Look, I need to tell you something about this playlist. Not because you asked, but because I've been running to it for three weeks now and I still can't figure out if it's helping or making everything worse.
Wildcat! Wildcat! opens with "Mr Quiche" and it's this shimmer-pop thing that feels like optimism you don't trust yet. Like when someone texts you back after two days of silence and you want to believe it means something but you're already writing the breakup in your head. That's the first mile. That's always the first mile – it lies to you about how the rest of this is going to feel.
Then Wild Ones slides in with "Golden Twin" and suddenly you're in this Portland indie-pop territory where everything sounds like a memory you haven't had yet. There's this thing happening across tracks 2 through 4 where Knox Hamilton shows up twice and I keep thinking about how bands sequence their own heartbreak. "Work It Out" into "Pretty Way to Fight" – that's not accident. That's someone saying "here's the problem" and then immediately, "here's how we pretend it's fine."
I've made that progression. Different songs, same delusion.
Here's where it gets interesting: Graveyard Club's "Cellar Door" at track 5 is the moment you realize you're actually running now, not just moving your legs to see if movement fixes thinking. It never does, but that doesn't stop you from trying. The production gets denser, Wild Ones comes back for "No Money" and "Paresthesia" like they're haunting their own playlist, and suddenly you're in the middle of something you didn't plan for.
Top 5 things Barry would get completely wrong about this playlist:
1. "Mr Quiche" is throwaway opener material – No. It's the warm-up lie. Every run needs one, every relationship needs one. This is "we can just keep this casual" before you're buying their favorite cereal.
2. Too much Wild Ones – Three tracks from one band is indulgent. Except when that band understands melancholy disguised as movement, when Danielle Sullivan's vocals feel like the person who actually said the thing you were too scared to say.
3. "High Beam" by Sjowgren doesn't fit – He'd say it's too floaty for mile 4. He'd be wrong. Mile 4 is exactly when you need something that sounds like driving at night alone, which is what this track is.
4. PRONOUN's "just cuz you can't" is filler – Barry hates anything that sounds emotionally honest without irony. That's why Barry's been single since 2003. This track is the conversation you should've had instead of running.
5. No proper closer – "Soul No. 5" is too upbeat for an ending, he'd say. But Caroline Rose knows something: sometimes you don't get closure, you just get a good bassline and the decision to keep moving.
Landon Conrath's "2AM" hits at track 10 and it's the Wall Breaker moment, which is music critic speak for "this is where you stop thinking about your form and start thinking about why you're really out here." The production has this late-night confession quality, like the text you type at 2AM but don't send until morning when you've edited out everything true. I heard this track and thought about the Lakefront Trail in November, wind off the lake, running away from things because running toward things requires knowing what you want.
Electric Guest's "Waves" comes next with this funky pocket that feels like relief you haven't earned yet, followed by Mallrat's "Teeth" which sounds exactly like its title – something that looks like a smile until you realize it's a threat. That's tracks 11-12 reminding you that indie pop is just heartbreak with better synth patches.
The whole thing clocks in at 42 minutes, which is either a perfect 5K if you're slow or a tempo 4-miler if you're running like you mean it. The BPM floats around that 120-140 zone where your cadence matches your pulse matches the kick drum, which is what the playlist description means when it says your heart rate is in the band. It's not metaphor. It's biology pretending to be poetry pretending to be a workout.
What came first – the need to run or the need to think about something other than why you're running? I've been trying to answer that question for three years now. This playlist doesn't solve it. But it's 42 minutes where the music at least pretends to understand the question.
You run to clear your head. It never works. But Wild Ones' "Paresthesia" – that tingling numbness when blood flow returns to a compressed nerve – that's the whole game right there. You run until you can't feel it anymore, or until you feel it so much you remember why feeling anything matters at all.
Put this on. Start easy. The first mile will lie to you. Let it.
