It’s been awhile since my last What’s Making Me Happy post. I had a busy two months with spring break travel to Chicago that was accompanied by a train trip back to California, lots of school needs and events, and then I also had surgery mid-April. Much of the last few weeks has been devoted to recovery; it hasn’t been easy but it’s also forced me to slow down and enjoy a few things I might not have made time for – mainly music, so today’s what’s making me happy is all music related. I’ve put together a full playlist on YouTube so you can enjoy everything that I’ve been listening to! 

Beyonce’s new album

I had saved listening to this album until post surgery when I had no interruptions. I made myself as comfortable as I could on the couch, put on my headphones, and just let Queen Bey’s voice transport me for 80 minutes. This album transcends genre, offering a kaleidoscope of sounds from country, gospel, rock, hip hop, even opera, and all of it blended together. I didn’t love every song, but I have many of them on repeat since that first listen. If it’s been awhile since you just sat down and listened to a full album while doing nothing else, do it for this album. 

I can’t pick a favorite, but these gave me so many feelings:

• The song that makes me want to run fast: YA YA

• The song that makes me want to cry: Protector

• The song that I’ll be belting out while on a long drive with my husband: II Most Wanted

NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts

NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour is my favorite podcast of all time (my life’s dream is to watch a rom com with co-host Linda Holmes). They end each Friday episode with a round of what’s making me happy, which has been the inspiration for these posts. A few weeks ago Stephen Thompson, one of NPR’s music critics, said that producing Chappell Roan’s Tiny Desk concert was what was making him happy. Roan sings Femininomenon, one of my favorite songs to run to in 2023, so I was excited to watch that. And then with a little more time on my hands than usual, I went deep into the Tiny Desk archives. If you’ve never seen one, they’re a 20 to 30 minute concert that takes place at a tiny desk in NPR’s Washington D.C. studios. They’ve had big names like Taylor and Adele but also feature less mainstream artists, international artists, and a wide range of genres. In my digging two of my favorite discoveries were performances by the Broadway casts of SIX and The Lion King. The notes that Jasmine Forsberg as Jane Seymour’s hits in Heart of Stone sounds unbelievable. If you can’t see the show, these are the next best things! 

Watching The Voice with my kids

A few weeks ago, we were driving home from somewhere and Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide came on through Spotify. It is one of my all-time favorite songs, and I started singing along and told the kids that I had just watched probably my favorite cover of the song on this show called the Voice. The Voice is NBC’s singing reality competition show and it is in its 25th season. I have watched every episode, every season. It is total enjoyable comfort TV for me, and I cannot believe I have waited this long to introduce it to my kids. When we got home, I showed them Madison Curbelo’s cover of Landslide. They loved her performance and asked if they could watch the show with me, so the next day I queued up the first episode of this recent season, and Neko and Bowie were immediately hooked. Neko enjoys the performances and Bowie is obsessed with the judges, so now we’re watching a few performances every day to catch up to where they currently are in the season. It fills my heart to share something that has brought me so much joy with the kids and also find a non-kid show to watch with them that’s mostly wholesome and also exposes them to a wide variety of personal stories.

Again, here is a full playlist on YouTube.

Have you discovered some great music recently? What do you have on repeat? Please share with me! Hit reply if you’re on email or leave a comment (a login link will be sent to your email - sorry it’s such a pain!).

Previous post: 53.5 Hours on a Train with My Kids