Rhythmic Reveries
Which Albums Belong to You?
by Lo-Fi Lauren
When I first began writing this article, it was originally supposed to be centered around what your favorite album was and why. But then I got to thinking, and I feel like there’s really not enough weight in having a favorite album. The truth is, some albums, some bands, some musicians just belong to us. Like my best friend Lexie, who while on her 4 hour drive up to St. Augustine a few months ago texted me at 12:15 AM saying that Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” which is one of my favorite songs of all time, was playing and that it made her think of me. I mean honestly, is there any better way of saying I love you than that? Every time I mention Underoath, my friend Darian will immediately bring up how much I love “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door.” People used to literally send me live breakdowns of that song. If I hear anything by In Flames, I think of my big brother CJ, who has their logo tattooed on his arm. That band IS him. If I hear anything by the Doors, I think of my big sister Janna, who has a life size picture of Jim Morrison from an old record store hanging in her house to this day because she says that her and Jim were meant to be in another life. And, if I hear just one note of any song off of Van Halen’s “Diver Down”, forget about it: I am instantly 6 again, in the back of my parents’ minivan thinking to myself how cool my mom and dad are. You see, we are our favorite albums. They are part of our genetic makeup. Here at Bothering the Band, music is not just a time machine, and not even just a love language either. Music to us is a house, and the albums that we love, the ones that make us who we are, those albums are what make that house our home.
Moral of the story, we’ve all got a favorite album or two; and if you say you don’t, you’re lying. I don’t wanna hear anybody whining about how it’s too hard to pick just one, or that it’s an impossible question to answer. If you don’t have one, then make it two. Don’t have just two? Then make it 5 and make your analysis detailed…I like details. So, rather than drop another interview, I’d like to invite everybody to instead think about what albums have shaped you and made you who you are today, and then tell me. Or tell your mom or dad. Or tell the love of your life that you just can’t stop thinking about. Whoever it is, I want you to tell somebody. Ask them what their favorite album is and why. Watch the way you both light up and discuss what’s actually important to you; and then ask yourself this when it’s over: when was the last time you connected with somebody the way you just did?
So, What’s Mine?
While you all decide on who to spill your guts to, I’ll go first. I’ve got a few honorable mentions for sure: “Animals” by This Town Needs Guns, “Good Nature” by Turnover, “Because the Internet" by Childish Gambino, and “Axis: Bold as Love” by Jimi Hendrix are some of the ones that come to mind. But, if you really wanna know which albums shaped me and changed me forever once I heard them, it’s without a doubt: “Acceptance Speech” by Dance Gavin Dance, and “For Those Who Have Heart" by A Day to Remember. So what: I’m an emo girl forever.
For Those Who Have Heart
I’ve never fit in anywhere ever in my life.
That’s not a complaint, it’s a fact. I’ve always felt like an alien; and at first, it sucked. I tried my best to fit in and make myself make sense. Now, I realize that if anything, it’s my superpower. But while all the other girls in middle school were wearing their tie-dyed shirts with short shorts, there I was, wearing my hair in 2 braids, rocking Minnie Mouse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle t-shirts and occasionally borrowing a band shirt from my brother. I was a total tomboy. I was also totally uncool, and was constantly in and out of the principal’s office for countless bullying encounters. It didn’t help either that my love interest was one of the school’s most popular skater boys, the one with long blonde hair and dreamy blue eyes with weird taste in music. You know the type. The one who makes fun of you in public but is your best friend in private. I’d take certain routes to my classes just to see him and talk to him. At night, I’d sneak my phone out of my parent’s room just to text him secretly while they were asleep. And while my parents and everyone else thought I was absolutely ridiculous for having a crush on him, I actually have him to thank for introducing me to an album that would change the course of my history as I knew it. You see, this moment had the ability to either make me into a cutesy girly-girl for the rest of my life, or an emo girl forever…and I think at this point, we all know which one I chose.
