A De c a in M de usic By A ndre w Br oadle y (he /him )
It can feel like forever ago, perhaps even forgotten. Boxed away in the attic of your mind. And in an instant it can be there before you. It could be a memory that hadn’t been recalled since it was not a memory at all. Or it could be a memory you actively recall often. Our senses can conjure up the most obscure relationships to our mind, and music in particular has the ability to grab memories and place them down so close you could touch them. I decided to reflect on some key songs from my life. Ones that hold entire memories, or evoke entire periods of my life, all within a single bar of their score. They may not reflect my overall taste at the time, and they may not even be from the year (or decade) in which I have listed it here. But this is a collection of tracks that have meant something to me, over the last decade of my life.
2021: Twice – I can’t stop me 2020 threw all our lives into lockdown and we all coped with this differently. I personally fell into a dark hole of K-pop (in my defence I was in a K-pop obsessed household). And so far K-pop has continued through into my 2021, and none more so than this track (that is actually from 2020). Twice infected my mind with their catchy melodies and cutesy personas but with this single they stepped things up. It’s slick, it’s powerful, they can’t stop themselves from killing the game and I can’t stop myself from boogieing the fuck out when I hear this track. That massive chorus has major Carly vibes (Rebecca got angry at me for that comment) but fuck it, I stand by it and I stan this track.
2020: The 1975 – Frail state of mind Speaking of 2020 and lockdown, I was lucky enough to spend mine by the beach. Surrounded by sunsets and sandy shores, and an overwhelming uncertainty, this The 1975 track gave me the vibes and the feels. An infectious two step beat has long been my jam, and when it’s slid under a moody melody or vocal it really gets me vibing. My daily walks were soundtracked by this single; strutting along as Matt Healy crooned over his frail mental health in a sea of autotune. We all felt vulnerable, but it felt good to vibe about it.
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