Soundtrack of My Year So Far

Well, somehow 2015 is already half over. I could argue it's been the biggest year of my life, what with getting married to the girl of my dreams last month. It's at least certainly been the busiest year of my life. College, road trips, wedding planning, job hunting, growing up, bill paying, insurance, juggling priorities, playing in my (two) bands.

How does a twenty-three year old kid manage to keep sanity with all the daily insanity?

My easy answer is.... (big surprise)... MUSIC!

Every music fan has those songs that just connect, on a deep, essential level. Songs that seem written for you, or for important moments happening right now in your life, or that say things in just the right way to teach you powerful lessons. This is probably why I love music so much, why I spend so much time and attention to finding music: I'm looking for those songs that can bring me those powerful moments. And that, in turn, is why I want to make this blog: to share this with you, my friends.

Well, here's 10 of my favorite songs that have come out this year. Each has meant something special to me during the amazing and crazy events of this special year of my life.

Panda Bear - "Boys Latin"

Let's start this soundtrack with the song that sounds like January 2015 to me. When I hear the skittering drums and oozing synth in the beginning, I can literally hear my footsteps crunching in the snow with it in time. I can feel the whimsical feeling again of starting school again after four years. Maybe that's just the power of Panda Bear's boyish voice?

Young Fathers - "Rain or Shine"

Some quirky, lo-fi, genre-confounding R&B (or hip hop?) from February of this year. A confession: it took me a while after getting back from my mission to get really excited about discovering new music again. This album basically marked a turning point in that for me. Hearing this made me go, "Here's some fresh and risk-taking music I can sink my teeth into."

Father John Misty - "The Ideal Husband"

Transitioning from a mission to life at home is hard. For me, the hardest part was confronting my spiritual and personal weaknesses now that I was on their playing field again. This climactic song from Father John Misty's INCREDIBLE sophomore LP, I Love You, Honeybear, is about that sort of confrontation, showcasing Josh Tillman's incredible talent as a lyricist, "Telling people jokes to shut them up/Resenting people that I love/Sleeping till two then doing crap/Just stay in bed and later lie 'bout it." And to boot, it's in the context of anxiety about being "the ideal husband" or not.

Modest Mouse - "The Ground Walks, With Time In a Box"

Well, in spite of the challenges of balancing relationships with people, I've had amazing help me along every step of this  . Modest Mouse is a binding force between me and some of my best friends, meaning a lot to us. "The Ground Walks, With Time In a Box," while also proving that my high school heroes still have it, always makes me think of my best bros and how much I love them.

Kendrick Lamar - "The Blacker the Berry"

Another huge moment for my year so far musically and personally, here. Kendrick Lamar's masterpiece To Pimp A Butterfly shattered any lingering feelings that maybe music just couldn't do it for me like it used to. It also awoke in me a desire to figure out what I believe socially and politically, because, as Kendrick argues with throat-searing passion and tear-jerking realness, there are things going on in the world that need our attention. Is it okay if this song makes me tear up?

Joywave - "Nice House"

How are these guys not more popular than they are? "Nice House" has one of the best-written choruses of a song I've heard this year. It was my wife who deciphered the lyrics, which, after we figured them out, cemented the song's appeal to me. "There's a strange old man with a creepy coat in the bathroom peering up and down to the floor/I don't know him."

Shamir - "On the Regular"

Could 2015 have found a more representative artist? The 20-year old, gender- and genre-busting Shamir has at least one thing, beyond argument: charisma. It seems like he took a bunch of party balloons, breathed all that charisma into them over several days, and then just let them all go. This song is my summer of 2015 party jam.

Alabama Shakes - "Gimme All Your Love"

This song was my jam on the various road trips I took to California to see my bae. Speaking of whom, Rachel, my wife, is concerned that I have some sort of complex: I truly believe that I should've been born black. Whenever I hear the explosion of jazz organ in the chorus, it awakens something inside me that can only be what they call Soul. With hip hop helping excite me about music again this year.

Lupe Fiasco - "Mural"

Hot dang, Lupe. This dude knows how to spin a verse. Or two. Or nine. I don't remember the last artist to make me WANT to listen to nine verses of a song since Bob Dylan. This song has been with me through a lot of the same places as others on this list: road trips, snowy walks to campus, headphones playing video games for the first time in years. And, analogous to how Kendrick relegated this song and album to the "Underdog" bin in hip hop, this song has quietly stayed in my Spotify playlists, making me nod and scratch my head every time I hear it.

Sufjan Stevens - "Should've Known Better"

Lastly, I'm grateful for the role music plays in me and my wife's relationship. I love her showing me music that is important and fun for her, and I love sharing mine with her in turn. I showed her this song as I drove her to work in April. She woke right up from the drowsy, early morning grog she was taking and had me play it over and over again. Years from now, I know this song will remind us both of 2015