As the last few seconds of the year evaporated and echoes of “Happy New Year!” drifted away, there’s a good chance that thoughts of 2022 no longer dominated your headspace. Instead, most of us became fixated on what exciting possibilities the new year could have in store.

Whether you realized it or not, the adventurers around you were mentally projecting visions of the exotic destinations they might find themselves traveling to throughout the coming year. The habit-formers were mapping out their respective resolutions to offset whatever negative compulsions they developed in years prior. The single crowd were wondering which cute picture from the New Year’s party could give a much needed facelift to their stale dating profiles. Amidst all of them, the music nerds among us were wondering which of their favorite artists could be hatching plans to bring new songs and accompanied happiness to our lives over the next twelve months.

Despite the temptation, I urge you to put your anticipation for the coming year on hold. I’m confident 2023 will be another wonderful year of musical intrigue, but the final few months of 2022 never got a proper sendoff. Those unsung months are appropriately celebrated in the following playlist containing 40 of my favorite songs released over the past three months. As always, the songs are in no particular order with a limit of one song per artist.