By Andrea Swangard, The 2A Team

Image by Rachel Adams

People talk about the importance of taking breaks, but don’t always ‘fess up to what that looks like in practice. At a creative agency, those moments matter because fresh perspective is the work. When you’re deep in a problem, it’s easy to get stuck circling the same ideas. Stepping away can be the quickest way to reset your thinking and see the work differently. So we asked the team a simple question: when you need to hit reset, what’s your go-to move? Here’s what a few 2Aers had to say.

How we pause (and come back better)

When I need a break from staring at my computer, I love to doodle with a pen and paper. The drawings are usually silly, but sometimes they turn into something cool. And my eyes and hands appreciate the time off from screens and a keyboard.
—Andrea Swangard

Over the past year, I’ve been learning French, and it’s become my favorite way to reset during a busy workday. When I need a break, I make myself a nice pour-over coffee and listen to a Coffee Break French lesson. It’s a small ritual that helps me mentally step away, transports me back to France for just a moment, and feels like a little win in the middle of a hectic day.
—Salena Hill

When I need a reset, I go for a walk. I get to exit the building, get my blood flowing, and be reminded that the world is bigger than what’s in my head. Bonus points if there’s some sun involved, but that’s not always a sure thing in Seattle.
—Abby Breckenridge

In sunny Arizona, the best way to clear my mind is to get outside. During the spring and summer, a midday walk is often too hot, so soaking my feet in the pool and listening to a couple of songs usually refreshes my mind and fills me up with vitamin D and energy.
—Tammy Monson

Now that I’m a full-fledged gardener (I own a Plant Mom hat), if I get the chance to throw on my garden shoes and get my hands dirty, I’m in. Digging holes, moving plants around, chucking soil all over the driveway pretending to know what I’m doing… judging my neighbor for planting yet another hydrangea (like, bro, the world of plants is vast, yo). Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would be the thing that brings me peace, and yet here I am, casually knowing how big a cubic yard of compost should be.
—Felip Ballesteros

I love playing with my Maltipoo pup Maggie as a quick break. Our favorite game is called “Find It.” I hide kibble in different spots around my apartment one at a time and let her sniff each one out.
—Nora Bright

Sometimes when I need a break, I like to phone a friend (or family member). Just a few minutes talking to someone on the phone gets my mind off work and helps me reset.
—Rachel Adams

It depends on what I’m taking a break from! It might be a quick dance party to shake the stress off, or a walk with the pups and a good album to keep me company. If I’m really looking for some Zen, I might head to my snake Nori’s bio-active terrarium to play around in the dirt and check out the roly-polies and springtails. If I need to laugh, I hop on my PC and play a few games with friends—usually Arc Raiders, because I live by the goop, die by the goop.
—Ashley JoEtta

I’m a big fan of a 5-minute hammock hang outdoors. Bonus points if one of my fur babies is up for a cuddle.
—Michelle Najarian

Walks with my dog Eli, shooting some hoops, or a few minutes of rolling some putts.
—Jeff Salvado

Sometimes I just want to check off an easier task, so I can go back to work feeling accomplished. That may mean wiping down a counter, picking up dog toys, knitting a new row, or reorganizing hundreds of books in order of genre and subgenre, broken down by rating system. You know, easy things.
—Carolyn Lange

I’m a big sports fan, so I enjoy checking out the latest news and rumors about my favorite teams and watching a highlight or two. It reminds me how glad I am not to have a job where everything I do is in front of an audience and committed to video forever.
—Kimberly Mass

A lot of times I need a break from work, but I also need the gears in my brain to keep turning. That’s when I jumpstart a little adrenaline into my system by taking a typing test. I like to think my elementary school digital tools teacher would be proud. (My favorite site to use is monkeytype.com!)
—Emily Zheng

If I want to step away from the desk for a break, I’m most likely taking the doggo, Mabel, for a quick walk in the Denver sunshine (sorry to sunshine brag, Seattleites). But if I need a break and am still glued to my screen, I love scouring Google Maps and other mapping sites for hikes, bike rides, rivers, and general outside places to explore.
—Mike Lahoda

By Andrea Swangard, Felip Ballesteros

Image by Emily Zheng

Creative projects rarely go off track because of execution alone. More often, the root cause is a lack of alignment at the start. The audience or message isn’t clearly defined, or success means different things to different stakeholders. That’s where a strong creative brief comes in: not as a formality, but as a way to get everyone on the same page before the work begins.

