Lots of folks find it helpful to have some kind of ambient noise present when they’re attempting to fall asleep. Some employ a small fan to generate this noise, while others prefer the dulcet tones of karaokeing whales. I prefer to listen to music. Back in high school, before I had an iPod with external speakers or a computer in my room, I had to rely on CD’s and my trusty ol’ boom box if I wanted music playing as I fell asleep.
Instead of simply listening to one of the albums that I owned, I would usually make a playlist on iTunes and burn it to a CD. This imposed a time limit of 80 minutes onto each of my mixes, which led to some arduous “this or that” scenarios. The only other restriction was that I could only pick one song per musical artist. My selection method was mostly dictated by my mood and by which songs I happened to like best at the moment, but it was also affected in large part by the season; summer obviously calls for summery music, right? I could generally listen to the same CD for somewhere between a week and a month without getting terribly sick of it, depending on the awesomeness of the songs that I had selected. I played the CD’s on “shuffle” mode to impart a bit of variety. When I got tired of a CD, it got coastered or stuck in the back of my massive CD wallet, and I’d go and make a new one.
I kept the old playlists on my computer titled as whatever their date of creation was, enabling me to go back and monitor how my musical tastes slowly changed over time. Some songs/artists appeared fleetingly (a lot of these are at least mildly embarrassing), while others were repeated again and again (old favorites like Modest Mouse and R.E.M.). However, when I went off to college, my computer was always within three feet of my bed, so I no longer needed to make CD’s. My habit of making the aforementioned playlists also disappeared. In retrospect, I regret this cessation. Music is forceful, easily altering and heightening experiences and emotions. Having a recorded timeline to chronicle musical preference seems like such a good idea. Such a good idea! It’s like a journal, but using audible acoustic waves in the place of graphemes to record those important thoughts and feelings. Everyone should do this!
I will lead by example. Compiled below are 19 songs (1 hour, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds worth of music) that I really enjoy right now. They represent my current favorite songs by the artists that I’ve spent the most time listening to over the past few months.
| Song Name | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| Effigy | Andrew Bird | Noble Beast |
| Paint or Pollen | Blind Pilot | 3 Rounds and a Sound |
| Furr | Blitzen Trapper | Furr |
| Love Is All I Am | Dawes | North Hills |
| Diamond Rings 2007 | Deer Tick | War Elephant |
| Been A Drill | Heligoats | The End of All-Purpose |
| A Children’s Crusade on Acid | Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s | Animal! |
| Wet and Rusting | Menomena | Friend and Foe |
| Things Fall Apart | Mercir | Winchimes and Landmines |
| Waves (B-side) | Metric | Fantasies |
| Ghosting | Mother Mother | O My Heart |
| For Real | Okkervil River | Black Sheep Boy |
| Friend of Feeling Good | Olin and the Moon | The Secret EP |
| Suspended in Gaffa | Ra Ra Riot | The Rhumb Line |
| For The Widowers In Paradise… | Sufjan Stevens | Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State |
| Deer Crossing | The Picture | Bluebirds |
| About to Walk | Throw Me the Statue | Moonbeams |
| The Lime Tree | Trevor Hall | The Rascals Have Returned |
| Colorshow | The Avett Brothers | Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions |
There’s a good chance that a few of these songs will always remind me of this summer. Woo. Hopefully there’s at least one song on the above list that you like, too. This was fun. I’ll try and do it every few months or so to stay current. Good luck recording your own musical histories (assuming you want to be awesome like me).
See y’all soon.
