What music do you listen to that (still) provokes an emotional reaction? Is there a story there? What emotion does it provoke?

Here’s a few works that resonate for me, along with the emotions or feelings they incite…if I can name them.

• Layla - Derek and the Dominos.
  • Nostalgia - Mostly the piano-driven second part of the song.
• This Woman’s Work - Kate Bush.
  • Melancholy. I’m trying to remember, this may be one of the few songs that’s provoked tears. It feels silly a bit silly to admit, but I really do love it.
• Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush
• Something - The Beatles.
  • Wistfulness.
• Before & After Science - Brian Eno.
  • Otherworldiness, dreaming. I’ve listened to this album while on the edge of sleep so many times that repeated listens feel like a dream.
• Lost In The Dream - The War On Drugs.
  • Calm, searching. Once, when I was on a plane, I thought I was having an allergic reaction to accidentally ingesting a peanut and I began to have a panic attack thinking I was going to die alone (away from family and friends) on that plane. I turned on this album and somehow managed to talk myself down (it turns out the symptoms of a panic attack and an allergic reaction overlap considerably). Since then, I’ve realized that my body has developed some association with this album such that from the first few moments I turn it on, all my muscles untense and I automatically relax. And perhaps the dopamine hits.
• Texas River Song - Little Mazarn.
  • Tranquility, transcendence. The drones in this song are beautiful and melodic. I once listened to this while sitting on the porch of a rural cabin in the middle of the woods, while the wind whistled through the trees and played with the drone. It was a transcendent moment.

alright, i’m done connecting with my feelings. it’s unmanly. Y’all’s turn.