It was as simple as me one day asking what his favorite band was. He immediately sent me a link to the song “Monument” by A Day to Remember. From that point on, I was done for. Absolutely hooked. I listened to every single song on the album repeatedly every single day. I mean it was literally so bad that my mother and sister once completely wiped the album off my iPod, only for me to rebuy every single song on iTunes again like it was nothing. I bought a pink Pacman themed A Day to Remember shirt. I started wearing skinny jeans even though I was chunky; and none of it had to do with my crush and had everything to do with feeling like I finally belonged somewhere. My dad even took me to see ADTR at my very first Warped Tour in…2011? Jesus, I’m getting old. We even made it into an online magazine together that day. And whatever happened to my crush you ask? He still comes around every once in a while, saying he should have given me a chance back then. I should reply by saying “You Should Have Killed Me When You Had the Chance,” but that’s a pun way too deep for anyone who’s not a true fan (my real friends know what I’m talkin’ about.)
To this day, For Those Who Have Heart still makes me feel like I’m hearing it for the very first time. If any song on that album plays anywhere, I immediately get 7 texts from my friends who know how much it means to me. I’ve even made it a point as an adult to see ADTR every time they come to town, and I’m 28 now. So I guess we really can say that it wasn’t just a phase, mom. My favorites are: Monument, the Danger in Starting a Fire, and You Should Have Killed Me When You Had the Chance.
Acceptance Speech
Alright, so let’s take it back to highschool. To Art 2D Honors with Mrs. Rose. Let’s take it back to about 16/17 year old me, sitting in the one class that actually meant something to me, wearing my t-shirts and jeans with my headphones in not saying a word to anybody. Once again, I’ve never fit in anywhere. That class was therapeutic to me for some reason, and so was Acceptance Speech, which had just dropped that year (2013.) Every single morning I’d sit at my table, sequestered away in the corner, and listen to Mrs. Rose’s instructions on what we had to draw. Once she’d walk away, like clockwork, I’d immediately turn on Acceptance Speech and listen to it front to back while I was drawing. I passed that class with maybe the highest A ever. To be honest, even more-so than For Those Who Have Heart, something about Acceptance Speech gave (and still gives me) hope. It made me feel like someone somewhere got me. I truly belong to that album, and it still truly belongs to me too. If the Matrix is real, my body is still plugged into that album, deriving the nutrients necessary to sustain my life. Okay, maybe a little dramatic, but you get it. In all seriousness though! Acceptance Speech in my opinion was the best era that Dance Gavin Dance has ever seen, as well as their most underrated album to date. It was their first comeback album with new lead singer Tilian Pearson (who is no longer in the band) and it is also the last album that I think really captures DGD’s melancholic, yet manic, here-at-one-moment-gone-at-another essence. It’s simply their best. Acceptance Speech embodies the word “frazzled.” It feels like an alien vs. robots takeover; or better yet, it feels almost as if you don’t know if you’re really even a human or an alien at all, in the absolute best way. From the lyricism, to the artistic vision it presents, to the fact that my favorite track “Honey Revenge” is rumored to be about adopting a cat (crazy, but definitely not outside of DGD’s realm) one thing is for sure: Acceptance Speech is just downright dope all around. But more than anything, one of the biggest reasons why it goes down as my favorite album of all time is because it tells a story. Nowadays, my biggest issue when it comes to music is the fact that it seems like everyone is trying to stand for something; and while there’s definitely a time and place for that, I often long for music that overrides all of that and does something entirely different and off the beaten path. That is exactly what Acceptance Speech does. It’s fucking artistic, and beautiful. I still remember seeing Dance Gavin Dance for the first time ever when they first dropped the album. It was the greatest live show I’ve ever seen to this day, and we all know I’ve been to way too many shows to make such a bold, powerful claim, but I stand by it. You just had to be there. My favorites are: Honey Revenge, Jesus H. Macy, and Carve.
One Last Thing…
I think that no matter what age or era of our lives we are at, sometimes all we need is a little reassurance about who we are and what really matters. So, if you all take one thing from this article, I hope that it’s this: when you strip yourself clean of everything that’s ever happened to you; when you take away everything that you have an opinion on; when you find yourself wondering what really matters to you… I hope that you have the courage to ask yourself who you are, really. And if you’re unsure of how to ask yourself that question, then start by putting on your favorite album and see where it takes you. I promise that the destination will be well worth it. Oh, and by the way…I know I said this wasn’t an interview, but actually, it is.
I may (or may not) have asked some of my closest friends and family which albums belonged to them, and I also may (or may not) have decided to include them in this article just to further prove my point. Thank you to everybody who participated, you have no idea how awesome it was to peek inside your brains (and hearts) and see what really matters to you!
