These are 23 of my favorite songs from 2011. I’ve mixed them all together in one file for soundtracking walks, drives, and flights to and fro wherever you call home in the upcoming holidays. Though I cannot guarantee there won’t be a part two, I just wanted to share this with you now, before the year is over for good. Enjoy, the tracklist is below.

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Beginners snippet/Ewan McGregor

Trust Issues (Remix)/Justin Bieber

I’ll Take Care Of You/Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX

Movement/Katy B

Living Like I Do (Feat. Sampha)/SBTRKT

Two Rings/Ice Choir

Emergency Room/Ford & Lopatin

Call Me Tonight/Active Child

Too Tough/The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths cover)/Dum Dum Girls

Change the Sheets/Kathleen Edwards

Cosmonogy/Björk

Heste (Tristan and Isolde)/City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

Till The World Ends (The Femme Fatale remix feat. Nicki Minaj/Britney Spears

Psychic (Club Mix)/SSION

Fashion Of His Love/Lady Gaga

Schoolin‚ Life/Beyoncé

Songs For Women/Frank Ocean

Wave Goodbye/Household

The Glorious Land/PJ Harvey

Our Prayer/Beach Boys

Hymn for the Heartbreaker/Corinna Rose

Equipoise/Justin Vivian Bond

Beth/Rest (Live on NPR)/Bon Iver

This latest mix has been lingering on my harddrive for a few weeks in the hopes that I could cure its schizophrenic nature. Now, realizing that my energy is perhaps best spent elsewhere (best of 2011 lists!), I’ve decided to put it up in its current, slightly bifurcated form.

If the first half is like an organic meal enjoyed at home, followed by some mild dancing by the fire, the second is a fluorescent binge on fast-food, followed by a slow drive home through the city. Download here.

Tracklist:

The wonderful Stil in Berlin blog asked me to whip up one of my mixtapes to celebrate their fifth birthday. Honored, I mixed up five years of favorites (and some SiB soundbites), trying to soundtrack what the last half of the noughties sounded like for me, and I hope you’ll find some of your best-loved tunes in there too.

This second best-of-2010 mixtape forms the flipside to the first’s party vibage, all spooked sentiment and dark drama. Things may start off all nice and country, even working in some Tay-Tay in the middle there, but shit ultimately gets real biblical. Repent and download here.

1. Wedding Song / Anais Mitchell feat. Justin Vernon

2. Sometimes in this Country / Crooked Still

3. All We Are / Dirty Projectors + Björk

4. I Didn’t See It Coming / Belle & Sebastian

5. Lovers’ Carvings / Bibio

6. No Provenance / Joanna Newsom 

7. What Do You Think Will Happen Now? / Owen Pallett

8. Limit To Your Love (Feist cover) / James Blake 

9. Queen Of Denmark / John Grant 

10. Acts of Man / Midlake 

11. Heartbreaker / Girls 

12. Mean / Taylor Swift 

13. Dancing On My Own (Acoustic on Live Lounge) / Robyn

14. In this Shirt / The Irrepressibles

15. What He Wrote / Laura Marling 

16. I’m the One/Money on My Mind (the xx/Lil’ Wayne) / jj

17. Futile Devices / Sufjan Stevens

18. Walking Song / Kate & Anna McGarrigle

19. Names / Valley Maker

20. Le Pyromane / Karkwa

21. Excuses (Live at Yours Truly) / The Morning Benders

This is the first mixtape dedicated to what I thought made music awesome in 2010. Find the tracklist below and download the mix here.

1.    BTSTU / Jai Paul

2.    Round and Round / Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

3.    Constellation / Darwin Deez

4.    Club Can’t Handle Me / Flo Rida

5.    Say No To Love / The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

6.    Jail La La / Dum Dum Girls

7.    Boy / Ra Ra Riot

8.    The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love / Jens Lekman

9.    I Wonder / Dom

10. Free Energy / Free Energy

11. Running Out / Scissor Sisters

12. I Wanna Be Your Telephone / Jamie Lidell

13. Teenage Dream / Glee Cast

14. Finally (Time And Space Machine Edit) / Cherry Ghost

15. Beyondce / Javelin

16. The Spell / Alphabeat

17. Over (MeLo-X Remix) / Drake

18. Quitter’s Raga / Gold Panda

19. Sun / Caribou

20. Acapella / Kelis

21. Cry When You Get Older / Robyn

Another season, yet another mixtape. This brightly-hued, popsicle-friendly blend provides a tonal counterpart to this month’s other mix. What better way to celebrate the nigh arrival of leaves, shorts, and skirts than with our ladies Gaga and Goldfrapp. Shimmy to some girl-group sass and spring-load some beats - Róisín, Robyn, and Four Tet, they’re all here alongside surprise appearances by Will Young, The Stranglers, and Kate Bush.

Notice the lengthening days, exhale with relief, and download here.

Another season, another mixtape. This one might start off all moody and morose, but I promise there’s some sun breaking through as the mix progresses. There’s jauntier new stuff from Jónsi, Joanna Newsom, and Javelin, alongside some odder bits by and covers of Fleetwood Mac, Phil Spector, and PM Dawn. Ring out this dreadful winter in style and download here.

This, the last best-of-2009 mixtape (I promise) is surely the christmassiest. If the first mix was most suitable for wrapping and unwrapping all manner of shiny baublage, and the second felt like some unhinged dinner party, with guests slurring their requests for garage punk; no, Cabaret, then this one would soundtrack a starker christmas morning, all brittled guitars and still-smoldering chestnuts.

To those of you who missed the Arcade Fire in 09, fret not! This mix features their particular brand of desperate hope as delivered by newcomers such as Fanfarlo, Mumford & Sons, and The Antlers. And as this is the most reflective, nostalgic entry in this trilogy of mixes, there’s also appearances by Neonresolutions godheads like Beirut, Antony, Kyle McLachlan, and even The Magnetic Fields, whose 69 Love Songs turned ten this year (a fact that I guess makes most of us gracefully aging thirtysomethings, brava!).

All in all, it’s been a good year for music, a big year for Berlin, and a great year for snow. Now go worship some trees. Go on, they deserve it.