Futurism Restated: A Thanksgiving Playlist Special

A selection of straight-up vibes

Thanksgiving is always a weird one, at least for an American who has lived overseas for almost 20 years now yet works for American media companies. The holiday’s looming presence dominates the media—even overseas, now that first Black Friday and now even “Black Week” have become standard marketing tactics throughout Europe—yet the rhythms of local life remain unaffected, unlike in the U.S., where Americans enjoy one of our few four-day weekends of the year.

In media circles, anyway, Wednesday is effectively a half day, or a vacation day, which means basically the whole week is a write-off. Well, except for the fact that in music media, everyone is gearing up to publish their end-of-year lists, which gives the week a weird hybrid vibe—part crunch week, part senior week, in which you’re mentally checked out but also rushing to finish everything you need to finish on time, essentially trying to pack in a full week of work into Monday and Tuesday.

Setting aside Thanksgiving’s genocidal origin story—a big ask, I realize—I quite enjoy the rituals we call Thanksgiving. A four-day weekend, an excuse to sit down with family or friends and cook favorite dishes you only get to eat once a year—what’s not to like? We’ve been celebrating it here on Menorca for the past six years, gathering with Spanish friends who have their own relationships with the holiday: one who lived for years in NYC, another who loves to cook, and then the friends of friends that join in year after year.

The only problem is timing; pulling off a massive Thursday meal is a hassle when everyone’s got regular jobs and school schedules to juggle. Last year we moved our meal to Saturday, which turned out to be a great solution; I missed celebrating on the same day as everyone in my feed, but the logistics were far more convenient. This year we celebrated early, last weekend, forgoing the usual staples in favor of Mexican recipes—tinga de pollo, vegetarian chili, cochinita pibil grilled in the kamado. (We did have cornbread, which served as a sort of crossover staple.)

This slightly rambling digression is a long way of explaining that this year, I made a Thanksgiving playlist, and I’m sharing it here as a bonus for paying subscribers. I’d been wanting to make one for a while, and kept shying away from the idea. Weirdly, despite (or maybe because) of frequently being “the music guy” in social/familial circles, I’ve always hated having to choose the music for get-togethers. My taste is idiosyncratic; my default mode is mellow, learning toward depressive. At dinner parties, I tend to cope by throwing on a Bill Evans or Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou album and calling it a day. But this time, why not, I made a playlist. 

There’s no real theme. It’s mostly just mellow-ish music that I thought would sound good in the background and foreground alike. Some of it is electronic, or at least partially so. Much of it is not. A lot of it’s recent. I fear that much of it will be painfully obvious, but that’s probably just because it’s hard to surprise yourself when you’re making a playlist. I will admit upfront: We didn’t actually listen to this during dinner, or at our friends’ house. But my wife and I did have it on in the kitchen while we cooked, the day before and then the day of, and I, at least, thought it sounded pretty nice.

It’s an entirely arbitrary selection, with the only real throughlines being “stuff I remembered” braided with “stuff that seemed to fit the vibe.” And maybe the vibe even evolved a little bit as I constructed the thing. Sometimes it started tipping a little too mellow, so I course-corrected. It’s mostly instrumental, but not entirely; there are a few curveballs in there, but hopefully gentle ones. It’s never too dark or mopey, I hope. But by all means, if you gravitate to more boisterous listening for your shindigs, look elsewhere. This might also serve as a nice comedown soundtrack, once you’ve finally got the dishes loaded into the dishwasher and you can collapse into the sofa with a glass of red wine or herbal tea. And my hope is that it has an appeal that lasts beyond any arbitrary holiday use value—that it remains pleasing, and engaging, no matter the date on the calendar.

Have a good holiday, if you celebrate it, and a good week and weekend no matter what. I’ll be back next week with a new round of recommendations.

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