I sat down with 2A consultant Felip Ballesteros to unpack what actually makes a creative brief useful and how it changes the way teams work.

Q: Let’s start simple. What is a creative brief, really?

Felip: Most people think of a creative brief as a form or a process. That’s where things go wrong. A creative brief is a point of view. It’s your perspective on what you’re building, who it’s for, and why it matters. It pulls from the client’s goals, the team’s experience, and most importantly, the customer’s reality.

Q: Who should own the creative brief?

Felip: It’s a shared process, but it needs a clear owner.

On the client side, you want one stakeholder who’s accountable for aligning internal perspectives. That doesn’t mean they work alone—they should bring input from marketing, sales, and SMEs. But too many voices directly shaping the brief usually leads to something vague that tries to do too much.

On the agency side, we often end up driving the process. In many cases, the brief doesn’t exist when a project starts, so we build it based on the SOW, early conversations, and what we know.

Q: What makes a strong creative brief stand out?

Felip: Two important things! First, it defines how the asset should feel. Not in abstract terms, but in a way the team can actually interpret and execute. Second, it defines what not to do. A good brief narrows the path forward without having to list constraints. It gives direction. That’s what makes it powerful. It’s simple, but it drives decisions.

Q: What are the most important elements to include?

Felip: The specifics matter, but what matters more is how clearly you define them. A strong brief gets very precise about the audience and why they should care right now. Not just who they are, but what’s happening in their world that makes this asset relevant.

It also anchors the work in a real moment. For example, where does this animation show up? What’s happening right before someone sees this first call deck, and what do you want them to do next? If you can clearly connect the audience, the moment, and the outcome, the rest of the brief tends to fall into place.

Q: How does a strong brief impact the creative process?

Felip: It speeds everything up, because the brief forces early decisions. It clarifies the full story up front, not just the asset, but the transformation we’re trying to create. With that clarity, the team isn’t debating direction later. Feedback becomes sharper, revisions are faster, and you get to a solid first version sooner.

It prevents expensive mistakes, too. If you miss something early, you might be reworking design or animation later, and that’s where timelines and budgets start to slip.

Q: Do creative briefs need to be perfect before you start?

Felip: Not at all. A brief is inherently imperfect. Waiting until you have every detail figured out is one of the biggest reasons teams don’t create one. Even if it’s incomplete, it gives you direction. And even if it’s wrong, it’s something you can react to and refine. That’s much better than starting with nothing!

Q: Any advice for teams that struggle to make briefs feel useful or inspiring?

Felip: Focus on conviction, not creativity. A brief doesn’t need to sound bold or innovative, it just needs to make sense. When the brief has a strong, believable point of view, that’s what makes it useful. That’s what gives the creative team something to build on.

Q: Thanks for these insights, Felip! Any final guidance for teams building a creative brief?

Felip: If you’re not sure where to start, focus on asking the right questions to make sure the brief is doing its job:

• Who is this for, specifically?
• Why should they care right now?
• Where and how will this asset be used?
• What are the 2–3 key messages?
• What tone and energy should this have?
• What do we want the audience to do next?

If you can answer those questions clearly, you’re already ahead of most teams. And if you need some expert guidance, we’re here to help.

By Michelle Najarian, Andrea Swangard

Image by Nicole Todd

Recently, we worked with an enterprise data platform company navigating a major market shift. Like many tech organizations today, they were evolving their positioning for the AI era and trying to tell a bigger story about the role their technology plays in modern data infrastructure.

But the messaging kept expanding because the core framework wasn’t built around the audiences or their specific pain points. One asset tried to speak to executives, while another layered in technical details for architects and engineers. Sales teams wanted quick pitch materials, and content teams needed deeper educational assets. The story was trying to check too many boxes, and it wasn’t landing clearly with anyone.

