More Songs That Make Me Feel More Alive

It's been six years since I posted my article Songs That Make Me Feel Alive Again. The songs in that list certainly still hold up and serve as a time capsule for what I was dealing with and how I was feeling at that moment in time. But the best thing about music is that people keep making it. There's so much new music as well as old music that's new to me. It continues it's pursuit of filling and fueling me and making me feel emotions I can't even give names to. So, to honor my original article's fifth birthday (which I actually think is in September, but disregard), here are more songs that make me feel more alive. In no particular order...

1. Man in the Field by Noah Cyrus

I'm starting off strong, and---honestly---we may be peaking too early here. However, I cannot wait to talk about this song, because I genuinely believe this is the most well-written song of this decade, if not this century. The way that Noah presents the narrative of the man in such a distant yet intimate way is truly soul-shaking and brings a tear to my eye. I also believe that Noah, evidenced both on her most recent album and the one just before, is one of this decade's (if not century's) best songwriters. Her ability to paint a picture, tell a story, and make it feel both fresh and nostalgic is truly an incredible talent. This song also has personal meaning to me, so it is a cathartic listening experience. It's near impossible to pick a favorite from this album, but this one does take the cake.

2. Whisper by A Fine Frenzy

Speaking of nostalgia, A Fine Frenzy takes me straight into a 2000s bedroom, lying on a patch of carpet that the sun has warmed through the window. Like some insist that certain songs are made to be heard on vinyl, I feel as if this song needs to be listened to via iPod Nano. Alison of A Fine Frenzy has a way of building a tension that releases so beautifully in the chorus of this song. It truly feels like a whisper that transforms into a free and wild yell. This song makes me feel a power in peace. It's almost like a lullaby in the way it can so easily soothe. The lyrics speak of expectation and pressure, yet they culminate in an easy and flowing admission of wanting to be enough at her weakest. I can relate to this feeling as I feel many of us can.

3. California by Joni Mitchell

At the risk of sound like a cringy millennial (I'm Gen Z), I think I must be in my soft girl era. These first three songs exude power and confidence but only through the admission of weakness and vulnerability. They share stories of what they've gone through and how it has led them to this song and this feeling. California is no different. Joni describes her journeys and ultimately her longing to return home from those journeys. Her pleading to the state to take her as she is despite the ways she has changed (and not changed) is a cry I can relate to. At the end of the day, don't we all just want to be loved for and despite ourselves? Wanting a grounding and a home after sowing wild oats is such a resonating sentiment to me, and to hit it home with Joni's beautiful, quirky vocals takes this song to new heights.

4. Let It Happen by Tame Impala

Okay, now I'm switching things up. It's not only gorgeous, melodic ballads that drill feeling into the icy surface of my heart, mind, and soul. Sometimes it takes a different approach to penetrate and infiltrate and make me go, "Oh, wow." Let It Happen is that. It's nearly eight whole minutes of electricity and beats, sometimes slipping into a softer side and then coming right back into a beat that borders right outside of alarm clock territory. It's persuasive---I don't know what I should be letting happen, but I know for sure that I want to. It's a late-night car ride song, it's a a club song, it's a treadmill or weight lifting song. It does its duty double-time. In the portions where it drops to a slower, simpler beat, it appeals to the emotions and meets you where you are. It lets you know that it understands you and that even you can still let loose and let go. It makes me want to drive one hundred miles per hour on the freeway, but I won't.

5. Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden

Let's bring it back down, but not all the way. This song has grit and harshness and energy like the previous, but in a more resigned way. It makes me feel warm yet isolated. I want to ascend into the atmosphere when this song plays. My best friend and I both have songs that instantly go onto any shared playlist we make---hers, Bulls on Parade, mine, Black Hole Sun. The instrumentation makes me go somewhere between Squidward's Tiki Land and a dimly lit bar bathroom. I have never been under the influence of drugs, but why would I need to when this song exists? I'm a huge lyric person when it comes to music, but I'll be honest---I'm not super sure what this song is about. And you know what? I don't need to, it speaks to me anyway. Both daunting and renewing, this song is a never-skip for me.

