11.02 ~ sticking a fork in my algorithm
Slumber Mag's editor, Maddy, is trying her best to disrupt what Spotify's been spitting out.
If you have your screentime down to a number you can count on one hand, then you might not have heard about the new feature Spotify a couple months back: your day in a playlist, or as they like to call it, daylists.
Spotify updates your “daylist” a few times day, generating what you’re likely to listen to around that time (or so Spotify says, anyway). Maybe you listen to something upbeat when you get ready in the morning, something more somber when you’re winding down for the night; whatever it is, Spotify’s algorithmically generated a daylist for it, dedicated to you, on a pretty much hourly basis.
Ever since this feature was released, I’ve not only been obsessively watching these playlists as they update – I’ve also been asking everyone I know for the titles of their own. While my friends send me screenshots of their daylists that try to sum up their tastes in a couple of words – 20th century glam friday morning, energy producer monday afternoon, mysterious imagination sunday night – Spotify continues to remind me that my listening habits are not special. So much so that my descriptors remain pretty much the same, all day, every day.
soft tender thursday morning, cathartic melodramatic wednesday afternoon, wistful indie monday evening. No matter what Spotify decides to call it, one thing remains the same: I’m yearning for something, every hour of every day. “You listen to yearning on Thursday mornings, Friday afternoons, Monday mornings, Saturday nights,” Spotify tells me, each and every day, without fail.
Of course, I know these descriptors mean nothing. If anything, this is what these playlists are designed to do: begging me to pull apart every nonsense adjective, trying to decipher meaning out of nothing, like a daily Co-Star anecdote, or a quiz that tells me which Sex Education character I am, only because I picked yellow as my favourite colour when Buzzfeed asked me to. It means nothing, but it’s worked on me either way, and so I’ve become determined to stick a fork in my algorithm, twist it around, and come up with something that completely throws off my listening habits. Which brings me to… what I’ve been listening to, in an effort to anti-yearn.
On Repeat
What songs have you been listening to recently? Comment below, and we’ll add it to our Right Now playlist~*
“GLOW” - MICHELLE
While I might be trying to avoid songs that Spotify categorises as “yearning”, I can’t avoid the undeniable truth that I’m never not yearning for new MICHELLE to listen to.
The NYC group’s new single “GLOW” feels like a song that would accompany a sweet, maybe a little cheesy, but absolutely faultless coming-of-age montage, in the kind of comfort film I’d watch to feel better after a bad day. This movie I’m imagining might not technically exist, but if it did, it would definitely feature the kind of choreography MICHELLE are known so well for; perfectly encapsulated in the official visualizer for “GLOW”.
The first two singles off MICHELLE’s upcoming EP GLOW are available to stream now, via Transgressive Records.
“Uh oh” - Gut Health
Last weekend, I ended up with a last minute ticket to see Gut Health play a local festival here in Melbourne. It was a small venue and a reasonably packed line-up. With not much time to kill between artists, the whole festival was a lot to absorb; there wasn’t much time to let anything thoroughly sink in. All that considered, Gut Health’s performance was all the more impressive; I’m still lingering on it days later.
After experiencing the yelping urgency of their sound and stage presence, I immediately stashed Gut Health in my brain to listen to when I got home. Their latest single “Uh oh” is completely infectious. Both pushy and playful, this song lingers seamlessly in-between dance punk and post punk – I can’t wait to listen to the full 7-inch in a few weeks time.
Gut Health’s 7-inch Singles ‘23 is out later this month via Marthouse Records.
“pos” - hemlocke springs
Like the rest of the internet, I fell in love with hemlocke springs when her single “girlfriend” blew up on TikTok late last year. As singles from her debut EP going…going…GONE! came out throughout 2023, my anticipation continued to grow, while each song released continued to prove that “girlfriend” was far from a one-off.
By the time the late September release date came around, I could hardly wait to listen to the whole thing – and this debut definitely didn’t disappoint. hemlocke springs’ sound isn’t just awake, it’s alert, animated, and doesn’t sound anything like anything else anyone is putting out right now. So much so that there are no obvious artist comparisons or clear reference points. If Spotify tried to squeeze hemlocke springs into one of my daylists, it would be far from the indie staples that come up time and time again when I’m listening to “yearning”. Instead, this debut would make for some of the best descriptions yet. Sounds like fuzzy dice, light up sneakers, sugary cereal, or a fever dream.
Hemlocke Springs’ debut EP going…going…GONE! is out now via Good Luck Have Fun Records.
Let us know in the comments what music you've been enjoying lately and what we should be listening to! We’ll add it straight to our Right Now playlist.
While I continue to try and fry my algorithm, you can keep up to date with Slumber Mag here and on our website. 😊
Speak soon,
Maddy x
“Friday night” by Orbit ✨