30. The Mountain Goats - “Paid In Cocaine”

This jam is a sunny stroll down the ever-lengthening halls of nostalgia. It reminds me of someone who is finally in a good enough place to look back on their life and appreciate all its had to offer – from the broad strokes of the narratives we all tell ourselves on the daily to the forgotten nooks and crannies that our minds only happen to remember when we accidentally stumble upon them. All of it has helped compose who were are today. The shining moments of happiness wrapped in that unreachable glow of the past, as well as the periods of darkness, those lows that only seem necessary and indispensable now from the safety of retrospect.

After all, it’s all about perception. There’s no such thing as objectivity. If the present is suspect to the volatile whims of subjectivity, then the past is completely abandoned to it. It’s unavoidable. The past is far from being set in stone, but rather a thing of our making. One that we continuously alter and remake through the experiences of our present. It’s filtered through perception and molded within memory – always changing, drifting upon the wind of our moods and compressed by the pressure of each passing day. One moment a memory can be devastating, and the next it can be exhilarating, fortifying, entertaining, or meaningless. It’s one the joys of being alive, but also (not so coincidentally) one of the most infuriating and frustrating qualities as well.