Our editors take us on a journey into the albums that transport them to a special place. Read more in Issue 2: Space and Place!
Bulletproof Picasso (2014)
Train
I have been a fan of the band Train for years yet I have never been so attached to any of their albums. You rarely see any album names that directly refer to art, therefore, ‘Bulletproof Picasso’ really caught my eye. The album is supposed to be pop rock genre, although it’s more pop than rock, which I personally have no problems with. None of the songs are ‘go crazy’, ‘dance in your room like no one is watching’ worthy which is what I normally listen to, yet even I love every song in this album to bits: this is because it makes me feel different. Songs like ‘Angel in Blue Jeans’ and ‘Bulletproof Picasso’ relax me, make me lie down with my legs up on the wall, close my eyes and listen. While listening I drift away into the world where every emotion is valid, where you can think and feel anything you want. As funny as it sounds, it inspires me to live a fulfilling, versatile life. To be honest, I could blab random things about this album that probably do not make sense to anybody but you really have to listen to understand and even develop your own thoughts and feelings about this album.
Berta Kardelytė, Online Editor
The Last 5 Years Soundtrack (2008)
I first discovered ‘The Last 5 Years’ the summer after my nineteenth birthday. I was a big musical buff back then- still am, to an extent- and it had been on my list. There was an off-Broadway performance on YouTube, so I lay on my bed with a bar of chocolate and watched. It’s hard to get into, at first, but as the notes dance on, the genius of the album comes together. Jason Robert Brown weaves the tale of a five year relationship, musically monologue through his central characters, Jamie and Cathy. The relationship falls together and falls apart; we see all the securities and insecurities of our heroes in emotionally wrought detail.
The summer was a rough patch for my parents. My mother was battling with PTSD; my stepfather was battling with anger issues. The one does not correlate with the other, but for the first time I saw what happened when their issues mixed. My parents would have terrifying battles downstairs and I, sitting powerless in my bedroom would hear the conversations they were really having in the words of Cathy and Jamie.
In late August, I slept with a man for the first time. I had spent years feeling terrified of validation, but so sure that I deserved it. Nothing became of the tryst but Jamie told me he loved me. And I, like Cathy, relied on him. Centering myself among these relationships and expectations is hard, but ‘The Last 5 Years’ will always remind me that I can do better than that.
Oscar Ronan, Treasurer
Wind in the Wires (2005)
Patrick Wolf
The storm blows around
This harbor town
I listen to its wind as a choir
The shipping forecast
Is crackling
Like wet wood upon a fire
And time slows and slips away
The tourists come around in May
‘Till August when the clouds roll in
The pier cracks, the awnings fade
The Ferris wheel spins slowly in the rain,
The day is gone.
I have never been to Cornwall; this is why it still has a mythical quality in my imagination. When I was fourteen and lived in a small town in the Finnish countryside, I fell in love with ‘Wind in the Wires’, the second album of English songwriter Patrick Wolf. I would lie on the floorboards of my room, close my eyes and be transported to this region I knew nothing about, nothing but the moody imagery of the songs. At that age, feeling suffocated in my hometown, I dreamed of escaping more than anything else. Looking back on it, everything I wrote at the time was about escaping in some way or another. I clearly needed a sanctuary, and the mythical, stormy Cornwall of these songs became one for me. These days, I cannot listen to the album without remembering how I felt at fourteen, which is why I rarely do it. I also don’t know if I ever want to visit Cornwall in the physical world. It could never be quite the same; maybe I should just let it remain a place of imagination, a place filled with rain and darkness but also hope. One of my favourite songs, ‘This Weather’, ends with such a sentiment:
I am not going to set myself free here
I am following some dark fortune
Some circle in me
Hold back the years
Hold back the hours
I want to live
To see the sun break through
These days
Kaisa Saarinen, Events Manager
The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits (2013)
The Space Lady
The Space Lady is pure psychedelic synth-pop pleasure. Covering well-known rock tunes on her lovely little synth, Space Lady creates a dream world of lush riffs and unearthly vocals with a knack for making familiar classics (from David Bowie to Elvis Presley) totally alien. Forget taking you to another space: this album will take you to another planet.
Niamh Carey, Fashion Editor
