Monday Morning Mixtape 073: That's That Me Espresso

Welcome to Monday Morning Mixtape, a PoYB Contributor-curated playlist of songs, made just for you at the start of each week.

"That's That Me Espresso"

Best songs for the coffee shop

chosen by Zach

Spotify

YouTube

"Wake Up Shake Up" by Blair

from Die Young, 2009

The music from the TV show Girls is always a great place to start when thinking of coffee shop music. It's not all cafe music, but it certainly has some gems. This is a song that always comes to mind when I think of songs I want to hear there. It has a certain grace to it which just works in the soft light of a cafe.  —Zach

"Come Away with Me" by Norah Jones

from Come Away with Me, 2002

Norah Jones has that quintessential 2000s coffee shop energy. This was one of the first songs that I learned how to waltz to. I was thinking about that because I was waltzing in the kitchen of a South Philly row home last week. The woman I was dancing with was previously a ballroom dancing instructor and a much better dancer than I am, but she still asked if I could lead. And it felt nice to lead. Just like it felt nice that she put the peonies from my garden in a vase on her windowsill.  —Gloria

"So Easy (to Fall in Love)" by Olivia Dean

from The Art of Loving, 2025

Her vocals are smooth, dreamy, and steamy. This song makes me want a latte, some pretentious journal, and a good pen to pretend my poetry is important. This song leaves me nostalgic for the loneliness of a coffee shop, and a girl with no responsibilities beyond being selfish. The hard wood of a pompous chair—a piece sourced by the wealthy owner. This song is a cold Sunday, a crumbly scone, and the reminiscence of a jazz band on the corner. ☕️☕️☕️  —Melissa

"August 10" by Khruangbin

from Con Todo el Mundo, 2018

I will confess to you here that I would've had no fucking idea what to choose for this mixtape without help from outside sources. There are a few reasons for that, but it all boils down to the unshakeable fact that I do not spend much time in coffee shops, and don't know what the modus operandi is in your typical coffee house re: music. I have assumptions, yes, but I'm not helping to build a mixtape on top of useless fucking assumptions, ya know? Like, if I'm assuming that coffee shops just play slow, boring music all the time, then how would I be able to contribute to such a mixtape in good faith? I googled around, and found a lot of help on various threads from a barista subreddit, including full-on playlists that some barista's posted as their go-to coffee shop playlist. So I used all these as guidance for what to pick. All six artists I used today for my weekly half-dozen are artists that I knew of already and also saw posted by a barista. I saw a bunch of Khruangbin on the one Spotify playlist, which... I guess confirms my original assumptions about coffee shop music. But what can ya do!!!!!  —Joe


"Leaf Off / The Cave" by José González

from Vestiges & Claws, 2015

José González is always a cafe favorite for me. I blast it in the morning, when I'm opening up the coffee station and putting out the baked goods. Just me and a dark coffee shop and the morning, ah the morning. There is nothing like sipping coffee in the morning in a coffee shop—it really is such a treat, such a simple thing in life that is so fun. I can write at home, but when I write at a coffee shop, it just goes better. As do most things in life.  —Zach

"Eres" by Café Tacuba

from Cuatro Caminos, 2003

This was the coolest band that I heard playing in a coffee shop this month. I had to ask the barista who it was, and he wrote it down on a Post-it for me. I took a picture of the post-it because I knew I'd lose it before checking them out. They are a Mexican band that has been around since 1992, so maybe I'm late to the game with Café Tacuba, but I'm glad they are on my listening rotation now.  —Gloria

"And We Go Gentle" by Hiatus Kaiyote

from Mood Valiant, 2021

Probably the most significant coffee shop-related moment in MMM so far has been when Gloria and Sam realized in the comments that they were MMMing from the same coffee shop, right? That was pretty fun. I know Sam has had a long, arduous, debilitating addiction to coffee, but what about Gloria? Not being a coffee-drinker myself, I guess I'm realizing that I'm not really talking to people about their coffee intake too often. But based on the music that I see on these baristas' playlists, I'm going to go out on a long limb and state that Gloria probably hangs out in coffee shops a lot. There is a Venn diagram, hypothetically, where one side is "music that is played in coffee shops according to baristas on reddit" and another side is "music for which Gloria read my album review of said music and got pissed off because the review was, uh, less than glowing," and the fact that the overlapping section of that Venn diagram is really fucking thick makes me know for sure that Gloria is a coffee fiend.  —Joe


"Same Mistakes" by the Echo Friendly

a single, 2011

Near the end of March, I wrote the following poem in my planner while sitting in a coffee shop after therapy. "My lip is bitten raw / My lip is bitten red / How will I get this color without your teeth?" I don't know whether these words should be part of something larger or if they're enough on their own.  —Gloria

