Weekend Kickoff - DEC 2017

Thirty-one tracks of the December 2017 ‘Weekend Kickoff’ rotation — the year-end edition of the recurring Friday-evening playlist that kicked off the weekend listening week. The Weekend Kickoff series was my running tradition for about a decade: every Friday, a short rotation that summarized what had been in heavy listening that week. December 2017 was the year-end edition. The standing-Friday tradition framing is the rotation’s methodological anchor — the playlist is the working-utility for the friend-group’s collective recurring context rather than the catalog-version that a streaming-era discovery would provide, and the rotation’s commitment to the standing-Friday tradition is the structural acknowledgment of the relationship that the rotation is built around.

U2 anchors the legacy-rock-anthem spine that grounded the run. The U2 catalog is the rotation’s structural backbone for the legacy-rock-anthem register — the band’s catalog provides the rotation’s working-utility for the late-2010s legacy-rock-rotation commitments, and the placement honors the catalog’s role across the rotation. The U2 placements are sequenced at the structural-anchor moments where the late-2010s legacy-rock-rotation needs to re-engage the friend group’s collective working-rotation commitment.

Wale with Major Lazer, WizKid, and Dua Lipa “My Love” (the Major Lazer VIP Remix) opens because that’s the song that effectively defined the year’s late-rotation hip-hop-pop-electronic crossover. The placement at first-track is the rotation’s structural commitment to honoring the year’s late-rotation foundational moment — the Wale-collaboration cut was, in late-2017, the structural anchor of the year’s late-rotation hip-hop-pop-electronic crossover working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of immediately establishing that the rotation respects the year’s late-rotation working-rotation.

The Beaches “Money” is the second-track-establishment of the alt-rotation anchor. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the alt-rotation register — the Beaches catalog is the structural anchor of the late-2010s alt-rotation working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of confirming that the rotation respects the alt-rotation register’s foundational working-recording rather than committing exclusively to the year’s pop-radio rotation.

Tash Sultana “Jungle” sits in the front quarter as the deliberate-loop-pedal-anchor — a one-person-band performance that the year’s listening could not stop returning to. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the loop-pedal sub-genre — the Sultana catalog is the structural anchor of the late-2010s loop-pedal one-person-band sub-genre’s working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s universal-recognition loop-pedal-anchor that the late-2010s loop-pedal sub-genre’s working-rotation absolutely requires.

The Revivalists “Wish I Knew You” is the structural peak of the front-half. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the indie-rock-revival register — the Revivalists catalog is the structural anchor of the late-2010s indie-rock-revival working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s universal-recognition indie-rock-revival anchor that the year’s working-rotation absolutely requires.

Lauv “Easy Love” is the deliberate-saccharine pop pull that the year’s rotation absolutely committed to. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the deliberate-saccharine pop register — the Lauv catalog was, in 2017, the structural anchor of the year’s saccharine-pop crossover working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s universal-recognition saccharine-pop anchor.

Busta Rhymes with Vybz Kartel and Tory Lanez “Girlfriend” is the late-year dancehall-rap bridge. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the dancehall-rap crossover register — the Busta Rhymes collaboration was, in late-2017, the structural anchor of the year’s dancehall-rap crossover working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s cross-genre bridge that the year’s actual radio-rotation absolutely included.

Foo Fighters “The Sky Is A Neighborhood” is the rock-radio anchor that the December edition specifically required. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the year’s rock-radio register — the Foo Fighters cut was, in late-2017, the structural anchor of the year’s rock-radio working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s universal-recognition rock-radio anchor that the December-edition’s working-rotation absolutely requires.

Jasmine Thompson with Eden Prince “Mad World” (the Eden Prince Remix) is the closer-before-the-closer — a cover that effectively re-justified the song’s existence in the streaming era. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the cover-version transformation methodology — the Thompson-and-Eden Prince arrangement of the original is the structural anchor of the late-2010s cover-version working-rotation’s transformative-arrangement working-DJ practice, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s universal-recognition transformative-cover anchor.

Thirty-one tracks lands at about two hours. The right length for a Friday-evening rotation that runs through dinner-prep into the post-dinner kitchen-cleanup, where the music has to be on but isn’t supposed to demand attention. The runtime is calibrated for the natural span of the standing-Friday tradition’s working-utility context — approximately two hours of sustained Friday-evening rotation from the dinner-prep into the post-dinner kitchen-cleanup, with the playlist doing the work of being the room’s continuous companion.

Built for the friend group’s weekly Friday tradition. Sequenced so that the rotation could survive being passed through three different rooms across an evening. The year-end edition that summarized the year’s rotation by example rather than by retrospective. Texted the link to the group on Christmas Eve. Replies came back through New Year’s. The year-end-by-example framing is the methodological commitment of the entire Weekend Kickoff series — the playlist is meant to be the year’s working-rotation summary through specific catalog examples rather than the retrospective canon-building that a streaming-era best-of working-rotation would provide.