Well well well, what do we have here. It’s a the end of the first month of the year and it felt like it zipped right past. The year started off with a doozy, ready to put 2020 in it’s place with a some incredible violence, and then a party, and now the return of information and regular old American divisiveness and exceptionalism.

Cool!

About An Hour for January is about first and foremost celebrating. I love watching the Rose Parade in the wee morning of a brand new year, but this year the pretty little floats made of natural plants, seeds, and thousands of hours from volunteers (like me when I was in high school in Eagle Rock) were not a thing. So I start the playlist jamming to a drumline, part of Beyoncé’s ‘Homecoming’ Netflix special and album. She actually has zero singing parts in this, so it’s all about instrumental band and drumline. I like how it flows into Ivy Lab’s dark party in “Gopher.” The background vocals strike the same tone as the “The Buzzz Drumline” interlude so it’s a straight up dance party for about 15 minutes.

Everything winds down from there with some acoustic jazzy vocal-driven songs. The amazing “Sound & Color” by the Alabama Shakes is a song I forget about all the time and then out of nowhere get really excited when I rediscover it again because you feel the feels in the bouncy lyrics. I figured now that it’s top of mind why not actually cement it into a playlist, FFS. What I did discover net new was the Black Pumas while I was watching the inauguration party program. Their performance of “Colors” was incredible, and the lead vocals reminds me of the insanely cool nonchalance of Stevie Wonder, so they are forever hardwired in my brain and this playlist as back to back buddies.

Skip, skip, skip, and we get a couple more guitar songs from there and we’re right back into synth land. I like to end the playlists with something a little dramatic and it’s only fitting that the month of January 2021 deserves to end with the intense/odd/cool/Haha-I-Like-This of Imogen Heaps “Hide and Seek.” Why not? Who cares? Not me. Do you?

Anyway, TLDR: January is a happy one because I choose it to be.

Cheers to February being just the same.