"Boy you was Battle Born..."

Seeing as I'm planning to use this quirky little blog-zone as a platform for my writing, I thought I'd kick things off with a little post on something that means a lot to me, as I'm sure it does most people, my taste in music.

Now anyone who knows me will tell you I'm something of a Killers fan-boy, and they would be right. I can't think of any other band whose entire back-catalogue could be used as the soundtrack to the first 18 years of my time here on this weird little planet. As luck would have it, all of their album releases have coincided with significant milestones in my life. Hot Fuss was released just as I was starting secondary school, Sam's Town was around the time I was seriously getting into drama (and thus beginning the long and agonising process from shy, chubby geek to the arrogant loud-mouth I am today); Day & Age came out as I was entering into my first serious relationship (and was actually the first present I ever gave her) and now the Nevada-based quartet have released Battle Born a week after I've moved 400 miles to a university where I know 2 people out of 5,000.

Obviously, my emotional outline as a person has been at least in part molded by the sense of romanticism and nostalgia that permeates Brandon Flowers' lyrics, and the other day I found myself wondering if I were more into something like mindless drum & bass I'd be anywhere near the guy I am. I doubt it. For me, a song has to have some kind of emotional resonance with you that will stay with you for years, so that even if you were to hear that song in twenty years' time, that flood of emotion is just as strong as the day you first identified with it. I don't know, maybe I'm a sentimentalist, I just like to think that once I've decided I like a song, that song will mean something special and unique to me and me alone.

For example, a while back I was going through a pretty rough patch and I discovered Frank Turner. Now, if you haven't heard of him, go and check out his ENTIRE back-catalogue now - the man's a lyrical genius. One phrase in particular stuck with me throughout the next few months:

"Yeah life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings. 

About fire in our bellies and about furtive little feelings,

And the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a-flickering,

And they help us with remembering, that the only thing that's left to do is live." 

Now I'm sure he'll never see it, but I thought I should write it down anyway - those 4 lines struck me more than any had before in my life, so thanks Frank, it might not be all that significant, but after hearing those words my perspective on life changed a little bit, and that's down to you.

If you're wondering just what affect they had, you're going to be a little disappointed. It's not really something I can explain too much, suffice to say I realised I'd been letting one or two things hold me back from living the life I wanted to, and after hearing this I actively took steps to change that - for the most part I succeeded, but that's a story for another day.

I'm also a massive fan of John Mayer, the Wombats, Bowie, The Clash etc, but for raw emotionality it's gonna have to be The Killers or Frank for me.

Matt out.