Ocean Spray Vibes

There is a delicate balance between nostalgia and wanderlust that, if struck correctly, creates a lucid strain of peace inside of me. This is how I learned meditation is not an act, but a feeling—one that, like all feelings, can be elicited, refined…curated, like a mixtape. And being the music-lover I am, this analogy makes perfect sense to me; from a young age, I’ve associated specific songs with specific feelings, foods, or even friends.

This curator’s mindset evolved alongside me, and in my 20’s I became obsessed with creating playlists that were laser-focused on a very specific emotion, image, and/or thought. Once I find a playlist muse, everything down to the title of my collection is carefully chosen in service of her; songs are vetted intensely with constant listening, analysis of correlations, and the search for key sounds, rhythms, and lyrical motifs. As of 2021, I’ve made many playlists on Spotify in this way that range across all subjects & genres—from the electronic emptiness of “Doom in the Tomb” to the ominous Gothicism of "Horror in the Hood”—each capturing a small, layered vignette-style study of my emotional life story.

Enter “Ocean Spray Vibes:” a playlist I created in March of 2021, roughly one year after the Coronavirus shut down Oregon, along with life as I was beginning to understand it. The muse of this playlist came not from a profound experience or philosophical rumination…but TikTok. This was where I found a viral video of a man gliding on his skateboard, listening to “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac as he drinks from a jug of Ocean Spray. Looking at it now, it’s easy for me to understand why it went viral; there’s a sort of hypnotically-idyllic quality to it, one I imagine speaks to many people. It’s both calming and also dynamic, yet when watching it, you sense no dichotomy…everything about it is constantly in the process but always at peace, moving but perfectly still, in flux but still flowing.

Okay, I’ll just come out and say it: it’s meditative. TRULY meditative, too—not the stereotypical depiction of someone cross-legged on a yoga mat, chanting. It’s the visual and aural depiction of letting life wash over you, of perceiving the universe's machinations without letting them disturb your inner peace. And so naturally, in a time where life is currently throwing alllll the machinations at me and so many others, I was drawn to capture that feeling in the form of a playlist, to help me (and maybe others) through that very process.

Naturally, the foundation of the playlist had to be “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. It's a smooth-but-somber song about a lover’s dismay in realizing their imminent fate of loneliness, loss, and heartbreak. On the surface, it’s a calming track with a steady pulse, but in reality, it depicts an internal emotional storm—in some ways literally with words like “thunder only happens when it’s raining.” I wondered what songs had a similar instrumental palette that also mirrored this strange contrast, and immediately I thought of “Every Breath You Take” by the Police: a dark ode to obsession and stalking, that cunningly masks its face with a moving beat and platitudinous love language like “you belong to me”—language that, in context, has a much more sinister tone than ‘face value.’ (It’s a ruse so effective that I’ve been told about people playing it at their weddings—how ironic!) Once I had that second song, I knew I could find more…and so began the process of adding, culling, refining, comparing, and most importantly, listening.

I’m still working on the playlist today, but honestly, all of my “emotional playlists” will always be in progress—as long as my life is in progress, that is. I’ve found some beautiful additions to the “Ocean Spray Vibes” aesthetic, including (but not limited to):

• “Days to Remember” by Video Age

• “Lipstick” by Ariel Pink

• “Sacrifice” by Elton John, and

• “Metamodernity” by Vansire

This muse is admittedly pretty hard to please; as you can imagine, dear reader, not many tunes fit the tempo, instrumental palette, vocal mixing, and lyrical contrast I’m seeking. Oftentimes, songs sit on the precipice because they fit *most* of the qualities, but severely lack one of them; for example, I want nothing more than to include “Holding Back the Years” by Simply Red, but it’s much, much slower than the rest of the songs, which keeps me from being fully satisfied with its place in the mix. A little variance is good, but how much is too much when you’re cultivating such a specific vibe? I know I don’t have the answer, but honestly, that’s a good thing…after all, it’s why I seek them in the first place.

Please check out the playlist! It’s set as “collaborative,” so feel free to add anything you think might fit the vibe! Just keep in mind that I may not keep *all* the recommendations, and of course, it’s nothing personal. It’s just…you know the vibes.