Sunday was my Thanksgiving. Since some of my near-and-dears and I will be apart this year, I decided to host “Little Thanksgiving” the Sunday before. On the menu was a sage butter turkey with white wine gravy and sausage apple chestnut stuffing, my world-famous sweet potato casserole, some Brussels sprouts here some apple pie there and a lot of pinot noir… The Cowboys even played the Redskins which is normally the TDay game. So it felt very right. I’m eating leftovers as I write this.
Being my first major dinner party, the background playlist was essential to success. Uncharacteristically, I wasn’t even thinking about it until I was in the middle of slipping the skins off some boiled yams, when I realized I didn’t have a playlist set up for this sort of occasion. So while the casserole baked (350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the marshmallows are a nice golden brown), I worked to fix that mistake.
At the end of the night, I realized some of the added songs didn’t quite fit after all. “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles or “Watchman, What Is Left of the Night?” by The Greycoats may have been a little too minor-key driven for friendly foodie company. “The Rain” off the New Swell Season album “Strict Joy”, however, worked well. As did a little “Rich Woman” by Robert Plant and Allison Kraus (a generally phenomenal album if you aren’t familiar), which gives a nice funky little groove.
“Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” by Stars and “Sylvia” by Miike Snow are even more upbeat and are probably somewhere slightly above “ambient” and below “obvious”. Other honorable mentions go to the DeVotchKa, Crash Kings, Edward Sharpe and The Temper Trap. Mix these musical ingredients in a medium sized playlist bowl and cook for seven hours hours at room temperature. Serves 6 to… All.
The Swell Season – “The Rain”
Crash Kings – “Come Away”
Stars – “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”
Miike Snow – “Sylvia”
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