One morning, at an old social work job of mine, I chatted with my friend and coworker, Will, about our mutual love of Bruce Springsteen’s music. Will told me that “Thunder Road” is the best song ever written, and I excitedly agreed with him: “It’s so good!” When Will mentioned that the song contained someContinue reading “Beautiful Words: My Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2024”
Tag Archives: music
What I’ve Been Listening to This Summer: 7 Album Reviews
Do you still listen to albums? In this era of iTunes and YouTube and Spotify, records have lost some of the prominence that they once enjoyed. Songs are usually appreciated in isolation, randomly shuffled, suggested by algorithms, or compiled into playlists with tunes by a variety of artists. These new listening styles have their perks.Continue reading “What I’ve Been Listening to This Summer: 7 Album Reviews”
To Love the World Again: A Literary Analysis of Only God Was Above Us
“Only God was above us!” Those words, which are visible on a newspaper headline adorning the cover of Vampire Weekend’s fifth album, were spoken by a survivor of one of the strangest disasters in aviation history.1 On April 28, 1988, the passengers of Aloha Airlines Flight 243 watched in horror as their airplane’s ceiling wasContinue reading “To Love the World Again: A Literary Analysis of Only God Was Above Us“
Sounds of Springtime: A Literary Analysis of Father of the Bride
I didn’t want it to be a cool photograph of the earth in space; I wanted it to have a little bit of that tension of being Mother Nature, the planet we live on, but also something border-line uncomfortable with the raw digital whiteness surrounding it. This was how Ezra Koenig described the cover ofContinue reading “Sounds of Springtime: A Literary Analysis of Father of the Bride“
Encountering Opposition: A Literary Analysis of Contra
When we are young, our relationship to the world can aptly be described as a kind of infatuation. Like a kid with a crush, we’re carried away by the thrill of discovery, convinced that the object of our love can do no wrong. Yet as we grow older, we all experience a “loss of innocence”Continue reading “Encountering Opposition: A Literary Analysis of Contra“
Wide-Eyed Wonderment: A Literary Analysis of Vampire Weekend
Take a moment and think back to your childhood, adolescence, and/or young adulthood. How did life look from those perspectives? Everyone’s upbringing is unique, and some people are forced to grow up much too fast. However, for many of us, these years were characterized by the thrill of discovery. There was eagerness to map theContinue reading “Wide-Eyed Wonderment: A Literary Analysis of Vampire Weekend“
Introducing My Vampire Weekend Series
Nine months ago, when my wife and I packed our belongings and moved from West Michigan to Chicagoland, I did something I’d never done before: Alone in the U-Haul, I listened to four albums in a row by the same band, start to finish. Typically, when I’m on the road, I like to mix thingsContinue reading “Introducing My Vampire Weekend Series”
Words for Wayfarers 