An Album For This Time

I like to imagine certain albums to be a collection of memories and emotions all safely kept in one place. It’s like a pocket. When you open it up you find a piece of your mind, heart, and history bundled together to keep near you forever. Not all albums do this, but everyone has those few select albums that represent a piece of us. And those are the albums that do a better job of explaining our phase in life better than our words or actions can.

The past few days the album that’s been that for me is “El Pintor” by Interpol. I’ve listened to it over and over again, I love it. I can’t really explain why it speaks to me, but it puts me in the state of mind that’s just fitting. It’s both relaxing and exciting all at the same time. When I listen to it, somehow I’m able to find myself being at peace and yet willing to accept change - both of which are important.

It’s strange why certain albums can do this at certain times in our life, but it’s something I’d love to look into even more. I would imagine there’s plenty of psychology behind it that’s yet to be discovered, but it’s always been intriguing to me. I plan to research this in the future, but until then, I may as well enjoy finding new albums for new phases in life.

Months down the road, maybe even years, I know that whenever I listen to “El Pintor” I’m going to be thinking about the highlights in my life at this point. I might think about the late nights of writing blog posts, or the excitement of taking off my music career. Maybe I’ll remember those long walks that I took around my neighborhood feeling free of the restrictions of time and getting lost in my thoughts. (Those are good times.)

Overall, the album perfectly describes how I’ve been feeling lately. Since music has the power to bring back memories unlike anything else, I’m going to start making a conscious effort to keep track of the music I listen to since I think phases change quicker than we realize. If music is the closest we can get to taking a snapshot of a phase in life, I want to keep that safe for as long as I can.