“Listen In” is a weekly feature in which we ask musicians to curate a mixtape-length YouTube playlist of songs they’re currently digging.
This week’s playlist is courtesy of Heavenly Beat, aka erstwhile Beach Fossils bassist John Peña, and leans heavily on breakbeats and ’90s nostalgia. Hits from the middle of that decade, when radio-friendly “alternative rock” played nice with trip-hop, like Sneaker Pimps’ “6 Underground,” are unlikely forbears for Peña’s own heavy-lidded dance-pop, and slow jams like R. Kelly’s “It Seems Like You’re Ready” and The-Dreams “I Luv Your Girl” hint at the emotional directness below Heavenly Beat’s haze.
Prominence, Heavenly Beat’s second album, arrives next month.
Click the big play button above to hear the whole playlist, and scroll down to see and play individual songs.
“Love Comes Back,” Arthur Russell, 1990
“Let’s Get Married,” Jagged Edge, 2000
“Freshmen,” The Verve Pipe, 1997
“Original Nuttah,” UK Apache with Shy FX, 1994
“Video Store,” Nicholas Nicholas, 2013
“It Seems Like You’re Ready, R. Kelly, 1993
“Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand,” Primitive Radio Gods, 1996
“Spring,” Saint Etienne, 1991
“6 Underground,” Sneaker Pimps, 1996
“I Believe,” Blessid Union of Souls, 1995
“I Love Your Girl,” The-Dream, 2008
“Bomber,” Aphrodite, 1995
