I recently put together a mixtape for a friend — a monumental task, really, since it required getting most of my music on one computer, and specifically, my secondary computer, since my primary computer is a MacBook Air and I’m old-fashioned and wanted to actually burn it onto a CD. Because of the effort, I figured I should share the results with more than one person. Here then is a smattering of songs from artists I’m listening to now, in blog form, with liner notes:

[Please note that no links are to downloadable versions of any songs, and I did not upload any of this content. These are simply links to songs that are already available to listen to in the public domain.]

•  A Case of you, by Joni Mitchell. Highly appropriate, since Joni Mitchell hails from Alberta, where I live now. Still, I loved this song before moving up here — ever since Sumanth Gopinath introduced me to it, actually. This song is so beautiful, because being in love should also be about maintaining independence.
• That’s my bitch, by Kanye West and Jay-Z. It’s Kanye, need I say more, in his latest iteration! It’s so misogynistic, but I’m so indulgent with Yeezy. Such good beats! The ballin’ lifestyle, with what seem to be thinly veiled references to his relationship with Amber Rose.
• Single girl, by Scott H. Biram. I was reading recently about the standardization of pop lyrics, how they’re all about romantic love, and how they can be boiled down to the “happy in love” song, the “frustrated in love” song, and the “novelty song with sex interest” (Simon Frith, “Why do songs have words?”). I love this song because it’s not one of those: it talks about the banalities of marriage, how the narrator’s husband totally lets himself go, and makes a hilarious grass-is-always-greener appeal. Plus, Scott H. Biram is an amazing artist! Too bad this is the best sound quality I could find as the lyrics are quite excellent.
• Out for treats, by Ghettosocks. I saw Ghettosocks live in Edmonton in November and was quite impressed. Bonus: I’m sure I’d never heard the word “poutine” in a hip-hop song before this one. Also, I love the hilarious double entendre of sex/food. The video for this is some great eye candy.
• Virus, by Bjork. This is a beautiful song, and I love the relationship to illness it explores: “My sweet adversary”. Of course, only if it’s a relatively benign virus.
• La musique adoucit les moeurs, by Claire Diterzi, keeping on the xylophone-y theme. Claire Diterzi, Emilie Simon, and Camille are my triumvirate of French women doing awesome eclectic electronica. I probably could’ve picked a different Diterzi song to focus on her range, but this one just highlights her voice so beautifully. In looking around for an online version of this song, I found a beautiful video of a dancer using it as background music, which I share here. It’s not quite the studio version of the song, but it’s quite close. La musique adoucit les moeurs
• Fleur de saison, by Emilie Simon. Long before Bjork did Biophilia, Emilie did Végétal, an amazing plant-themed concept album. Emilie’s more recent work has her singing in English, which I like less. Apparently her husband/musical collaborator contracted H1N1 flu and died, and her most recent album Franky Knight, which is in my listening queue, references him eponymously.
• Sanges sweet, by Camille. Camille’s subsequent work in English is much better, in my opinion, than that of Claire Diterzi and Emilie Simon. Still, I like the earlier French stuff too. This is a great running song for me.
• Takest tamidaret, by Tinariwen. I saw this band live — they are awesome! They’re so into Touareg/Berber pride that they wear the full, bright, colorful — what is the name of the North African desert costume again — I feel like it’s “Djebala” but that’s not exactly right. Anyway, it includes a sort of male burqa, which of course means it covers their mouth. I’d never been to a concert where you can’t see any of the singers’ mouths. Also, this music has special resonance for me because I studied Kabyle Berber for a year as my field methods language and loved it. Touareg is a related language so I can make out some words and morphology. Couldn’t find any full-length versions of this song online, alas, so here’s a sample: Takest tamidaret
• Free press and curl, by Shabazz Palaces. Mmm, love this! I got this album over Xmas while talking to this amazing employee at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis (have to insert some hometown pride ). I hadn’t really listened to a lot of 2011 music at the time, and he gave me some amazing pointers, including Shabazz Palaces, formed by Butterfly of Digable Planets. The employee’s name was Jon Jon, and his blog has a lot of good new music on it.
• Canción urgente para Nicaragua, by Silvio Rodríguez. If you don’t know Silvio, he’s from Cuba, and is Latin America’s answer to Bob Dylan. He played this particular song for the first time during a concert in Nicaragua, in 1983 during the country’s revolution. Here’s a recording of that powerful performance, along with lyrics subtitled in English. It’s a beautiful illustration of the relationship between music and politics. This song inspires me every time I listen to it.
• I wish I knew how it would feel to be free, by Nina Simone. All runners who listen to music, myself included, need a good “power song” for the climax of your workout, right? And interestingly, my friend Sumanth Gopinath does research on what constitutes a good power song for runners, in terms of things like beats per minute, crescendos, lyrics, and key changes. This song is one of my power songs, and when I had Sumanth listen to it, he said he liked it as a power song, because of the crescendo and the upbeat message. But also he said that it was somewhat unique in that it starts out very quiet, and the beats are slower than most power songs. I just love Nina Simone. What a fascinating (if tormented) life, what a beautiful voice.
• Cris de Bosnie, by Kenza Farah. Lyrics-wise, I don’t think this song is particularly original, but I do like its message. I also like how the wailing and minor keys of Arab music is mixed with R & B/gospel sounds. Here’s a version with lyrics posted (ugh, excuse the comic sans).
• Whitey on the moon, by Gil Scott-Heron. A hilarious but poignant early rap over beats about the economic priorities of the U.S. I like the juxtaposition of images in this video, even if the quality if mediocre.
• Pa’ los mayores, by Grupo Afrocuba. The rhythm of this song is amazing. It was one of the first songs I learned to rumba to. And not that ballroom-style rumba bullshit, the Cuban folkloric dance. This was when I was living in Paris. I was hooked, but never got too good, as it’s not very popular. Not too many opportunities to dance rumba in Edmonton (or Minneapolis, for that matter) :/
• There must be more to life than this (Demo — not released), by Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury. How could I make a mix for someone and not include anything from MJ? Freddie Mercury is also someone I find fascinating, although there isn’t a decent biography out about him, so I don’t know nearly as much about him as I do about Jackson. Jackson thought Freddie Mercury was really cool, and would sneak into Queen concerts. Word of this got around, and people asked him, “Michael Jackson goes to rock shows? That seems weird.” To which Jackson would reply, “I go to Freddie Mercury shows, yes.” Too bad they didn’t collaborate more. Would’ve been cool. 
• 6ème sens, by Grand Corps Malade. GCM recounts why his name is “Grand Corps Malade”. A touching story of what it’s like to be handicapped.
• 212, by Azealia Banks. Banks is another beautiful, talented American living in Canada (MTL, in her case. There are just tons of us these days ). This is such a great dance song. Don’t say you weren’t warned about the explicit lyrics, ’cause yeah, they’re pretty explicit.
• Let the wolves howl at the moon, by Super Furry Animals. I generally tend to like rock-y stuff less than other genres, although bands like SFA, and Gruff Rhys, the solo-performing frontman, are just great. SFA also has an album entirely in Welsh, Mwng, which I had to get because as a linguist that was too good for me to pass up. That said, it wasn’t the greatest.