"Flake" by Jack Johnson

from Brushfire Fairytales, 2001

Go and sit by the beach and order a cold coffee. The surfers will walk by as you dig into your omelette with tahini and roasted red pepper on the side. Yes, this is Hawaii or some other tropical kind of location, and this is Jack Johnson's world. We're all just living in it.  —Zach

"Nobody" by Mac Demarco

from Here Comes the Cowboy, 2019

The problem, I think, is that I just simply would play whatever I wanted on the speakers, if I owned a place of business. Like if I owned a coffee shop, I would just hit play on shuffle, and let the 35,000 songs on my iPod shuffle through the Hold Steady and Slayyyter and Tierra Whack and Mac Demarco and Thursday and Marva Whitney and Cannonball Adderley and the Brave Little Abacus. Even though that wouldn't make sense in your typical coffee shop. You know what also wouldn't make sense? Me owning a coffee shop. No, if anything, I might have found myself working in one at some point. And had I been working one in 2012 and found myself listening to the same eleven songs as chosen by Pandora, I would've probably learned to hate music. For so many reasons, it's good that I have stayed away from coffee in my life.  —Joe

"Lebanese Blonde" by Thievery Corporation

from The Mirror Conspiracy, 2000

There is a coffee shop that I go to in recurring dreams. I definitely work there in my dreams, and I sometimes get the impression that I am in charge. I have never been to a coffee shop like this. I don't know if it is a real coffee shop. It is someplace that's always warm and dry, and the cafe opens onto a seating area on the sidewalk. These are big windows. It's shades of pale orange, yellow, mauve, and white. I don't know if the cafe is painted these colors or if it is just always sunrise / golden hour in the dreams. I think it is just the sun reflecting these colors. It's a little chaotic, but it's very comforting. I tried to draw it the other day in waking life, but it's so hard to draw interiors from a dream memory. It's been a year since I wrapped up my 80-day dream tracking project, and I am just starting to sort through all the data of my dreams. I don't really know what to do with it. Or if it's even worth it to write something about it.  —Gloria

"Babylon" by David Gray

from White Ladder, 1998

This is a song not for the hipsters but for the average people. A Starbucks in Paoli, PA, where people come in during the morning to talk with fellow parents. Others grab seven coffees for the office. Everything comes out fast and smooth. David Gray plays on the loudspeakers, and the fantasy of the 2010s continues.  —Zach

"Midnight Marauders" by Fat Freddy's Drop

a single, 2002

When I say that I've "heard of all six artists from my choices today," I am speaking the truth, but only barely. I am typing this blurb now, having only heard of Fat Freddy's Drop maybe 45 minutes ago, when I was typing the Midnight Marauders Sunday write-up and trying to google "midnight marauders live" and started wondering who the fuck Fat Freddy's Drop were and why the fuck every google search result was this random fucking band and not A Tribe Called Quest. But then I was scrolling through r/barista and saw one person say that their coffee shop plays all Fat Freddy's Drop every Friday. Too much of a coincidence not to note here, on this MMM. I haven't listened to "Midnight Marauders" by Fat Freddy's Drop as of this blurb-writing. Probably won't listen until I press play on the mixtape. My apologies in advance if that one barista was full of shit or being ironic.  —Joe

"Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping" by Grouper

from Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill, 2008

This is a good song for a coffee shop on a day when you have to force yourself to get out of the house and see people. I recently ran into my high school biology teacher in a coffee shop in my neighborhood on a day like that, and she was so jazzed to see me. It totally turned around my day. I haven't seen her in maybe fifteen years, but we send each other cards around the holidays every year, so I knew her kids live close to me. She has my number now, so we can get coffee together next time she's in my neighborhood.   —Gloria

"Money Trees" by Kendrick Lamar ft. Jay Rock

from good kid, m.A.A.d city, 2012

Oh, and you need a song for closing too. To blast even louder as you're washing the dishes and mopping the floor. This is one of many possibilities, but it's a damn good one. The coffee from the morning has worn off, but this song gives you that extra jolt of energy you need to complete the endless amount of tasks that go along with closing a coffee shop. And then you're done, and you forget everything from the day, because even though the angry manager felt important at the time, it never really mattered.  —Zach

"Skin Is, My" by Andrew Bird

from Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs, 2005

Another barista on those reddit threads said that Andrew Bird is their go-to coffee shop artist, and that every time they play Bird, customers ask them "who is this?" I agree that that is actually a sincerely great barometer for how the common man thinks about artists you like. I also agree that Andrew Bird is the fucking man, and makes some excellent music. This album is really important to me, and is the rare sort of album I can look at the tracklist and hear each song playing in my head, which is helpful when you're trying to choose appropriate aesthetics for a hypothetical coffee shop. I didn't choose "Fake Palindromes," for instance, even though it's the best song on here and an important one to boot—when they pronounced us husband and wife, we walked back up the aisle to this song—because it's too up-tempo and celebratory. That's not coffee house shit, c'mon, I know that by now.  —Joe

