We’re BACK, baby!
I’ll be honest: 2022 was a year of very high highs (chapbook published! career success! loving and fulfilling relationships of all kinds!) and very low lows (multiple rodent and insect infestations! a boggling amount of interpersonal drama! my house got broken into lol!).
Regardless, I’m still here and kicking, and I discovered a lot of great music this year, so let’s ignore how late this blog post is and take a walk down memory lane together.
As always, you can listen on Spotify and read thoughts on my favourite tracks below.
all my ghosts - Lizzy McAlpine
Back in my 2020 playlist, I wrote that Lizzy McAlpine was my favourite musical discovery that year. Several years later, I am still completely and utterly in love with everything she does. Lizzy was one of my top artists of 2022 and her sophomore album five seconds flat dominated my listening for the first half of the year.
It was hard to decide which songs to feature because the album is full of standouts, but I landed on “all my ghosts” as the playlist opener because of its immaculate good vibes. The beat coming in, the little synth lick between the verse and the chorus…it’s a perfect song.
I also wanted to take a moment to highlight a trend this year: I only listened to, like, 5 artists, but I listened to them a LOT. This is a departure from my usual habits; usually I listen to a huge variety of artists throughout the year. 2022 was different for some reason. Anyway, Lizzy McAlpine was one of those, and I’ll be pointing out the rest as I go.
Love Him I Don’t - Maisie Peters
Speaking of artists that dominated this year…for me, 2022 was by far and away the year of Maisie Peters. And when I say “dominated,” I mean that 4/5 of my top Spotify songs this year were by Maisie. I don’t even remember how I discovered her music, but I immediately latched on to her catchy hooks, sharp lyricism and ability to write a sad song like no one else.
“Love Him I Don’t” is a desperately sad song with a twinge of hope to it, perfectly capturing how it feels to get yourself out of a bad situation through sheer force of will. It’s haunting and beautiful and perfect and probably my favourite track off Maisie’s debut album You Signed Up For This. Forgive me for all the Maisie Peters on this playlist. I did my best to keep it to the essentials.
Favourite lyrics: “loving you hurts, and I loved you first / it didn’t work out and I wanted it to work / loved you I swear, loving you’s not fair / so love you I don’t”
skinny dipping - Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter: another artist I couldn’t get enough of this year. I’ve enjoyed a couple of Sabrina’s previous tracks, but when she released “skinny dipping” as the lead single for her upcoming album I got the feeling—and I was correct—that emails i can’t send would be my favourite work of hers by far.
And look, I know all the kids on TikTok hate the awkward overstuffed verses. They are wrong. This song is charming and cute and nostalgic in a way I can’t explain and I adore it, “nonsensical chatter” and “bureaucratic” and all.
Don’t Tell My Mom - Reneé Rapp
Before Reneé Rapp was an up-and-coming pop star and starring in HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, I watched her perform “All Falls Down” at the 2018 Jimmy Awards and thought: this girl is going to be big.
It’s been very fun to watch Reneé break away from her beginnings in the theatre community and find success in the TV and music industry, and for the most part I really enjoyed her debut EP Everything to Everyone.
“Don’t Tell My Mom” is about hiding how you’re feeling because you don’t want to be a burden on the people in your life who love and care for you. This is something I’ve struggled with on and off over the years—not so much lately, I’m lucky to have very strong and healthy support systems around me—but I definitely have my days, and on those days, I listened to this one on repeat.
Helicopter - Maisie Peters
I love Maisie’s debut album, You Signed Up For This, to death. But I actually found myself more drawn this year to Trying: Season 2—a little collection of songs that Maisie wrote for a TV show called, you guessed it, Trying. While I’ve never watched the show, I honestly think that these nine songs are some of her best work.
I’ve never considered myself a very anxious person. Maybe a little bit in social situations where I don’t know anyone, or before a big presentation or job interview, but anxiety is not a feeling I’ve spent a lot of time living in. That is, until I started dating my boyfriend.
Especially at the beginning of our relationship, I was worried about his well-being all the time. I worried that he would get into a car accident while driving home from work or trip and fall while going down the stairs or electrocute himself while trying to do his own wiring (this actually happened) or or or…It doesn’t help that he tends to be much more of a risk-taker than me, or as Maisie puts it, nonchalant about his own mortality.
I rarely express these feelings to him because I know it’s not healthy or productive to start prepping a 911 call because he’s ten minutes late to a date. And I’m a lot better at talking myself down than I used to be! But when I heard “Helicopter” for the first time, boy did I feel seen. Maisie just gets it, you know?
Favourite lyrics: “you are important, so of course it maddens me / when you’re nonchalant about your own mortality / please be more careful when you cross the road / you’re a perfect arrangement of rickety bones”
Matilda - Harry Styles
Let’s just say that I cried to this song more than one in 2022. “Matilda” is about giving yourself permission to live your life without holding yourself to the expectations of other people. About not feeling guilty when you make choices that you know are right for you, regardless of how others might feel.
I’m trying to keep this lesson close to my heart and fight my people-pleasing tendencies. And I won’t lie, it’s been really, really hard. But I’m trying, and I’m grateful to have “Matilda” as a reminder that self-sacrifice is not something to aspire to. It’s a comfort song in the truest sense of the word and one that I’ll come back to over and over again for the rest of my life.
Favourite lyrics: “you can let it go / you can throw a party full of everyone you know / you can start a family who will always show you love / you don’t have to be sorry, no”
You’re On Your Own, Kid - Taylor Swift
I know you knew it was coming.
Before we get into this track, quick thoughts on Midnights: it’s a solid album! It might not quite hit the highs of Taylor’s previous albums—no “All Too Well” or “Cruel Summer” on here—but it avoids the lows of her previous works too, and it’s a pivot back into pop music that sets Taylor up nicely for her upcoming tour.
Some of my favourite tracks, in no particular order:
Lavender Haze - great album opener and catchy as hell. I love that we hear more of Taylor’s upper register in this album, compared with the more grounded vocals of Folklore and Evermore.
Sweet Nothing - This one made the playlist because it perfectly describes how I feel about my own relationship. I adore how the bridge resolves (“I’m just too soft for all of it”) and the idea that this is what love should be—a safe haven from the world. Someone who doesn’t want anything from you except for you.
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve - I will never understand why this didn’t make the album. Objectively the best written song on the whole thing. What a bridge. 10/10, no notes. Also, hey, John Mayer—you’re a creep.
When I curate these playlists, I try to make the last song my unofficial song of that year. Last year, it was “Grow As We Go,” a sweet ballad about growing towards the people we love. The year before that, “I Know the End,” a song about screaming defiantly at the end of the world.
This year it’s “You’re On Your Own, Kid”—a song where Taylor reflects on her career to date and tells her younger self that she’s going to be okay.
2022 was awful and beautiful and awful again in turns, but I made it through. I’m learning to feel more confident in myself, to set boundaries and keep them, to only say “yes” when I really mean it. I know I haven’t handled everything perfectly, but I’m trying my best. If I met Little Natalie today, I think she would feel proud of the person she’s become. I know that I am.
Thanks for reading my yearly musings. May 2023 be kind to us all.
