Introduction
Welcome to my Monthly Playlist Project! I started this adventure as a New Year's resolution in 2020 to listen to more music and to grow my creativity and design skills. What ended up happening has been 4600+ hours (that's over 6 months if you tried listening straight through) of music that I have discovered and fallen in love with and over 45 unique album covers using multiple mediums and techniques I had never thought I would learn. The rules are simple: if I haven't heard the song before (or in some rare occasions had a new appreciation of it through movie soundtracks, covers, etc.) and I enjoy it enough to want to listen to it multiple times, it gets added to the monthly playlist.
I used to try and select songs that fit into a certain 'vibe', but over the years the playlists grew in both diversity of emotions and languages spoken. I hope that you enjoy the music, the art, or at the very least are just a little bit inspired to challenge yourself to do something you're passionate about - just like I was back when this all started.
This project is dedicated to my Mom, I will miss you forever.
*Disclaimer: I am not associated with Spotify in any way, but I am grateful for being able to share song previews through their platform - if you want to listen to the playlists in their entirety, click on an album cover to be redirected to Spotify's app*
2023
Done with college after 5 years and now starting a job, 2023 will certainly be a year of changes and adapting - but we still keep chugging along and making the best with what we got.
Best of 2023
*Album cover will only be made in December so here's a running list of my favorite songs this year with a meme*
January 2023
Turns out that a lot of my friend's are civil engineers, I tried to make them happy this month with the album cover.
February 2023
Three years on this musical and creative journey. Wow.
March 2023
I did in fact load up Windows 95 and use a mouse to actually make the album cover in Paint. There are even some easter eggs if you can try and find them.
April 2023
PVRIS makes a common appearance now as they line up to release their EVERGREEN album.
May 2023
Just a complete departure to what I've done with my album covers as I look back on traveling to Monaco a year ago. Shout out to half•alive in concert making me fall in love again with Strangers Like Me and all of Phil Collins discography again.
June 2023
If you haven't noticed yet, my playlists are usually hovering just under 2 hours each. Thanks to traveling to Portugal and the job search, this becomes the shortest playlist I've curated thus far; but, what this month lacks in length it delivers in really good songs.
July 2023
I started my full-time job this month - while new environments can be incredibly daunting to fit in, listening to music helped ease the transition.
August 2023
After 27 years of fighting metastatic breast cancer, my Mom passed away this month. She was the greatest person I've had in my life and she drove me in so many ways to find things that enabled me to be the best person I can be - including using this project as a creative outlet and stress reliever. The playlist has some of the greatest songs I've found but was cut short.
September 2023
This project is dedicated to my Mom. I love you forever.
October 2023
Some great finds like Knox Hamilton's Set It on Fire mixed in with some of my favorite EAFC 24 tunes. Made sure to incorporate some pink into this album cover for breast cancer awareness month.
2022
Fully in my stride. 2022 was a crazy time in my life and, with so many highlights, you might start to notice that the melancholy of 2020 is replaced with pop and party. Don't get me wrong, I still like a sad song every now and then though.
Best of 2022
My second album cover to be selected by my friends, it's a return to form integrating gold back into the 'Best of Series' with the gilded marble.
January 2022
Since I always embraced the various cultures and languages of music in these playlists, it was due time that my album covers picked up the slack.
February 2022
The month of Cold Heart - PNAU Remix by Elton John, Dua Lipa, and PNAU. A staple for any party playlist going forward. Also the first time I integrate my love for Lego into the album covers.
March 2022
As COIN released their Uncanny Valley album, a lot of the singles landed on this playlist.
April 2022
Higlighting CHAMPAGNE by Valley this month not only because it's a great song but also because Karah finally gets on the main mic.
May 2022
The year was great in general, but May 2022 was in particular a month of absolutely everything occurring. Thank you therapy for getting me through my last classes and giving me the motivation to push through the end so I could go to Monaco for the F1 Grand Prix happy.
June 2022
Pure summer vibes and a deviation from the album cover template. Enjoy June 2022.
July 2022
Out goes the typical 'party July' and in comes more discovery in UK artists.
August 2022
There are so many highlights in this month. Songs like Coast by Hailee Steinfeld and Extra Agenda by Claudia Valentina are always playing.
September 2022
The return to listening to Tove Lo after many years. This album cover in particular was so much fun to make.
October 2022
This month feels like I was finally dipping down from the summer vibes and bringing in more laid back songs to bop your head to rather than fully dancing. Still bangers though.
