Standing At The Edge Of Tomorrow

A Playlist For New Year’s Eve

My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a playlist around some theme. This week, Rob Dean assembles 15 tracks for New Year's Eve to help bid farewell to the old year and prepare to encounter the new one. Read Rob’s thoughts on each song and listen along to the Spotify and YouTube playlists below.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: New Year’s Eve is traditionally the most disappointing and anti-climactic holiday around. In my 39 years of life, I think I’ve had maybe one good NYE. The rest are spent with hyped up expectations for a massive celebration of moving into the future while the past burns down behind you.

And that sucks because New Year’s is situated as the best holiday. It’s secular, so everyone that uses the Gregorian calendar can participate. There’s a very set amount of time involved with a very specific moment, so that helps with planning as well as provide some sort of climax. It’s a chance to look back at the year that was and look forward to what may come, hoping for some improvements somewhere. It is brimming with meaning and potential and yet…it tends to be a mess of bungled plans and dashed hopes.

But hopefully not this year! In order to make December 31, 2021 a special event, I have concocted a mixtape that bids farewell to the sewage fire of the previous year, acknowledges the fear of being stuck in this perpetual cycle of shittiness, but still finds ways to look forward to something better. Enjoy and happy new year!

1. “This Year” by The Mountain Goats

This has been my theme song for the past few years. John Darnielle’s incredibly clever lyrics (when aren’t his words brilliant, though?) show determination in the face of hopelessness and what it means to go out on your own terms. As the clock winds down on 2021, it’s a good way to recognize you’ve made it through a crappish time and the forces that have attempted to stop you are left defeated for another year.

2. “Famous Last Words” by My Chemical Romance

This is another “so long, stinktown” song for the ending of the year. Sure, there’s good stuff that happened. Um. SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME was fun. But mostly it’s about tossing aside the shackles of the old, putting them in your rearview as you barrel towards a better future that you get to dictate.

3. “Dance Dance Have A Good Time” by Erik Sumo and The Fox-Fairies

From LIZA THE FOX-FAIRY (it’s on Amazon Prime, watch it this weekend and thank me), this is just a fun little ditty that allows listeners to dance on the grave of 2021 and live it up in the waning moments of the year.

Having the ghost of a fake popstar (who may or may not be evil) lead you in the sashay away from the year that was is also a fun bit of weirdness to mark the night.

4. “Nicotine & Gravy” by Beck

Upon its release, Beck said he made 1999’s Midnite Vultures as the soundtrack for people to have sex to as the new millennium begins. So “Nicotine & Gravy” is a New Year’s Eve song! And one for knocking boots! This is one of the dopest, slickest songs ever made and it’s multiple hooks all groove together to help continue the good vibes as the party starts to wind down and people prepare for sleep.

5. “All Through The Night” by Cyndi Lauper

While “Time After Time” is clearly the superior Lauper bop, “All Through The Night” isn’t that far behind. It’s a moving tune (albeit with a slightly misplaced synth bridge) that Cyndi Lauper sings the hell out of with plaintive lyrics about ditching the past for a better future with that special someone, as the world falls away until it’s just the two of you. Sounds like perfect music for bedtime on New Year’s Eve to me.

6. “夢中人 (Mung Zung Yan)" (“Dream Lover”) by Faye Wong

Faye Wong’s cover of “Dreams” by The Cranberries (made famous in CHUNGKING EXPRESS) is an infectious combination of pining for a better world while feeling all the possibilities of the moment flood every fiber of your being. If your dreams of 2022 tonight needs a soundtrack, this raucous and propulsive song is a good way to conjure and manifest the tomorrow you wish to see.

7. “Death” by White Lies

But let’s be real for a moment—it’s real easy to take the crap times of 2021 and use them to forecast an even crappier 2022. However, that’s not true; the past is prologue, not prophecy. But this is a fun song about that insidious fear and anxiety that can fill our souls as we wait for the other shoe to drop or the latest crisis to undo our lives. Featured in A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, “Death” by White Lies is that special combo of dread and exultation.

