Berkeley, CA – Local Berkeley resident Graham Laroque reportedly has no idea what his Spotify Wrapped will look like this year, even though close sources claim that he falls asleep to the Skyrim soundtrack every single night.
“It’s really anyone’s guess,” said Laroque, who has spent over 75,000 minutes alone listening to “Skyrim Atmospheres” – just one of the songs from the larger album. “I’ve been getting into a bit of everything this year: Flume, Grouper, 100 Gecs, King Krule, SZA, just off the top of my head. It’s been a great year getting recommendations from friends and I’m excited to see what’s definitely going to be a very eclectic Spotify Wrapped.”
Laroque’s girlfriend, Meg Pollard, predicted that this will be the fourth year in a row that the critically acclaimed soundtrack will sweep the top spots of his most listened songs.
“Every year Graham gets his hopes up that he’s finally gonna have this curated playlist that shows off his varied music taste, and every year he’s shocked that the soundtrack he needs to listen to in order to fall asleep skews his listening data. He does actually listen to a lot of different artists and genres, but 7-8 hours of sleep every night for a year adds up. I’ve told him time and time again, ‘Babe, just because you’re asleep doesn’t mean Spotify stops tracking your songs,’ but he’s insistent that ‘it shouldn’t work like that.’ I don’t think object permanence is his strong suit but I still love him.”
Andrew Reynolds, a representative at Spotify, says that Laroque’s obliviousness isn’t uncommon.
“The classic sleep playlist surprise. We see it every year, especially with video game soundtracks. Skyrim is definitely up there for sure, along with other heavy hitters like Silent Hill 2, Minecraft, and Animal Crossing. According to our data, there’s also one guy who consistently falls asleep to the Doom (2016) soundtrack, so consider yourself warned if you’re in the market for a roommate.”
Even with Laroque’s Spotify Wrapped poised to reveal an ungodly amount of time spent listening to the Skyrim soundtrack, Pollard says she’s sure it’s a conservative estimate.
“That’s just the time that Graham’s spent listening on Spotify. When we’re working from home together in our living room, he always has a YouTube tab playing on his laptop – ‘Skyrim music and ambience – night [10 hours]’, ‘Autumn in Skyrim’, ‘Streets of Whiterun’, ‘Late Night in The Arcaneum Study Pomodoro Timer’. Honestly, I’m pretty confident that I could play ‘Secunda’ on the piano right now just based on how many times I’ve heard it at this point.
As of press time, a sharp, chill wind rattled against Laroque’s apartment window like the wintry call of a Siren, beckoning him to load a new Skyrim save file.
