Okay, I know, some of that felt cliché, but the point is, music can really easily invoke nostalgia. I’ve noticed this a lot when I listen to music, so I went through a lot of songs - some from albums I’ve reviewed, some from albums I haven’t reviewed - and picked out several tracks that take me back to some previous time in my life whenever I listen to them. Here are the songs that bring me back, and the times they bring me back to.
Oh, and spoiler alert, this list is chock full of personal anecdotes because I'm a naturally nostalgic person, so don't worry, I won't give every single minuscule detail of my personal life, but expect a little bit of cheese and cliché imagery here. If that's not your thing, you don't have to keep reading. You've been warned. If you've decided to stay because you don't mind that...well, great, let's get started!
NE-YO - SINGLE
Back around 2015, I started to actually care more about listening to music. At that time, I was a junior in high school, and even though I was in a music school and enjoyed playing music, my first two years of high school saw me not really care to listen to it all that much. Then, in 2015, when I started to get more interested in the medium (and stopped being so stubborn about pop music), I would bump Ne-Yo's music day in and day out. Prime example with this track, “Single.” I never really fell in love with the original New Kidz on the Block version, but this one really got me, and I still love it to this day. I could’ve also put “Miss Right” here because I love that song, but since “Single” probably got the most plays, I’ll pick it instead.
KURT HUGO SCHNEIDER - HEY THERE DELILAH (COVER)
Okay, I might be cheating a bit by picking a cover, but you know what, we’re gonna do it. The song is in my Spotify playlist, so I’m counting it. Kurt Hugo Schneider has helped make some of my favorite cover songs ever, and I remember when I first heard this cover of the Plain White T’s hit song “Hey There Delilah,” I immediately fell in love with it. Kurt turned an already-sweet song into something so emotional and so beautiful with it, and I remember staying up late nights and always singing that song. Seeing that this was one of my favorites out of his many covers, it takes me back to the days of 2014 and 2015 when I would listen to his covers every late night and just have the best time doing it.
ED SHEERAN - LEGO HOUSE
While “Thinking Out Loud” was the first Ed Sheeran song I heard, and I really enjoyed it, “Lego House” was actually the first song of his that I truly adored and looped. After hearing “Thinking Out Loud” for the first time in the car on a ride home with my mom, I went and decided to listen to a bunch of his other songs, and I remember just destroying the replay button on this one. Something about it just immediately grabbed me, and as I listen to it, I remember back to being 16, staying up late and listening to the song endlessly, more so than any other Ed Sheeran song at the time. Even though it cooled on me a bit over time, I still go back to it and really enjoy it.
SECONDHAND SERENADE - FALL FOR YOU
No, I don’t listen to a lot of this group’s music, but this song came on Pandora one day, and I thought it was so beautiful and so emotional. Slowly, it became another one of those “stay up super late in my room and sing along to it” kind of songs. It was a go-to sad song for me, and it was a song that I always hoped would come on my Pandora stations (and it did, because I had it thumbed-up on probably 3-4 stations). Even though I don’t listen to it as often now, it’s one of those tracks that, whenever it comes on, I fall in love with it all over again, and I just go back to those days of staying up late and feeling all emotional while listening to it.
DRAKE - CONTROLLA
This was my song of the summer from 2016. I remember that year, I was in a Pre-College program at my current college, and I just remember listening to this song all the time when I got the chance to. It wasn’t easy because, with Drake not having his songs on YouTube, I had to rely on Pandora/Spotify to pick it at random, but whenever I hear it, I get flashbacks to those hot summer days, being in a classroom drawing dynamic artwork that goes off of the page and meeting people that would become some of my closest friends. As polarizing of an album as “Views” was, I have to appreciate it for giving me quite a few memorable songs, and especially for gracing me with “Controlla.”
CHILDISH GAMBINO - SOBER
During my freshman year of college, a close friend of mine showed me this song. I hadn’t really listened to Childish Gambino at all beforehand, but we were paired up on a project, and we used this song for said project. I remember listening to it and just immediately digging it, to the point where I would just go on YouTube and listen to it like 4-5 times in a row because it was that good. When I listen to it now, I transport back to that time working endlessly with said friend on said project, hearing it so many times, and literally never getting tired of it. I still haven’t gotten tired of it now, so that’s really something.
