Introducing Finlay’s Monthly Wrapped: What I’m Listening to in…

I get a sense that New Years’ resolutions aren’t as fashionable as they once were.

Perhaps we have finally managed to get to grips with what is perhaps the world’s most overrated force: human willpower. Perhaps it’s just that in this brave new world pervaded by all manners of ‘social’ media, we are terrifed of being held to account by others about that which we have ‘resolved’ to accomplish in any given year.

It’s true that I haven’t really given it much thought until now: I did think to myself in the latter weeks of 2025 that I ought to give myself a few more things to do outside of work – to develop my personal relationships and indeed my own wellbeing. It’s become obvious recently that – as a result of my somewhat unique job description – it’s more difficult for me than it has been previously to enjoy art in its many forms. In the ‘before times’, I found a good deal of time for, and got a lot out of, reading novels, enjoying films (indeed, sometimes even ‘movies’), and of course, listening to copious amounts of Bob Dylan, The Who, Joni Mitchell, and anyone else I managed to stumble across while I drank in the songs of yesterday.

This has all changed since I started working as a musican. I suppose it is a hazard for anyone who manages to ‘make their hobby work’ as a full-time occupation, that it eventually erodes at least some of the lustre with which your old pastime shone. I’ve never ‘fallen out of love’ with music, but it has taken a step back in my personal time.

This brings me back to my resolution-of-sorts. I have decided to revive a practice that has served me well in past years. Each month I will create a new playlist, in which I’ll add all of the songs which have – in their own way – impacted me. It might be a song I’ve never heard before that I find deeply moving, or an old favourite which, for one reason or another, manages to crop up in my listening habits. Each month will be a snapshot of my musical environment, and by extension, my life. In this series of new blog posts, then, I’ll attempt to weave a coherent thread: song by song, month by month; until hopefully, this year will have its own story told in the music I have enjoyed.

It’s a grand idea, so let’s see if it works.