The Laid-back Twinkly Music Extravaganza!

Today is beautiful outside in Tuscaloosa. I swear, the sun is out in the clear blue sky and the trees are shining green and everything is just so lush and I'm not even sneezing at it all. It's like magic, really.

So let me take a little time before I go right back out there to drop some music recs your way. It's been a while since I made a playlist for you anyway.

The Ultra Laid-Back Music Extraordinaire

• Start off with "Bottle It Up" by Sara Bareilles. Pretty mainstream but with enough of her own flavor that it tastes great. Chill and happy, meant for sunny days.
• Now take the energy down a notch with Melody Gardot's "All That I Need is Love". Kinda cynical but idealistic too? You'll get it once you listen. The woman's voice is smooth and husky and lovely. Yes, it's jazz, but people better get off that whole "omg jazz sucks" kick, mostly because it's completely untrue. You ever hear of Miles Davis or John Coltrane? Yeah, that's what I thought.
• Follow that with "Play In Reverse" by Lex Land. Kinda twinkly, but very very pretty. The lyrics are a little sad, but the music is chill. So chill-sad? I don't know. It's a good song about just letting go of an unrequited love.
• Next is "Sugarcane" by honeyhoney. Medium-paced with a kick to it and kinda wistful.
• Moving to slow acoustic wistful with the Fray's song "Unsaid" off their EP Reason. Great song. Perfect acoustic. All acoustic songs should wish to be this one.
• Kicking up the chillax feelings and tempo a notch with "Al Fin" by Florencia Ruiz. It's in Spanish but regardless of language, the song just resonates with closing your eyes and enjoying the breeze and the sun.
• Getting back into mainstream oldness with Anna Nalick and "Breathe (2 AM)". What, you guys didn't love this song? Whatever. I love it, and that's really all that matters. It makes me feel like I'm having an epiphany moment in a movie or a prime-time TV show. Swear, that's what this song is made for.
• Aaand then we have Michael Cera and Ellen Page's version of "Anyone Else But You". Shutup, I love this version. It's all guitars and quiet singing and Michael freaking Cera. ♥ Michael Cera, if you're reading this (yeah right), I am so in love with you it hurts. In every single movie of yours. Ellen Page, if you are reading this (ahahahaha), you are awesome incarnate. Like Kat Dennings and Emma Stone. Those three actresses are like the trifecta of awesome movie hits, trufax.
• Now more upbeat stuff! "Fantasy" by Anya Marina is next. Yeah, I know she didn't like this singer-songwriter album, but it's still one of my favorites. Hell, you could probably listen to this whole album and chill out to it. (I do so frequently, as a matter of fact.) C'mon, Anya, "Sociopath" was genius! It's my theme song, I swear!
• Next stop: Eleni Mandell's "Girls". It's cute and funny and about crushes! This is the song I listen to when I'm wearing pigtails. (...which I'm totally not wearing right now, no way. Yeah. Mm.) I need to get the rest of this album, especially now that I have Bittorrent.
• Quieter and slower to ground you back down is another Lex Land song (shutup, she's great and folky, my favorite two things) called "What I Want from You". Good for rainy days, sunny days, evenings, afternoons, whenever. And the lyrics! Aaaah. Perfect. Yes, I have a Lex Land crush, but then again she is the shiz.
• So after that five minute song, something short and sweet: "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson. Damn, I love this song. It's adorable. And catchy as all hell, really.
• Now for real twinkly: Snow Patrol actually added a music box to "You Could Be Happy" to give it that sound they needed. This one's kinda sad (okay, more than kinda) but it's so twinkly and chill. And it's quick, so if you must you can skip it.
• Ganking from The Last Kiss's excellent soundtrack: "Paperweight" by Schuyler Fisk and Joshua Radin. I have to be in just the right mood for this song, otherwise I just listen to the previous track (which is "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise)" by Rufus Wainwright, an excellent song), but when I am in the mood, this can only be listened to once. It's a moment you can't really reproduce, you know? Putting it on repeat just cheapens it, I think.
• But "New Road" by AM and Meiko can be put on repeat to savor and draw out the moment forever, srsly. It's ridiculous. But so good. And yeah, I enjoy Meiko. Leave me alone.
• We finish our chill time with Yael Naim (aaaaah) and "Far Far". Easily my favorite song on her album, and I think a good ending note. Very fresh and lovely and uplifting.

There. You have yourself your very own Dominique-created playlist for any sunny chill day of relaxing. If anyone likes, I can burn you a copy if you can't find it all for yourself, I just have to fix my CD drive (ahem, Techie Boyfriend...?) - and I do mean anyone from all over the vast internets. So that way there can be no complaining that some of my music is too obscure. If you'd like to hear only the tracks that can be found on Playlist.com, here's the playlist (although I promise, it's much better with all of them together):

Comments? Opinions? Suggestions for another playlist? I really enjoy putting these together, as evidenced by the overdose of playlists on my iTunes, so I hope you enjoy listening to it.