a playlist is a deeply efficient way to make your feelings somebody else’s administrative burden. you can sequence three songs perfectly, give it a title that is normal enough to deny in court, and then hand it over like you are not trying to communicate anything at all.
the best playlists are not encyclopedic. they are specific enough to make a case. this is the walk home in bad weather. this is the drive when you need to become somebody with better posture. this is the song you played seventeen times because apparently the day needed a witness.
there is mercy in the format, too. a playlist does not demand an immediate response. it can sit there, quietly insisting that the third track matters. perhaps they listen. perhaps it becomes part of their own weird little afternoon. both outcomes are survivable.
anyway, if i have ever sent you a playlist, please understand that i was behaving with extraordinary restraint.
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