November 2022
I made this album cover at my friends apartment while he played Dark Souls 2 as I was completely stressed from my first semester of Master's classes winding down and other things happening. It's a testament to how much this project has been an outlet for me as much as it is cool to show off.
December 2022
World Cup in Qatar made me want to go with a special album cover so badly, but I never was able to make it work. Thankfully, what came instead was one of my favorite covers I've ever made and the release of one of my favorite songs ever: Nobody by half•alive.
2021
Statistically, this is my highest year of listening. Personally, I really found my stride in what I wanted this project to become and this year is the model for every succeeding one.
Best of 2021
This 'Best of' had so many songs that made me had this weird feeling of cozy nostalgia and what's a better way to show that through my take on a 'do you want to be girlfriend' note passed during class.
January 2021
If you haven't noticed yet, I try to get at least two languages in each album and this year the tone was set to broaden the origin of where my music comes from by having the first song of the year be Portuguese.
February 2021
I want to shout out what is one of my favorite album covers I have *ever* done. Can I make it better now? Of course, but it really pushed me to start using multiple mediums to create the covers. Soon you'll see me integrating more digital drawing.
March 2021
Shout out to MJ by Now,Now this month. Looking back at the album cover, it is interesting to me that all the elements were cobbled together where now I would do everything in a pixel art maker. That's called growth!
April 2021
Finishing out my Junior year at college, this playlist gave me the vibes in the background to get through studying for finals.
May 2021
One of my favorite album covers and also some great songs like help herself (with BENEE) by bbno$, Diamond Pistols, and BENEE.
June 2021
This is an all-star playlist, just about every song is so good and has probably the most songs I go back to listen too to this day from my older monthly playlists. This playlist was also the longest one I curated in 3.5 years of the project.
July 2021
What can I say, I like a fun July - as seen by Wavey by CLiQ. Highlights also include barcelona (feat. Sasha Alex Sloan) - Oliver Nelson remix by Winnetka Bowling League and Summerland by half•alive.
August 2021
This month was the first month I ever let my friends actually pick the album cover from 4 different color variants.
September 2021
With the likes of MI FAI IMAZZIRE by BLANCO and LA CONZONE NOSTRA by MACE, this was definitely the hard launch of my interest in Italian rap.
October 2021
I feel like this month is a snapshot of how overall my music taste changed since 2020 and is probably the model for what kind of vibes I was trying to find at the beginning of this adventure.
November 2021
November 2021 was just an important month in my life. I won the election to become President of my fraternity (shout out SigEp NJA) after losing in 2020 and decided that I was going to continue my education and get my Master's.
December 2021
If there was ever an album cover that I want to go back and just completely scrap - it would be this month. Thankfully the music carries this month, especially with GROWING UP IS _____ by Ruel.
2020
The start of the journey.
Best of 2020
In December of 2020, I found that I was spending a lot of time just listening to each month as I was making each playlist and never going back. I decided to compile my favorite finds of the year and then put them in one large playlist. Everything's ordered through the months so even the vibes change up througout the playlist as if you were listening month to month.
February 2020
01. The very first playlist. Just a secret between you and me though, a lot of the first songs were discovered in the months leading up to this project - the only playlist to do so.
March 2020
Start of online college due to COVID, maybe thats why I feel like a lot of these songs are melancholic.
April 2020
I really leaned into Eurovision songs during the beginning of the month. This month was a particularly rough one in my life and is probably the apex of the melancholy vibes during this time.
May 2020
This is very much a transition period with both my life and the music I was listening too.
June 2020
After moving back home, this becomes what I think is a staple sample of my music tastes were and finding my rhythm to these playlists.
July 2020
July's always seem to get the most 'party feeling' songs. This is the start.
August 2020
This is the month I found LEON during a drive up to my aunt's house. I didn't originally latch onto In a Stranger's Arms but it hit me in such a way that I just couldn't stop listening - I haven't stopped.
September 2020
I want to particularly highlight the album cover for once. This was such an departue of the ideas I had before and definitely the first time that I had a spark to really try different things with the album covers.
October 2020
I think this is the first time that I put a half•alive song in these playlists, which ended up being the first concert I've been too.
November 2020
Highlights of the month are finding PVRIS and listening to FEEL SOMETHING DIFFERENT for the rest of the year non-stop
December 2020
Ended off the first year of the playlists with an inclusion of Good Scott, a nice call back to the first song added to this project. 