Last fall, two of my friends and I started a collaborative playlist called “songs of the day.” We wanted somewhere to put the songs we were sending to each other in our group chat. We don’t send songs as consistently anymore, but a year later, the playlist contains over 300 songs. Sometimes I drop a song link in the chat with no context, and sometimes I send a little blurb to set the tone. The playlist is a collective record of time passing and a document of the feelings we chose to share with each other. It all started with “Linger” by the Cranberries. My main goal is to mix it up. If I send Cornelia Murr one day, I’m sending Blink-182 the next, and Aretha Franklin after that.

I’m on a playlist called “comfy cosy” on Spotify, and I have no memory of how I got added to it. I found it via Twitter (or maybe even Reddit?), and it had the simple invitation of adding songs that make you feel comfy and cozy. The spelling of “cosy” indicates that at least some of the people on the playlist are based in the UK, which I’m just learning now because I could’ve sworn “cozy” is spelled with a z.

What exists now is almost 24 hours of music to put on when the day is gray and crawling along. There’s lots of gentle, ambient stuff, but then you might be unexpectedly hit with some Julia Jacklin or Rostam, and you remember that a whole group of people worked together on this mix.