We Call it Mattresses Underwater

So I wanted to let everyone know that I'm in love...absolutely, head over heels in love...with music. I've always known it, I have. But I didn't really appreciate my feelings for it until last night.

I was driving home from Provo (about 45 minutes from where I live) where I had just finished up a great hike and dinner with some new friends. The drive home really wasn't making me excited, I had a headache, I was tired and it was late. To make matters worse, my iPod died on my way there, and my favorite Taking Back Sunday CD (the only CD in my car) was scratched to a point that I would rather have listened to nails on a chalkboard. So what am I to do with no CD's and no iPod? My last option...the radio.

I never listen to the radio. NEVER. Silence usually sounds far more interesting than listening to the top 40's and the never ending commercials in between. But when you're about to fall asleep at the wheel, you do what you gotta do. So I turned on the radio, inviting the same repetitious beat to attempt to entertain my ears. First song that came on made me almost instantly regret my decision. I wanted to pull over and look for a straggler CD that had accidentally slipped under the seat and became forgotten. But it was late, and I was in a town that I didn't know so I endured through Kelly Clarkson from way back when. A few good songs came on that I truly enjoyed, you can never go wrong with Phoenix and Adele. But one song, that I haven't heard in years, came on, and it flooded me with memories. 'Apologize' by OneRepublic. It was a song that was so overplayed yet you always had to listen to it the whole way thru and of course sing along.

When I heard this song, I could remember the specific places I was at with certain people. I could remember the countless jam sessions we had to the song out in service. And I could definitely remember the time somebody turned the radio to a station where the song was just beginning and everyone groaning and complaining because we had to listen to it AGAIN. But I started thinking how it's kind of crazy how music can have such an impact. Sometimes it can be a good thing or a bad thing.

'Apologize' for instance had both effects. Only because it came out when I was having a great time in Florida, but it was around the time when I also moved to Utah. So I have mixed feelings about the song. When my iPod is on shuffle and 'Brat Pack' by The Rocket Summer comes on, I have no choice but to listen to it because it makes me so happy, no matter how much the song annoys me now! When I hear Red Jumpsuit Apparatus I instantly think about going to Vans Skate Park with the boys, and then heading to Jimmy's afterward with some Boston Market and watching re-runs of 'Ninja Warrior'. When I hear Sara Barrellis "Little Voice" album I cringe... I was obsessed with the album when we were moving to Utah. When it was my turn to pick the CD that's what I put in. I'm surprised my dad didn't throw it out the window somewhere in Georgia. I just get super uncomfortable when I hear any song on that album. I think of how miserable I was the whole road trip there, about a friend of mine that I can't talk to, about how lonely I felt. No wonder why I can't stand listening to it!! But when I listen to a certain song, it's just as if I'm reading an entry out of a diary, or looking into a photo album.

I love music for the very reason that it's my diary with no pages or words. No matter how many times I move and how many diaries and journals get lost in the transition, I will always have a song that will hold the images, feelings and even scents of a moment in my life.

Side note: Currently I have one song that is my obsession, and that is "Mattresses Underwater" by Colour Revolt. The band in general is amazing (I highly recommend to anyone reading this that they check em out) but the song is mind blowing. When you first hear it, you might not think there is anything special about it, but give it a few listens. It's a brilliant song.

Mattresses Underwater- Colour Revolt