Musical Memories

As Long as memory serves I have always associated certain artists or certain albums with certain events or periods in time. This is a good thing, most of the time. Let me illustrate.

Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride fills my mind with images of driving through the Swedish countryside and a summer living with a guy from Mexico using our free time developing a system for dating girls.

Death Cab for Cutie's Plans allows me to be drawn back in time to 2006 when I first purchased the album. I spent many hours listening to this and The Postal Service while driving to climbing spots or to and from work.

Linkin' Park vs Jay Z with Collision Course puts my feet inside York Climbing Wall bouldering over many many different problems, digging deep for that final hold.

Finally before I get in trouble, Rascal Flatts: Bless the Broken Road. I listened to this about a million times when I made the video that I made for the night I proposed to Vicky!

Sometimes however these memories are not so fond memories, or for some reason makes me feel fear, anxiety or another range of emotions. Now I know what you're thinking. "That's what music does, Idiot!" but I don't mean the music itself.

Josh Groban just makes me feel on edge, a little depressed and a renewed desire to be better. Why? I listened to a lot of his music during reading the war chapters in Alma, he is now forever associated with what I was feeling when I was reading these chapters.

The Early November, Ever so Sweet; this song makes me feel worried, scared and an outright panic. Not really what the song is about. For the longest while I couldn't place why. I would remember things about a sister tying her brother to an alter trying to kill him. Eventually I remembered where it all came from. It was a summer I was reading a book series called "the world of Chestomanci" or something like that. I had a playlist on repeat as I was reading these books. They are now forever associated with this series.

The reason I am discussing this is that recently the sun has come out. Since this unusual event several things have happened... Vic has started spending money on "summer clothes" University work is piling on, I am just screaming to go out climbing and I have started listening to Jeff Buckley, who is best known for his version of Hallelujah, but is an amazing song writer in his own right. This is the question that I pose. Will Jeff Buckley become the soundtrack of this summer? As much as I love him, he really isn't summer soundtrack music, unless that summer involved sitting by the pool, chilling on a beach. My summer will hopefully be a lot more active, so is Fall out Boy better? Or Rascal Flatts? I'm looking for something that's going to get me pumped, something fresh, something that is upbeat and that's going to be able to be listened to over and over again without getting boring.

Do you have an album that meets these criteria? Or any soundtracks from events in your life? Please share...