The Most Beautiful Songs

Hello all!

I am returned with the long-promised and surprisingly long-awaited playlist. I am sorry for my tardiness! I've really struggled to keep up with time the last month.

If you're as eager as I hope you are (lol), "The Most Beautiful" playlist is linked at the end of this article, both to YouTube and Spotify, if you require that choice. Please feel free to skip the preamble and dig right in, if you want, as I have a minimum word count to meet, ;D.

Thank you to everyone for contributing such remarkable songs! I am astonished at the versatility in both genre and vibe, but none of the variability detracts from the listening experience.

I believe I've put the songs in the optimal order so nothing feels too unbalanced and no transition comes out of left field. It's a beautiful, sad, and groovy mix, one that I know you'll all love. And it spans quite the time range, from classical pieces hundreds of years old, to contemporary songs from just a couple years ago; and of course, everything in between.

Might I just add that this particular playlist has made me all the more curious about all of your individual music tastes! I'm so excited to learn more as I continue this series and adapt it to my own musings about you all and the musical world at large.

In compiling this playlist, I realized that beauty is so wide-reaching. What I consider beautiful in music is not even close to what some of you consider to be. Yet, it's all gorgeous in its unique way, and remarkably, melds very well with it's distinct peers. From dark, alt rock pieces to incredibly sad singer-songwriter songs, to pining Celtic ballads and syncopated jazz hits, I must admit I was—I am—quite intrigued by your minds, hearts, and perceptions.

It's always a treat to get that insight, and like I said, I'm beginning to develop some different plans for these community playlists. I hope to create an unofficial Beat challenge sometime soon. Let me know if you'd be interested in contributing to that!

Before I sign off, I want to shout of Sarah Parker, who contributed two full playlists in the comments of my last article on this subject; one was all of her choices for "The Most Beautiful" and one that was her favorite jazz songs. I want to urge you all to go listen to both, especially the latter. She has fantastic taste.

And without more ado (damn you, minimum word count!!), here are the two forms of "The Most Beautiful" community playlist! I hope you enjoy.

Spotify "The Most Beautiful"

YouTube "The Most Beautiful"

If you (yes you!) have come across this article way later than the "published" date, please give it a listen! And if you want to contribute what you consider to be the most beautiful song you've ever heard, I'd love to listen to it and add it to this playlist.

I don't consider these to ever be "done." Certainly, I'm all for longer and longer playlists that I can enjoy in my professional, writerly, and personal lives.

Oh, and thank you, to everyone who contributed (and who will contribute in the future!). I am so grateful for those who have been a part of this for the past three community playlists and who listen to the end results.

I hope you join me for the next one!

Stay tuned...

A/N:

I have drafted two more community playlist articles, and I have another list started on Spotify. Once I get through those ones, I think I'll try a Beat challenge, as I mentioned earlier.

The very next one will be called "Sing & Dance" which will be songs from musicals, whether they be filmed or staged productions. I mentioned this to Alex McEvoy like a month ago, saying it would be "next week" and alas, that is not what happened. But it will be the next community playlist prompt, so if you want to start thinking about that now, please do!

I'll limit the suggestions to your top 3 so that we don't get too many from one person, but as always, if you have enough for your own playlist, I'd love to listen to it, so submit that in whatever form you'd like. I'll add your top 3 to our community playlist regardless of how you submit your choices. :D

Cheers, everyone!