The sidewalk sings your name underneath my feet, echoes of, forgotten love

I know I'm not alone when I write this post. If you like music as much as I do then I'm sure you'll understand what this post is all about.

I want to talk about that relationship you can have between music and certain moments, events, places and people that have been a part of your life.

As I look back over this past year and try to think forward, it is music which takes me back the most to those places and the feelings I felt. Certain songs, certain albums, take me right back to those moments; sometimes to the point where I can really envision where I was and how I felt at that time listening to that music. I have always had this relationship with music but this past year it has become far more entrenched.

So here's a recap of some of those memories and the songs, albums and artists that remind me...

Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid

This album consumed my first semester in Oxford. Say You'll Go conjures up vivid memories of repeat plays in my first apartment in late October. In my room on my own, I listened to this song with a heavy heart. Cold War reminds me of visiting Wolfchase Galleria the first time Daria invited us to stay at her house for a weekend. The album overall for me evokes the feeling of fall. Going to the Grove in early November, able to wear a jacket as it had cooled down, the trees all the shades of autumn. It reminds me of road tripping to Nashville with my sister and driving everyone back from Thanksgiving in Memphis to Oxford. I must have played that album from start to finish at least four or five times that week.

Beach House Teen Dream

While I actually saw this duo at Glastonbury in 2010, it wasn't until spring semester that Beach House made an impact on me. Through discussions with a good friend, who has a great music knowledge (if he ever reads this he'll think I'm lying!?), I borrowed a copy of Teen Dream. Walk In The Park actually reminds me of being at home over the Christmas vacation. I played that song in my room one evening when I first got back on repeat and cried my eyes out. That song still cuts me up. Beach House remind me mostly of our road trip to Florida during spring break. After the party tunes and a little country music while driving through Alabama, Beach House were the chilled selection. One of my fondest memories was having the album playing on the return journey. It was around 7pm and we'd just stopped off in Birmingham to grab a snack and drink. As we were doing the final stretch to Oxford, heading north up the highway, the sun was setting. The road was so quiet and almost flat out on the horizon. I remember spotting a ridiculous sized American flag at a car dealership which was blowing in the wind, right in the middle of the sunset. It's moments like that which make me wish I wasn't the driver and that we could have pulled over and taken a picture. I like to think that when you know you can't have a physical reminder, you try harder to hold on to the memory.

Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues

Definitely one of my most highly anticipated albums of the year. Helplessness Blues reminds me of spring semester drawing to a close. The mornings in my bedroom, sorting things out, blasting out Grown Ocean, taking a shower and then eventually piling some books together to head to High Point. This albums reminds me of planning the west coast trip with Lauren. This album evokes visions of the Pacific Northwest. It reminds me of Portland, the great pizza we had, fantastic Japanese food and outstanding beer. It reminds me of the storms. Waking up at 6am to an electrical storm. These storms were unlike any I had seen before. Destructive, yet mesmorising. I loved the feeling of waiting out the storm and then stepping outside to feel the humidity gone; the temperatures much cooler.

While these albums are still go-tos at times when I just want musical pleasure from albums that I know off by heart, I have found it difficult to listen to them without thinking that I want to go back to those places; that I want to feel the way I did in those moments. This post in essence has been a catharsis. A way to let go of some of those memories; memories so entwined in this music. I hope that in doing so, I can listen to these albums in a new setting and enjoy them without thinking of what was, and is no longer. What I take most fondly from thinking about how I relate music to emotion is that I will always do this. While I may not get to see those places again and will never feel the way I did in those moments, those songs will always take me back. And eventually new ones will come along.