music for an imaginary mall
songs that sound like food courts and carpeted department stores
I've got a lot to say about this week's playlist, so I'll be brief with my introductory notes. This is Mixtape No. 3! I’m enjoying this!
A note about this week's art: Paul took these photos in a nearly abandoned mall outside of Evansville, IN. Their relevance will be obvious shortly.
Enjoy this week's mixtape, friends!
Love,
Jenny
This week's mixtape is music for an imaginary shopping mall.
To be honest, this particular niche is my favorite to build a playlist around. I always come back to it. I love curating songs that feel soft, a bit saccharine, and at times very soothing. Don’t get it wrong, though. This is not Muzak or elevator music. These songs are total jams.
Let me paint you a picture of my imaginary mall. Tiled floors. Various shades of pink. Palm trees and tropical plants in huge planters. A fountain with a glass dome ceiling above it. A slushy from the food court. The photo studio at JC Penney's with it’s airbrushed backdrops. Clothing racks in a carpeted department store. Plush carpet. Everything is soft-focus and a little fuzzy. It’s like a Glamour Shot. Smooth saxophone music is pumping through the speakers.
I say "imaginary" because it's definitely not a space that I think actually existed with the same hazy aura that I'm describing. It's more the idea of a space.
Still though, it conjures up nostalgia. I'm reminded of this archive of years worth of music that played inside Kmart stores . Or this Spotify playlist recreating the soundtracks of late 90s Gap stores. This playlist is in the same vein, but this is also something quite different. If those projects are the literal the sounds you would have heard in those stores, this mixtape is more ethereal. A playlist for a mall that never existed.
If I were to wax philosophical about malls, I'd say that to me, they feel like enclosed worlds. I love the mall. I love window shopping. I’m envious of the mall walkers getting their steps in while wearing velour track suits. Maybe there's something nice about the escapism of an imagined mall these days. I could easily link to a million articles about the “death of the mall.” It feels like a relic of something long gone.
This playlist starts with "Memories" by Stacy Lattisaw. This song sounds like stepping into an abandoned mall that still has all the lights on. The fountains are flowing, the lights are blinking, but no one is around and this song is echoing through the halls.
We’ve got some Mariah, some Whitney, some Sade, obviously. But hopefully I’ve paired them up with some less expected French pop tracks and newer music that still captures this particular vibe.
Have you ever had a song that you're positive that you might be the person who accounts for the vast majority of its plays on Spotify? For me that song is probably Valerie Dore's "Guinnevere." If you only listen to one song on this playlist, that’s the one.
So please, take a seat by the fountain. Rest your shopping bags for a second! Should we grab a cookie? What's playing at the theater? Should we dial up some friends on the payphone? I've got change. Or maybe we can just throw a coin in the fountain and make a wish?
And that's it. The mall lights are dimming and the store gates are closing. See you next week with some great dance tracks.