Welcome to The Nicholist! My weekly list of pop culture where I gush on everything that’s got me obsessed.
This week, Twitter popped off with the Top 20 Song challenge.
Make a 20-track comp of your all-time favorite tracks, each artist can only be featured once. Not the 'best' songs, the ones that bring instant joy the second you hear the first note, the ones that give other people the best insight into what stirs your soul.
Here’s an insight into what stirs my soul…
“Act Up” by City Girls
The ultimate turn-up song that makes me want to pop my puss.
“By Your Side” by Sade
“Make Me Whole” by Amel Larrieux
The summer between eighth grade and freshman year I lived with my grandparents and shared a pullout couch with my 17-year-old aunt, and literally every night, she would play a mixtape from her boyfriend—these were the first two songs on it.
“Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team) by Taking Back Sunday
“Don’t Sleep” by My American Heart
“Ohio Is For Lovers” by Hawthorne Heights
I grew up as an Emo Kid. Skinny jeans, lip ring, cutting yourself as a fashion statement, and listening to obscure sad boi bands. These songs transport me back to being a teenager with swoopy bangs, modified with zero gauges, rocking homemade skinny jeans1, and spectacled in thick black-rimmed glasses moshing at Chain Reaction.
“Every Time” by Janet Jackson
Janet is one of my ultimates, and The Velvet Rope is her first album I was old enough to remember liking on my own. Janet doesn’t get enough credit for her vocals, and this song highlights its angelic quality.
“Hillside Boys” by Kim Petras
*Plays on repeat*
“ICY GRL” by Saweetie
If “Act Up” by City Girls makes me want to pop my puss, “ICY GRL” makes me want to open a Roth IRA—and pop my puss.
“If I Could Change Your Mind” by HAIM
My girls ATE with this one.
“I Know You All over Again” by Trixie Mattel
The first time I heard this song, I cried.
“Learning” by Perfume Genius
The first time I heard this song, I also cried.
“Masterpiece” by Meg & Dia
Meg & Dia is no doubt my favorite band. Their album Something Real is no doubt my favorite album. “Masterpiece” is a masterpiece.
“My Paper Heart” by The All-American Rejects
My cousins and I had a fake MySpace band called My Paper Heart. I was lead vocals, Justin was on guitar, and Jazmin was on screams.
“Pieces of Me” by Ashlee Simpson
Ashlee Simpson Supremacy!
“Point of No Return” by Exposé
No song brings me more joy.
“Simple, Starving to Be Safe” by Daphne Loves Derby
More sad boi shit. But the lead singer was Asian.
“Think of Me” from Phantom of the Opera
My go-to karaoke song.
“Where My Girls At” by 702
From the front to back!
“Work From Home” by Fifth Harmony (feat. Ty Solla $ign)
This was a time where “skinny jeans” didn’t technically exist. To create skinny jeans we had to buy women’s jeans at the thrift store and alter them to be extra tight (the math: men’s size subtract 11 equals your women’s size).
I love this list! If I could change your mind is one of Haim best.