54 lines
3.3 KiB
HTML
54 lines
3.3 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
<html lang='en'>
|
||
<head>
|
||
<title>gome — Illinois</title>
|
||
<meta charset='utf-8'/>
|
||
<meta name='theme-color' content='#efe5d7'>
|
||
<meta name='viewport' content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, shrink-to-fit=no'/>
|
||
<link rel='icon' type='image/x-icon' href='../favicon.ico'>
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='../css/fonts.css'/>
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='../css/style.css'/>
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<header id='header'>
|
||
<nav>
|
||
<a href='..'>back to gomepage</a>—<a href='.'>journal</a>
|
||
</nav>
|
||
</header>
|
||
<main>
|
||
<article>
|
||
<h1 id='title'>My relationship with <i>Illinois</i></h1>
|
||
<time datetime='Tue, 6 Dec 2022 21:30:00 CST'>6 Dec. 2022, 9:30 PM</time>
|
||
<p>
|
||
There are a lot of albums I like so much that I couldn’t pick a favorite from among them.
|
||
Every one does something so unique that it doesn’t really make sense to order them in the first place.
|
||
However, <i>Illinois</i> by Sufjan Stevens has a reasonable claim on the title of my favorite album by virtue of the length and depth of my relationship with it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<img src='img/illinois.webp' width='400' height='400' />
|
||
<p>
|
||
I first heard <i>Illinois</i> when I was in middle school.
|
||
My brother, a college student at the time, played it for me on a car trip, and I remember being immediately impressed.
|
||
The quirky instrumentation and bright colors and textures of it really didn’t sound like anything I had heard before.
|
||
At that time my own taste in music was still developing, and I listened to a lot of things back then I have no interest in revisiting.
|
||
Sufjan Stevens is one of the few artists I enjoy as much (more, probably) today as I did back then.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
One of the many benefits of having a big family is that music gets passed around among siblings.
|
||
Once an album becomes a favorite among the family, it becomes a distinct piece of family culture.
|
||
It takes on more context and dimensionality than it would if you only listened to it on your own.
|
||
<i>Illinois</i> is a prime example of this.
|
||
It continued to work its way through so many periods of my life, partially because I kept coming back to it, and partially because my siblings’ shared enjoyment of it kept it alive in my musical consciousness.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
Now, each song in the album carries connotations and nostalgia from across my personal history.
|
||
I can summon distinct feelings of each song being with me & there for me in different eras, times at which they were particularly meaningful, people I bonded with over them.
|
||
In so many ways, I’ve changed so much in the nearly 15 years <i>Illinois</i> has been in my life, but the album itself provides a tone of emotional continuity across that gap.
|
||
It’s a beautiful thing music can do, something I’ll always be grateful for, and something no other album can do for me in quite the same way.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
Have you heard <i>Illinois</i>? Do you like it?
|
||
Do you have another album that does something like this for you?
|
||
Let me know your thoughts at my Ctrl-C email: <code>gome<span style='user-select: none;'> ​</span>@<span style='user-select: none;'> ​</span>ctrl-c.club</code>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</article>
|
||
</main>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html>
|