In-depth Review of why I love music and some of my favorite songs.

What do you wish you could see, hear, read, or experience for the first time all over again?

I love music (in the last year alone I consumed ~200,000 minutes or 3,333 hours of music, aka A LOT, there are ~8700 in a year), and I consume a lot of it however there are certain songs that I have come across from social media or just by myself. And I experienced a part of the song that sends chills down my spine or the relaxed state it puts me in. Only a handful of songs could ever accomplish this, those artists I still try to follow today. However, the issue with music, especially ones that can cast this spell on me is that the feeling doesn't last long, the song is still good but the feeling fades. Listen to it over and over again and you lose the magic of it. I tend to enjoy the music of most genres with the exception of a few that I can't stand. However, I can't pin down any genre in specific but I like a lot of indie/rock music however I will try to show a wider variety. Music is also just such a powerful thing, there are artists that can be inspiring and make you want to achieve your goals, as well as others that you just want to lay down on your bed at midnight with it blasting in your ears. Songs can be good for a variety of reasons that is my point, whether it inspires you to work out or pushes you to finish an assignment or responsibility or maybe you just want to relax and decompress as you drive home or want to go to sleep. (I don't want to show only popular songs, so you may not have heard of them. I strongly recommend listening to the songs at some point and telling me how they make you feel or if you even like them. I hope you can find the same enjoyment as me with the songs.)

I think I will start with a more relaxing and chilled vibe song. The first song on my list is the song that made me really into music as a whole. It's called "Fitzpleasure" by Alt-J, to be fully honest I can't understand most words that they say as it's very cryptic and you would need to analyze them however they still managed to top my charts for 1-2 months a few years ago. I heard this song from social media and you may have too. The song starts by saying "tra la la tra la la" etc over and over in a harmonized and calming voice however quickly jumps into a not very aggressive bass drop but for some reason it just is such a beautiful song to listen to, changing pace very quickly with very soothing and sometimes aggressive tones. As I said it tends to go from very slow to fast quickly and it creates certain energy with the song that I love as well as several people who have reviewed the song. But the feeling for the first time hearing the three main drops just made chills go down my spine and it got me into that type of music. I would recommend most of their songs especially the "Relaxer" album or "An Awesome Wave."

That last song I heard to my knowledge was over two years ago which is pretty impressive that I still like to listen to it every now and then. I guess I should share one of my more recent favorites, the song is called "Chandelier" by Will Paquin. This song was my #2 song for this whole year according to Spotify. And I believe it, every time it cycles through my playlist I notice it and sing along. I love the song primarily because of the feeling I got when I first heard the opening guitar riff, as well as the strong meanings of the song. As the song starts you are instantly put into a not overcrowded but sensational song with aspects I can guarantee you rarely hear and I feel like that is one of the best things about the song. As a former guitarist, I can say that his capabilities on the guitar are 10/10. Not just his guitar skills but his singing as well is so good, his harmonics and how overall good his vocals are are just unmatched. It has a sad tone to it but can be very upbringing some would say however like I said it's not overwhelming and it's something you can listen to whenever.

One of my current favorite songs is Notion by "The Rare Occasions," I found this song from one of my friends who recommended it. It later got popular from the platform TikTok, however, I like to know I was one of the early listeners and not just jumping on the trend. Explosive is probably the most captivating word to describe this song. They have some incredibly catchy lyrics and parts you can hum and listen to over and over again. You can hear what feels like a whole wall of guitars and different layers to the song, and it's aggressive like other songs that utilize this type of music. I didn't look into the lyrics of the song until very recently when I realized that the song has some possibly controversial ideas about religion (I don't necessarily agree but I just want to show how powerful the meaning of lyrics can be). Lyrics like "sure it’s a calming notion, perpetual in motion," talk about how the idea of religion is calming and life will be perpetual with religion, however in later lines he talked about how when he was a kid and he didn't believe in religion he was told he would burn in hell for those actions "Oh, back when I was younger, was told by other youngsters, that my end will be torture beneath the earth." One of the most powerful lyrics in the song is when he says "If you could pull the lever to carry on forever, would your life even matter anymore?" suggesting that if life is perpetual what is the point in life, it would have no value, that's why life should be precious. Some of the other lyrics like "I’m sure there won’t always be sunshine, but there’s this momentary beam of light," say that things won't always be happy and perfect, you will have sad moments, however, the moments of happiness make living worth. He also says that people live their whole life to then go waiting at the gates of heaven when his opinion is that the so-called "heaven" is actually those moments of happiness in your life. And last but not least he talks about how religion is like a pillow or a safety net for people's sanity, "Sure it’s a calming notion but it’s a lie," like I said it's only to make people feel comfortable. Overall aside from the possibly controversial lyrics the song musically is impressive and will remain one of my favorites.