The thrilling sensation of feeling the brisk air smack against your bare cheeks is the same as the impression the tune of a song has when it makes the hair on your arms stand up.
Good music and gentle weather can bring can overwhelm you with nostalgia. Music is supposed to make you feel just as powerful as the weather. Ben Howard, the talented English singer-songwriter, brought me immense feelings with his second, ten-track album, I Forget Where We Were.
‘Small Things’, the first song off the album, captivated me with the first note. The beat was enchanting and after I listened to it about a dozen times, I searched the lyrics and immediately fell in love with every bit of the song. The words were so interesting to analyze into my own interpretation. That’s my favorite part about good music—being able to create personal understandings of the story behind the song, and sharing the meaning with others who might have different interpretations.
A few songs off the album, such as ‘Rivers In Your Mouth’, ‘Conrad’, and ‘Time is Dancing’, all sound like the beginning of an XX song, but with a Ben Howard twist. Songs that somehow sound similar to the music of other artists (whether they are the same genre or not) make me feel giddy. It makes me believe that my favorite bands or artists purposely collaborated to make me fall in love with music even more.
The third song on the album as well as the title track, ‘I Forget Where We Were’, immediately sounded like an old classic rock song. It was slightly different than the music from Howard's first album, Every Kingdom, but that’s what I loved the most. Change can be both good and bad, and in Ben Howard’s case, it was excellent.
‘In Dreams’ gave off more of an upbeat singer-songwriter vibe, and it made me feel like I was on an adventure. At the start, I did not really connect with the tune or the lyrics. After replaying a few times, I noticed my head bob to the tune at some points during the song, and that’s when I realized I judged too much too soon.
‘She Treats Me Well’ alarmed me at first, because it began with immediate drum playing. Then, it slid into a gentle, flowing beat with lyrics that made me think of my life as a movie. It was one of those songs that you could envision yourself traveling on a train, looking out the window at the colorful trees and dim lit sky, towards an unknown destination.
My favorite song off this album is, without a doubt, ‘Evergreen’. The hair on my arms stood up not just because I had my window open and there was a autumn breeze flowing through my room, but, because of the first twenty seconds of the song. The beginning set off with a mysterious vibe with a delayed singing introduction. The best music is music that can hypnotize you, and that’s exactly what this song did. While his voice grew deeper with each word he sang, it seemed like he was falling into a hole in slow motion. It was as if I had to grow bigger ears to listen and follow him down the hole in order to really connect with him while he sang.
‘End Of The Affair’, to me, is one of those songs that is added to a “crying playlist”. We all have one of those, and you are lying if you say otherwise. I will admit that I most definitely do. We’re human, and we have things bottled up inside of us that desperately need to be let out. This song is one of those you listen to while you cry your heart out. Sometimes crying can be refreshing, and this song is one of those that will never get old.
After listening to ‘All Is Now Harmed’a few times, I have come to the conclusion that this song is one of those underrated songs you might not listen to that much even though it is really, really good. You know when you listen to an album, and you very much enjoy the first couple of songs, so you replay them a dozen times and sometimes never make it to the end of the album? This song is that; this song is just so good. There’s no real explanation for this, other than the fact that it is incredible.
Admittedly, I judge songs by the title. I pick out the ones I think will be my favorite, and while I listen to each one, I figure out which ones I actually do and do not like. Although I did judge half of these songs by their titles, and it took me a few days after the album release to actually listen to it, I realized I totally and completely was in love with this new autumn album. I Forget Where We Were is the type of album that can make you forget about reality for a little while.
Written by: Kelly Peacock
Photo belongs to Ben Howard
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