8. “You Are Not Alone” by Mavis Staples

The response to the morbid call of White Lies, Mavis Staples song is a breathtaking, heartbreaking reminder that we are all in pain but grace arrives in the form of being able to be sad together. That no one is truly alone, not figuratively, and for those that feel that pull to the darkness and despair—reach out. People are here. People care. People need you around. Open up, this is a raid.

9. “Letterbox” by They Might Be Giants

And so, bolstered by those that love us and having acknowledged the sadness and pain, it’s time to look ahead. To the unexpected that lies in wait for us in the future. Maybe it’ll be bad, maybe it’ll be good, but one is not more likely than the other. So, never knowing what you’ll find in the your letterbox tomorrow means there is always a chance for something tremendous to enter in our lives and we should always remember that.

10. “Miracle” by CHVRCHES

This sweeping pop song by the Scottish group CHVRCHES is a badass battlecry as you head into the unexpected. 2022 is yours to conquer. There will be obstacles and trials and tragedies—but also moments of beauty and love and hilarity. Let the synth backing and bombastic percussion be your anthem as you march forward, knowing that manifesting better days isn’t a miracle but something you can (and will) do in 2022.

11. “Breaking Out” by The Protomen

This is one of my favorite songs by a band I dearly love. Nashville’s Protomen seemingly started as a sort of gimmick/joke band writing prog-rock opera based on the mythology of Mega Man. But with their second album and beyond, they have proven to possess depth and heart—not to mention incredible talent and muscianship. “Breaking Out” has one of my favorite verses: “I’m so tired of giving up/I’m so tired of giving in/You wake up knowing things should change/Not knowing where to begin.” That is that sense of defeat but also tired of being defeated; now it’s just a matter of figuring out your plan of attack. So keep that hardcore energy going as you dive into the new year knowing that you’re gonna bust out of the mold and make something better for yourself.

12. “I’ll Keep Coming” by Low Roar

As previously noted on this site, I first heard this song in a video for BLADE RUNNER 2049 and was immediately transfixed. (Turns out it’s on the Death Stranding soundtrack, along with songs by CHVRCHES to add all sorts of layers to this mixtape). Again, it’s important to embark on 2022 knowing that you can’t be stopped. Not anymore. Think about what life has thrown at you just in the past four years if not more: plagues, war, strife, and much more. But you’re still standing. You’re still here. So march onward and punch tomorrow square in its face. This is your year and you will not, and cannot, be deterred.

13. “Despair” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

An ode to rejecting anguish, Yeah Yeah Yeahs have crafted a beautiful song to wear like an armor as you greet the beginning of a new year. Much like Mavis Staples’ song, this is a reminder that our greatest power comes from each other. That you are not alone—no matter how dark it seems or isolated you feel, there are people out there. Your actions have consequences that you will never know or see, and that’s why you’re necessary to make 2022 a better place to live.

14. “Hello Sunshine” by Aretha Franklin

As the sun rises on a new year on this spinning rock, here’s a soulful song celebrating that which inspires us and feels us with joy. A lesser known Aretha tune, it’s still one of those ditties that is perfect for singing along to in your car, belting out notes you have no business even attempting to hit but who cares? It’s about feeling connected, feeling the light shine on you, and knowing that the cold and the dark that sometimes crawls into your world can still be dispelled by hope and love. So after years of living in the wilderness and feeling cynicism creep into our veins and our minds, 2022 can be the year that we burn it away and rise anew from ashes, shining brightly and singing loudly.

15. “Hearts Beat Loud” by Keegan DeWitt, Kiersey Clemons

Admittedly this has nothing to do with a new future or a better tomorrow…at least not explicitly. But this charged love song, from the 2018 film HEARTS BEAT LOUD, is a terrific reflection of the heady rush that comes from a love that makes you silly and the days a bit brighter. Leading heart first is a good way to get hurt, but it’s also better way of enveloping more people into your life. Yes, there will be pain. But think of the reward! Think about that flush of near manic joy you’ve felt the first time you held hands with the person with whom you’re infatuated, or the first time someone told you they like you back. Those moments, while fleeting, still dwarf that hurt and will make for a better world and an even better tomorrow.