Thank You For the Music: Spring Awakening
Created by Alexandra Fiorentino-Swinton and a group of MODA Bloggers, Thank You For the Music started off as a Secret Santa style music exchange. Music connects us all, and what better way to peek inside someone’s heart than through our favorite tunes?
We each commented on a song that reminds us of what’s to come: springtime. We exchanged of songs with each other and allowed our fellow bloggers to write about what it evoked. After a tumultuous winter—literally and figuratively—it’s time to look forward.
Vivian Li’s pick: Mogli, “Wanderer”
It took me a while to find a song that perfectly embodies spring, so I started playing my entire Spotify library on shuffle and my roommates said no to every song (understandable because we only ever agree on LDR). Miraculously, we all picked this song before Mogli even started singing, so it was love at first chord. “Wanderer” is originally from my “morning ritual” playlist because I like how calm, hopeful, and free-spirited it feels. It has the power to cleanse my mind and get rid of negative thoughts, but I completely forgot about this song because I'm currently going through a hyperpop phase...
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Oh the wind in my hair
It sings my song
To be a wanderer
And to go on
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Anyways, I don't know how to write about music, but everything about this song captures the energy I want to have for spring. The wind will no longer be harsh and cold; it will caress my face with warmth and the air will smell fresh. I will listen to this song while walking down S. Woodlawn Ave on my way to school. It makes me hopeful thinking about how I can let go of past worries and live freely.
Nadaya’s Take:
I’m a visual person. As soon as I heard the opening chords of this song, I just had to see if there was a music video. And there was… kind of! A lyric video of Mogli’s expeditions: walking along the beach, sticking her head out of the passenger-side window of a car, being a wanderer.
Something about this brings me back to being thirteen, when all I wanted to do was travel. Does anybody else remember those instagram accounts, those travel bloggers who’d go anywhere all the time? It incites such a specific, youthful, spring-time nostalgia.
“To be a wanderer and go home…”
What is home, really? What homes can I make this spring? In the comfort of my bed, windows open to hear the birds chirping. On the slippery rocks of Lake Michigan. Underneath a bed of sand on Oak Street Beach. Among friends on the grass of the nearest park. Vivian said it best. There’s something about spring that makes you want to live freely and begin again.
“Making way to new beginnings…”
EJ Song’s pick: Dumbo Gets Mad, “Indian Food”
I discovered this song during finals week of fall as the weather was getting colder and colder. I was sitting in a Harper cubicle with friends, and as I sat there enjoying their company and listening to the psychedelic synths and chimes of the song, I remember seeing sunlight coming through the Harper windows and thinking how warm I felt in that moment.
This song uses a wide range of instruments to create this surreal, almost alien-sounding orchestra playing in the background. At one point, there’s an erhu solo - and I’m always skeptical of white people using Asian instruments in music, but I have to admit that this erhu feature bangs. I’m saving this song to enjoy for the spring when the sunlight comes back. A psychedelic rock song about good food and love - what more could you want?
Ivana’s Take:
I didn’t recognize the song or the artist when this was recommended to me, so I genuinely could not predict what I would be in for, other than maybe indie song, but I was pleasantly surprised by what it was. In seasonal terms, this song sounds to me like that hazy convergence of spring and summer towards the end of the school year. It reminds me of car rides with people you love, as the sun sets and bathes the skyline in gold.
I was especially pleased by the erhu solo featured at the bridge of the song as the singer’s voice fades in the background, in a delightful synthesis of psychedelic rock sounds and an Asian instrument in a way I haven’t often heard in Western music. And, it scratches my brain just right. Do yourself a favor and add this song to your playlist.
Kája Muchová’s pick: The Avalanches, “Since I Left You”
The first time I heard this song, was two years ago, the start of spring, when covid was just a temporary excuse to stay at home and make whipped coffee. During that time, I loved to go on long walks around my house, listening to different artists and albums. This song really caught my attention. I was certain I never heard it before, but it also seemed so familiar.
With that in my mind I proceeded to listen to the entire album, conveniently named “Since I Left You”, immersing myself into an incredible music experience. Every song fluently followed the next—I had no idea when one ended and the other began. This for me was one of the most memorable music experiences and so I think it is only fair to recommend the first song that started it all.
Honestly though, I think everyone should listen to the whole album. It will certainly give you a very unique, transformative and refreshing experience, something that all of us really need after an exhausting and tiring winter.
