I have been thinking a lot about joy lately. I am naturally someone who leans to depression and low mood, thanks to my genes (#maybeshesbornwithit) and this last year has certainly given me no shortage of things to feel down about. And, it feels like maybe finally I’m in a place right now where I can start to remember that at my core I am actually a person who seeks out the joy and smothers myself in it. This year has been equal parts forgetting who I am and then remembering again who I really am, all at once. So it’s also been very much in my awareness that one of the crucial ways that I know to shift energy is music. All it takes is a few minutes with one of my favourite songs to start to feel differently about life – you feel me?

I’ve just finished “the whole life challenge” (an event husband and I do a few times a year to incorporate more healthy habits into our daily lives – like drinking more water, getting enough sleep, stretching, etc etc) and one of our “bonus” weekly practices the last week was called “that’s my jam”. Every day, at some point, you were to find a song – could be the same song every day, or a new one – and really be in the music. Maybe dancing and singing, or maybe just feeling it – that part was up to your own expression. But it really reminded me again how diverse my taste in music is. To be clear, I’m not one of those people who “likes everything”. In fact I very much do not. More on that in a minute. But it was a really tangible thing that brought me back into a practice that has a huge impact on my joy.

Every summer when I was in high school and university, I made a “songs of the summer” compilation CD. It would have my favourite songs at the time on it, usually about 80-90% current hits, with 10-20% “summer classics” (aka there was always at least one Sublime song, from their self-titled album, because there’s almost no other album that’s just so quintessentially summer for me, from start to finish).

When I look back at the few I can find that I still have, they are such interesting time capsules of what was going on for me, and every song that I ever put on one of those albums will bring back memories to this day. The 1999 summer album had SO much Blink 1982 on it because their new album came out June 1 that year (and I lined up at A&B Sound to buy it #ifyouknowyouknow). The 2000 one had some Christian rock because I was teaching at bible camp that summer. The 2001 one was the first time I added any hip hop (notably, Dre and Snoop’s “Still D.R.E”).

You’re hopefully catching on that these were incredibly diverse ranges of songs. And this “Summer xxxx” album would be the only CD in my system (because yes, I drove a civic hatchback with a “system”, including an Alpine player with removable faceplate, anyone??) so when someone would get in my car, that’s what they’d get, from June to September.

My tastes in music have always been diverse, but also incredibly specific. My husband likes to joke that I “hate music” because I have such strong opinions about what I like and what I don’t like. There’s no genre that I can say I like or hate. But I’m also not one of those people who can say “I like everything” because I very much do not. In fact, there are even very few artists that I can say an unequivocal YES I like everything they do. And unlike other people, if I don’t like a song, my tolerance to listen to it is very very low. Like, zero. Do I like Pink? Yes! Mostly. Except those slow songs from that album in the early 2000s. Do I like Vampire Weekend? Yes! I love their first album! Every track! But…. Actually I really didn’t love their new one in 2019. Except that one song. Loved that one. Hated the rest. Do I like classic rock – like Boston for example? Oh no I hate most of their stuff. Oooh except “More than a Feeling”, that’s in my top 10 songs of all time!

You get the idea.

I fell off the “summer CD” bandwagon when I stopped burning CDs. (Our house hasn’t had a CD player in it in probably 10 years, which is another weird thing about getting old but anyway). And even though I’ve been making playlists for years it just didn’t occur to me to start this practice of making a summer jams list again, until summer 2019. And what a glorious summer it was, to again have a soundtrack, to have songs that connect with specific memories! It made me realize how easy it is to let go of things that bring us joy, unintentionally. I didn’t wake up one morning and intentionally decide not to make a soundtrack of my summer anymore. I just…. Forgot.

And as I put together Summer ’21, I try and hold to the bright spots and good memories of summers past – instead of thinking about how much of my life flies past me without my conscious mind being aware of it. Or about the fact that I started this tradition in 1996, which was in fact not 10 years ago, like it is in my brain, but actually 25 years ago.

Anyway, let’s not dwell on that. Currently taking your best pump up, footloose and fancy free, feel good song recommendations – current ones, please. I’ve already picked the Sublime song.