Been waiting to drop this: summer playlist, the encore. What's everybody listening to? pic.twitter.com/mqh1YVrycj
— President Obama (@POTUS44) August 11, 2016
President Barack Obama is a busy man. Sure, things may have lightened up a bit since he’s in the final months of his presidential tenure, but he’s probably still got some stuff to do, papers to shuffle. You know, President stuff. However, the man still has time to listen to music, and he proved this by dropping another edition of his signature summer playlist. And after a look at his selections, one thing is for sure: The man has an interesting taste in music.
There are technically two playlists, one for day and one for night, and both seem like they actually had some thought put into them. He could have easily had some staffer slap together a list of hit summer jams, but that’s not what this is. The daytime playlist in particular is fascinating with President Obama choosing Courtney Barnett! It’s enough to make you forgive him for including the somewhat basic “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Daytime also includes artists such as Wale, Janelle Monae, Prince, Common, and Gary Clark Jr.
The nighttime list has many a fine selection as well. You’ve got D’Angelo and Chance the Rapper and Miles Davis. That being said, one song jumps out. President Obama is into “Criminal” by Fiona Apple. One, that just feels like baiting Donald Trump. Two, can you imagine a sitting President of the United States watching the music video for that song? For what it’s worth, if things go south following this upcoming election, Obama might have to agree with Fiona about what this world would be.
Overall, it’s a solid collection of tracks, and one imagines next summer he’ll have the time to put together an even more impressive playlist, perhaps ranking among one of the best you can find on Spotify.