Earlier today I sent Anabel a post with some silly frog illustrations with captions and the question: “Which reminds you of your partner?” After some joking, she did land on the frog curating playlists.

I rejected the idea at first.

Me? Curating playlists? That’s crazy.

She, of course, was right however. I had this idea in my head that “playlists” were “curated” by trendy music journalists and people who would have way too much to say about the specific song and album I’m listening to right now. I think maybe as recently as 10 years back that would frustrate me – the perceived judgment. Self proclaimed music nerds and tastemakers. I still think the whole thing is a sham now, of course, but I don’t care so much about what I like being trendy.

I did however still hold onto that perception – but the truth is, I make a lot of playlists.

Somewhere between “embarrassment” and “not actually caring” is how I ended up making virtually all of my playlists private. Let me be clear – not because I am embarrassed by the music, but because a lot of them wouldn’t make sense to anybody else. Music for specific seasons and weather. Music for specific types of games I’ll play online with friends.

Rarely are they centered around themes meant to be enjoyed by others. They’re not concepts that are difficult to understand or anything. There’s the “Stormy Spring/Summer Weather” list – but it’s vibe based. Vibes that make sense to me. Others may or may not agree but ultimately they’re just made for me.

Anabel, of course, knows about them. I’ll admit that I’m embarrassed to name some of the playlists, after all, how is anyone but the author supposed to make sense of something like “Jungle Lab” or “Sunset Hill”? (Something like “Holidays!” is maybe a bit more straightforward…)

I have a playlist called “Traveller.” Probably my favorite private/personal playlist. While I am pretty liberal with how loosely I curate my other private lists, I take pretty great care to make sure the songs on this one fit a certain state of mind. The idea came to me after our flight home from Tokyo in August of 2023. We were waiting for a late night flight out of Haneda Airport. Maybe I was exhausted but there was something I really dug about staring quietly out into the night of Tokyo. I don’t quite remember if I was listening to music while we were waiting, but I strongly remember the vibe. I wanted to capture that feeling and that is how the “Traveller” playlist came to be. (For the record, I do know the US spelling is “Traveler” but as of right now the playlist and the associated image up at the top of this post are using the UK spelling. Not intentionally. I goofed and stuck with it.)

My wife and I travel a lot. A lot of times for work, sometimes for vacation or to visit people. Most of the time it’s driving, but on occasion there’s flight involved. If you know me, I actually hate flying. It terrifies me. But for whatever reason I (mostly) enjoy the airport experience. Aside from the frustrating things like luggage and security lines, anyway.

I can’t explain it, but the process of travel, whether it’s that moment in Tokyo or just driving home from Brooklyn at night – there’s moments where the “traveller” playlist just hits. It’s the soundtrack to specific memories and certain types of travel. Long drives, short flights. Whatever it is. There’s a mysterious funky future feel to some songs before others chime in with jazzy jungle or drum and bass. It’s not a list that you’d find on some music blog or tiktok top 10, but it most certainly is very carefully curated. It’s extremely personal and I think that is what makes for a really special playlist.

The image up top? The one with the UK spelling? Potential album art. I’m not sharing the playlist, not that anyone wants to hear it, but I do want to create a collection of songs that are inspired by that feeling. The same vibe that the playlist has. The photos were taken by both Anabel and I. One was her flight home from LA last year, and the other was from our honeymoon in Tokyo back in 2018. Carefully curated.

I mentioned it a few times but pretty much all the lists I’ve made are private, but I can embed one right here. It has another goofy name that only makes sense to me, but I can offer the theme up at least: Adult Swim.

The playlist attached to this post is made up of actual songs used in Adult Swim bumpers back in the day, songs by artists who were featured or featured in Adult Swim cartoons circa 2006. Some songs are just tangentially related or have the same vibe, others… well, I never said I was an expert at curating. Anyway, if you dig that music, check it out.

Do you have personal playlists?