The Indefatigability Playlist

I think, generally, everyone loves music.

It's our solace, our panacea, our getaway, and it can be a powerful well of strength to draw from. Music means a lot of things to a lot of people, and can be experienced in just as many ways. Some are eclectic listeners, right? They pluck and pick at all different kinds of genres without care to anything other than the sound and the feeling of it. Some are steadfast; traditional even, in their listening tastes that date back to what their parents listened to or the music of their region/country/etc. Others are quite particular about their tastes while others are less so. We all have different experiences with music and that is a fabulous truth.

Myself . . . I think I best fit into the eclectic listening category? I have tried anything I hear about or come across once or twice. Some things it took just 20 seconds for me to fall in love with, some things I recoiled from in one minute- it's a different thing every time. There are some artists I only enjoy one song from, others I've followed for years, and some I go back and forth on. Some songs I can go months, maybe even years not listening to but when I finally experience them again it's like slipping into a well-loved, worn and cozy hoodie . . .

Some songs though . . . some hit something within me and attaches to it. They imbed themselves into my skin like laugh lines, burrow even deeper into my flesh and nicks the bone underneath to carve out for itself a hallowed home. They are songs that are on at least two of my dozens of playlists, that I don't go more than a couple days or a week without hearing because I can't not listen to them. Songs that never get old, never get tired or trite-- and these are the songs going on my indefatigability playlist!

1. "All Along The Watchtower" - A classic hit from Jimi Hendrix, that a lot of people might recognize given its use in quite a few films. Jimi Hendrix is one of the greatest Rock 'n Roll legends in history with an amazing story albeit a tragic end. I don't think there's anything that can top his rendition of the star-spangled banner! This cool vibe and amazing guitar solo make it a must for summer playlists and drives down dusk-backed roads.

2. "Maybe We're Home" - Lewis Watson is one of those artists who I've not listened to a ton of work from, but this song has always stuck to me despite everything. I heard it first while changing into the uniform of my job, the song playing low over the locker room stereo system and giving me a little calm before heading into the rush of a dinner shift. He's got a really soothing voice that helps uplift me, and therefore earns a spot on this playlist.

3. "Fly Away" - A song virtually unknown to anybody that hasn't watched the amazing anime Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. It's on the OST and is the theme music for the transformation of the two titular angels Panty and Stocking. Yes, that is their actual names that everyone in that show calls them. Yes, it is a weird show. The song, however, is upbeat and so much fun! I can never listen to it and not remember in perfect clarity the transformation the angels undergo and how wonderfully sinful it all is. It just makes me feel . . . powerful, and playful, and a little like I can rock stilettos (a dangerous notion to entertain in any other situation). I skip this song every couple of months then come back to it and listen at least twice a day for a couple months, and the cycle goes like that.

4. "Ocean Drive" - This EDM hit from Duke Dumont just . . . I don't know it does something to me. It's the lyrics, a sort of recklessly wonderful night mingled with the melancholy that chases you. It's the beautiful visuals of the music video. It's the fact that the melody is not overly complicated or too fussy, just beautifully dark and steady and I get this feeling like I should be driving through a city of pleasurable vices at night, windows down to feel the blustery, almost cold winds that herald the approach of a storm. It gives me the feeling of there being a secret being within me just waiting to upend the town, and I love that. This is a favorite for summer night drives or vacations.

5. "Adore You" - Ah, yes, the Harry Styles hit. Harry Styles is certainly a big name in the industry but he was never really on my radar until I acquired a particularly sweet stan of his as my coworker at a new job. She pushed, and pushed, and eventually I caved and let this be the first song I listened to . . . and now I'm listening to this joint at least twice a week.

6. "Leave Out All The Rest" - My middle school years consisted almost solely of My Chemical Romance and, the band responsible for this beautiful song, Linkin Park. Chester's vocals just hit different when I was a confused kid being ravaged by the woes of puberty and uncontrollable, inescapable hormonal growth. Mike's raps were great on exciting days, kind of aggressive days but Chester? He was a constant siren to me, whether he be crooning some low and angst-edged lyric, or when he was screaming to wake the dead ("Given Up" was my shiiit for years!) It's so heart wrenching, and a heavy song to bear like some brick of emotion that presses insistently, firmly on your chest. A song that can inspire such emotion in me is a never ending classic. It gets major plays during storms (a very common occurrence here in Florida) and to turn my thoughts around when I start getting, like, way too self-deprecating.

7. "80s Remix: Somebody that I used to Know" - So this is actually a 'fan-made' remix to the 2011 song, by the Youtube account TRONICBOX, but boy it is my most played song out of this whole list. This song came into my life in the Fall of 2018, one of the most important, and quite honestly wonderful, times in my quarter of a century. This song was the background to what I think might have been the first fancam debuted on Facebook . . . ? I'm not sure what exactly it was, but it featured clips from season three of Stranger Things and was perfect in its amount of Steve Harrington offered. Ever since, I haven't gone longer than two days without listening to it.

8. "Wasteland" - 10 years didn't just perform this . . . they worked this. I want to simultaneously headbang and wail along this, but also do some cheap, whirling imitation of waltzing to this song. Should I? Could I? Ugh, I just love this song. I heard it as a kid, before there were apps to help you find songs with just a whimper of a hummed tune to help and therefore was stuck in perpetual limbo always thinking about this song yet never remembering enough lyrics to make Youtube helpful in my search. When I did find it, I probably spent about an hour looping it in my sublime joy and sorrow.

9. "The Ghost of You" - Anyone who was/is an My Chemical Romance fan probably clocked that title immediately. Do you remember the WWI music video? The deathly pale skin Gerard used to have, the inky black hair and seemingly permanent haunted shadows around his eyes? I owned Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and gathered a few more of their albums, and loved so many of the songs that were jeeringly, darkly crooned to me! Something about this song though . . . something about it plucked at my heart so differently than the rest . . . something in the almost sad lead of the guitar before Gerard comes out quiet and strong, is beautiful.

10. "Can You Feel My Heart" - I'm not sure but I think Bring Me The Horizon is kind of a hit or miss band for a lot of people. Which, sure enough, I had missed all the hype about them when they were first coming up. I didn't know anything about them or Oli Sykes or, really anybody associated, until I just so happened to be recommended Sempiternal by Youtube during HHN 2018. I was a masked killer scrolling through hour long mixes or playlists to occupy myself during my "shift" on stage before the next cast switch when I was entranced by the pretty golden geometric pattern of the album art and decided to give it a whirl. Man the way this song begins with pounding drums and something almost like a siren of alarm before crashing into the full sound is awesome. It was imbedded into my brain then, the downswing of my plastic butcher knife paired with the dips and roars of the rhythm of the song.

Well there it is, the playlist of songs that will never, ever, leave my mind! I've got plenty more playlists I'll probably share with you but these are a good starting point and hopefully at least one will be a new experience for you.