MUSIC MEME: Seasons
May. 15th, 2017 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesse_dylanName an album or two that remind you of particular seasons and say why. If you're not an old person and therefore listen to "songs" more so than albums, you can use songs instead.
Summer
Self-titled (I called it Avocado), Pearl Jam
This is my favorite album of all time. It is a spiritual experience for me (I was so disappointed when I found out "Severed Hand" was about drugs--I thought it was about mysticism!). I played it all through August 2006 while I was learning to read tarot, reading about the occult, and trying to cast spells. More than anything, it reminds me of temps in the 90s, big green trees with leaves that sound so nice in the wind, and having the idle time to explore things I care about, that quiet moment when you are alone in nature, with the wind and the trees, and not only do you feel at peace and connected, but you feel something more, as if God opened her mouth and whispered into your ear alone. The air somehow gets thick as dirt, and you feel like if you just turned your head at the right time, you'd see something, maybe a fairy or a spirit or a god.
It is Pearl Jam's best album, and I wish they'd have released a 10-year anniversary edition. There is a reason they self-titled this album. They believed it was their masterpiece, and I think decades from now, history will agree with me and with them.
I have a hard time listening to it now because Mary and I listened to it so many times. Maybe by August, I'll be okay.
I used to force myself to not listen to this album all year and save it for August and sequester it to that month.
A Boy Named Goo, The Goo Goo Dolls
Embarrassingly, here are the Goos again. I found this album for $3 used, and I played it all summer... and most summers... It's one of the best modern rock albums of all time, punk-infused, and not very grungy or "emo", so it kind of broke with the flavor of the day (nevermind I didn't discover it until "the day" had long passed--that's kind of how I roll).
Autumn
Trouble in Shangri-La, Stevie Nicks
No Goo Goo Dolls?? Likewise, this is Stevie Nicks' masterpiece, by her own admission and my assertion. Planets of the Universe is one of the best songs ever written. For whatever reason, the fall that I first met Mary in person, I listened to this album repeatedly. That fall seemed to stretch into eternity. It's hard not to think of that time. Even then, I felt sort of melancholy, as if I knew it just wasn't going to work out, nearly 6 years ago. The album itself is full of songs about recovering from the sorrow and grief of losing your soul partner.
Planets of the Universe is one of the best songs of heartache and loss ever written. If she has one song that is her masterpiece, it's probably this one. If I had a band, I'd cover it and blow it out.
Winter
Ys Symphony '95, Falcom
When I was a teenager one winter, we had a huge blizzard. There wasn't much school going on, and I had the freedom, again, the idle time, to explore what really mattered to me. I read book after book after book on Christianity, theology, philosophy, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen, Daoism... While I was doing so, I just kept playing this album over and over. I dislike winter, because I want to be outside, but there is also something special about "hibernating," being inside and having the space to think and contemplate, to look out your window at the steel-grey sky and bleach-white snowbanks, snowsnakes swirling and hissing to you that you will be reborn if you just eat the fruit from the tree. I ate it.
Dizzy Up the Girl, The Goo Goo Dolls
I never actually wanted to like the Goo Goo Dolls. I kept hearing them on the radio (this was back when the radio was on everywhere, from my parents' vehicles to Wal-mart). I'd hear their singles, like Iris and Black Balloon, and I absolutely loved it, then was annoyed at myself for loving "pop". I finally broke down, bought this album, listened to it over and over that winter. I didn't actually figure out they had other albums until I bought A Boy Named Goo used, and then I found Superstar Carwash, the rest of their back catalog, and Gutterflower came out, and... That was it. I still don't think there's anything better than this album, not much anyway. It's not actually pop, but it if is, it deserves to be up there with Michael Jackson's Thriller album. They don't play good music on the radio anymore, but sometimes they used to.
Spring
Gutterflower, The Goo Goo Dolls
This is, arguably, the Goo Goo Dolls last really fantastic album (although the next one really had its moments). I listened to this album on repeat so many times the spring it came out that I always expect Big Machine (the first track) to follow the last track (Truth is a Whisper). At one point, I could play and sing every song on it.
