Without fail, every time I sit in search of gratitude, and every time I am looking to feel a little bit more aware of the wondrousness of the world, I turn my attention to music. Music is enormously important to me for many a reason.
Music elevates the mundane. Scrambling eggs, or walking to class, or folding pyjama shirts becomes thrilling with Taylor Swift in the background.
Music sets a mood. A wine painting night with John Mayer is just a completely different experience than a wine and painting night with Nicki Minaj. Enough said.
It makes me feel inspired to know that the songs that I love more than anything were simply created by humans. People with shiny ideas and stories to tell and notes they have strung together. Maybe the idea for your favourite song was thought of by the artist while lying awake in their childhood bedroom. Maybe they jotted it down on a park bench, or on an airplane seat, or in a Starbucks. Isn’t it exciting to know that it’s just a human behind it all? It makes me feel alive. It makes me feel excited.
There is nothing quite like making a new playlist. Cultivating a soundtrack for the most specific moments in your life. Maybe it’s for your first heartbreak, or the start of a new season, or for your next workout, or maybe it’s a collection of songs that leave you with a feeling you are quite certain you invented. I would argue that playlist-making is one of the most intimate tasks in the world. The songs are grouped together by you—and only you—because of the emotions they release, the memories they have in common, and the sentiment they are laced with. To somebody else, your playlist may seem random. It may feel chaotic or messy or reckless. But to you, it makes perfect sense. Because it’s the song that makes you think of the late-night drive home with your dad, paired with a song about the early fall, paired with a song that has always made you feel a little bit lost. And to you, that represents a feeling of cozy impermanence.
I feel that I should share with you the three songs that make me feel the very most alive in the entire world: “Hannah Hunt” by Vampire Weekend, “Long Live” by Taylor Swift, and “Size of the Moon” by Pinegrove.
Vampire weekend’s “Hannah Hunt” has remained my favourite song for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to question why I found the song so powerful. This breakup ballad uses poetic lyricism and an ever-changing musical character to tell a story that at its core, is simple: The story of a deteriorating relationship. We listen as two people road trip through America and share moments of beauty and pure heartbreak. This song mixes specificity and broadness so naturally, telling a story that captures human emotions that are genuine and accessible. The title is rather telling: the protagonist of this song, likely lead singer Ezra Koenig, is hunting for his lover Hannah. He is hunting for a moment of clarity and quite possibly hunting for a Hannah he didn’t know he lost. The song is special for many reasons, but the narrative element of the musical progression continues to stand out on every listen. The song moves in a way that tells so much: flowing in and out of emotion, displaying both raw sadness and passionate anger.
“Long Live” is the embodiment of nostalgia to me. Taylor sings about the sensation of feeling important when you are young, about finding your sense of purpose and trying to bask in it before it slips away, and about feeling like you are capable of something. She sings, “Cause for a moment a band of thieves in ripped-up jeans got to rule the world.” She perfectly captures the fleetingness of life. The hope that the people who flow in and out of your life will remember you and all you did together.
“Size of the Moon” is one of my favourite songs because of how conversational it is. It’s messy and raw. It’s filled with answerless questions and conflicting emotions. It’s specific and reflective and innocent. It has that kind of sweet sadness that makes you feel like you’re a kid again.
Everyone should be able to name a song that makes them feel alive, or just feel something. If you can’t… then get listening!