Music to my ears
but confusing for my other senses
Happy Monday, mixers!
(Editor’s note: this originally said Happy Friday, because I fully intended to post this on Friday.)
As we all know, it is December. I (and maybe some of you already) also know that I didn’t send out a post in November. Whoops! Sorry! That means I will aim (once again) to send out two posts this month. If any potential future editor is reading this, I am much better with set deadlines, I promise! It’s my own arbitrary deadlines that I don’t do well with.
Due to weird timing, there’s also a backlog of my Forbes Health articles to share. Please enjoy:
Now, on to the main course.
Do you ever hear a song, and it transports you to a specific time or memory? A smell? A feeling? I don’t mean when a song reminds you of something; I mean the song comes on and you immediately see in your mind’s eye a different scene from where you physically are. You know exactly what was around you when that song played, how you were feeling, the temperature of that day.
I have a few of those. If you do too, share them in the comments at the bottom of this post!
ANTI (Deluxe), Rihanna (2016): This is not one song, but rather a few songs in the album that transport me.
It starts with the first song on the album, “Consideration,” when that first bass beat hits (especially when it hits through some headphones). I’m on the C train in Brooklyn, wearing the same Bose headphones I have on right now. I’m wrapped in a coat, a scarf, and probably a beanie. I’m getting off at Franklin Ave., and it’s always frigid down here. I shuffle down the platform, an anonymous commuter in a throng of anonymous commuters. The almost lethargic “Consideration” beat matches my mood. I’m depressed af, not yet on meds again, it’s dark outside already and I’m not even close to being home. I’m on my way to a tutoring side gig I have to make extra money. We transition into “James Joint” and then “Kiss It Better” as I trudge up the stairs to street level and push through the turnstile.
Listening to “Kiss It Better” now in 2023, I’m realizing how slow it is too, which doesn’t help with the aforementioned existing depression and lethargy. Maybe that’s also why “Desperado,” “Needed Me,” and “Yeah, I Said It,” also bring me back to the Franklin Ave. C stop more than the other tracks on the album do.
Even though I love ANTI, even though I know what song will come up next once one finishes, it’s not an album I can just throw on. I avoid it when I’m looking for something upbeat, and I rarely listen to it in the summer. It just so strongly evokes such a specific scene, that I have to be in the mood for, or at least ready to take on, said scene.
“Kids,” MGMT (2007): Far from ANTI in both vibes and location, “Kids” rockets me to a spot poolside under the SoCal sun. Sounds cool, right? MAYBE. The pool is a 25-meter long rectangle. The water is split into lanes by plastic buoy strands. Above the water are two taut strings of blue and red triangular flags, each one placed 5 meters from either end. We are at a high school Saturday swim meet.
I am sitting on the concrete with my teammates. We are also a mass of blue and red, our school colors. Some of us are already in our swimsuits, while others still sport their parkas. We’re surrounded by our backpacks and bags of gear; most of us have matching La Salle-branded duffle bags, but sprinkled in here and there are differently colored, more legit-looking swim bags. These belong to the kids who swim club. They are on the school’s swim team either because they legitimately love to swim or so they can stay in shape for their club teams. I am on the school’s swim team because my dad said he’d buy me my own laptop (a mini beige HP laptop which barely outlasted my swim career) if I tried out.
Who knew I’d be here two years later, still on the JV team, but with Most Improved and Most Inspirational awards under my cap and among people who have become my friends. Someone is blasting “Kids” on their iPod Touch. We sing along and discuss which events and heats we’ve all been placed in. (My signature event, for those wondering, was the 50-yard freestyle, the shortest and easiest possible event in swim.) We help each other snap our swim caps on when it’s time to race.
“Catch Me In The Air,” Rina Sawayama (2022): I’m with my friend Alana at Brooklyn Steel. We are sweaty, but feeling absolutely electric because Rina Sawayama is tearing up the stage. She’s on The Dynasty Tour promoting her album Sawayama, but she shares with us fans, as a treat, that her second album will be coming out later that year. The crowd SCREAMS with the excitement that can only be found when a cherished artist announces something like this.
Rina says she’d like to play us a new song she wrote as well, and none of us can believe our luck. She explains that this song was inspired by her mother who raised her as a single mom in England, far away from their birth country of Japan. They went through plenty of rough spots, Rina says, especially as Rina was trying to find herself as a teen, and she felt that they were constantly catching each other from falling.
As she starts the song and the notes get higher and higher, I can’t help grinning. Most of us (I assume) are hearing this song for the first time and from my raised perch towards the back of the venue, I can see we’re all in the same state of awe and reverence.
Now, whenever I hear “Catch Me In The Air” play, I can only hear her live vocals in my head. I can see her spotlit on the stage, her long nails and long high ponytail catching the light.
I’ve got music that evokes memories but am not as eloquent and descriptive as you. My Confession, Josh Groban , in the car , on my commute home, it’s usually dark and I can turn up the volume . September EW and Fire, college era, dance parties just to relieve stress and hang out , usually with my PT mates.