Dreary Days Ahead

Dreary Days Ahead actually got off to a pretty decent start. After the brief period in August where I had to rethink things, most of August and September were actually pretty fun, and were highly memorable as good times.

This period at the start of the playlist, where the general good feelings of spring and summer 2017 remained, had me take an interest in the music of The Police, a band whose music I love to this day. In fact, the first six songs of this album are on the playlist, in order.

On the morning of January 13, 2018, I woke up at my childhood home for the very last time, and we moved in with my paternal grandparents. Over the next few days, I had access to my grandmother's music library and my computer at the same time, and I began to explore country music to a small extent. I'd first heard this song back in 2012. That exploration was put to a hard stop on January 18, when my other grandmother died, and as that side of my family listened to a lot of country music, the association was too painful to hear.

My maternal grandmother died on January 18, 2018. On the morning ride to her funeral on January 23, I made a critical mistake: I listened to this song. This song, which before had a positive connection to late 2016, was now permanently connected to that car ride. Right as the song ended, the funeral home came into view. I will always love this song, but I will never be able to hear it again without thinking about my grandmother, and I try not to listen to it if I can avoid it.

January's move and tragedy permanently cast a negative shadow over the rest of the year. That being said, there were a few positive memories. The first one was when I viewed the music video for Caribbean Queen. The actress in the video looked rather similar to a girl I found rather cute at the time, and I'd found myself watching it several times just because of that. It was a sign that not everything would be permanently mired in melancholy, but it would be a long road to recovery.

On January 31, 2018, I was sitting in the cafeteria early in the morning. It was the fifth anniversary of the word "Nosiphus" that day, and I could feel the 2013 Nostalgia Wave materializing, which was much-needed after what I'd just gone through. I discovered this song that day, and I was surprised that I'd never heard a Hall & Oates song this good up until this point, considering how significant their music was to the catalogue of The Best Summer Ever. I had been going through something of a Hall & Oates renaissance at the time.

After Jake exposed me to Blue Öyster Cult, I found myself listening to them rather often. I soon discovered Burnin' For You, and to my surprise, I recognized the chorus. I'd heard it somewhere years ago, but only knew a part of the song and had no idea what it was called or who it was by. On March 1, 2018, I was listening to it on repeat as I worked on the server. That day, we gained two new members of Nosiphus, and I was working on getting their offices set up in Nosiphus Studios.

It was the evening of Christmas Eve, and my parents and I were driving home from her family's yearly gathering. Since my grandmother's passing, that side of the family had gone through several major changes, and I remember my mother expressing that it felt like everyone had changed. For my part, with 2018 approaching its conclusion, my recent discovery of this song seemed to fit things pretty well: it was a cold night and it was perfect for a nighttime drive.