6. Remember When by Wallows

Nostalgia seems to be a recurring theme here, a main motivation in why I feel the way I do. Sometimes the nostalgia doesn't even connect with a certain time, event, or person---simply the feeling of before, of going back. Remember When has the typical surfer rock sound of many Wallows' songs, but the fast tempo and concise lyrics make it feel like we're in a rush to go nowhere. Like we're on a rollercoaster but the drop has already happened. It doesn't even necessarily have a chorus, the melodic guitar riff taking the place and eventually gaining lyrics in addition. The story is nostalgic, tense, confused, regretful, but builds to an optimistic and almost expectant conclusion---do you remember when? The messily chanted riff creates a whirlwind of memory to get lost inside. It feels like perfect summer day and a goodbye all at once.

7. seven by Taylor Swift

I know that everyone has their personal opinions about Taylor Swift, but no one has ever understood me the way Taylor understands me in seven. Appropriately placed at number seven on this list, this is a song about an everlasting kind of childlike love, in the sense of its innocence not its maturity. Those opening piano notes bring tears to my eyes just thinking of the spun narrative to come. Taylor describes a relationship that will build a love to be passed on for generations, a love of protection and peace. The lyric about the friend coming to live safely with the speaker where they can play pretend and not have to be afraid and hide away from the world is so potent and playful all at once. I implore those who question Taylor's talent to give her entire folklore album a listen. This is but one example of an album full of masterpieces. This song in particular, though, gives me such a hope and bone-deep longing that can be described through music or poetry.

8. Scott Street by Phoebe Bridgers

Alright, take a deep breath and prepare. If you've ever heard Scott Street, you know what's coming. If you haven't, get ready. A poignant ballad about change, failure, reflecting, love, and loss, Scott Street is one of the best songs ever composed. I'm making a lot of bold claims today, but I wholeheartedly mean them. This is the kind of music that reminds you what music can really be, what it's capable of. It should feel repetitive as Phoebe sets up the back and forth between herself and then between her and an ex-lover, but it never gets stale. And then it opens up. All she does is sing somes "ooh"s over and over, but the instrumentation speaks volumes. It's like we can see into her mind and her idealization and what could have been and what could still be. The addition of background noises like a train horn, a bicycle bell, a telephone feel both past and present. The repeated sentiment of "Don't be a stranger" becomes a command, a plea, a mantra, an offhanded comment, a prayer, a wish. This song does so much with so little. It's beautiful to the ears and the heart. Feeling so much of something---even if it's a "bad" feeling, like sadness or longing or regret---is imperative to feeling alive.

9. Like I do by Tate McRae

My apologies for the whiplash, but I need to dry my eyes for a minute, and there's no better way to do so than with confident queen Tate McRae. Tate's dance beats and it-girl anthems are undeniable, and they are just what I need to pull me out of a Scott Street-induced depressive state. This is one of the few songs that I can't relate to personally, and yet it resonates with me. It makes me feel alive by taking me to a new space where I am in fact being obsessed over by people who want to get on my level but good luck with that. Suddenly I am an overprotective girlfriend who wants you to stay away from me and my man, and is that my dress? Why are you so obsessed with me? All of this being felt and thought as I'm fighting the primal feminine urge to break into choreographed dance. Sometimes feeling alive doesn't have to be a come-to-Jesus-meeting with your past and your trauma; sometimes it is as simple as this.

10. KID AGAIN by Jon Bellion

As with my last article, I want to end this one appropriately, with a song that feels like the end---but an open-end, possibility still abounding. So that's where KID AGAIN by Jon Bellion comes in. It feels like both a conclusion and an introduction. It shows a growth of character into something more, but also leaves room for a genesis with this newfound feeling. It's introspective and self-disciplining and driven. It gives me confidence and makes me feel, like Jon, that I can do anything. The song is broad and vague enough to be the perfect hype or workout song, but it's lyrics also dig deeper. "What happened to your light?" and "I just gotta answer my call" are just two of the contemplative and self-assuring lines that make me want to kick myself into the next gear of the awaiting potential I know I have. This song also gives glory to God, subtly citing him as the cause of this reinvigorating change. He gives us strength and bravery, making us feel brand new.

That concludes the wild ride of my list. Even simply thinking about and writing about these songs has filled my soul with a tangle of emotions, overflowing and pouring into this admittedly overdramatic article. But I hope---if nothing else---you find a new song, or old favorite, that you love. And, hey, maybe it will even make you feel more alive.