride” by Kendrick Lamar (which surprised everyone), and then today, she played “Numb” by Meg Myers. *another side note is that Lola Young is featured on a track, “Like Him,” on Tyler, The Creator’s latest album (which was a very limited ridiculously expensive one that I won’t be getting).

Secondly, I’ve been listening to the radio more often to get exposed to new music without having to go do aimless searching. I do read a TON of music Substacks where I get exposed to new music, but that takes more effort and intention, which I’m not up for on the way home from taking kids to school. (I do intentionally load up a Substacker’s playlist for errands later in the afternoon, or on the way to pick kids up from school.) No thinking is required to just click the “radio” button on my car. So, this explains why a lot of what I’m currently obsessed with is pretty popular alternative. Some things, when you hear them a ton, just get stuck.

I listened to Lola Young’s album This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway a couple of weeks ago - to justify buying it just so that I could play “Messy” at Wake’s Vinyl Night. And, it’s worthy. Whether I will play something on Vinyl Night is one of the deciding factors that go into my vinyl purchases.

After weeks, I can still listen to “Messy” on repeat for hours. Yesterday, I happened upon this, which just freaking blew me away (I have a deep love and appreciation for Like a Version and BBC1 Live Lounge Covers!)

At some point after this, YouTube sent me on a loop of all of the appearances on shows that Lola Young has done with this song. I was working/writing, so I just let them go. I can’t tell you how many there were, but I didn’t get tired of it, and listened for a good hour probably.

A few weeks ago, I was at my youngest sister’s house doing stuff, and she was like “hey, have you heard this song?” and played it! I was like OMG, I love this song so much!! A week or two before that, she was playing her “liked” songs on Spotify or Alexa, and I was like, “OMG, I love this song too!!” And we started talking about groups we were loving. So, I made her a playlist of recent things that I was really loving (it does have a few older songs on it, too, because it was not too long after the Shrinking season finale, I think? So, there’s some from there and then a few other songs that were a bit older, but I was still loving. And it randomly just added a ton of Wet Leg songs at the end, but I’m leaving it hahaha!).

I tried to do a music exchange thing with my middle sister, but that didn’t go well for me. I played her “Messy” (of course!), but then she played me a country song. Then I played her “Dial Drunk,” and she played me another country song. Then she said she liked Miley Cyrus, and I started playing her Miley’s cover of “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” (for which I have a piece in the works that includes the original slated for next week sometime!)

And she interrupted it with, you guessed it, a country song, so I just started talking and tuning out the music to save my sanity.

The other song that I’ve been obsessed with for quite a while, and it’s still got its hold on me, is “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan.

“Good Luck Babe” by Chappell Roan was the most played song on my Amazon Music 2024 year end thing. Mostly because my Echo show does an “evening unwind” routine that plays “pop culture radio.” I have been too lazy to figure out how to change it to something else, and I either just go with it or stop it every night.

I had heard “Pink Pony Club” a couple of times before I saw Chappell Roan perform it on SNL, but that performance started my obsession with it.

A few weeks ago, I was texting with my youngest brother (who also has great taste in music!), and…

And he sent me the most perfect explanation of this song in a TikTok:

@taylorthorn24 @taylorthorn24 ♬ original sound - Entertainment Tonight - Entertainment Tonight

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SPOT ON!!! Every time it comes on, I have to sing. Loudly. I apologized to my oldest when I was driving them home for spring break, and I was listening to the radio, flipping stations, for weather updates (first tornado watch of the season), and the song came on three different stations within 20-30 minutes, and I absolutely sang it loudly each and every time as if I hadn’t heard it recently. Then, when we got home, I let the dogs out, and they popped out the back door to tell me to listen to what song just came on the “Evening Unwind” routine!! Hahahaha!

I seriously bought some TouchTunes credits when I was out for a ladies’ lunch with my besties, just so I could play “Messy,” and “Pink Pony Club.” I can’t go a whole day without listening to both of them at least once.

Some others that have ended up going through my head a lot lately:

Gigi Perez's “Sailor Song” (And a lot of her stuff is pretty fantastic! Sometimes, when I ask Alexa to play this song, it will shuffle through her songs).

I got obsessed with Dexter and The Moonrocks’ “Sad in Carolina” a while ago, but this is the new one that I really like! They played at Gabe’s Oasis in Iowa City (a 45-minute road trip) back in March, and I totally wanted to go, but couldn’t find someone else to go with.

And Royel Otis. I will be writing a bit about Record Store Day 2025, and will say much more about these guys in that forthcoming piece, so look for that within the next couple of days. I was going to add RSD stuff to this one, but figured it deserved its own piece…plus I already have a ton of sidenotes here!

I apologize to those of you who subscribed to me for the pieces I write more about parenting…there will be some coming, I promise! The next two (or three) pieces will be more about music because I can’t help my obsessions! Ha!

Honestly, I’m having trouble finishing up a few pieces I have going about life. It’s been a lot, and that is overwhelming. And I am being pulled in several different directions about what I want to write about most - which makes finishing any piece overwhelming. I knew this was one I could actually finish and post/publish!

Leave me a comment if you see something here that strikes you, or tell me what you have been obsessively listening to lately!