The Routine Refrain Vol. 2
my favorite songs from the final week of January 2025 [thank god]
January is finally, finally, finally over my god I thought it would never end. Here are the songs that helped me close out the 876 days of the last month!
Survival by Hope Tala
If you are also a Hope fan then surprise! She dropped a new album this year and I am a very big fan. I have already listened multiple times and I truly could have picked almost any song, but this one felt so timely. Though I am sliiiightly upset the album is only seven songs, the cover art alone just spoke to me directly. If you need something airy, sweet with a good groove to boost your morale, this is it! Especially for my Black, Brown, POC diasporic folks!
Focus by Aqyila
Aqyila blew up to virality last year in particular with her track Bloom. Honestly, that song is so good even when I was in my most curmudgeon anti-love moments, it still absolutely hit for me. Focus is for those of us who loathe a nonchalant ass bitch!!!!! I love something that just makes you feel, maybe even visualize, that you should be somewhere looking good af, smelling good af, sweaty af, and absolutely pressed up against someone also fine af. Yeah, that’s this song haha!
Supersonic by Tash [and more about Tash]
I fear this is supposed to be a range of artists but in my efforts to not crash out I took the time to really lean into music this past week. [Like all other hobbies abandoned temporarily]
That included a scroll of my “liked songs” on Spotify and I was reminded of this absolutely fun and upbeat song about…yearning, ha! Lemonade by Tash so wonderfully encapsulates the bright sweetness of lemonade (aka a crush) along with the lip puckering sourness of being unsure is someone likes you back the way you like them—I mean lemonade.
This feels like something that you would blast with your friends on a spring day just before it gets too hot and you have to be in only enclosed spaces with the AC blasting. AKA the perfect groove.
Upon discovering “hey I think this girl might be a whole vibe” I was served Supersonic and it cemented me into a budding fan and whew this shit is GOOD. IT FEELS GOOD. IT SOUNDS GOOD. The way my body so naturally moves to this song. It’s just dripping with goodness and groove. Something about the simplicity of the music (god a funky BASS JUST GETS ME) is this songs power. The layering on the chorus is the star of the show!
YOU KNOW WHAT, HELL YEAH!
Let me Knew by Carlos Abril, Amelia Rose, 9ICK
You’d be hard pressed to find a song Amelia is on that I have not developed a hyperfixation over. I have still not broken free from the hold “that far” has on me, sonically. Evidently, this week is yearn city USA and damn damn damn do they yearn so well in this song. This song is a rekindling of sorts. It’s so dreamy. Light candles and yearn buddy.
D8 by Thuy
Bitch, respectfully every version of this song absolutely does it for me! YEAH, YOU WANNA TAKE ME ON A DATE?! HELLO?! TAKE A LICK, MAKE YOUR TONGUE FEEL LIKE POP ROCKS?! Yeah, she just gets me like none of you do. Idk if it’s just my wily femme ways but this song is going to be what the inside of my head sounds like any time I talk to someone cute for the foreseeable future. I’VE BEEN ON YOUR MIND ALL DAY! DUH!
bottomline by Tori Kelly ft JoJo
First, first and foremost—what an absolutely insane collaboration of vocals. Let’s fucking start there. The riff off in this song? Chills every single time. As someone with brown eyes who loves a pair of dreamy brown eyes I thank them for the representation. This song is just so ugh. When a crush feels good and fun and ugh! It’s upbeat. It’s fun. It’s an ear worm. I LOVE HER. I fell in love with this song last year, but haven’t been able to yap about my love of it, so had to include it and February feels timely!
“Well that’s the Routine Refrain I hope you enjoyed it, cause I know I did!”
xx