stell-ify wrapped

Hey everyone,

First of all, happy December, and happy Advent! I finally cracked open my Christmas playlist this week and ate a mince pie with my morning cuppa. Yum. (side note: the normal Sainsbury’s ones are terrible, it’s worth getting fancier ones as I discovered)

Another thing that happened this week is Spotify Wrapped. Those of you who have been here since the start of the newsletter might remember that I don't use Spotify any more (and to be honest I didn't even realise Wrapped had come out for a bit as I'm not on Instagram very much either). My reasons for moving away from Spotify (after about 15 years of using it) include, from most to least important:

So I decided in September to switch to Qobuz, which has a much calmer, music-centred interface. They have a setup where you can transfer all your playlists for free. The music is deliciously high quality. They have a human curation team who write editorials each week, and a rudimentary approximation of my beloved 'Discover Weekly'. Best of all, more money per stream goes to artists, and they don't fund warfare. Yay!

I also started turning to good old internet forums to find new music - mostly the r/popheads subreddit which is full of pop nerds exploring the latest and greatest in new releases as well as pop princesses past and present. They're an amazing bunch, very fun (instead of the intense kind of nerds you often get on reddit) and very tuned in. I probably wouldn't have found a lot of the music I listened to this year without them!

Instead of sharing my Spotify Wrapped, then, I'm going to take the advice of Liz Perry (author of the book Mood Machine about Spotify algorithms) and give you all my own personalised wrap-up of my listening year. I can’t bring myself to choose an artist of the year so you're getting all my favourite albums, plus a mixtape of music that was meaningful to me during my fieldwork. Buckle up folks :)

I think a change in the way I listened to music came from the start of the year onwards, well before I switched from Spotify. I decided to listen to more albums, and listen to more new music rather than falling back on old favourites - particularly as I had to accept the inevitable process of making myself anew by settling into a new city and country, something that only really started in January when I returned to Tokyo after Christmas. I was eager to paint this era with new sounds. And then this continued as I moved back to the UK and decided to leave Spotify later in the year (for those of you wondering about whether I ended up using the iPod I got off ebay - the answer is not really - since I managed to get a healthier relationship with my phone after walking away from social media and short form content, I didn’t feel the need to abandon it entirely. But maybe I will explore this in future).

All in all I've really enjoyed listening to albums rather than playlists. It feels much more mindful and I love hearing an artist exploring a theme across a whole project, rather than little snippets. Sometimes listening to individual songs can feel a little jarring as it switches between different themes and vibes - not this! An album is also the perfect length of time for a decent chunk of writing or working, sticking to a similar vibe throughout, and then having a break once the music stops. It gives me a chance to intentionally set the tone of that writing session. Sometimes it's Florence & the Machine, sometimes it's Charli XCX, I don't make the rules! It’s also around the length of my commute, which is nice for setting my mindset for the day.

I loved listening to new music, too, and hearing artists develop their sound in new ways - shout-out to Florence & The Machine, who I've loved ever since her first album Lungs. But also finding new favourite artists like Sigrid. This is the strength of streaming, I think, and why I decided to continue using a streaming service rather than retreating to the confines of a physical or downloaded library. Listening to new music all the time meant I was sufficiently on trend that I managed to confuse Spotify Wrapped into giving me a listening age of 18 - because their determination of listening age based on the eras you listen to falls apart when you listen to stuff that's brand new, as it turns out. Take that, algorithm :)

To add a final touch to my roundup, I thought I'd share a little mixtape I made to commemorate my fieldwork and begin the process of 'leaving the field' and writing up. Maybe that sounds silly? but making it into a narrative period helped me realise it was over and come to terms with the fact I'm entering a new phase of life. Technically it spans from August last year, but to be honest that's been the most important time period in my life recently rather than calendar years, so I'm calling it part of this roundup.

Link here if you want to listen along on Qobuz, or here if you must use Spotify. Here goes - you're not only getting a tracklist but also a little explanation for each song!

This is a gorgeous song which felt like an appropriate opener because it sums up the theme of my year (the year of the snake) - opening my heart and mind to new things, letting myself change and grow and connect with people. It has my favourite line, "it's a season of change, and if you feel strange, it's probably good". I think this is my song of the year overall.

The fieldwork begins! Chosen because it's upbeat and reflects my amazement at humans and all the detail that was around me (once I got over my jet lag). Also I just felt like the focus on the minutiae of being a human with a body felt very anthropology.

A song that got more and more relevant as time went by. First it was a catchy beat and a fun rap. Then it became truth-telling about how much face-saving and politeness there is in Japanese society, concealing how we really feel. When I got culture shock, it became a bit of an outlet for my frustration with not quite connecting with people yet. A song for many seasons.

The full culture shock moment. Yeah an anthropologist with culture shock. I didn't sleep properly for a week. Actually, I didn't listen to this much while I was in the field, so technically it's me applying it after the fact (in my mind it's actually more associated with sitting on a bus into central London a few winters ago when I had ear surgery and was banned from using the Tube). But nonetheless I think it encapsulates the sense of a turning point, which also came around the time that Trump got elected, something that definitely kicked me while I was down. Alongside waiting for the autumn leaves to finally start and visiting loads of chrysanthemum exhibitions which were delayed a lot by climate change-induced heatwaves. Strange times indeed.

Calm after the storm, this was a lovely song that I listened to as I recovered from that bout of insomnia and learned to love Tokyo a bit more. Lots of melancholy metro rides were had.

This song really brought me a lot of peace. Not only does it mention an overzealous anthropologist, it also reassured me that I would get some rest eventually, that I would feel better soon. And I did!

The momentum picks back up with this amazing twangy tune, and likewise this was the soundtrack to my more productive half of the fieldwork. I loved listening to this one on my way home from wherever I had been that day, especially under an evening thunderstorm. Rain come down on me!

An anthem for hitting my stride, with home finally coming into view in the distance - I could see England waiting, white horses carry me! It motivated me to keep going and do my absolute best with the time remaining. I travelled to and from so many interviews listening to this song.

Ahhh this makes me cry a little! Crocheting was one of the ways I stayed sane throughout my fieldwork, including when I had culture shock. You could usually find me crocheting the day's stresses away in the living room of the sharehouse. But over time it meant more to me. Crocheting brought me together with my housemates, who quickly became close friends. And as I got to know people beyond the house it became a song about the ties that bind us together, the amazing people I'd met throughout my fieldwork, and the wish to never forget. Love you guys <3

A rousing song to start wrapping things up, about how much you learn from people watching (something I spent all my time doing) and how it links up to society. But also about the UK and my excitement to be back, and the slight melancholy that comes with it having changed while you were away, not necessarily for the better.

And finally, a contemplative song to end with - "the seasons change, the earth turns". As it does in real life, too. Full circle. Time to write :)

Finally, here are some photos I took during the week, presented with only captions because I need to go to bed! (edit: Stella did not in fact add these in the nighttime, they were added on a bleary Monday. I needed a good night's sleep after a series of late nights. It’s been a busy week!)

So that’s my newsletter, over and out! Maybe next time I will actually send it on Sunday evening. It’s the last week of term this week and there’s a lot on, but as long as I get plenty of sleep, hopefully it will be fine.

Have a lovely week,

Stella x