Have you ever been so excited for summer vacation or semester break, but when it comes and you finally have the free time you’ve been desperately needing, you feel a bit lost? You’re caught up on sleep, caught up on shows, you’ve seen your friends… Still, it feels like there’s something else you’re meant to be doing. For some of you, school will simply start up again, whether or not that offers you any relief. For me, I’m not sure what awaits me at the end of this transitional period. Ugh, bring the music back!
Bridging the gap between past and present
I ran into a problem halfway through my nostalgic music deluge. I realized that I had no music from 2018 to listen to. By arbitrarily splitting the list at ten year intervals, I made it impossible to add any new artists in 2017. Guess I have to make new entries in my rule book.
Any artists added to my list between 2014 and 2016 were allowed a three-year window of forthcoming albums to listen to. The three artists that satisfied this rule were Demi Lovato, Sonreal, and Sam Smith. But none of them released any albums in 2018, so I had to make more exceptions.
Ed Sheeran and 5 Seconds of Summer made my 2007-2016 list, and they made my list again in 2019. So, I added their 2017 and 2018 albums respectively to my listening list. For any other artists who made the list between 2017 and 2019, I included the album from the same year they were added.
After making all of these exceptions I ended up with 11 albums spanning from 2017 to 2019. 13 if you count Phantoms by Marianas Trench and reputation by Taylor Swift, but I’ll talk about them in another article.
The old school
Ed Sheeran — ÷ (2017): I’m a hopeless romantic and I love “Perfect,” okay? “Shape of You” is cool too, I guess. But not as cool as “Don’t.”
Demi Lovato — Tell Me You Love Me (2017): It’s funny, I have the exact opposite opinion of Lovato’s voice that I had of Kelly Clarkson. I think Lovato suits gospel-inspired music and I don’t really care much for her more recent rock releases. But then again, that could just be the lyrics rather than the musical style.
Sonreal — One Long Dream (2017): I was really excited to listen to Sonreal, and I was disappointed that I didn’t like it. Especially since one of the songs on the album literally addresses people who don’t like his music anymore. Well played, Sonreal.
Sam Smith — The Thrill of It All (2017): I can always trust Sam Smith to write some tearjerkers. Although, “Too Good at Goodbyes” is not as strong as “Lay Me Down.”
5 Seconds of Summer — Youngblood (2018): 5 Seconds of Summer are the reason I’m doing all of this in the first place. This album marks a more mature turn in their sound, but they stopped charting on Billboard after 2019. I’m doing this for you, boys.
Ariana Grande — Sweetener (2018): I’ve listened to this album in its entirety before, but I really only like the lead singles. That feels blasphemous to say, considering how much critical acclaim this album got.
The new school
Alessia Cara — The Pains of Growing (2018): Cara is another artist who I’m sad to see hasn’t charted on Billboard since 2021. She has a voice that I could listen to read a shopping list. And the flow of her lyrics is so beautiful. There’s an album of hers I want to gush about in a future installment, but in the meantime, just know that I love her music.
Shawn Mendes — Shawn Mendes (2018): I love the climactic build of “In My Blood” and the playfulness of “Lost In Japan” (I added the Zedd remix to my playlist).
Billie Eilish — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019): Eilish is one of those artists that made me feel bad about being so out of the loop with mainstream music. I finally get the hype now.
Harry Styles — Fine Line (2019): My bias in One Direction wasn’t Harry but he has a fine voice. I don’t know what else to say other than his songs are fun all the time, and sad occasionally.
Khalid — Free Spirit (2019): Kinda similar commentary to Harry Styles. Khalid’s music is just a chill time. I especially like the duet version of “Saturday Nights” with Kane Brown.
Part 3 coming soon!