Schmutzie's May 2021 Mixtape
May 2021’s mixtape is over 3 hours and 10 minutes long and has 57 alternative, downtempo, pop, indie rock, jazz, punk, easy listening, hip-hop/rap, regional Mexican, blues, rock, African, indie pop, country, worldwide, singer/songwriter, folk, musique francophone, and R&B/soul songs across 7 decades. 53% of the music is from 2021. This playlist is available on both Spotify and Apple Music, and if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll find embedded widgets you can play right here. The songs are in reverse order by year and then reverse alphabetically by artist within each year.
I’m a bit obsessed with Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?” at the moment:
The song opens with:
I remember when I was a very little girl, our house caught on fire
I'll never forget the look on my father's face as he gathered me up
In his arms and raced through the burning building out to the pavement
And I stood there shivering in my pajamas and watched the whole world go up in flames
And when it was all over I said to myself, is that all there is to a fire?
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is
Peggy Lee was 48 with four divorces behind her and not much of a career on the horizon when she recorded it in 1969, 11 years after her last hit. Lee’s label, Capitol, was ready to drop her, and the once-hopeful 1960s were wrapping up as less than had felt promised. Capitol’s faith in her was thin enough that it wasn’t even going to press copies of this record initially.
There’s an exhaustion in this song, but there’s also a steadfastness, a stick-it-out attitude that fits a later-stage pandemic so well. I wander my apartment hall 423 days in with the mood-matching comfort of these lyrics, watching the world burn down through my phone’s bright screen. I imagine myself in a synthetic, brocade gown, smoking cigarettes through an opera length cigarette holder and waving off the petty indignities and inevitable catastrophes of the world with a bored sigh.
It’s a vacation from forcing in positive thinking, thank god.
May 2021’s playlist on Spotify and Apple Music:
1. Dark Days — Yard Act (2021) 2. Everybody (feat. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien & Mr. Lif) — Wax Tailor (2021) 3. Hey Michael — Wallice & Marinelli (2021) 4. The Man Who Sees Tomorrow — Uwade (2021) 5. You and Me and Everything — Tōth (2021) 6. Rides Again… — Spodee Boy (2021) 7. Favourite — Sorry (2021) 8. Stuck — Smoothboi Ezra (2021) 9. Bully’s Lament (feat. Isaac Gillespie & Morgan Heringer — Shakey Graves (2021) 10. All We Have Is Now — Royal Blood (2021) 11. Clinic Poem — Rosie Tucker (2021) 12. The Astronaut — Ray Goren (2021) 13. Zombie! — Orla Gartland (2021) 14. Rainforest — Noname (2021) 15. The Best God Damn Band In Wyoming — No-No Boy (2021) 16. Se Me Va A Quemar El Corazón — Mon Laferte (2021) 17. My Body Is My Own — Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy (2021) 18. 510 — Kylie V (2021) 19. We All Have (feat. Matt Berninger) — Julia Stone (2021) 20. Presentation (with Nick Hakim) — Juan Wauters & Benamin (2021) 21. Dead and Gone — Jess Locke (2021) 22. Hard Way — Flock of Dimes (2021) 23. Senzu Bean (feat. Dre’Zy) — EsePax (2021) 24. Take Care — Eleventh Dream Day (2021) 25. Helena — Damien Jurado (2021) 26. Happy Parasites — Born Ruffians (2021) 27. Cloud 9 (feat. Tegan and Sara) — Beach Bunny (2021) 28. Kora (feat. Camille) — Ballaké Sissoko (2021) 29. Stay In the Car — Bachelor, Jay Som & Palehound (2021) 30. Last Night — Arooj Aftab (2021) 31. Waverly (Anjimile Version) — Samia & Anjimile (2020) 32. Big Mess — Flyying Colours (2020) 33. 17 — The Greeting Committee (2018) 34. Teen Challenge — Great Grandpa (2017) 35. Flower Pedals — Frankie and the Witch Fingers (2015) 36. BBQ Party — Shonen Knife (2008) 37. Our Love’s Gone Wrong Again — El Diablo (2001) 38. Tears Are In Your Eyes — Yo La Tengo (2000) 39. Feed of Man — Billy Bragg & Wilco (2000) 40. Rock Star — Hole (1994) 41. A Quick One While He’s Away (Live “Rock and Roll Circus” Version) — The Who (1979) 42. Suspect Device — Stiff Little Fingers (1979) 43. I Got You — Split Enz (1979) 44. L.A. Freeway — Guy Clark (1975) 45. Search and Destroy — Iggy & The Stooges (1973) 46. Anti Love Song — Betty Davis (1973) 47. Roses for Columbus — Mark Fry (1972) 48. I Met Him On a Sunday — Laura Nyro & LaBelle (1971) 49. The Last Time I Saw Richard — Joni Mitchell (1971) 50. Jump Into the Fire — Harry Nilsson (1971) 51. The Wind — Cat Stevens (1971) 52. 30 Century Man — Scott Walker (1969) 53. Is That All There Is? — Peggy Lee (1969) 54. Colours — Donovan (1965) 55. Give Me the Simple Life — Etta Jones (1960) 56. Non, je ne regrette rien — Edith Piaf (1960) 57. Let Me Play with Your Poodle — Tampa Red (1942)
