Hi, how's it going? I'm Justin. I live in Brooklyn and design at 
A while back, I think I was in middle school, I remember sitting in my bedroom and listening to R.E.M. “Automatic for the People”. I remember feeling this deep relationship with the album. I remember feeling songs like “Everybody Hurts” and “Nightswimming” gave me feelings that were new and exciting and powerful. I’d listen to the album over and over. This wasn’t music I shared with friends. Hell, I didn’t even listen to it unless I was alone.
It was like first love—all encompassing and absolute. Nothing was or would ever be this perfect again. It was an unbounded joy mixed with an acute sadness. As if recorded under a blue moon, this was the peak for me, no other music would ever be this good. I was convinced I’d never love again.
Then I had a sobering thought. It was suddenly clear there would be other albums that made me feel this way. Probably several. I also realized that this album that meant so much to me probably wouldn’t mean the same thing even a few years from that day. I realized I should listen to it as much as I could, and crystalize memories of all the emotions it gave me, and remember what else was going on in my life at the time so that I could look back later, when it became “just an album”, and remember how it once made me feel. I was still doubtful any other album could make me feel that way, but I looked forward to the applicants.
Fast forward some twelve or so years and I’m sitting at my desk powering through the front-end code I need to finish today. In my headphones is Band of Horses - “Everything All the Time”. As The Funeral (the song I’ve embedded into this post) came on I realized I’d found that love again. In this moment I was again in love. Not the whirlwind, punch-drunk love that I remember from “Automatic”. This was more mature, more nuanced. But at the same time the feeling was there. I looked back at the old me, cherishing my R.E.M., and I saw the potential I looked forward to on that day realized.
Do I feel like I’ll never love another album as much as I love this one? No. I still love Automatic for the People but it doesn’t stir in me the passion it once did. As it will be with “Everything All the Time”…this too shall pass. In fact, I’m sure that there’ve been albums inbetween these two I had fleeting relationships with, but some are distant and some I don’t remember at all. It’s once again bitter sweet. I am enjoying this moment, remembering everything that’s in my life right now so that when I fall in love again I’ll be able to reflect.
What’ll it be next?
