I’ve recently been going back and listening to albums that I listened to years ago. Some are still fairly new, in the grand scheme of things, while others are a decade or more old (which hurts me). Songs and bands I was all about in college or high school or shortly after. Things I haven’t heard in years due to no longer getting radio play or just not popping up in the slurry of internet radio like Google Play or Spotify. It’s been a fun way of connecting with my past and generally succumbing to a wash of nostalgia.

I absolutely love music. That’s really the only take away here. This is just me gushing over music. I’ve probably made it painfully apparent in the past. Hell, my first real post on WordPress was about music bringing people together.

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For those too lazy to click that link, it comes complete with this gif:

^^^I will always love this gif^^^

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Music is the best, fam.

I love listening to it.

I love playing it.

I wish I did both of those things more.

It’s honestly hard for me to exist without music, so I don’t necessarily mean that I wish I had music playing in the background of my life more often. I do that already. I have music blaring at work whenever possible. I listen to music while I read. I listen to music in the car, working out, doing chores, as plenty of people do. What I mean is I wish I just sat and consumed music more often.

Our society is surrounded by music, which is great in many ways but also kind of detrimental in a way. We become kind of numb to it, accepting it as something that is just there to accompany other things. It isn’t visual like TV, it doesn’t demand any input from us, honestly, so we’ve turned music into a white noise that pads the silence of reading or the awkward grunting of being at the gym (if I can’t hear my pathetic noises, then surely the other people at the gym can’t either).

But how often do we make music the star? Sure, people go to concerts and musicals, but there’s a lot of spectacle involved and music is more a costar to the energy of the stage. People go to ballet for the dance. Plenty of people go see orchestral performances, but like….. not….. that many.

People used to just slap on some music and enjoy it. Music would be the main meal as it poured into the room and they hugged their Beatles album and dreamed about being that one person in the crowd invited on stage (looking at you, Mom). People would have talented pianists or quartets play in their parlor as they all just sat and enjoyed that shit. That or Jane Austen lied to me and I’m just not ready for that level of betrayal.

I mean, damn, dancing literally EXISTS because people would sit and enjoy music and one freakish ancient person enjoyed it so much he just starting twerking all over his peers.

Imagine that.

Some freaky neanderthal twerking in uncontrollable rapture.

As his neanderthal friends all wonder which dark spirits they angered that have now inhabited Ug-Tug’s ass in such a violent way.

Classic Ug-Tug.

I feel like these days, music is more a swirling miasma of noise. That’s not so much a comment on the quality of music being made [Dubstep: *exists*] but more how we engage with it. Car radios, Music in stores, apps and online services like Pandora and Spotify and Google Play and Amazon Music and….. Did Grooveshark die? It did, right? Ah well, that, too, if you’re somehow reading this from the past (Get your shit together, Barry Allen).

Sometimes is good to let music be the focus, just put something on and listen. Feel the beats and rhythms. Listen to the notes rise and fall like leaves in the wind. Let the harmonies come together around you like a friendly hug. Feel the shock of a dissonant chord. Feel the comfort of a resolve like a warm blanket.

FEEL music, not just listen. Let it bounce around inside you like you’re a cartoon-themed inflatable castle at Music’s fourth birthday party.

Metaphors are hard.

It’s a process of mutual consumption. You consume the music by letting it consume you, in a way. You feel the music in every inch of your body. Toes tap, hands twitch. Posture changes. Eyes close and open in time.

If there’s truly such a thing as nirvana, music is the key.

…

I mean, there’s also a band called Nirvana.

….You know what I meant.

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For giggles, here’s some albums that have stood out to me lately for various reasons:

[Artist – Album]

Aesop Rock – The Impossible Kid

Childish Gambino – Because the Internet

Sylvan Esso – What Now

Company of Thieves – Ordinary Riches

The Decmberists – Hazards of Love

Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory

Johnny Cash – America IV

He is Legend – I Am Hollywood

Janelle Monae – The Archandroid

Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party

Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue

I’m also back on my Vintage Bollywood soundtracks kick. “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” will always be a favorite, along with “Sar Jo Tera Chakraye” and “Khaike Paan Banaras Wala.”

I have no idea what they say, but I likes how they say it.

Enjoy!

~C