I’ve spent a lot of time over the past week importing my CD library to iTunes and being reminded of songs and albums I liked at different times in my life. It’s a very strange feeling – there are certain songs that will automatically drown me in a particular memory for better or worse. It’s an effect that is capable of tainting certain songs if they were listened to during a period I’d rather forget.

It’s not something that happens with every song, just some, and it’s more noticeable if I haven’t listened to the album in some time. In a way, by listening to music almost exclusively digitally these days, I’m preventing this from happening by jumbling songs up I otherwise wouldn’t have chosen to hear, thereby preventing potential bonds between experiences and music. I’m not totally sure if that’s a relief or a disappointment.