Music Does it Better

I’ve spent alot of time getting to know my iTunes. Scrolling through old playlists is like replaying poignant moments in your head to the appropriate soundtrack you deemed fitting at the time. When things get bad, we can find comfort in angry anthems of love and loss; misanthropic love songs for the shunted. Alternatively, we rejoice over climactic anthems of happiness or brood over crippling ballads of angst- soaking up our self-indulgent misery like a long deep bath.
I’ve kept countless half finished diaries over the years but nothing quite gets me like an old aptly named playlist or scratched CD crafted by a now old acquaintance . A friend of mine tells me songs ARE times and people; romanticizing a past- provoking you in the heat of the moment to abandon all misgivings and do something questionable. Not unlike the very specific moment following three glasses of wine, slightly giddy with promise, leaving only the morning to regret the now embarrassing, often slightly ridiculous text you sent to said friend the night before.
Naturally, we’ve all got problems with certain artists or songs which for some reason offend us. Another friend of mine has difficulty with the relatively middle-of - road-haven’t-really-affected-anyone band The Feeling and in particular their 2008 hit ‘I Love It When You Call’. Having considered her reasoning, siting the song as thoughtless with ‘nothing of note to say’, it becomes clear to me that Tricia has never fallen asleep in the small hours clutching her phone awaiting some happy vibrations. I don’t need searing guitar solos and layered crescendo's to get me going.’ I love it when you call but you never call but you never call at all.’ Christ, this song is almost biblical.
On a more serious note, the song ‘Back To The Old House’, by The Smiths really gets me. When Johnny Marr plucks the first few notes I couldn't describe it if i tried. Why can songs make us happy and sad and thoughtful and dangerous sometimes all at once- the idea that something has that power is frankly frightening. They can get you wound up or cut you down, transcend intellectual and cultural barriers. A girl I knew broke up with her boyfriend with Rage Against the Machine blaring on her headphones- the apt soundtrack to her anger. Bastard. That same girl took the idiot back when he left Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ on her answering machine, having sickened herself on ballads of regret during the three week interim. ‘ What came first the music or the misery?’ said once a great fictional hero. And wasn’t he right.
Because as I move towards the end of my degree I wonder why art can scare me in such a worrying way, but music never can. Why a Damien Hurst definitely won’t sway me, but a particularly effective chord change might. Or why I question the integrity behind Post-Mordernism , but never the unadulterated beauty of an acoustic guitar. It raises some questions . Research suggests that the a best loved guitar riff can trigger the same chemical reaction as great food, feelings of love or even sex. ( I’ve personally always found the blues infinitely erotic). I think about Van Morrison playing ‘T.B Sheets’ and I know that feeling. I replay the intro and I get that shiver. It attacks me from all angles with words and melodies and memories. I turn the White Stripes up and I am 15 again mesmerized in the Carling Academy. So maybe I just stay in with a great playlist this valentines day? Forget 12 rose pipe-dreams, this is the next best thing. I’ll be falling in love with Jack White all over again. So what else is new?