My music, my savior

Other than my husband, the only thing propelling me through grad school and keeping me from falling into the darkest pits of despair (which would be virtually impossible since I was already in Kansas) was music. My mother, in an attempt to keep my spirits up in the best motherly way possible, would regularly send me and my younger sister (who was attending undergrad back in Illinois) iTunes cards. On a random visit back home, she presented me with a hot neon pink iPod mini on which to play the tunes that would be purchased with my iTunes cards.

This morning I decided to dig it out and shuffle play my 25 Top Plays playlist to reminisce and see if the songs mean the same thing to me now as they did five years ago.

(In order, according to iTunes):

1. The Rain, the Park and Other Things- The Cowsills (100+ plays)
2. 1901- Phoenix
3. Carol Brown- Flight of the Conchords
4. Rambling through the Avenues of Time- Flight of the Conchords
5. Love Like a Sunset, Pt. 2- Phoenix
6. Lost (acoustic)- Coldplay
7. More, More, More- Rachel Stevens
8. Off Broadway- Ryan Adams
9. Lisztomania- Phoenix
10. Everything is Everything- Phoenix
11. Undercover Martyn- Two Door Cinema Club
12. Touch- Natasha Bedingfield
13. A-Punk- Vampire Weekend
14. I Will Be There- Rachel Stevens
15. Brandy Alexander- Feist
16. Flashing Lights- Kanye West
17. Leaving Port- James Horner
18. Death and All His Friends- Coldplay
19. If I Ever Feel Better- Phoenix
20. Do You Want It All- Two Door Cinema Club
21. Maybe I’m Amazed- Paul McCartney & Wings
22. Fences- Phoenix
23. Starry Eyed- Ellie Goulding
24. Put You In Your Place- The Sunshine Underground
25. I Would Do Anything for You- Foster the People

Here are the things we can takeaway from this list:

• Phoenix was clearly my favorite band
• My most played song is probably one of the corniest pop songs ever released- and yet it was everything to me for a two-year period
• That one Kanye song listed is the only Kanye song I will ever admit to enjoying- and I enjoy it A LOT
• There are eight European acts listed; I clearly have not gotten past the Britpop phase from my youth

After shuffle playing them this morning, I came to these conclusions:

• Some songs have held up better than others; while it was refreshing to hear a few again after all these years, it’s clear why I stopped listening to others- I’m simply sick of them (“Fences” by Phoenix in particular). And they remind me too much of being sad. Which is weird, as very few of them are even sad songs.
• I’m shocked there isn’t more Coldplay on the list.
• The fact that there are absolutely no Beach Boys songs on this list is both surprising and upsetting. I can't imagine that I wasn't listening to any Beach Boys for those two years.
• “Flashing Lights” is still an amazing song, for better or worse.
• Even though it’s #1 on this list, “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” isn’t really one of my favorite songs. 
• Boy, I really like Pop music. Look at that list. That’s a Pop Festival waiting to happen (minus James Horner, of course).
• 10/10 would listen to this list for the rest of my life.