Ever since I can remember, I’ve had this strange relationship to certain music, musicians, albums and even songs – I can only listen to particular music at a specific time of day, or during a certain season.
Morphine, for instance, I only listen to at night.
Grizzly Bear is for cold winter evenings, when the sun has just gone down.
And Sonic Youth has such a big catalog that I spread their albums out across the whole year, night and day.
A Tribe Called Quest, Dinosaur jr and Chastity Belt are fine for any time, night or day, any season.
But why is this?
For me, it has to do with mood, I think. Morphine is dark and spare, so night time seems “right” (they have an album called “The Night” after all. Though my own experience at night time listening predates this album).
Some albums or songs feel more autumnal, or summer-y. And I find that this goes beyond anything explicit in a song’s lyrics. Certain music just feels like a Summer evening, as the crickets start their chirping.
I wondered if this was the case for anyone else and found a few interesting articles.
This one, from the AV Club, asks their writers to talk about the music they reserve for special times.
And here is some science on what we should listen to at any given moment during the day.
What about you? Do you have certain music for special times? Let us know in the comments.