Into the Wild, Eddie Vedder
Winter is over, and it's time to venture outside! This is nature music, and I'm always so freaking excited for it to be spring. It seems like the albums I like best seasonally are spiritual experiences for me.
Summer
Self-titled (I called it Avocado), Pearl Jam
This is my favorite album of all time. It is a spiritual experience for me (I was so disappointed when I found out "Severed Hand" was about drugs--I thought it was about mysticism!). I played it all through August 2006 while I was learning to read tarot, reading about the occult, and trying to cast spells. More than anything, it reminds me of temps in the 90s, big green trees with leaves that sound so nice in the wind, and having the idle time to explore things I care about, that quiet moment when you are alone in nature, with the wind and the trees, and not only do you feel at peace and connected, but you feel something more, as if God opened her mouth and whispered into your ear alone. The air somehow gets thick as dirt, and you feel like if you just turned your head at the right time, you'd see something, maybe a fairy or a spirit or a god.
It is Pearl Jam's best album, and I wish they'd have released a 10-year anniversary edition. There is a reason they self-titled this album. They believed it was their masterpiece, and I think decades from now, history will agree with me and with them.
I have a hard time listening to it now because Mary and I listened to it so many times. Maybe by August, I'll be okay.
I used to force myself to not listen to this album all year and save it for August and sequester it to that month.
A Boy Named Goo, The Goo Goo Dolls
Embarrassingly, here are the Goos again. I found this album for $3 used, and I played it all summer... and most summers... It's one of the best modern rock albums of all time, punk-infused, and not very grungy or "emo", so it kind of broke with the flavor of the day (nevermind I didn't discover it until "the day" had long passed--that's kind of how I roll).
Autumn
Trouble in Shangri-La, Stevie Nicks
No Goo Goo Dolls?? Likewise, this is Stevie Nicks' masterpiece, by her own admission and my assertion. Planets of the Universe is one of the best songs ever written. For whatever reason, the fall that I first met Mary in person, I listened to this album repeatedly. That fall seemed to stretch into eternity. It's hard not to think of that time. Even then, I felt sort of melancholy, as if I knew it just wasn't going to work out, nearly 6 years ago. The album itself is full of songs about recovering from the sorrow and grief of losing your soul partner.
Planets of the Universe is one of the best songs of heartache and loss ever written. If she has one song that is her masterpiece, it's probably this one. If I had a band, I'd cover it and blow it out.
Winter
Ys Symphony '95, Falcom
When I was a teenager one winter, we had a huge blizzard. There wasn't much school going on, and I had the freedom, again, the idle time, to explore what really mattered to me. I read book after book after book on Christianity, theology, philosophy, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen, Daoism... While I was doing so, I just kept playing this album over and over. I dislike winter, because I want to be outside, but there is also something special about "hibernating," being inside and having the space to think and contemplate, to look out your window at the steel-grey sky and bleach-white snowbanks, snowsnakes swirling and hissing to you that you will be reborn if you just eat the fruit from the tree. I ate it.
Dizzy Up the Girl, The Goo Goo Dolls
I never actually wanted to like the Goo Goo Dolls. I kept hearing them on the radio (this was back when the radio was on everywhere, from my parents' vehicles to Wal-mart). I'd hear their singles, like Iris and Black Balloon, and I absolutely loved it, then was annoyed at myself for loving "pop". I finally broke down, bought this album, listened to it over and over that winter. I didn't actually figure out they had other albums until I bought A Boy Named Goo used, and then I found Superstar Carwash, the rest of their back catalog, and Gutterflower came out, and... That was it. I still don't think there's anything better than this album, not much anyway. It's not actually pop, but it if is, it deserves to be up there with Michael Jackson's Thriller album. They don't play good music on the radio anymore, but sometimes they used to.
Spring
Gutterflower, The Goo Goo Dolls
This is, arguably, the Goo Goo Dolls last really fantastic album (although the next one really had its moments). I listened to this album on repeat so many times the spring it came out that I always expect Big Machine (the first track) to follow the last track (Truth is a Whisper). At one point, I could play and sing every song on it.
Into the Wild, Eddie Vedder
Winter is over, and it's time to venture outside! This is nature music, and I'm always so freaking excited for it to be spring. It seems like the albums I like best seasonally are spiritual experiences for me.