"Life Is" by Jessica Pratt

from Here in the Pitch, 2024

It's 4 AM, and I can't sleep, so I'm working on this mixtape submission. And it's a night when I haven't fallen asleep yet, not a night that I woke up early. I got in bed about 1 AM, but I'm so bad at sleeping sometimes. And tomorrow I have so much to do, I'm scheduled from 10 AM until 10:30 PM. Then I'll take the train home, so there's no way I'll be back until after 11 PM. And some of its fun stuff, but still, it's a long time to be active, as it's very back-to-back. And that's adding to the pressure of falling asleep, so it's also making it harder to fall asleep. Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I look at the "World Clock" locations I have saved on my iPhone and wonder if I can call anyone. But I end up deciding against it almost every time. I used to go to a 24-hour Dunkin' Donuts when I couldn't sleep and get a small coffee and read, which may have been counterintuitive to sleeping well. Hindsight is 20/20. I'm just going to do Duolingo lessons until I tire out my brain and sleep, or until it's a reasonable time to start the day. Bonne nuit ou bonjour? शुभ रात्रि या सुप्रभात? ? לילה טוב או בוקר טוב  —Gloria

"Veinte años" by Buena Vista Social Club

from Buena Vista Social Club, 1997

I know a lot about Zach but only what he chooses to write about here. Which thankfully is still a lot. I know that he is quitting soon or has quit his coffee house job already, to move on to the next opportunity. Felt like a good time to do this MMM, in honor of his time spent in there, listening to whatever bullshit music the owners of the shop try to lure in your Quentin Tarantino types with. I appreciate how our lives can be chronicled in distinct eras, and how these eras are sometimes marked by job transitions. I have a feeling that Zach is the same way, and that he will remember, fondly or not, the "coffee shop era" of his life.

I also know a little bit about Zach from others. Only a little bit. But a little birdie whispered in my ear recently that there may or may not be a completed novel in draft form floating around out there in Zach's immediate orbit, and I'm counting the days till I get a chance to read it. I'm sure it will be more compelling than the blurbs I've written for this coffee house mixtape, in any case.  —Joe

"Cherry Wine" by Hozier

from Hozier, 2014

(only available as live version on Spotify)

This is my last week working at the cafe. It kind of makes me sad. Maybe I should stay? Now I have to confront what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. Or at least for now. Did I do enough this year? Did I accomplish enough, did I follow my dreams enough? I did a lot. I worked in the cafe, which was a goal. I wrote the draft of a novel. I did lots of hiking. I went to India and the U.S. I led a trip for adults on the spectrum. I started teaching Torah classes for a post-high school program And still I feel like I watched too much YouTube, didn't use my time wisely enough. I feel sad to be leaving the cafe, even though I know it's right, because working there just delays the inevitable. But I will definitely miss it. What's next? What will happen for the rest of my days? I can't just nap forever. I'm scared. Help. Push me to do things, the things I want to do. Don't let the anxiety take over. Please. Be happy. Be happy.  —Zach

"Rajamanta" by Café del Mar

from the Volume 9 compilation, 2002

Café del Mar is almost a cliché to include on this playlist, but I don't know, I already put Norah Jones on here, so maybe it's okay to lean into the clichés. Sometimes a cliché earns its place by doing a good job, and they genuinely do a great job in bringing that calming energy. We would be remiss not to include a song with their signature Balearic, chill-out vibe for a true coffee shop feel.  —Gloria

"Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" by Sufjan Stevens

from Illinois, 2005

I wasn't a great barista. I never really learned how to make a good cappuccino. I forget orders and I consistently ask people to repeat them. I'm not the fastest mover. Today I broke the glass cover to the cookie jar and we had to throw out all the cookies for fear of glass pieces being in them. My boss yells at me. I also didn't pick the right cafe to work at—I don't get to chat with customers as often as I might want to, because it's just too fast-paced and the managers put too much pressure on us. But I do like the other workers, for the most part, and it's fun to turn your mind off for a while and let your body do the talking. Another thing I learned: War makes people crazy for sugar, because when the bombs started falling, people started buying, big time. And now I can add "barista" to my list of life skills. In the end, I fulfilled a dream, and that's awesome.  —Zach

NEXT WEEK: "Vow of Silence" — Lyric-less songs (mumbles and screams are okay, I guess) (chosen by Sunny)