What song makes you think of your childhood home?

As I lay me down by Sophie B. Hawkins. It will sound absolutely weird what memory is immediately conjured each and every time I hear this song, but here it is.

It is 1998 or even 1999. I am in the shower in my 2 story turn of the century farm house. I am lathering my hair up in Suave Juicy Green Apple and belting this absolute banger out. For whatever reason I only remembered the chorus so I would sing it over and over much to my step moms dismay.

There are other songs that could bring me straight back to that place, but the biggest one that comes to mind is As I Lay Me Down. I think tonight I will put it on and take a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

I was in my computer class, freshman year. I was browsing the web ignoring my assignment. I don't remember how I stumbled on it, but I stumbled on the entire Trouble in Shrangri-La album for download on a forum or some such thing and I downloaded it to my student folder and listened to it start to finish and was blown away. I had heard Edge of Seventeen as a child obviously and Rhiannon etc but I didn't know who Stevie Nicks was. But that pirated copy of Trouble in Shangri-La (Which I went on to purchase several times over the years to make up for that act) was my baptism into the cult of Stevie Nicks.

This is my number one favorite album of all time. No contest. And of course the singles on the album are all good, but so are the other songs. Amongst them one rises above. Bombay Saphires. A cool song that I can only describe as a mystical island groove. I know its technically not, but hearing it in my mind I feel like I am on a beach as a thunder storm is rolling in, and there is a heavy blue filter being used and everything is just blue. Other worldly. Featuring guest vocals from Macy Gray (whom I also love), the song is an absolute vibe. If you are ever able to get ahold of demos from the album, the demo for Bombay Saphires is so damn good. But the album version is equally so.

Hands down, my top 5 albums. You will hear this as a metric I use to judge most of my top albums, the ability to listen start to finish and not skip a single track. This is one of those. Not a single weak track on this masterpiece. But one song sticks out the most to me.

Thrown Down. As a HUGE Fleetwood Mac fan this track has it all. Great lyrics, great guitar work from Lindsey and just top knotch production all around. The album version is great, but if you ever have the opportunity to find the Wall of Sound version on Youtube or any other means you can find, please do yourself the service and listen to it. I feel like that version should have been the one on the album but that is a post for another time.

Day 3 of favorite tracks from my foundational albums:

American Life. One of the most underrated Madonna albums there is. Dropped not long after my dad died. Start to finish without a single exception a master piece of an album. Sure the title track is a bit cheesy by today's standard but I never skip it. So that speaks volumes to me at least.

But if I had to choose my favorite song on the album? X-Static Process. It encapsulated what I was feeling at the time, and still brings me back to that place. The feeling of not knowing ones self, feeling adrift and chaotic. The feeling of losing ones self in a person who probably not the best for you and then coming to the realization that in the process of trying to find yourself and mold yourself to fit the world around you, that you were special as you were and you mattered. Thats what I took from it anyways. When I am feeling a bit low, I like to play this one and be transported to that time and sit in those emotions for a while. Fantastic track.

Day 2 of the best tracks off my 15 foundational albums!!!

I had grown up a child of the Radio. I had heard Sarah McLachlan obviously with tracks like Angel, Building a Mystery, Adia and the like. And I liked them, but I didn't at that young age know what it was to truly be a fan. Fast forward to my Sophomore year of High School and I found out quickly what it was to be a fan.

I had lost my dad the year before and was going through a tumultuous period where I was being forced to move across country to a place where I knew I was not going to fit in AT ALL. It was a rough period. During this period I was admitted to Kosairs Childrens Hospital in Louisville Kentucky where we were living at the time before the move for a Suicide Attempt. During my 3 month stay my only source of entertainment was the radio and Afterglow was in heavy rotation on our local station. Chiefly Fallen which was a fantastic track, as were most of the tracks on the album. When I got out and we arrived in Texas one of the first things I did was get Afterglow. And I was drawn to one particular song above all the others. Train Wreck.

I saw myself heavily in this song. "Cause I'm a train wreck waiting to happen, waiting for someone to come pick me up off the tracks". It is as if the song was penned for precisely what I was going through at the time. I was 14 going on 15 and I was struggling with the loss of my dad, with being alone while all my peers were dating left right and center and I just desperately wanted love.

Outside of this track, the entire album with maybe one exception, is a start to finish banger. A timeless album that even 20 years later is still alongside Melissa Etheridge's Lucky, in my heavy rotation.

I am going to start off my Crucial Tracks journey with my Foundational Albums post from my blog. I will do the best track off of each of the 15 foundational albums I have chosen. Starting off is the best track (which was hard to settle on) from Lucky by Melissa Etheridge. The title track Lucky is fantastic, as is the lead single Breathe. But I settled on This Moment.

This album came out my Sophomore year of High School and it was the album, alongside Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow, that I drove my mother nuts playing on repeat. The whole album is truly a banger, but I found myself coming back to This Moment the most. It is a catchy tune that gave me hope that I would find such an intense love one day. It spoke to the broken Queer Weirdo that was me. And wouldn't you know, I found what the song was speaking of less than a decade later.

I don't know if this album is considered by many to be one of her best, but to me, it was absolutely the most solid work of hers. 20 years later this album, and this track are STILL in my heavy rotation. If you haven't given her much thought outside of Come to my Window, please give this album a go, and especially give some time to This Moment.