In complex categories like cloud and AI, the technology is sophisticated and the audience is diverse, and it’s easy for messaging to stretch until it tries to satisfy everyone at once.

Start with the audience

To solve this, we stepped back and defined the core personas the company needed to reach, along with their priorities and motivations. Executives were focused on strategic outcomes like building an AI-ready data foundation and driving measurable business impact. Technical decision makers cared more about development efficiency and how new capabilities would integrate into their existing tech stack.

Once those differences were clear, the gaps in the narrative became obvious. The messaging assumed a level of technical understanding that some decision makers didn’t yet have. The story was starting too far downstream for part of the audience.

From there, we built a narrative framework the entire organization could use. It mapped the core story to each audience and clarified what mattered most to them, from strategic business outcomes to technical proof points. That framework gave teams a shared foundation for everything from executive messaging to developer content.

Clarity creates alignment

When the audience is clearly defined and the narrative framework is shared across teams, the story becomes much easier to scale across campaigns, assets, and channels.

Markets will keep evolving, especially as AI reshapes how companies think about their data strategies. The organizations that adapt most effectively aren’t constantly rewriting their story, they’re using frameworks built around the people they’re trying to reach. And when that foundation is in place, the rest of the messaging becomes much easier to build and evolve as the company and its solutions grow.

By Nora Bright, Andrea Swangard

Image by Nicole Todd

For many B2B tech organizations, building a partner program feels like a natural next step as they look to expand their go-to-market strategy. Partnerships, integrations, co-sell motions, and marketplace participation can extend your reach and unlock new revenue without requiring you to expand your core product. For many companies, this becomes a key part of their partner ecosystem strategy.

What’s less obvious at the outset is how quickly the team structure behind a partner program needs to evolve. Early on, partnerships are primarily about building relationships. As the ecosystem grows, the work becomes more operational and programmatic, and the partner program structure often needs to evolve with it.

Early stage: One person, many hats

At the beginning, partner programs are relationship-led. One person, sometimes a founder, builds alliances, negotiates integrations, supports sales conversations, and experiments with light co-marketing.

Processes are informal with loosely-defined incentives, and pipeline influence isn’t always tracked in a rigorous way.

Hiring focus: Hire for versatility and ownership. You need someone comfortable operating without a playbook, who can move between strategy and execution without friction. Over-specializing too early can slow momentum when scaling a partner program.

Growth stage: Complexity starts to surface

As your ecosystem grows to a meaningful portfolio of partners, team needs evolve. Sales wants clearer co-sell guidance and marketing sees repeatable campaign opportunities. Leadership asks for reporting and marketplace programs introduce new requirements.

This is often the point where organizations expect one person to manage relationships, marketing, enablement, and reporting simultaneously, and that structure rarely holds up as the program expands.

Hiring focus: Before adding headcount, define what’s actually breaking. Is it enablement? Campaign execution? Reporting? Hiring without clarifying ownership usually recreates the same bottleneck in a slightly different form as partner ecosystem management becomes more complex.

Mature stage: Partnerships become a growth channel

When partnerships begin influencing a material portion of pipeline, informality stops working. Revenue targets emerge, incentives formalize, and the work that once sat with a single generalist begins to separate into more defined functions:

• Strategic alliances (which partners to prioritize)
• Partner marketing (how to activate demand)
• Enablement (how sellers and partners execute)
• Operations (how performance is tracked and measured)

At this stage of partner program maturity, organizations typically move toward a more clearly defined partnership team structure.

Hiring focus: Define scope and revenue accountability clearly before hiring senior talent. Strong candidates will expect clarity around authority, KPIs, and decision rights before accepting the role, especially when revenue is involved.

Structure enables alignment and scale

As partner programs grow, structure is what allows teams to keep moving quickly instead of getting stuck in ambiguity. The organizations that get the most from their partner ecosystems are usually the ones that redefine roles just ahead of complexity, not in reaction to it. Taking the time to scope those roles clearly helps organizations make the right hires and ensures new team members are set up to succeed.

