WARMER MIXTAPES #1620 | by Dylan Citron [Bedbug/Deadbug]

Apologies to anyone who reads this and is on the list.
Now you know my true secret, I'm an embarrassingly enthusiastic fan.

1. The Radio Dept. | 1995
This was a hard pick, I knew I shouldn't repeat songs, but nearly every song in The Radio Dept.'s catalog has been a personal favorite at one point in my life. I landed on this one because I feel like every year I come back to it, it finds new relevancy in unexpected ways. I also feel like no band has influenced my own albums in the same way that The Radio Dept. has, really perfecting the acoustic guitar - Synth Indie Pop sound. Lots of the songs on this playlist are essentially ode's to Nostalgia (some literally) and this is no different.

2. Modest Mouse | Bankrupt On Selling
This is as close as I'll get to hearing a perfect song in my lifetime. It has more heart alone than 90% of the songs I've ever heard combined. The instrumentation is simple, nothing special, a variation on a pretty basic campfire progression, but the song really shines with the Lyricism and Delivery. My Art is pretty colored by Leftism and I honestly think I owe most of that trajectory of my life to this album alone. I could analyze it line by line, but I don't wanna destroy any of the magic. If you haven't heard it, listen to it once, then listen again with the lyrics in front of you. It's a smarter analysis of the bleakness of a non-existent American Dream than most of Modern Political Science, and a hundred times more poignant.



3. Noname | Paradise (feat. Queen SheCago)
I put this one on here because I remember having an awful work week at my old job, finding this song, and just listening to it on repeat on YouTube for hours on end. It's honestly a gorgeous song and I remember getting emotional on my lunch break the day I found it, listening to some of those lines. Aside from the incredible delivery, the lyrics alone flow together in such a smooth and poetic way, I actually referenced them in all of the seasons, remind me of you, because the line good things come to an end describing a failing friendship hit so so hard.

4. Frog | Catchyalater
I have to preface this by saying that my favorite Frog song is Everything 2002, BUT, since I honestly think this song is the best entry-point into their discography, I put Catchyalater instead. It was the first song I fell in Love with by them, and still today has all the elements that make them such a cool and inventive band. They have a way with lyricism that's so unique, and something I try to emulate often. They perfectly mix somewhat surreal/abstract nostalgic themes with the most intimate emotional expressions. Every one of their songs has a moment where you're living out some tableau of sepia-tone Americana childhood.



5. Elvis Depressedly | Living Dangerously
It took me a really long time to decide on the song here. I've been listening to Elvis Depressedly (as well as Coma Cinema) since I was in High School, it was one of the earlier bands I found through Bandcamp, and the first one I really fell hard for. I must've listened to Mickey's Dead and Hotter Sadness a million times each. I settled on Living Dangerously for a less sentimental reason, and mostly just 'cause it's, honestly, a beautiful song and, whenever I'm stressed/anxious, this song works wonders to calm me down. But listen to all of it, because they're awesome, and huge musical inspirations.

6. Kanye West | Everything I Am
I love Kanye. I was gonna end the blurb there, but this song is so genuine and likeable, it blows my mind that he's as contentious a public figure as he is when he writes songs like this.

7. P.S. Eliot | Troubled Medium
This whole album (Introverted Romance In Our Troubled Minds) is really important to me. It got me through a really tough time in my life when I was really unsure of where my life would take me, I had first left for College, I was in a really long distance relationship that was really tough for me, and I was pretty frequently having panic attacks. I listened to the album a ton the summer just before I left for Freshman Year of College when visiting family in Southern California, so whenever I listen to it now it just feels like The Summer, so it ended up sticking with me that whole year and being essentially an emotional safety net. The whole thing just really resonated with me in a way that not a lot of Music has (but then again, so has most of the Music on this list).

8. Chance The Rapper | Nostalgia
I've grown in and out of Chance, but I don't think I'll ever grow out of this song. It's everything I was looking for in a song. It takes all the reasons I like Bedroom/Emo Music (the Sentimentality/Nostalgia) and then outclasses them in every sense. It has a really youthful spirit, and I've yet to find another song with the same mood with as much heart that hasn't grown heavy handed after a couple listens.



9. Julia Brown | Bloom
I could listen to this song (and album)... Forever? All the songs on this list have had a profound impact on my own songwriting, but I think nowhere is it as transparent as with Julia Brown. I'd call it my favorite band of all time if every other artist on this list didn't also own that title. It's my favorite band of the moment I'm listening to it, which is... Extremely frequently.

10. Modest Mouse | Edit The Sad Parts
I added this one last minute because I realized that Bankrupt On Selling isn't an accurate representation of why I Love Modest Mouse (because it's pretty unique in their discography), but this one is. Imagine all of their earlier material condensed into one Greatest Hits-esque song, and you have Edit The Sad Parts. If I ever drive across the country, I'm putting this song on loop, and I doubt I'll change it.

+11. The Brave Little Abacus | Orange, Blue With Stripes
Who's ready for an essay? If Abundance Of Strawberries by Julia Brown is the album I listen too every night, Just Got Back From the Discomfort—We're Alright is the album I listen too every day. It's almost a joke amongst my friends about how much I talk about it (and Frog, to circle back, LOL). It captures all the youthful sentimentality I've mentioned on this list and it just bottles it into an eccentric and winding adventure in a way that no other album I've ever heard has done. Emo, as a genre, is essentially unlistenable for me now, but not because I don't like it, but because none of it will touch the amount of Creativity in a single BLA song. It all feels stale in comparison. I've been in competition with myself to write albums that create worlds even half as mysterious and fantastical as BLA creates in every track. I picked Orange, Blue With Stripes because it provides the perfect summary to the album, but listening to this song alone does it zero justice. They mix motifs that, by the end of the album, feel comforting and familiar. Also, maybe I'm just a sucker for Synth.