I think it’s safe to say, across all generations, that the way we listen to music has undergone a dramatic transformation in our lifetimes. Some of you reading this may have an extensive vinyl collection that you’ve been jamming to since the 60’s. Others may still have their favorite road trip CDs meticulously filed in a car visor over the passenger seat. I still have my 15-year-old iPod Nano that will occasionally stay alive long enough to play a song that I loved when I was 15.

From what I’ve noticed, the most pronounced difference in the way we listen to music isn’t necessarily in the media in which we consume it. Let’s say you wanted to listen to a certain song on a cassette. You had to either hope that you popped the tape in with that song queued up, or you likely spent a good amount of time manually rewinding/fast-forwarding the cassette with a pen/pencil. Or, if you were really running low on patience, you may have tried to digitally rewind/fast-forward a cassette in your boombox or car stereo.

These days? I’ll just search up the song on Spotify and hit play. No pen or pencil required!

Plus, I don’t have to drone through an entire album that I may or may not like just to get to the one song that I love. That brings me to my next point: what if I want to listen to a different song, by a different artist? If I had a cassette or CD, I’d probably have to swap them out and start the process all over again. Or, if you had money in the mid-2000’s, your car (or boombox) may have come with a CD-changer built in.

And for those who were tech-savvy, your friends may have gifted you a mixtape or mix CD. My friends and I were among those who curated and traded mix CDs all throughout high school.

(I think I ended up with 12 mix CDs from Zoë alone.)

Mix CDs were especially vital to my musical upbringing, because in my mind, there was no one way to listen to them. Sure, in some instances, listening to the songs in the order they were placed was a crucial part of the listening experience. Maybe it is absolutely necessary to hear a bass-beat-laden Salt-N-Pepa track right after a heart-wrenching Florence + The Machine ballad. “It’s called balance,” according to the friend that made that particular setlist decision.

But I like to think of myself as an agent of chaos. More than likely, these CDs got put on shuffle in my car. I like the anticipation of the unknown, as well as the challenge of trying to remember the words to whatever song comes on next. Other music aficionados will likely disagree with that statement, but hey- that’s how I like to rock out. Between the iPod and Spotify, I’ve become accustomed to taking all the music I love and letting a randomizer decide what’s next on my playlist.

Recently, a question popped up on Twitter that made me rethink my listening habits: what 4 albums could you listen to, in its entirety, without skipping any tracks?

Oh boy, I thought. I’m in trouble here. It took a painfully long time to come up with more than one option. The first choice was a no-brainer. Other albums, though? I really had to think about them. I never listened to them front-to-back the way I did with my first album. In the spirit of answering the question, I had a few listening sessions with the floater albums in the back of my mind. It’s not representative of my entire music taste catalog, which I believe is part of the reason why it was so difficult to make the choices I did.

So I did what any decent newsperson would do before offering my own opinion: I asked the same question around our building.

Looks like I’m going to have to schedule some more listening sessions.

In the meantime… I eventually came up with a full 4 albums.

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(Copyright: Reprise Records)

Green Day – American Idiot

Let’s start with the no-brainer. This is the album that I listened to for 3 years straight, front-to-back; left, right, and sideways. I’ll argue that it’s one of the best albums released in this century.

I believe this album fell into my hands at the right place, at the right time. I didn’t completely understand the social and political commentary that was embedded in the lyrics, so I did my research. In doing so, I ended up finding myself glued to the news fairly frequently (some may argue this is ironic). Fast forward 20 years or so… and here I am. Anchoring the morning news.

Of course, it wasn’t just the lyrics and the storyline that made this album a permanent part of my brain. Something about the power chords and choruses kept me moving. There was no restraint to how they showed emotion. I didn’t have anything in my life, at that point, that sounded even remotely close to American Idiot. I had subsided on a diet of soft rock and diet pop hits when the opening chords to the title song hit me like a Mack Truck. It was like my brain rewired on the spot. I finished the very first listen-through of the album and came out of my room in a daze. I wasn’t sure of who I was anymore. I was angry at a world that I was woefully unprepared for. I craved more.

I’ll also argue that Green Day’s Dookie is also a solid album all the way through- yes, even with all that time it takes to get to that bonus track at the end. Dookie and Nimrod were my next purchases, and I found myself entangled within the band’s earlier sounds.

I may not stand by every single song that Green Day has written. But this is the band whose music raised me. I don’t think I’d have found my place in this world without them. And say what you want about their power-chord musicianship. It makes it so much easier to learn their songs on various instruments when you don’t have to worry about cluster chords.