If you’re evaluating your next partner hire or thinking about how your ecosystem team should evolve, it can help to talk through the structure before opening a search. If you’d like an experienced perspective, reach out!

By Andrea Swangard

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

AI is everywhere in marketing right now. A common assumption is that designers using AI type a prompt, magic happens, and the creative work is done. Sounds easy! And risky. The reality is more nuanced, and far more interesting. To ground the conversation in real-world experience, I spoke with 2A designers Aaron Wendel, Evan Aeschlimann, and Guangyi Li about how AI fits into their creative process.

Getting to a first draft faster

Inside 2A, AI isn’t replacing designers, but it’s becoming a fast, surprisingly capable assistant. The design team uses it most heavily in early concepting for things like generating layout variations, exploring infographic structures, experimenting with illustration styles, and prototyping interactive experiences. Tools like Figma Make, Gemini, and Adobe Firefly help accelerate the “blank page” phase and bring ideas to life faster.

Where AI really shines is efficiency. Background removal that once took 20 minutes now takes 30 seconds. With a quick prompt, AI can help turn a static image into a video and rearrange a rough wireframe into a more logical flow. Designers can test alternate angles, lighting, and visual treatments, all before committing hours of production time.

The difference between fast and finished

Here’s the critical distinction with AI: it can get you to early concepts quickly. But it doesn’t reliably maintain brand consistency and it struggles with typography and detailed layout logic. The more complex the brand system, the more human oversight is required. In experiments with training custom agents to generate fully on-brand visuals, the results were either generic or oddly off-base. Sometimes the output was decent, but rarely client-ready.

That’s where expertise matters. The designer’s role isn’t shrinking; it’s evolving. AI enables faster experimentation and cross-disciplinary thinking—designers can prototype motion, imagine interactivity, or explore UI behaviors without writing code. However, judgment and brand integrity still require a trained eye.

At 2A, AI accelerates the process, and our designers define the outcome. AI tools can generate options, but only experts can turn those options into assets that are on-brand, intentional, and built to drive results.

By Andrea Swangard

Image by Rachel Adams

The Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals Report is packed with essential data on how AI is transforming professional services, with a particular focus on the legal industry. But as with many in-depth reports, its richness and detail can be a double-edged sword: great for insight, but harder for time-strapped readers to absorb and act on quickly. 

Thomson Reuters partnered with us to create two new content pieces that made key findings from the report easier to engage with and more directly useful for their legal audience. By distilling complex research into a targeted infographic and a focused whitepaper, we helped bring clarity to professionals at different stages of their AI journey. 

Getting started: The infographic for AI readiness 

For professionals still shaping their AI strategy, we built an infographic that functions as a readiness checklist. It walks readers through the foundational steps needed to prepare for agentic AI, from building strategy to empowering individuals, with practical prompts and data points drawn from the report. 

The visual format makes the information easier to scan and share, while still grounding every recommendation in the original research. 

Going deeper: The whitepaper on maximizing AI value 

For legal leaders further along in their AI adoption, we developed a six-page whitepaper that offers concrete strategies to turn AI investments into measurable results. Drawing from the report’s legal-specific insights, the guide covers four key focus areas: strategy and leadership, trust, enablement, and measurement. 

Rather than reiterating technical features, the whitepaper keeps the focus on real-world applications, like how to embed AI in workflows your team already uses and track outcomes that align with your business priorities. It positions Thomson Reuters as both a thought leader and a trusted advisor for legal professionals navigating AI transformation. 

One report, two assets, many outcomes 

These assets demonstrate the power of repackaging research to meet audiences where they are. By creating content that’s aligned to different levels of AI maturity, we helped Thomson Reuters extend the reach of their research and support their customers in taking the next right step. 

Looking to turn your insights into action? Let’s talk. 

By Guy Schoonmaker, Andrea Swangard

Image by Emily Zheng

A client recently came to us with a familiar request: they wanted a sizzle video to improve the effectiveness of a product landing page. After adding one of our sizzle videos, they noticed a lift in performance and wanted to repeat the approach.

