Winter Beats

I wasn't always into music the way I am now. I used to listen to a very limited range of artists and genres, and I didn't have any particular interest in expanding my musical tastes. I didn't listen to music as frequently either, and I never would've considered myself much of a concert-goer. But luckily, times have changed and I can now honestly say that music is one of the most important aspects of my life.

It really is amazing how influential and powerful music can be. No matter how I'm feeling, I can always find a song that compliments my mood or helps me get through a bad one. And sometimes a song can take my mind to this dreamy, trance-like state that I've grown so fond of. I can't really explain it.

I often correlate songs or albums to certain people, events, or periods of time. For instance, hearing Billy Joel's lesser-known album "The Bridge" reminds me of my family; each one of us memorized the words from every song on that album because my mom would exclusively play it in her car over several years. And of course hearing Chris Brown's "Forever" always reminds me of some of my favorite nights of college (apparently I've "ruined" that song for everybody... my bad). And if there's one particular album I associate last winter with, it's The Radio Dept's "Clinging to a Scheme." Listening to it floods me with these visions and memories from those days of living in a new, unknown place with limited exposure to anyone familiar. It felt so surreal then and listening to that album makes it all feel so vivid again.

This winter, however, I've been listening to a lot of Keep Shelly In Athens, I Break Horses, Phantogram, and Korallreven, and I've been getting into quite a few other bands as well. I'm always open to new music. Anyone got any recommendations?