REBEKAH GREEN
PRIDE STAFF WRITER

November makes me nostalgic, but not just for music of my distant past. These songs may not seem like they belong together at first listen, but each track gives a sense of memory, love, loss and hope.

Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies)” depicts how sleep can be an excuse to get away from the realities of our lives. It fits well with the themes that I get from their album Funeral – the dramatic and often sad switch from childhood to adulthood and how the way we see things back then seem to twist around completely as we get older. It’s definitely nostalgic and emotional but still keeps some of the heaviness upbeat and fun.

Feist’s “1 2 3 4” manages to sound happy and almost playful while dealing with issues of time and how fickle the heart can be when it remembers love.

“A Thread Cut with a Carving Knife” by Stars tells the stories of four different people in three different situations (romantic, troubling, etc.) and shows how no matter who you are or what you’ve been through, life is indeed unpredictable and as fragile as a thread.

Coldplay’s “Paradise” sparks a sense of escaping the harshness of reality and finding comfort in your own paradise. It definitely makes you feel as though you are being lifted out of your life and you are given four minutes and 39 seconds to hide away in a paradise of your own.

The Beatles’ “Let It Be” is an exception on this list as a song that can literally take you back to the past to when you would hear it on the radio or on your parents’ favorite albums. This track is nostalgia and hope wrapped up in one of the most memorable songs I know.

The acoustic version of “Hysteric” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs is a very calming, almost lullaby-like song, and it speaks of the realization a person has when they find someone who they feel “completes” them.

Considering how they tend to have sad or slow songs at the end of their albums, you can imagine my surprise as to how upbeat and hopeful Death Cab For Cutie’s song “Stay Young, Go Dancing” is from their newest album Codes and Keys. It’s like a daydream in song form, depicting the anxiousness of new beginnings in love and in life.