I’ve recently become increasingly disenchanted with Spotify’s “hand-picked” playlists. My Discover Weekly often feels solely based on the artists I’ll listen to in short bursts when I have a mini-crush on them; so, by the next week, I find myself skipping almost every song in irritation. While I’m working on homework or walking around campus, I tend to stick to one little sliver of my music library that I already know exhaustingly well. So, my set of six Daily Mix playlists tend to look a little wonky: I have one highly-personalized playlist filled with songs I already know and five constantly-shifting, irrelevant mixes as Spotify attempts to fill the rest of the playlists with whatever genre I listened to for one random half-hour three weeks ago.

On one of my frequent quests to find new music, I realized that I could go straight to the source to find things to listen to: the artists I already like. Many band pages on Spotify feature an “Artist Playlists” section at the very bottom, chock-full of playlists that the artist or band curated or followed for their own listening. This is where I find the good stuff: If you dig hard enough, you’ll find that Lomelda likes Noname and that the members of Car Seat Headrest are huge fans of Leonard Cohen.

Without further ado, I present the final result of my tireless searching: my six favorite artist-curated playlists. Along with a brief description and a few highlights, I’ve also included the top three genres in each list, analyzed using Organize Your Music, a music sorting (hence, the name) website created at a coding hackathon by a Spotify employee.

https://open.spotify.com/user/iansweetmusic/playlist/6A3t00oe506JUwAjwY4040?si=kOHk1UuvQ4y8F4ethE8q9g

gel pen sweets — Ian Sweet

Genres: art pop, lo-fi, dream pop
Most unexpected song: “Sticky Drama” by Oneohtrix Point Never
Other playlists: shea holiday, drum stuff, brooklyn radio

This is the first artist playlist I ever found. I stumbled across it while looking for more Ian Sweet singles (I love them). This playlist is honestly the creme de la creme for me: Bjork, Guided by Voices and 14 Avril Lavigne songs. With over 100 tracks, this one could keep you going for a while.

https://open.spotify.com/user/eisrecords/playlist/399QaJpIEuDi0tAzy4e2Li?si=3en3h0fdSkanh4JlixVtYQ

Recent Listening at EIS — Exploding in Sound

Genres: indie punk, noise rock, garage psych
Most unexpected song: “Marathon Ripper” by Gnarwhal
Other playlists: EIS Tape Club (corresponds with their bimonthly cassette mail club)

Exploding in Sound is a record label that represents some of my favorite bands (Pile, Kal Marks, Ovlov). Their playlist is updated pretty regularly with their favorite tracks—not necessarily new releases—from the bands they represent. This one is pretty self-promotional, but it’s a safe bet if you like the type of stuff they produce.

https://open.spotify.com/user/121400158/playlist/6WCacPRvtizPBAowrlEuav?si=SglJIudvSIG2Janbjf41Zw

Here are some songs that I like — Pile

Genres: folk-pop, singer-songwriter, punk blues
Most unexpected song: “Doug Stamper (feat. Hannibal Buress)” by Open Mike Eagle
Other playlists: None

Speaking of Exploding in Sound, the lead singer of Pile, Rick Maguire, created this playlist almost two years ago. It’s probably the most wide-ranging on the list: It includes everything from Busdriver to the Yamasuki Singers, the pseudo-Japanese pop group created by Daniel Vangarde (aka the dad of one of the guys in Daft Punk).

https://open.spotify.com/user/malikflint/playlist/1GyJquieyKP4RzVrBAWdZR?si=zfssKRAWQziNBhSbHtP5qw

relaxxxation — Malik Flint (bLAck pARty)

Genres: indie R&B, rap, pop
Most unexpected song: “Too High” by Stevie Wonder
Other playlists: #GetHighAllSummer, Whole World Stands Still, Late Nights

I found “relaxxxation” while going down a rabbit hole from another playlist, and it is so nice. While not actually particularly relaxing—except for the Marvin Gaye songs—it feels like a trip down R&B memory lane, from Aaliyah to early 2000s Solange to SZA.

https://open.spotify.com/user/cshrofficial/playlist/4ViAc3vxrNGQJqbzU83ug4?si=_KpOvxP1QI6QmP2IpR594A

Auguuzt 2018 — Car Seat Headrest

Genres: rock, permanent wave, alternative rock
Most unexpected song: “Bound 2” by Kanye West
Other playlists: Songs From Fake Movies, Sounds of Denial, has a playlist for every month since January 2016

Ah, the sound of the end of summer. This is a nice throwback mix. Almost every song is from before the year 2000 (the handful of exceptions include two songs from…Twenty One Pilots? C’mon, CSH), with the earliest recorded in 1965. If you already love Car Seat Headrest (or became a fan after listening to their stuff), they’re performing at Delmar Hall next Thursday, Sept. 27.

https://open.spotify.com/user/sopharela/playlist/2AR6MLpwGkkSJ8EcpqnXIb?si=nAvjkdC2QbSe194kq6z7mA

start of fall — Soccer Mommy

Genres: alternative rock, dream pop, indie rock
Most unexpected song: “borderline (feat. Missy Elliott)” by Ariana Grande
Other playlists: sad songs, Freak Out, JONI (exclusively Joni Mitchell)

Once you’re done listening to CSH, here’s something to take you into autumn and round out the list. Soccer Mommy is one of my favorite artists for relaxed listening (I don’t care what anyone says about the name); so, listening to her personal playlists was eye-opening for me. I love to see where she draws her inspiration from, despite how different her playlists are from her own music. Luckily, for me, this mix is one of many.