LIL UZI VERT FT. OH WONDER - THE WAY LIFE GOES
I know what you’re thinking, “how did this make you feel nostalgic if you reviewed this album less than a year ago?” Well, for starters, “Luv is Rage 2” was my fourth album reviewed, and it was the first album I reviewed right around its release date. Ed Sheeran’s “÷” was my first, and I reviewed it about four months after its initial release. Desiigner’s “New English” came second, and I reviewed that record over a year after its release. And then Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.” was my third album review, and that was also about four months after release. Meanwhile, I remember being right there on Spotify at midnight to listen to and review “Luv is Rage 2,” so when I listen to it, it brings me back to that night, where I came home from work and just sat on my couch at midnight listening to this album. That, and the sheer number of repeat listens while walking to school during my first semester of sophomore year (thank you Pandora/Spotify) certainly helped. Luckily, it’s remained a great song even after so many listens, so I can commend that.
THE WEEKND - NOTHING WITHOUT YOU
Get ready for more somewhat cliché imagery, but this song takes me back to the summer of 2017 when I worked a part-time job in retail. During that summer, I worked largely closing shifts, so I would walk from work to the subway and take the subway home. I remember those late-night walks to the subway - and subsequent trips home from the subway - would just consist of me, headphones in ears, listening to The Weeknd. The dark night sky really went with the moody atmosphere of his songs, so it was always nice listening to his stuff when it was dark out. You could interchange this with several tracks off of “Starboy,” but “Nothing Without You” was one that I heard a lot during my walks, and again, at risk of sounding cliché, the song took me to another world. It felt great, I’ll tell you that much.
ED SHEERAN - CASTLE ON THE HILL
Ed Sheeran again? Yeah, I had to, because this one brings me back, too. In July 2017, just days after my 19th birthday, I went with a good friend of mine to see Ed Sheeran in concert, since he was on his “÷” tour at the time. It was really one of the most beautiful nights of my life. This is the song that really brings me back to that night since it was the concert-opener, and it really set the mood for the night, because it was so loud and so beautiful. I also remember, at the time, I wasn’t really all that into the song, but after the concert, I went back and listened to it more and more, and I just fell head-over-heels in love with it. This also kind of brings me back to those late nights walking home from work, as well.
CHILDISH GAMBINO - REDBONE
Another artist making the list multiple times! “Redbone” really rang off for me throughout the summer of 2017, I heard it on the radio several times over, on VERY early-morning rides to work (think 4:30 AM) and nighttime car rides. This is a song that really brings me back to those late nights and very early mornings. It was a dark and nocturnal enough track to really work with the darkness of the night sky, and the general feel of those late nights. Summer of 2017 may have seen this song become a huge meme, but for me, there was more to it than just the meme: it’s an amazing song, and it's also a nostalgia-trip in and of itself.
BACKSTREET BOYS - AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME
Believe it or not, the first time I heard this song was at a Prom I went to in the summer of 2017. I heard it on the ride home, and my friends in the car were talking about the song a bit, but oddly enough, I hadn’t heard it before. While it was playing, I secretly went onto YouTube, found a lyric video, hit like and favorite on it, and then just started looping the song because I just fell in love with it. From there, I can’t lie to you when I say that I would listen to the song multiple times consecutively because I loved it so much, and every time I listen to it, I get goosebumps because I think back to that night - which was easily one of the best nights of my life - and I tell myself, “you know, being in traffic on the way home didn’t suck that bad, because it meant I got to hear this song for the first time!”
STARLEY - CALL ON ME (RYAN RIBACK REMIX)
Once again, a Summer 2017 song. When I worked in retail, I would also work the occasional morning truck shift, thus allowing me to leave around 1:00-3:00 in the afternoon. I remember this song coming on often and putting me in such a good mood all the time. It’s such a feel-good track, so easily danceable and so fun, and even on the days that weren’t so sun-spanked, I would feel good walking home to this. As stressful as it was working at that job during the summer, at least I had this to listen to on my way home.
