30 December 2025 - Once A Tree - Whatever You Do Kid?

I have to be honest - I get so jazzed for Maple Leaf March that I write some of these posts six months in advance.  I wrote this in August - and will likely rewrite some of it.

And then release it three months early.   Because, well, this was my 8th most listened to song of 2024, and the highest ranked song for which no post previously existed.  

However, I wanted to share that I am a Spotify user, and this song - well, it's my most listened to for the last four weeks - and Once A Tree is my 5th most listened to artist all year.  

I'm now revisting this as the year-end list from Spotify comes out.   You see - Once A Tree was my 5th most listened to artist all year - which, completely believable.   I really dove right in on them.  They had a new EP come out this year that was incredible.  I'd argue that combining my Once A Tree listening with my Jayli Wolf (#2) listening - and they should ABSOLUTELY be tied together because, c'mon, don't make me say it - would make my most listened to artist by a mile. 

No disrespect to my Spotify-annointed #1, Charlotte Cardin, who I ALSO listened to a ton. 

Also, no disrespect to Hayden Wolf, who is absolutely the producer for both. 

I have been very curious about this, and not specifically about Once A Tree - but about the algorithm in general. I have requested my Spotify data, and will let you know what I learn - probably in March.  Short answer: I ran the numbers and I was right, but not by much. 

Back to this song.  From their 2020 EP Fool's Paradise, this song is one of my favorites of theirs (probably why it was my 8th most listened to song of 2024). But it was more than that for me.  You see, I spent a lot of 2024 out of work.  I was starting to get a little down on myself, and then I started getting in-person interviews.  I played this song in the car on the way to a few of them.  I was offered every job that followed this song's playing.  Coincidence? Probably - I was qualified for the jobs - but I choose to think not.  

Supposedly, this was a "stripped down" version of the same song.   Maybe Jayli didn't wear socks for this version?   

I couldn't resist that joke.  

27 December 2024 - Phantogram - Attaway

Did you know Phantogram had a new album out? 

I knew there was one coming, but I didn't know it was out.  

Well, yes. Memory of a Day was released in October, and I didn't even notice. 

Here's a song from that album.  

It, like everything else they release, is a banger.

26 December 2024 - ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT.

This song is a GLOBAL phenomenom.  GLOBAL.

Like, looking at the Wikipedia page for this song - one thing I look at is chart performance.  I have NEVER seen a longer list for one song.  

And I understand it.  It's a fun, energetic earworm that you will now be humming for the rest of the day.  Co-written by the artists and a large team of collaborators (including credits for the composers of the Toni Basil classic "Mickey"), the song is broadly commercially AND critically successful.

But back to the composition. Rosé was the original writer... and its title and premise - and chorus - are directly based on, and this isn't a joke, a Korean drinking game.  She was concerned about how broadly appealing a song about a drinking game might be.  She didn't need to be, though. 

By the way, I think the end of this video is a Breakfast Club homage.  What do you think?  Let me know in the comments. 

What I love about this song...

OK, for this, I need you to go back to what I said about live performances of "On The Ground" when I wrote about that song.  

I add this "live" performance to illustrate a piece of the K-pop machine that I don't really enjoy.  There's several videos like this. Rosé CLEARLY wants to sing her song.  She's fully capable of singing her song.  The helper track is turned up so high she can't.  

Contrast that to THIS live performance, which she's REALLY singing.   It's not about the dancing.   It's about the music. 

Even better is this live performance with Lee Young-Ji standing in for Bruno Mars... who we have not even talked about here.  It's because, as fun as he is, Rosé is the one bringing the energy here.   

25 December 2024 - Cœur de pirate - Noël Sous Les Tropiques

Well, here we are.  Christmas.

I hope your Christmas is in the tropics, or wherever you are happiest this time of year.  

I give you my gift of music.  My gift, of course, is that I have œ on back my clipboard.  This is a French language classic, performed by Béatrice Martin.  

Merry Christmas!

24 December 2024 - Cœur de Pirate et Les Appendices - All I Want For Christmas is You

So, I was sitting here, on another Christmas Eve, and I didn't know what to give you.

Then I remembered - I have a œ on my clipboard.

This time, ❤️ de Pirate teams up with francophone musical comedy troupe Les Appendices to cover a Mariah Carey classic that I KNOW you heard 150 times in the last month.  

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!!!

23 December 2024 - Tate McRae - It's ok I'm ok

So, if you look at my Spotify Wrapped, you'll see an artist that looks like something of an outlier.

Tate McRae. 

And yet this Calgary native is out there, making music that's giving us all Britney Spears flashbacks. Of course, the video is just as campy as the music as well.  

By the way, she writes her own stuff, which is impressive.  The song is about a woman who is very happy to see her ex is not with her anymore - and she's warning the new girlfriend.  It's a clever song. 

The song was a top 20 hit in the US and a worldwide hit overall.  Which is great.  The song is damn catchy. 

The way she debuted this song was kind of crazy.  It was just an encore she pulled out during a show at Madison Square Garden - completely out of left field.  No one saw it coming.  Except, I assume, her dancers and other tour crew.  Her record label.  Her management.

OK, I didn't see it coming.

20 December 2024 - Cindy Lee - If You Hear Me Crying (and Diamond Jubilee)

Yesterday, I said the consensus best album of 2024 was Brat. 

That's kind of true.

The reason that's only kind of true is because Diamond Jubilee, the two hour magnum opus of Cindy Lee, a stage name/persona of Pat Flegel, is kind of challenging that wisdom.  It was not released via traditional streaming channels (which is slightly annoying) - it's on Bandcamp and of course YouTube (without ads!!!).  It's really great and worth checking out. 

Oh, you don't want to seek it out yourself?  Fine.  Here's the ENTIRE Diamond Jubilee album.  

Although Flegel is Calgary-based, that album cover photo was taken in Lethbridge.  Fun fact.