Pick two songs

Well, I picked three, and they are:

• Still Around - 3OH!3
• Your Hands Are Cold - Jean-Yves Thibaudet
• I'm With You - Avril Lavigne

1. Hows does each song reflect a different point in your life?

• Avril Lavigne’s I’m With You is from Let Go, the very first CD I remember getting, in third grade.
• All the other songs are from some point in High School, especially after I took IB Music and could appreciate the beauty in music even more so than before.

2. How did it/does it speak to you, and why?

• I know every single word to every single track on Let Go, and each one speaks to me like a familiar friend. It’s a very comforting song, but it also has underlying tendrils of sadness. One of my best friends, Mark, moved away in 4th grade, and I distinctly remember listening to this song on the radio with him, riding in the car, and the word “damn” was used. Mark’s foster mom said that she just meant a dam, like the kind which beavers used, but Mark and I knew better, and we smiled furtively at each other, feeling so smart with our insider knowledge on expletives. I still remember exactly which intersection we were at in the car when we shared that look.

• All the rest of them (from High School) had the same type of effect on me. At some point, when I was listening to them for the first time, I was stunned by their sheer brilliance and beauty. They had a point in them where I just closed my eyes and listened, for there was nothing, I felt, in that moment that had ever been as elegant, moving, astounding, or simply beautiful as the music which was being played. They are the few songs which I have actually been shocked into silence and wonder at their playing.

3. What does it reveal about your personal aesthetics?

• I really like things that sound really pretty/awe-inspiring to me. I’ve noticed that I’ve never paid as much attention to the words in a song as the musical notes and rhythms themselves. Which is strange, because I give so much credence to the written word. I guess I just love how music stirs your soul, and creates something that words can simply not convey.

There are also three others which I really like, but didn't play for class. They are:

• The Piano - Michael Nyman
• La Valse d'Amélie (Piano Version) - Yann Tiersen
• Life In Technicolor II - Coldplay