Opinion: We thought Barack Obama was cool, but then he dropped his playlist

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With a new playlist, Barack Obama does some self-inflicted damage on his reputation as the coolest U.S. president. The set of 20 songs released to accompany his new memoir, A Promised Land, is divided between overfamiliar do-gooder inspirational pop rock anthems and turgidly sentimental strum-along ballads.

It has been described by Obama as “memorable songs for my administration,” yet somehow makes the historic rule of America’s first black president sound about as interesting as a big family wedding disco. Perhaps that is not so far from the truth, albeit scaled up from a marquee in the garden to an entire nation.

With Obama at the decks, this is the kind of thing you might expect from a DJ tasked with keeping everyone from hip-hop kids to jazzy grandmas in a mood of agreeable torpor, and avoid fights breaking out on the dance floor.

It is packed with big names delivering some of their least interesting songs. Beyonce is featured twice, with by-the-numbers inspirational power ballad Halo and an easy-on-the-soul version of Etta James’s classic At Last, rather than the fierce political groove of Formation or dance floor feminism of Run the World (Girls). Bruce Springsteen is heard in post 9-11 gospel healing mode on The Rising, which is, honestly, nobody’s favourite Springsteen anthem, with none of the tense patriotism that burns through Born in the USA.

Aretha Franklin opens proceedings with her interpretation of The Band’s country soul classic The Weight, rather than the more joyously urgent RESPECT. Stevie Wonder is likewise celebrated with cheerily familiar hits and not the righteous anger of Living in the City or You Haven’t Done Nothin’.

This is a spin-doctored playlist of nudge politics, filled with vaguely aspirational values and nothing that might be used against its compiler in a debate. Even the implicitly threatening message of Bob Dylan’s 1964 polemic The Times They Are a-Changin’ has been blurred by the passage of so much time, during which things didn’t really change all that much.

Nevertheless, Dylan’s stark acoustic delivery represents an awkward musical mood shift, as if DJ Obama is clearing the floor for the father of the bride’s speech. Unfortunately, what follows is an atrocious misstep that suggests Obama has been paying too much attention to inclusivity focus groups.

Nashville duo Brooks & Dunn’s Only in America is a corny, country rocking anthem of American exceptionalism, wrapped in banal “red, white and blue” cliches. I honestly can’t imagine the Obama household ever sticking this tripe on the stereo. Perhaps his focus group were afraid James Brown’s Living in America would scare the neighbours. Like all political playlists, Obama has thought a bit too much about what songs represent and given us too little of what actually moves him. We know from his regular end-of-year playlists that Obama listens to a lot of hip hop, but his two rap choices from Eminem and Jay Z are just the kind of adrenalin pumping, fists-aloft workouts you regularly hear soundtracking TV sport highlights.

Divided 50/50 between black and white artists, this playlist is strenuously inclusive. But you have to wonder if Gloria Estafan’s dreary ballad Always Tomorrow was really the best Obama could up with to shore up the Latin demographic. There is not a lot of guitar rock, to be fair, but he rounds things off with the sky-high optimism of U2’s Beautiful Day, which should keep Bono happy the next time he pops round to the Obamas for dinner.

Political leaders often struggle to find a meaningful role after their years in high office. With his bland, middle-of-the-road, people-pleasing playlist, at least Obama could probably get himself a gig as a daytime jock on Heart Radio. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs, at reasonable rates.

Presidential top 20

Aretha Franklin: The Weight

BB King: The Thrill Is Gone

Beyonce: Halo

Beyonce: At Last

Bob Dylan: The Times They Are a Changin’

Brooks and Dunn: Only in America

Bruce Springsteen: The Rising

Eminem: Lose Yourself

Frank Sinatra: Luck Be a Lady

Gloria Estefan: Always Tomorrow

Fleetwood Mac: Rhiannon

Jay Z: My First Song

John Coltrane: Favourite Things

Miles Davis: Freddie Freeloader

Phillip Phillips: Home

The Beatles: Michelle

Sade: Cherish the Day

Stevie Wonder: Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours

Stevie Wonder: Sir Duke

U2: Beautiful Day