They’re not alone in turning to video to boost engagement. Including video on a landing page can increase conversion by as much as 80%. Sites with video also tend to convert at higher rates overall, with one benchmark showing a 4.8% average conversion rate for sites using video, compared to 2.9% for those without.

So, what type of video should you use—and when? Here are three formats we recommend, each suited for different goals and stages of the buyer journey.

Sizzle videos: Build excitement and boost engagement

Sizzle videos are short, energetic, and designed to get attention. They’re great for product pages, campaign rollouts, or events where you want to create momentum and drive action. These videos usually combine animation, sound design, and fast pacing to create an emotional connection quickly.

That’s what our client experienced: after adding a sizzle video to their product page and seeing a clear lift, they came back to request more. It’s no surprise—when visitors stay longer and feel more emotionally invested, they’re more likely to take the next step.

Explainer videos: Clarify and convert

Explainers go deeper and often include common customer pain points, topline product benefits or features, and UI snapshots. They’re especially effective when addressing a known challenge or objection, like demonstrating cost-saving features or what’s changed in an update.

We’ve partnered with enterprise teams to create explainer videos that highlight key functionality and reduce friction during the decision-making process. These videos are a great fit for users further down the funnel who need reassurance before they commit.

Testimonial videos: Build trust with firsthand perspective

For buyers evaluating complex solutions, credibility is key. Testimonial videos let viewers hear directly from the source about the impact your solution had. They’re especially effective when paired with written case studies, giving added dimension to performance metrics and making success stories more relatable.

These videos work well on product pages and in sales enablement content, where they help build trust and spark engagement. Like this one, where the team at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, shows how a partnership with Amazon took the fan experience to the next level.

Video works because people remember it

Studies show that viewers retain about 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% when reading text. Pages with video also hold attention longer, which correlates strongly with higher engagement and conversion rates.

If you’re considering ways to drive conversion with your audience, we’re well-versed in video and would love to show you what’s possible.

By Nora Bright, Andrea Swangard

Image by Nicole Todd

Contract roles are foundational to how large tech companies operate: entire teams and initiatives depend on contractors doing high-impact work. Yet despite how mission critical these roles are, many companies rely on vendor management systems (VMS) to find talent, often with subpar outcomes.

On the surface, these contractor hiring portals promise scale and speed. But in practice, they often strip away the context and care that good recruiting depends on. What you get is a system optimized for volume, not for finding the right person for the work.

Where VMS-driven hiring starts to break down

When roles are posted in a portal, staffing firms are competing against dozens, sometimes hundreds, of other agencies. With such low odds of placement, recruiters are naturally incentivized to move fast and submit often. Spending extra time deeply vetting candidates or digging into the nuances of a role rarely pays off.

To make matters harder, recruiters usually have little to no direct access to the hiring team. Without meaningful context about the role or team, even strong recruiters are left guessing. Volume becomes the safest bet, while candidate fit becomes secondary.

Scale over relationships erodes the experience

VMS portals tend to favor the largest staffing firms. Enterprises can’t realistically onboard every specialized agency, so size becomes the deciding factor. Many agencies that appear boutique in a portal are actually owned by large conglomerates and operate like one.

From the client side, agencies become interchangeable. That makes it difficult to understand how one firm might support the hiring manager during the engagement, or how contractors are treated once they’re on the job. Over time, this lack of differentiation removes the incentive to invest in better experiences.

Contractors feel this quickly. Large agencies often offer the bare minimum in benefits and route support through impersonal service desks with slow response times. Talented, experienced contractors notice and choose to work elsewhere. Poor support leads to higher churn, disengaged talent, and teams that are constantly backfilling instead of moving forward.

A more thoughtful way to hire contractors

Boutique agencies, like 2A Recruiting and Staffing, take a different approach. We build long-term partnerships with our clients and our contractors because thoughtful recruiting leads to better results. That starts with strong benefits, like our fully covered health, dental, and vision insurance, 4 weeks+ of PTO annually, and 401(k) with employer match. It also means regular check-ins, personal, responsive support, and staying engaged throughout the entire contract. Because of benefits like these, in 2025 more than 85% of our contractors completed or extended their engagements.