Pete Cussell - “Hendrix in the West” by Jimi Hendrix
“Maybe the best Jimi Hendrix live album I’ve ever heard. You have to listen to it. It will blow your mind! A stack of Marshall Amps, a Fender Stratocaster, a Cry Baby Wah pedal, and a Little Fuzz distortion box. No tricks, just pure energy!”
CJ Cussell - “Passenger” by Mnemic
“I’ve followed Mnemic since their inception in Denmark around 2000…this album is one of the most organic/technical sounding releases of the 2000’s, with songwriting that could and should have been on the radio everywhere. Severely underrated band and album. I felt it was the perfect metal album, and it still holds up to this day.”
Janna Ursiny - “Invisible Touch” by Genesis or “One Bright Day” by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
“It’s the summer of 1992. Mom is in the kitchen cooking your grilled cheese and pickle with soup as the smell of lunchtime fills the air. To this day, if I hear either one of these albums that’s immediately where I am; I’m 5 again at home on summer vacation, just coming home from the pool with my brother. I see me and him jumping around on the couch in our underwear screaming all of the songs, still wet with chlorinated hair and skin. I even swore that the song “Black My Story” by Ziggy Marley said my name in it. I lost my mind every time I heard it as a kid!”
Theresa Cussell - “For the Roses” by Joni Mitchell
“Although there were many artists whose music I loved in my early teenage years, I think the one that rose above all of them for me was Joni Mitchell. I’m right-brained, so I’ve always loved and been good at reading and writing; all of Joni’s music is basically poetry put to song. She feels like a kindred spirit to me. So many of her songs stuck with me, but my favorite out of all of them was Free Man in Paris. “There is always somebody calling you down” is one of the lines from it. Can’t we all relate to that?”
Lexie Buchakijan - “Young and Hopeless” by Good Charlotte
“I was in elementary or middle school, and I don’t know what it was, but I just loved this album and that whole genre of music in general. I knew every single lyric to every single song. One time my friend Danielle and I went to see Good Charolette live, and we were the only 2 fans to scream out “FUCK!” during a song being played during the set. Everyone just stared at us! We were the only ones who really knew the song! But we didn’t care. I don’t listen to them much anymore, but I’ll always fuckin’ love them.”
Kyler Millo (ZYGOTIAN) - “Birtheater” by Oceana
“My best friend in high school put me onto this album. Ever since then, I’ve only ever included the chords used on Birtheater on every song I’ve ever written since. It’s neat. It holds a special place for me. I also love “Goodbye to the Gallows” by Emmure and “Nuclear Sad Nuclear” by The Number 12 Looks like you. Songwise, the songs that have influenced me the most are “I Love You and Goodbye” by Straight Reads the Line, Fear Before March of Flames, and “Two Birds, One Stone” (The Wes Borland Dub/Remix). I found that song on the Underworld soundtrack and couldn’t believe my middle school ears. The guitarist of Limp Bizkit not only knows who Drop Dead Gorgeous is, but remixed a song of theirs as well? AND it’s in a movie that’s out in theaters? It’s the coolest song I’ve ever heard, and it still influences everything I do. I follow it as a blueprint.”
Jailene Minaya - “Take Care” by Drake
“Idk, I have no skips when it comes to this album. I loved how he showed emotion on every song while it felt like every other artist at the time was talking about getting bitches or being rich. I can’t relate to having money, but I can most definitely relate to heartbreak. It’s just timeless in my opinion.”
Nickolette Moore - “Saosin” by Saosin
“Saosin was my first love. That whole album just spoke to me in a way that I can’t really describe. His voice just literally pierced my heart. Cove Reber was probably one of the first emo/indie singers to make me cry!”
Teddy James - “K.I.D.S.” by Mac Miller
“It was the most authentic Mac album before he got all messed up. It was THE album of high school.”
Ryan Buynak - "In Ear Park" by Department of Eagles
”I mean, out of respect, this type of question is best served in-person, preferably after too much coffee or ten too many well whiskeys; it is also such a daunting task to narrow it down, but the album that belongs to me is "In Ear Park" by Department of Eagles because it came to me out of nowhere, at the right time in my life, and no one else has ever heard of it. No joke, I have never met another soul who knows this work of art…and I work adjacent to the music business!”