Cassettes. You remember them as a cumbersome medium for music that predates the thin and sterile sound of compact discs. I remember them differently, with a fondness best reserved for beeramids and mullets. I recall the endless hours it would take to fit ten songs perfectly into a 30 minute window (per side). I recall auto-reverse. I wish my life would do that (but then I’d have a mullet again, so).

While every middle-ager has been running their checking account ragged attempting to grab every bit of vinyl they can get their pre-arthritic hands on, I have been predicting the resurgence of cassettes for years. The kids know—it’s cheaper to get your shitty band’s album circulated on tape (much like, you know, the 80s), and it’s cooler to use any medium other than your audiophile dad’s.

Tapes are a commodity again, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. And I applaud the shit out of it, because digital media is tired and grandparents are now collecting vinyl. The last album I purchased—a few weeks ago—was on cassette.

You know what you forgot? How you just have to hit play and wait until the side ends. And how that side was made for only half of your listening experience—not infinite aural time. And the other half, if you flip the tape over, is like, another half of that album. Mind=blown. It’s different, but the same.

(Yeah, I know, records have two sides as well. Sorry to have to break it to you, but they can’t fit into a Sports Walkman.)

My point is I am not biased towards cassettes just because I grew up on them (I am).

My other point is that the 2014 mix is made in the spirit of an actual mixtape. It is clearly labelled “Side A” and “Side B”. It has those small snippets we all used to throw into mixtapes to clumsily denote THIS IS WHERE THE TAPE STARTS, THIS IS THE END OF THE FIRST SIDE, THIS IS THE START OF THE SECOND SIDE, I AM A SLEDGEHAMMER OF UNDERTONES, I AM INCAPABLE OF CONVEYING COVERT EMOTIONS, I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO FOLLOW THIS SONG SO HERE’S A THREE SECOND SNIPPET FROM TRIXTER.

In retrospect, the immaturity it took to make a mixtape seems downright mature in the present tense of marathon mixes and unedited audible sentiments.

So here you go, a monument to the mature immaturity of mixtapes containing my favorite songs of 2014 and a few snippets from whenever (yes, one of them is Peterson asking me to go to a spa).

May you listen as separate sides or as a whole, but as always, loudly and responsibly.