Vivian’s Take:
Let me begin by saying I LOVE this song and have been listening to it nonstop. It makes me nervous writing about such a timeless classic, but I will try my best. The song feels like a conversation with someone intimate. It sounds poignant but hopeful. The vocals are simple but leaves a strong impression, and I can say without complain that it has been stuck in my head for the past month. Perhaps what is so powerful about the song is how universal the feeling can be. It can be letting go of a bad relationship, a toxic friendship, or a stressful obligation. Once you let go, you realize there is so much happiness around you.
Since I left you, I found the world so new.
I can even say the same to Chicago winter, because I absolutely hate it but would not trade it for anything in retrospect. How do we appreciate the warm sunlight and bird songs of spring without the harshness of winter? One time I found somebody’s handwriting at a corner booth in Medici’s, scribbled on aged wood with black marker: se faire printemps, c’est prendre le risque de l’hiver. I never bothered to look up where it comes from but the quote stuck with me, and turns out it is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry!
Ivana Del Valle’s pick: Circo and iLe, “Me Saben a Miel”
Ivana’s Take:
Chicago is extremely different from the tropical island of Puerto Rico I grew up in, and moving here for college honestly made me a little scared that I would lose my culture, since, for me, a lot of it comes from casual interactions with it— the traditional music played in local stores, the food I ate at home, the slang, even the way people dress and greet each other. I wanted to stay in touch with home in simple ways that didn’t feel forced, and one of those ways was listening to local Puerto Rican artists, such as iLe. The music iLe composes is deeply poetic, political, bittersweet, and unapologetically Puerto Rican, adding modern spins on more traditional genres that are often overshadowed by reggaeton, such as bomba, plena, salsa, and bolero.
“Me Saben a Miel” is originally from the Puerto Rican band, Circo, but was recently re-released featuring iLe as the lead vocals. The song sounds like warm, spring evenings spent in the mountain countryside back home, rocking in a hammock and joined by the sweet chirping of coquís. iLe’s voice beautifully flows in tandem with the guitar and saxophone instrumentals in a way that almost feels like from the nostalgic past, and, as the name implies, certainly “sounds” like honey.
I would definitely recommend this song as a starting point to anyone interested in exploring different Latin/Puerto Rican music genres, or anyone simply wanting to listen to something new.
Kaja’s Take:
Reading the title “Me Saben a Miel” I did not know what to expect because I realized that I don’t listen to a lot of Puerto Rican music. The last Puerto Rican song I heard was in my Spanish class in high school and it didn’t really grab my attention.
However, right when I pressed play to listen to this song, I was surprised by how much it matched my current music taste. In fact, its intro reminded me of my favorite band Crumb. However, I have to note that “Me Saben a Miel” is certainly a happier version of anything I would listen to from Crumb but despite that it gives me the same feeling of calm and dreamy happiness.
The guitar backdrop music with layered vocals screams spring which I know might sound very vague but there is no other way to describe it. You will understand when you listen to it, which you certainly should!
Nadaya Davis’ pick: Blood Orange, “Saint”
Blood Orange always makes me feel spring in living color, and I think the reason why is quite simple—Dev Hynes is a musical genius. The song is a combination of sweet, choral-like vocals and the airiest of instrumentals, the musical personification of an open window on a beautiful, city afternoon.
The song points towards a return to sainthood, a return to a place of virtue, for brown and black youth in particular. The music video, too, reflects on what sanctuary can be. In Hynes’ case, he has a jam session in his studio while his people exist besides him—resting, smoking, laughing, eating, and just being together.
I’ve often caught myself wishing Hynes’ music could be the score of my own life; it’s nostalgic and familiar, stirring up a cosmic force inside of me that breathes, let’s live! This Spring, I’m hoping to grant myself the pleasure of leisure, of existing without burdens.
EJ’s Take:
Starting with the smooth sound of the saxophone, this song is filled with soothing but vibrant tones and energy. A lot of the instruments featured in the song, like the sax, cello, and keyboard, make the sound feel classic and timeless; the brass also reminds me a lot of 90s R&B.
A huge part of this song is a celebration of blackness - the chorus, “Your skin’s a flag that shines for us all/You said it before/The brown that shines/And lights your darkest thoughts”, speaks to this in such a poetic way. I wasn’t really paying attention to the lyrics the first couple times I listened to it, but they added so much more depth to the song.
And Nadaya said it best - the song and music video perfectly incapsulates the sense of community and compassion that come together with music, company, and good spirits. Saint is perfect for so many different moods - it has the liveliness to get you through the worst, grimiest p-sets, the calmness for a quiet moment of relaxation, the energy to blast on your speaker while you sit with friends on the quad.