When contract roles are truly mission critical, they deserve more than portal submissions. If you’re ready to go beyond the portal and work with a firm that treats contractor hiring like the strategic function it is, we’d love to talk.

By Nora Bright, Andrea Swangard

Image by Nicole Todd

After years of recruiting for large, matrixed organizations where employees collaborate across functions and regions, we’ve noticed a consistent pattern. While technical skills might land someone the job, they rarely determine whether that person thrives long-term. What truly sets candidates apart is how they operate in complex, fast-changing environments.

That’s why our interview process focuses on core behavioral traits we’ve found to be strong predictors of success. Here’s what we look for, and why it matters.

1. Driving self-directed execution

In complex roles, candidates need the ability to take initiative and keep things moving. We look for people who can work through ambiguity without getting stuck. They’re comfortable getting started even when the details are incomplete, and they know how to break down fuzzy goals into clear, actionable steps.

They also keep stakeholders informed without needing close oversight. And when something stalls, they don’t wait; they know when to keep going and when to raise a flag. This combination of independence and judgment keeps work momentum going, even when guidance is limited.

2. Taking proactive ownership

In fast-moving environments with shifting priorities, success often comes down to mindset. The people who thrive are those who treat problems as theirs to solve, even if they fall outside their job description. Rather than waiting to be asked, they build cross-functional relationships, seek out context, and stay curious. When something needs doing, they step in because they see the broader value in helping the team move forward.

3. Communicating with clarity and context

In cross-functional, global teams, misalignment can create major downstream issues. That’s why clear, contextual communication is essential. We look for people who tailor their communication style based on who they’re talking to and what the situation calls for, whether it’s explaining a project to a non-technical stakeholder or looping in a team across time zones.

They make sure their work connects to broader goals and that they identify conflicting priorities early, which helps prevent misalignment that can slow things down later.

4. Staying adaptable and resilient

Change is a constant in complex organizations, and success depends on being able to roll with it. We look for people who maintain focus and productivity even when priorities shift, plans change, or teams restructure.

Resilient candidates recover quickly from setbacks and keep a constructive mindset under pressure. They don’t rely on certainty and know how to move forward without it.

Looking for candidates with these traits?

We’ve spent over a decade helping enterprise teams hire professionals who have the right skills and the behaviors that lead to long-term success. Our screening process is designed to surface these traits early, so you meet candidates who are ready to thrive in real-world complexity.

Want to see what that looks like? Explore our recruiting and staffing services, or reach out to us. We’d love to help!

By Andrea Swangard, The 2A Team

Image by Jenni Lydell

It’s time to talk about our favorite albums of the year! Historically, we’d assemble a list of top picks that recently dropped, but 2025 was a little different. Some of us weren’t into the new stuff and instead reached for music that felt familiar and grounding. So our 2025 list includes both new music we discovered and not-so-new tunes we love.

The right song can work wonders: it can inspire when you’re stuck in a creative rut, calm you when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or motivate when prepping for something big (Dwight Schrute + Kickstart My Heart, am I right?!). However you’re feeling at the moment, we hope you’ll enjoy our roundup of what we had on repeat—maybe it’ll inspire some good vibes for the year ahead.

Vie—Doja Cat  
Doja Cat does it again! At first I was thrown by the 80s beats (and background sax?!) in many of the tracks. But on a second listen of the full album, the lyrical magic and sound that Doja is known for shines through. She’s got me embracing the 80s vibes and considering shoulder pads :-). 
—Katy Nally 

The Art of Loving—Olivia Dean  
This year, one of my goals was to find a signature scent. I spent hours misting tiny paper tabs in front of perfume walls. Eventually, I landed on Etat Libre d’Orange’s I Am Trash, which a salesperson described to me as “what a trash can smells like after a wedding: wilted flowers, leftover fruit, cake, and champagne”—a hauntingly beautiful description for a very unfortunately named perfume. But I loved it. Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving captures the same bittersweet magic that made me fall in love with I Am Trash: It’s nostalgic, elegant, sweet, and somehow, still fresh. Listening to it feels like standing alone in a ballroom at the end of a wedding. Thankfully, the album has a much prettier name than my new perfume. 
—Emily Zheng 

