mimimusic

This morning, I woke up to the first snowfall of this coming winter. Looking out the winter, trapped in the warmth of my dorm, I gravitated towards my Christmas music playlist but it felt wrong. I believe I am still a “no Christmas music before thanksgiving” person, and now that there is snow on the ground I still find this true. Looking out the window at the vast white existence manifested a melancholy feeling in me. I immediately knew the perfect song.

Mrs Magic by Strawberry Guy, an atmospheric, gloomy yet dreamy song that makes me feel like I’m in a main character montage in an indie film. There are so many songs that fit under that exact description, but Mrs Magic stands out to me. I don’t know why, but it does. It makes me want to walk through the falling snow, watch it hit my face, feel it melt. It’s just such a dreamy song. Feelings like you are floating.

My freshman year fall. Here are some of my picks for the soundtrack of my freshman year here at MSU. (subjective to change)

- Fade Into You, Mazzy Star

- Open Season, High Highs

- Andromeda, Weyes Blood

- Dreams, The Cranberries

- Mirrorball, Taylor Swift

- Everlong, Foo Fighters

- Can’t Be Sure, The Sundays

- The Greatest, Lana Del Rey

- 1979, Smashing Pumpkins

- How to Disappear, Lana Del Rey

- I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes), Chet Baker

Open Season is a song I always feel like I forget about, but when I rediscover it, all emotions related to autumn come flooding back to me. This song to me is walking down a trail while the trees turn to the brown and reds I’ve come to crave every year when September hits. This song is fall. I don’t know how else to put it. The guitar, the light vocals--it’s perfect. 

The way I found this song was by watching my favorite movie, Pitch Perfect. I think when Pitch Perfect came out, I was about 8 years old, and I remember my family went to go see it in the theater and my dad was laughing so hard the whole time. Obviously being 8 years old, I didn’t understand a lot of the jokes, but the musical impact the movie had on me was insane. I literally went home and started to make my own mashups in my music notebook and had my friends over to try to teach them my a capella compositions that made absolutely no sense. Pitch Perfect might be my favorite movie because of this memory. I became so excited about music and performing music after watching this movie, and it continues to excited me since I now am in an a capella group in college. It quite literally is structured like pitch perfect. And I love it. 

Ah, Mama Cass. 

Mama Cass’ voice is like the color burgundy. Like if I had to paint a wall to the color of this song, it would be a deep, rich burgundy but not so rich and heavy that it suffocates you. Just dark enough to make you sad while you look out a window. 

‘Didn’t Want To Have To Do It’ is a cover of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1966 song of the same title. The original version is good, but Mama Cass just does it better. There is just so much more melancholy and depth when Mama Cass croons over the simple guitar instrumental and it makes the song 10x better than it already is.

 I absolutely love the genre of 60s sad guitar ballads, always having a little bit of twang but not enough to be full on country. Hey, a lil bit of twang never hurt no body. But I’m no country connoisseur. To be completely candid, if I’m going to listen to “country”, it has to be a female country artist. I only dabble in Dolly, Kacey, and maybe Carrie.