Welcome to September!
Sorry if you were asleep and that I didn’t wait until the end of the month to wake you (see Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day for a terrible reference).
This is the music playlist, a 10-song list each month that highlights some of the songs playing on our station at 96.1 The Wit and some songs that I genuinely like!
The music videos are also included, and the songs that have profanity are marked as such.
Without further ado, let’s jump into the music!
Sonder — Too Fast
Sonder is an Alternative R&B group that formed in 2016 and have released several singles alongside just one EP titled “Into.”
The fourth song on the EP “Too Fast” is the most listened to track from the album, currently having 3.49 million plays on Soundcloud, and close to 9 million on Youtube.
The song is very contradictory to the title, as it moves throughout two separate rhythms, both of which are fairly slow
The lyrics are somber and the heartbreak in the guitar solo are bound to leave you thinking about how fast life really goes.
Joji — Sanctuary
Joji’s “Sanctuary” is his fourteenth single since starting his career in late 2017.
His first full-length album Ballads 1 earned him the number one spot on the Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart in November of 2018.
In terms of Billboard success, “Sanctuary” placed 32nd on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart and 80th on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
“Sanctuary” is a more upbeat song compared to his other work, which had propelled Joji into the spotlight for being a go to artist to listen to when sad.
This song, while faster paced and happier sounding, still has the same of Joji’s sad lyrics wrapped around its core, showing how even though something can seem amazing in the moment, that it may not last forever.
The 1975 — I Like America & America Likes Me Too
Warning: This music video has flashing lights and quick moving displays
This song is a personal favorite of mine and has a very controversial message in the middle of it.
A line in the song which states, “Kids don’t want rifles, they want Supreme” is drawn directly from a sign a teenager made at a March For Our Lives rally in 2018, originally saying, “It’s easier to buy a gun than Supreme.”
This line has sparked both positive and negative comments from opposing viewpoints of the gun rights argument.
The sad reality of the line is that this is the case within the United States, a country where mass shootings have practically become normalized.
While this line shocked a lot of people, it has helped to continue the conversation on what exactly the United States should do about gun rights.
The song outside of this lyric is a powerful track on the 2018 album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships and is a complete tone switch which lies in the middle of the album.
The album placed highly on multiple charts and continues to receive plays nearly 10 months after it’s release.
Have Mercy — Begging for Bones
“Begging for Bones” comes off of Have Mercy’s 2017 album Make the Best of It, their only album to place on a Billboard chart, coming in at 74 on the Top Album Sales of May 2017.
While Have Mercy have been around since 2010, their success has been limited due to various lineup changes, however, their underground feel still has not changed.
The song discusses loneliness and remembrance of a love lost while the raspy vocals of lead singer Brian Swindle pushes the pain further home.
“Begging for Bones” also masks its sadness in a fast paced rhythm and is sure to make you think about past relationships.
Lani Rose — Warm Blanket
Editor’s note: This song has explicit lyrics.
An artist who is also lesser known, Lani Rose has only released about 5 songs, not counting his featurings on other tracks.
Starting his career roughly a year ago, he has released songs on platforms such as Youtube, Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Music.
While he has little success in his short amount of time as an artist, his lyrics are both compelling and devastating.
I really like Lani Rose, and even though he has not made it big yet, I know a lot of people will enjoy his music in the near future.
NF — Time
NF has had a busy career since starting in 2010, selling out venues like crazy and enjoying his success on various genre oriented stations throughout the globe.
He has released 32 singles, 5 albums and landed on almost every country’s version of the Billboard charts.
The song “Time” comes off of his July 2019 album The Search, an album that has 20 songs and a run time of over seventy minutes!
“Time” discusses patience and how waiting for someone while helping them through their struggles can in turn build a stronger relationship.
Despite failures and setbacks, the song pushes the idea of bouncing back from difficult fights or situations, a message everyone could use every now and then.
Emarosa – Wait, Stay
Emarosa has made one of the biggest changes to their sound in music, one that no one saw coming.
The band originally started as post-hardcore, and over the years, has transcended into pop, recently releasing their highly anticipated album Peach Club.
The album did very well for being their first pop album ever, charting number 20 on the US Top Rock Albums Billboard Chart, and 137 on the US Billboard 200 Chart.
The song, “Wait, Stay” is the last song on the album, and is unlike their other songs from the album.
The track returns to Emarosa’s original sound, bringing back the beautiful rock heart melt that made them famous.
“Wait, Stay” shows the lead singer, Bradley Walden, telling his love that he is not a good person and that he is not deserving of their relationship.
Even though Walden feels as if he is nothing, he still wants his love to stay, hoping that they notice him changing to become a better person.
The song is an amazing end to Peach Club, and helps to subconsciously tell the listener to continue to listen to the album even after it’s over (Wait, Stay…I know it was a horrible joke…I’m sorry).
Prince — I Wanna Be Your Lover
Everybody loves Prince right?!?!?
With a career of chart topping success and arguably the best Superbowl Halftime Performance of all time, Prince experienced.
“I Wanna Be Your Lover” is from Prince’s self titled album Prince, which landed at number 3 on the US Billboard Top R&B Albums and number 22 on the US Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, both records taking place in the year 1979.
The song itself placed at number 1 on the US billboard Hot R&B Singles Chart and number 2 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.
The track also went gold, selling over 1 million copies!
“I Wanna Be Your Lover” is a jam that will make you dance and keep hitting repeat.
Bobby Caldwell — What You Won’t Do for Love
Bobby Caldwell’s self titled album Bobby Caldwell held his biggest single to date with 1978’s “What You Won’t Do for Love.”
The song landed very high on multiple genre charts, most noticeably on the US Billboard R&B Chart at number 6, the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart at number 9, and the US Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart at number 10.
“What You Won’t Do for Love” is a song that makes you sway as Caldwell’s voice is so smooth, you could confuse it for a crisp glass of water.
Although this song is older, it is still a go to for me!
Beaver Spotlight
New to the monthly Music Playlist is what I like to call the “Beaver Spotlight.”
Each month, I will ask one person on campus what their favorite song is why the song is important to them.
This month’s song connoisseur is Marbeck’s coolest executive chef John Combs!
His favorite song of all time is a track by The Beatles called “I Saw Her Standing There.”
The song placed 14th on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart and finished 95th overall in the same Hot 100 Chart for the year of 1964.
“I Saw Her Standing There” comes from The Beatles’ 1963 album Please Please Me, an album which placed number one on the UK Albums Billboard Chart and has gone platinum in the United States, selling over a million copies!
Executive Chef John Combs also stated that he loved classic rock and hoped to hear more of it on 96.1 The Wit, something the Music Director will definitely look into for sure! (:
And that’s September’s Playlist!
Make sure to tune into 96.1 The Wit to hear the songs mentioned on here, and if you have any song suggestions or ideas for the station, you can email me at mcccza [at] bluffton.edu, and I would be more than happy to discuss music with you!
Happy listening!
