Random fun: CD project

One fun project that I did a while ago, is listening to all my CDs from A to Z (they’re all organized in alphabetic order by artists, and for each artist they are arranged chronologically). It took me a while to get through my entire collection (especially, since I am listening all of them on my stereo, as listening in the car doesn’t “count”, and whenever I buy a new CD, I need to listen to that one first and see if the CD plays correctly – I once bought a CD at a festival that didn’t play properly and the mere thought of it still bothers me after all these years). I am also streaming music much more than before, so that my time spent listening to CDs is less now.

When I drafted this post, I had reached the artist Nightwish. From when I was 17 until something like 24, they were my absolute total favorite band ever. I would wake up and listen to their music, sing a song of theirs in the shower, hum along with songs at school while I was supposed to pay attention in class, sing along out while making homework and watch some of their live performances on computer at night. I had their songs playing in the back of my head constantly, especially the songs of the first 4 albums: Angels fall first, Oceanborn (my favorite – I used to wander along on forums on the interwebz with the nickname oceanborn), Wishmaster and then Century Child (which I already liked less). Those 3 first albums, and especially Oceanborn hit a nerve for me – it was music that moved every single fiber of my body. I loved the combination of the speedy metal and the wonderful voice of Tarja Turunen. I wanted to grow up and become Tarja. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate Wishmaster more, and still often play Wanderlust (which is totally my theme song) in my car at an annoying volume.

As I revisited all the CDs, I had a lot of memories coming back. I was listening to the song “The carpenter” from the Angels Fall First album, and I can just see the video clip of this song in front of my eyes, and of course I know all the lyrics by heart. It is very nice in its melody, and it’s about the life of Jesus. That’s where they took the title “the carpenter” from, in case you didn’t figure that out yet. One of the lines of the lyrics in the song says: “why was the wine of the grail too sour for men to drink?” I used to have that one written over my coursebooks in school. I had my schoolbooks covered in colorful paper, and then I wrote lyrics and quotes over it in shiny silver pen: song lyrics, quotes from Nietzsche, Brecht, Marx, Bakunin and all my favorite leftist thinkers.

Today, I’d like to invite you to revisit one album that you really liked during your formative years, and take a trip down memory lane.