Dance Called Memory—Nation of Language  
I write for long stretches of time, go for drives in the Washington wilderness, and paint abstract landscapes while the rain pours outside. Nation of Language’s Dance Called Memory is the perfect pairing for all of these activities. Their melancholy synthpop makes me feel wistful, nostalgic, dreamy, and inspired in just the right way. 
—Andrea Swangard  

From a Room—Chris Stapleton  
It’s been a year of highs and lows. Chris Stapleton’s music has always been a place of peace for me. 
—Tammy Monson 

The Life You Save—Flock of Dimes  
Flock of Dimes has been one of my favorite projects over the years, a solo endeavor by Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak and Bon Iver. She is one of my favorite vocalists in indie music and I think The Life You Save is a very beautiful, chill, and personal album that’s among her best work. I’ve had it on repeat since it came out. 
—Wil Morrill 

Suzanne—Mark Ronson and RAYE  
While Mark Ronson is a talented producer, the real star in this song is our girl RAYE. This song came up in my To Listen playlist this summer and has been on repeat ever since. There’s something about the jazzy vibes that I can’t seem to get enough of! And if you like this song, definitely check out more RAYE—she is amazing! 
—Olivia Fiero 

We Go Again—Enny  
We love a hip hop, R&B girlie, and Enny delivers. Her 2023 release We Go Again brings an existential, soulful edge to her sound, balancing introspection with sharp, confident storytelling. “Charge It” has been on repeat since its release, setting the tone for an album that feels both grounded and expansive. Enny is real and raw in how she reflects on her experience as a Black woman, her Nigerian heritage, and her come-up through trial and tribulation. It’s an album that works at any time of day, equally fitting for slow mornings, getting ready to go out, or winding down. 
—Salena Hill 

Hickey—Royel Otis  
If you’re like me, you got hit over the head with that Linger SiriusXM Session at some point last year. Thus began my love affair for this lil’ band that sits somewhere between slacker indie and romantic nostalgia. It makes me want to sip a Slurpee, windows down, sun low, cruising the Santa Monica Pier with my friends… you know, for old times’ sake. Honorable mention to their 2023 album Sofa Kings. 
—Michelle Najarian 

Live From 33 West—Charles Yang 
Splitting my time between all the different forms of content available means I don’t usually have the patience to listen to a whole album for the two bangers in an hour of forgettable tracks. I’m just looking for that quick, invigorating musical fix. Instead of scrolling through music venue calendars to find new music, now I’m mostly finding those musical fixes through social media. So, when a clip of Charles Yang popped up, I was like “OH SCHNAP! This guy got pipes!… Link to the full track in the comments?… Yes, please!” Skip to that three-minute mark and enjoy. 
—Evan Aeschlimann 

Headlights—Alex G 
I listened to this album for the equivalent of four business days in 2025. Headlights is full of somber, retro songs about being a dad that, for some reason, 20-year-olds like to mosh to (a real thing I witnessed). 
—Jack Foraker 

This Better Be Something Great—Westside Cowboy 
The debut EP from Westside Cowboy is what I wish my band in high school had sounded like if we’d had more talent (no offense Dave, but this drummer is incredible). It’s only five songs, and each has a distinct, dynamic sound—from group vocal anthems to lo-fi acoustic tracks. A blend of 90s/2000s rock, punk, and (strangely) some alt-country that stands out in a crowded genre, this has me looking forward to their next EP coming in January. 
—Mike Lahoda 

Make The Road By Walking—Menahan Street Band 
Listen to this album for the ultimate getting-stuff-done music. Warm horns, steady grooves, zero lyrics so your brain stays on task and your vibe stays groovy. It energizes without interrupting, motivates without shouting, and never asks for attention. Make the Road By Walking is your busy day bestie: cool, consistent, and calmly crushing it. 
—Jenni Lydell