Issue #168 Mixtape
Welcome to the soundtrack for Issue #168! These songs have been hand-selected by our contributors to serve as the soundscape for our new issue. The playlist is available to listen on Spotify here.
”Doo Wop (That Thing)” by Ms. Lauryn Hill selected by Christina Santi for their essay “The Miseducation of The Birds and The Bees.”
“Rie y Llora” by Celia Cruz selected by Nilda Mesa for their short story “You Can’t Let The Oven Get Too Hot.” On their selection, Mesa writes “Celia Cruz was a titan, the queen of Cuban music, iconic throughout the US and Latin America. I listen to her often. This song, "Ríe! Llora!", means "Laugh! Cry!" There is a time to laugh, a time to cry, you'll wind up doing both in your lifetime, and live life to the fullest no matter what stage you are in. It is a typical way of looking at the world for Cubans, whether in the US or in Cuba. It's no accident that it's a great dance song as well. While the song does not appear in my story, it echoes the soul of it. I dare you not to move while listening to it.”
“Little Shadow — Acoustic Version” by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs selected by Alice Ashe for their poem “Knife through a peach: our slow and so slow cleaving.”
“Sunny” by Bobby Hebb selected by Liane Strauss for their poem “Fortune takes delight in her cruel business, determined to play her extravagant games.” Strauss writes “It’s such an indelible combination of relentless optimism and inescapable melancholy, an ambivalence akin to the one the poem is trying to describe. Also, Sunny was the nickname of the ‘you’ in the poem. She wasn’t crazy about the nickname, but she loved the song.”
“Motherland” by Natalie Merchant selected by Kate Finlinson for their short story “News from the Wasatch Front.” Finlinson writes “The narrator of ‘News from the Wasatch Front’ would've listened to Natalie Merchant's 2001 album on repeat. The title track, ‘Motherland,’ speaks to the narrator's general disillusionment. She can no longer see the place she came from, or the world at large, the way she once did.”
“Shadow” by Chromatics selected by Vibha Balaji for their short story “Everywhere is home and nowhere is a place I hope to visit.” Balaji writes “Someone on Reddit commented that Ruth Radelet's voice makes her seem like a conduit for the music rather than its source, which strikes me as an accurate observation. There is something otherworldly about the song. I remember listening to it for the first time in my apartment and thinking, Oh, that's what that feeling is. It's incredible how art can do that.”
“Velocity” by Sweet Trip selected by Katherine Franco for their video essay “IF THERE’S ANOTHER UTTER I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT.” Franco writes “I was definitely listening to this track on my way to the studio when I made this work in 2021. I also made this film (or cinepoem) while I was finishing a critical project where, in the acknowledgements, I thanked my dog and hyperpop for "velocity and method." So here's some velocity, I guess.”
“Stay Up” by Angela Muñoz, “queen” by Leikeli47, “Nothing To Prove” by Allysha Joy, “Tease” by SummerVee, and “Lion” by Little Simz, all selected by Joel Brouwer for their poem “Velleities of May.” Brouwer writes “Five spectacular talents…Different vibes but they have in common I think an alloy of defiance and joy, as I dearly hope my poem does too.”
