music... again [sep 05 2007, 23:14]
it's amazing what music can do to you. ah, well, to me anyway.
there are a couple of albums which... well, if you look at them in a rather objective sort of way, you won't think they are that special. nice albums, maybe, but nothing extraordinarily beautiful, moving or inspirational.
but quite often, it's not about the music, at least not exclusively. it's about the emotion that music provokes in you, the memories you connect with a song or a line in the lyrics.
there are only very few albums that actually are able to do that with me, push me somewhere, get me into a specific mood, back to a specific time. one is clarity by jimmy eat world. whenever i listen to this record, i'm back at the beach in france, at night, all by myself with the sun slowly setting and the moon slowly rising and the realization, for the first time, that this universe is so immensely huge, that there is such an uncanny number of things (and people) in there that there's bound to be something good.
as i said, there are only a few albums, but this year, exactly one got added to the mix: illinois(e) by sufjan stevens. it's a brilliant album, of course, but now whenever i listen to it i'm back in march or april with spring slowly turning into summer, nature awakening and myself wondering and pondering, walking, nay, gliding through the world on tracks, unable to influence my train of thought or physical direction. pain beyond relief and relief beyond anything. mixtures. ups and downs. ins and outs. so many feelings, so many memories.
it's rare, that is. but it's great, unbelievably great, being able to pick a piece of music and have it take you back somewhere, the entire you is reset to that time with all your emotions and memories and doubts and beliefs – and you can live through all this again, see it all whirl past in a flash of fast-forwarding history and then, ultimately, see that it was fucking well worth it. worth everything.
thanks, sufjan.
charon
there are a couple of albums which... well, if you look at them in a rather objective sort of way, you won't think they are that special. nice albums, maybe, but nothing extraordinarily beautiful, moving or inspirational.
but quite often, it's not about the music, at least not exclusively. it's about the emotion that music provokes in you, the memories you connect with a song or a line in the lyrics.
there are only very few albums that actually are able to do that with me, push me somewhere, get me into a specific mood, back to a specific time. one is clarity by jimmy eat world. whenever i listen to this record, i'm back at the beach in france, at night, all by myself with the sun slowly setting and the moon slowly rising and the realization, for the first time, that this universe is so immensely huge, that there is such an uncanny number of things (and people) in there that there's bound to be something good.
as i said, there are only a few albums, but this year, exactly one got added to the mix: illinois(e) by sufjan stevens. it's a brilliant album, of course, but now whenever i listen to it i'm back in march or april with spring slowly turning into summer, nature awakening and myself wondering and pondering, walking, nay, gliding through the world on tracks, unable to influence my train of thought or physical direction. pain beyond relief and relief beyond anything. mixtures. ups and downs. ins and outs. so many feelings, so many memories.
it's rare, that is. but it's great, unbelievably great, being able to pick a piece of music and have it take you back somewhere, the entire you is reset to that time with all your emotions and memories and doubts and beliefs – and you can live through all this again, see it all whirl past in a flash of fast-forwarding history and then, ultimately, see that it was fucking well worth it. worth everything.
thanks, sufjan.
charon