Title says it all. What song (currently - no wrong answer, repeat answers allowed) feels like hope to you? For me, right now, it's this track called "Hold On" by French 79. This came out in.. 2020 I think? maybe 2019, but regardless, it was there for 2020. The whole album was there, but this song in particular. There was more than just COVID going on for for me, which I could go into, but not tonight. Point being, this song was there for me. I just now pulled up the video for the first time so I could post it here, and holy shit but this even hits harder. I was totally a skater as a kid, and even rode goofy foot. Nostalgia and hope wrapped into one. Perfect. Post your track too if you can - I wanna hear it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgBBCzi7Kpc

First concert - The Box (at The Forum in Toronto) Last concert - Sam Fender Best Concert - three way tie - Pink Floyd Division Bell, and New Order/P.I.L./The Sugarcubes, and Vampire Weekend Worst concert- Red Hot Chili Peppers at Lollapalooza Loudest concert - Frontline Assembly Best sounding - Robert Cray Band Seen the most - Tool Most surprising - Metric Most unusual - Skinny Puppy Craziest - Korn Next Concert - The Last Dinner Party Wish I had seen - INXS Copy and Paste-Let’s see yours

So, I have songs and albums that are slow burners. I know you know. You almost get mad at yourself for not loving it from the go. I liked OK Computer at first and well, it's near the top of my all timers now. I do this on the show as well. I love it actually as I can hear from listeners who are also "getting it" along with me. Is there a song from this past year that didn’t land at first—but later found you when you were ready? Those are often the ones that last.

So one thing I’ve gotten into over the last few years is making a song-a-day mix. I got the idea from ex-MTV host Dave Holmes, and all you do is pick one song each day… something you hear, something you think of, something tied to an event/news item/personal milestone, etc. and you just keep building over 365. At the end of each year (or each month, even) not only do you have a sweet - and often very random! - mix but afterwards you can look back on it and re-live the time… be it “oh yeah, that’s the day I watched ____” or “I was out at my local and this song just hit the moment perfectly!” Just sharing in case anyone here wants to give it a go moving forward! Or maybe you do it too? If anyone is interested, here’s how my year started (and, yes, thank you @John Richards for more than a couple of these!) https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/01-january-2026/pl.u-b3b84WNUbAvLP https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LhKcbjOy0CkY4mJFazeCT