What I'm Listening to This February

Tune In's a monthly-or-so column for me to share what I'm listening to (and sometimes watching.)

Hey y'all!

In the post-book sphere, I've largely been napping a whole lot, devouring books, etc,. It's wild sometimes how finishing (and actually turning in) another draft can make my brain go absolutely blank in the verbal sense, which is partly why I'm so appreciative of other forms of language and communication. But more on that later.

I love being a hobby person because finishing a behemoth of a manuscript makes my brain crave other forms of expression and understanding, music being one of them. That's also why I love drawing, dancing, (badly) playing instruments, physical exercise, aesthetics.

Thanks for reading Words Like Silver! Subscribe for free to support my work.

Subscribe Now

placeholder

I've been reading a lot of books that pin down and articulate my love for aesthetics as being a form of indirect processing that does us a whole lot of good—but more on that later.

I wrote about this when finishing up this version, but it was a lot better this time around to lean into camp counselor-hood than my moody mountain playlist because the atmosphere's there already, but music has such an impact on energy, feel, memory, etc,.

Revision was even harder than last time (as it always is), but I am—as always—slightly more capable than yesterday.

The Current Playlists

I got a little silly with my recent playlists, mostly because I started compiling them based on themes rather than musical stylings. I've been deeply extracting the broader "points" from my favorite books lately, and here are a few that stand out to me:

• fatigue, endurance, exhaustion, pushing past your limit,
• the necessity of individual trials and suffering i.e. hero's journey,
• similarly: "earned beauty" or contrast,
• the places and people you return to,
• the inability to put your most important things into words,
• the inescapable tension between solitude and connection,
• etc,. etc,.

So there are some book inspirations or undercurrents scattered through each of these. I've also really been leaning into my Southern country roots, which brings me back to being in high school again, riding around in the car, sunroof open, listening to the radio.

Also, now I have the ability to embed Spotify code. Yay!

But the Lobsters!

This one is shamelessly based on DFW's Consider the Lobster, in which the author is frequently—inescapably—frustrated by one's inability to genuinely connect with another person through words because of the imperfections of language. (This same concept is also expressed by Murakami in Norwegian Wood.) This boils down a theme that I've been thinking about a lot, both personally and within my book revision, which got reaaal philosophical.

If you can't ever say the right thing to another person, can they really know and understand you? And then—getting philosophical here—can they ever actually care about you if they don't?

Each of these songs seems to be grounded in this frustration, either with the angst of misunderstanding or miscommunication or this transcendence of what exits the realm of words. Like, "I can't say this to you exactly how I want, but I trust you get what I mean or I show it to you anyway."

Ironically, these ended up being songs I listen to pretty regularly anyways.

Notable Songs:

• Soulfight — The Revivalists
• My Notes — Atmosphere
• Boats to Build — Guy Clark
• Moment's Silence (Common Tongue) — Hozier
• America's Sweetheart — Elle King
• More Than You Know — Axwell /\ Ingrosso
• One Black Sheep — Mat Kearney

Hero's Journey

As it sounds, I've been mulling over the classic hero's journey i.e. The Iliad and The Odyssey. As a person, I've conducted my entire life based on "earning" something. "Earned beauty." How all good things exist in contrast. The need for individual trials you have to endure alone.

This sort of distillation into your purest self—breaking then reforming—by holding up the mirror and confronting what you see, possibly shattering it. Your destiny is on the road you take to avoid it, and all.

If that all sounds too abstract, bear with me. It's been a literary theme, and the fundamental structure of storytelling, for so long.

Anyway, I'm going to talk about this in my Blood Meridian review, but I see two sorts of journeys embedded in this narrative. There's the one where you can't ever stop running, and then I think what makes the hero's journey within literature is the layered self now made visible in contrast when you return.

So this playlist captures a little bit of both. Those folky songs about "babe, pack the car, we're going to fake our deaths and go on the run from my debtors" (a weird favorite genre of mine) and the restless longing songs about embarking on something you have to do alone and knowing that everything will change while you're gone, and that you'll return as a different person if ever. Songs that mention mileage, home, restlessness, etc,. are winners on this list. Plus, a few Greek references.

Notable Songs:

• Ulysses — Josh Garrels (one of my all-time favorites—brilliant)
• Dance with Me Baby — Ben Rector
• Blue Mesas — Leon Bridges
• All the Debts I Owe — Caamp
• Go Solo — Zwette, Tom Rosenthal
• For You I'll Wait — harf.
• Can't Go Back — Rosi Golan

Semi-related: some of these journeys feature boat imagery. The ocean as a metaphor for distance, awe, wildness, beauty. Either Ulysses lashed to the mast listening to the sirens or the tunnel vision in Moby Dick, the satisfaction of a hard day's work, etc,. And then all the drowning / baptismal / guiding light imagery. Oooh. So I had to make a boat-ish playlist too.

A list of country playlists on my radar—

Like I've mentioned, I've been leaning entirely into my Southern roots and country vibes. I'd say 90% of what I'm listening to right now is country.

And there are some fabulous subgenres within country (loosely defined by me, not officially): breakup country, going-out country, angry-grrrl country, sweet country, beach country, classic country. So I started bundling.

• tan lines and trucker hats
• no angst like country angst
• country yearning, specifically
• kissing on front porches
• not kissing on front porches
• take me to whiskeys

Specific songs I've been into—

• Let Me Go (ft. Alesso, Florida Georgia Line & watt) — Hailee Steinfield
• Vegas (A Colors Show) — Shaboozey
• Blinding Lights — Loi
• Dogs of War — Blues Saraceno
• Leave (Get Out) — Jojo
• Unknown (To You) — Jacob Banks

& more!