Thursday, April 21, 2016

Throwback Thursday: My 30/30 Playlist (Part 2 of 3)

Tomorrow is my birthday. I haven't been nearly as preoccupied with it as I usually am, but I am going to take the time to compile the 30 songs for 30 years playlist that I shared song-by-song on Facebook when I turned 30. It's a pretty good playlist. I'm just going to share it exactly as I posted it on FB.  



30/30 Playlist #11 - Now and Then by Susanna Hoffs


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This song reminds me of so many moments with Abby, Aimee and Amanda that I couldn't possibly recount them all. We were inseparable, just like the girls in Now and Then. Corny, yes. But true just the same.

"Lookin' in your eyes was like a mirror
Every single joy and fear
All for one and one for all
Yeah, we did it all."

30/30 Playlist #12 - Painters by Jewel


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A song about beauty and tragedy. Pretty much right up my alley. Jewel was also a part of my singer/songwriter phase. This was one of my audition songs for the University of Miami music school.

"So they sat down and they made a drawing of their love
They made it an art to live by..."

30/30 Playlist #13 As Long as it Matters by the Gin Blossoms

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Oh how I adored the Gin Blossoms. I even learned a little of this one on the guitar (which is a much bigger deal than it sounds, given my ineptitude at guitar playing). It sings to me in that way that only your favorite songs can. 
This song reminds me of a lot of times in my life but nothing quite more than riding in the back of the big blue station wagon, excited as all hell to have just purchased a used copy of the Gin Blossoms latest album on a trip up to Traverse City. 

"I'm like a broken record That you can play Repeating as if it matters Everything I want to say"


30/30 Playlist #14 Tearin' Up My Heart by *NSYNC


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I'm a pretty cool person. Down to earth, quiet, sensible. I always have been. Except where *NSYNC was concerned. I lost my mind for these guys. I bought their European albums. I cut out their pictures, wrote them letters, and knew their whole life stories. I was a crazy person.

Truth be told, I still totally love listening to them and every October I pull out their Christmas album to kick off the holiday season. I picked this song out of their whole catalog because it was one that got me hooked.

"Baby I don't understand
just why we can't be lovers"

Me neither, JC. Me neither.


Runners up? How could I possible choose? 

30/30 Playlist #15 If Only by Hanson

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It's funny, going through this list and listening to all this pop music I loved in high school and getting just as into it as I was before. How could I not jump around my apartment singing along to Hanson and *NSYNC?

I always felt bad for Hanson, for releasing Mmmbop as their first single because they cut themselves off from a bunch of people who would never take them seriously no matter what kind of music they put out after that. Personally, I liked Mmmbop, but it wasn't my favorite. This one though, is one of my favorites.


30/30 Playlist #17 Sunrays and Saturdays by Vertical Horizon


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At the same time that I was rocking out to metal, I was (re)discovering the joys of sappy acoustic music. I don't think Vertical Horizon would like to be thought of as sappy but that's how I will always view them because of this song (also, Angel Without Wings).

This song reminds me of Megan's dorm room, Leigh and Liz, listening to Leigh read Rapture of Canaan to us. We were young and hopeful. It's weird to think that this kind of romantic side of me coexisted with the angrier, Static-X-ier, side of me but that's the way it was.

It also reminds me of this fall and describes a sort of zen post-breakup place that I think everyone would like to experience but is actually very difficult to maintain.

"I'll take my records
You can have your books
I'm sorry I never read them
But it says so much about us"


30/30 Playlist #18 Yellow by Coldplay

 Coldplay - Yellow
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This song reminds me of walking across campus and the way the sunlight would illuminate the leaves as they fluttered down from the trees. It reminds me of the way I always felt just slightly separate from the world around me. 


30/30 Playlist #19 I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine by Beth Orton


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Another one that I don't have a lot of commentary for. It just takes me back to ye olde college days. A pretty but depressing song from a time in my life where everything felt dramatic and tragic and beautiful.

"Every day is just like the day before
All alone, a million miles from shore
All of my dreams I dreamed with you
Now they will die and never come true"

30/30 Playlist #20 Another Lonely Day by Ben Harper


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Another song that I learned to sort of play on the guitar!

I love Ben Harper. This song is so quiet and simple and honest that I can hear it and feel it in my heart. I like songs like that.

"I'd rather walk alone
than chase you around
I'd rather fall myself
than let you drag me down"

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