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You ever get angry at yourself for not being aware of something that is *extremely* your kinda shit that has been going for a while? Well, that how I feel about @perfectsoundpod (Thread)
In this podcast, James Acaster talks about albums released in 2016 that helped him recover from his breakdown. He has a thesis that 2016 is the greatest year for music. In each episode, he selects one album and tries to convince a guest to agree with his thesis.
He owns over 600 albums from 2016 and his selection ranges from Japanese Folk-Indie-Jazz-Funk to Math Rap. It’s helped me discover some pretty gnarly albums that I didn’t know existed.
But the real reason why this podcast resonates with me is because I had a breakdown at the end of 2015. At that point, I was a bit out of touch with music that was being released at the time. Up until around 2009, I was hungry to discover new music for most of my life.
Life in 2016 for me ended up being one of my favourite years I’ve ever lived in as things in my life started looking positive. Coincidentally when I was recovering from my breakdown during 2016, I started discovering music that I had missed out on.
Though I don’t necessarily agree with his thesis (a lot of my favourite music I was discovering that year was mostly released in 2014), it does show you the healing power of good art.
Not even just re-listening to those albums, but thinking back about those times when I did discover that music, I feel it does release serotonin. Possibly it is a feeling of nostalgia (even though it was only 5 years ago). But hand on heart, I really need that feeling these days!
I love the idea that, not only does good music provide a ‘soundtrack’ to significant moments in your life; but it’s actually front and centre and instrumental (forgive the pun) to those events. Yes, discovering great music *can* be an event. Just like a great film. Or a book etc.
Anyway, I think I was supposed to talk about @perfectsoundpod but I ended up rambling. So apologies for annoying anyone’s timeline. I really recommend listening to it.
Over time, I might keep revisiting this thread and talk about any recentish albums that I may have slept on in the spirit of Acaster’s pod.
