As has been our custom for the last few years now, here is a compilation of our favorite tune-bop-jam songerooz of 2018, presented in the order in which they came to me via shuffle, each accompanied by a handcrafted haiku poem written whilst listening to the song – probably late at night with a glass of wine. I hope you enjoy!

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Sun June // Johnson City

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My throat becomes so
unwieldy watching you laugh
in my memories

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Sarah Shook & The Disarmers // What It Takes

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There may have been a
time when love made sense before
we knew what it was.

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boygenius // Salt In The Wound

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A familiar sting
from taking the medicine
which might be poison

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Swamp Dogg // Lonely

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The factory line
was hell on earth but one day
we built a sunrise.

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Amen Dunes // Believe

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True in the way some
people hate the ferris wheel
for the ground’s smallness

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Kacey Musgraves // Slow Burn

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Tenderness of the
desert air matched only by
melting creosote

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Kareen Lomax // Clothes

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On that night fireworks
snapped over the waves and our
clothes left in the sand

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Nils Frahm // The Roughest Trade

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Her voice always broke
when she tried to tell me
what home was to her.

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Sidney Gish // Persephone

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Mistakes pattering
against the window in a
comforting pattern

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Aaron Childs // No Hobbies

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A brand new world just
barely above the streetlights
for things who hover

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MOD CON // Do It Right Margo

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A dance party is
announced over megaphone.
The blaze rages on.

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RF Shannon // Tooth Ache

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Cigarettes glow in
wistful imitation of
the stars we can’t see

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Ginger Root // Mahjong Room

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neon soap bubble;
an afternoon spent floating
from ceiling to sky

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Harrison Lipton // Clouds

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Suspended dreams of
the icy vapor mass who
longs to be embraced

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illuminati hotties // (You’re Better) Than Ever

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phone full of first names
i set a reminder to
not forget myself

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Bonny Doon // I Am Here (I Am Alive)

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Out in Griffith Park
a tree trunk with several
letters in a heart

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Rico Nasty // Countin’ Up

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Weaving through traffic
like it’s a video game
and she’ll never lose.

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Video Age // Hold On (I Was Wrong)

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What if the slow dance
at the end of the movie
burst out of the screen

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Posse // Stupid Thing

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The glass and my palms
sweating in silent protest
but everything falls.

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Leikeli47 // Girl Blunt

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The kind of high that
very cool girls sometimes are,
shouting truth to dawn.

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Al Riggs // A Band On Me

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Saying the sad thing
over and over until
it is something new

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Mary Lattimore // On The Day You Saw The Dead Whale

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We can only splash
sea water on your body
and wait for the tide.

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Helena Deland // There Are A Thousand

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Two clouds one million
years apart which no one knows
they made the same shape

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Tasha // New Place

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The courage to know
destiny is a starship
and her time is now

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LP // Girls Go Wild

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Roll the windows down
summer came early this year
bearing pop music

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Janelle Monáe // Make Me Feel

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No dream bigger than
the love that explodes only
to become the sun

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Big Red Machine // OMDB

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Ragged footsteps march
alongside the drummer whose
only love is jazz

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The Beths // Great No One

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She said, the only
thing left to do now is laugh
so that’s what we did.

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Goat Girl // Throw Me A Bone

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The last kiss of light
left between the cigarette
and the boot heel

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Malena Zavala // Aliso

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I learned a new word:
nublado, which is cloudy
the prettiest way

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Porlolo // Wasting Time

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We won’t be rescued.
There is a sort of freedom
in knowing that.

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The City Hall // West Set

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The sun is setting
like butter melting and we
splash in the soft pools

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Cardi B // I Do (ft. SZA)

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Sweet and hardened like
blood red candy dripping from
the witch’s fingers

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Buzzy Lee // Walk Away

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the phone on my bed
flashed, almost like it was you
and not just the sun

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Troye Sivan // My My My

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drenched in summer love
and the sweat of something good
and a brand new moon

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Estére // Nomads

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Earthbound and watching
winged things in their carelessness
take flight endlessly

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Wished Bone // Reasons

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I will practice how
to be still and unrhyming
without asking why

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Jordana // Jackie’s 15

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A hand, warm flat and
palm down on her shoulder and
the warmth it creates

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