I’ve seen Green Day twice- and was supposed to see them at least 7 different times before and after. I’d still sell my soul to see them live again.

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(Copyright: Fair Use)

The Decemberists – Picaresque

Colin Meloy is one of this century’s greatest lyricists. His knack for intertwining history and fantasy, folk sounds and rock riffs- all culminates in this glorious album. It’s like a stage show for your brain. Every tune tells its tale, and you feel compelled to become part of his universe. Worth a mention- Picaresque was co-produced by Chris Walla, the guitarist for Death Cab For Cutie (they formed at WWU!).

This album found its way to me via mix CD, as I was entrenched in a period of heavy alternative and post-emo sounds. “The Bagman’s Gambit,” of all songs, got me first. I became mesmerized with the rollercoaster crescendos and the melodies weaving themselves among chords I never would have thought to compose. Everyone’s story on this album became each track listing- not the other way around.

Somehow, with each listen, I found a new love for a different song. I remember the first time I fully listened to the lyrics of “We Both Go Down Together,” I audibly gasped when it got to the end. For a time, I’d have the chorus of “Engine Driver” playing through my head at any given moment. It was yet another cultural shock for my brain. I found that I could balance the dark and light with the music I listened to, much like my friends could balance putting heavy metal on a playlist right before a Joan Baez song.

I’ll be seeing them at Marymoor Park for the first time this summer. Full details on that experience will be coming up in a later blog, of course.

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(Copyright: Ba Da Bing Records)

Beirut – Gulag Orkestar

In addition to my diet of soft rock and diet pop, my family made sure I was also consuming a healthy amount of traditional Ukrainian folk music on the side. The first time one of Beirut’s songs popped up on a mix CD, I thought for a split second that my mom had swapped out the CD when I wasn’t looking. But something fascinating happened the more I listened to Gulag Orkestar. Introducing my friends to Ukrainian jams that I had adored all my life was pretty difficult when they can’t learn the words to sing along. This album allowed me to still share the sounds I grew up around while also appeasing their need for Anglo-centric lyrics. Problem solved!

There’s something about the way that Zach Condon orchestrates his works that gets stuck inside the comfortable part of your brain. The instrumentals often find themselves playing impromptu festivals when I’m milling about, running errands, or driving to the station at the crack of dawn. The melodies aren’t too intrusive, but rather a welcome addition to otherwise quiet moments. The energy that seeps through each track on this album is infectious. I’ll even improvise along with the instrumental sections during a good road trip.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I originally wanted to go to college for music composition. The musicality of this album inspired me to create music that better matched the music I wanted to hear- not the music that people at the time expected. It impacted scores of scores that I wrote down the line, and helped me understand how I wanted certain instruments in my piece to sound.

Beirut doesn’t tour very often, but I’m hoping to catch them whenever they make their way around the globe in the future!

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(Copyright: Fair Use)

Ruslana – Wild Dances

As I mentioned earlier, there was a lot of traditional Ukrainian folk music playing in our house at any given point during the year. You had your sopranos belting out beautiful ballad about the Carpathian Mountains, you had polka bands getting people on the dance floor, and you had secular Christmas carols in perfect four-part harmony. Anything that challenged the traditional styles was not broadcast on the giant speakers in the family room. Those were the rules.

Imagine my shock when I learned that Ukrainian pop not only existed to begin with- but it was very much alive and well.

For my American friends, I used to compare Ruslana to Madonna as an artist. Madonna had MTV, and Ruslana had Eurovision. Both were heavily influential pop artists that soared in popularity during their respective country’s resurgence on the world stage, and ended up both becoming activists in their later years. It still checks out.

It took a bit longer than I would’ve liked to find other Ukrainian pop artists before Spotify became popular. But to this day, Ruslana still prevails as one of my favorite Ukrainian artists. If you listen to any of these songs and don’t immediately feel the urge to get up and dance (with the exception of the ballad at the end, which is a work of art on its own), I’m not sure I can help you.

I’ve seen her at least three times- all in the US. She used to perform at the resort I worked at for their annual summer festival. Her first time in the States brought out thousands of fans, Ukrainian and otherwise, to the back woods of Upstate New York. It was magical. I’d wouldn’t turn down a chance to see her again.

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Honorable mentions: Florence + The Machine’s “Lungs,” Mayhem’s “It’s Murder,” Fall Out Boy’s “MANIA,” The Builders And The Butcher’s “Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well,” and The Killers’ “Hot Fuss.”