LUKAS GRAHAM - 7 YEARS
If “Controlla” was my personal song of the summer in 2016, “7 Years” was a close second. “Controlla” was my feel-good, danceable track, and “7 Years” was that song that I remember walking up-and-down the stairs to during the Pre-College Program that summer, just feeling so emotional. Given that the song was about growing up, and the Pre-College Program was my first taste of the college atmosphere, it felt kind of fitting that I listened to that song a lot during such a transitional period. And it’s a good thing the song has stuck with me ever since because it’s a song I really enjoy!
CALVIN HARRIS FT. RIHANNA - THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR
This wasn’t really a song I listened to throughout all of my summer in 2016, but I distinctly remember it for one reason: during my Prom Weekend that year, I was walking on the boardwalk with my date and her friend, and during the walk, I heard the song playing, and now for some strange reason, whenever I hear it, I think back to that night. For some reason, I’m not sure if it was also playing, but the SeeB remix of Mike Posner’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” brings me back to that night as well. And thankfully, I’ve continued to listen to both songs since then, so that’s something worth remembering.
TREY SONGZ - CAN’T HELP BUT WAIT
Forget just bringing me to something from a summer vacation, this brings me back to my childhood. I used to listen to this all the time when I was in 3rd/4th grade, and I distinctly remember one day when I went with my mom to the doctor and to run some errands, this song came on the radio AT LEAST four times. Each time, though, my mom was gracious enough to keep it on, and it was from those repeat listens that I just couldn’t stop listening to it and singing along to it. And while I don’t loop it now as I did then, it still gets a listen or two out of me, and it makes me feel like a kid again. Gotta like that.
ALAN WALKER - FADED
I first heard this song as an instrumental not even a year ago, but after hearing said instrumental, I searched up the actual song, and became so in love with it. There was something so uncertain about the song, especially in regards to its lyrics, but the one thing I found certain about it was that it sounded so sad, and I remember times when I would be in one of my classes working on a project with the song playing in the background. I don’t know what it was, but when I hear this song, I just picture myself back in those classes, imagining ideas for music videos. The song itself felt very music video-esque, and beyond just being a great listen, it’s a solid nostalgia burst for me.
This is a weird one for me because I only really started listening to the song like a month ago. I was watching the film that it came from, “Meet the Robinsons,” and this song played in the film, and when I heard the hook, and I heard Rob Thomas say “but these small hours, these small hours…,” I had vaguely recognized that hook from my childhood. I remembered that I heard it somewhere when I was just a young child, and now when I hear the song, my heart honestly races. I remember back to just being a carefree kid, and I wonder “what was my younger self thinking when he first heard this? I hope he liked it!” And regardless of whether or not my younger self DID like it, I’m definitely glad the song came back around and made its way into my regular playlist so many years later.
BRUNO MARS - COUNT ON ME
More so than “Just The Way You Are” or “Grenade,” this was the first Bruno Mars song I really fell in love with. Back around 2011, I started becoming a huge night-owl, and I would stay up until 2:00 in the morning just listening to music on my computer. This song appeared on several commercials, so I ended up finding it on YouTube, and I remember I’d just sit there at 1:00 in the morning hitting the replay button and singing along to this all the time. It was such a sweet song and I had so much fun with it!
CLEAN BANDIT FT. JESS GLYNNE - RATHER BE
Let me tell ya, this song brings me back to A LOT of different times. For starters, it played during that Summer 2017 Prom I told you guys about earlier, and I remember singing along to it with quite a few friends because I loved the song so much, but I also remember it used to play all the time when I worked that part-time retail job. There were times where I honestly just wanted to embarrass myself by just going all out and singing the song in front of everyone, that’s how much I loved it. And to this day, it remains one of my absolute favorite songs. It’s one of the few songs where, every time I hear it, I get goosebumps. Thank you, Prom 2017, and former part-time retail job, for helping me appreciate this song that I hadn’t fully gotten to appreciate before.
And speaking of said job, here’s just a short list of songs that remind me of when I used to work that part-time job in retail I was talking about earlier. I won’t be including cover art or descriptions for them, since they would all come down to “I heard this at work and it stuck with me.” Even so, while I have some bad memories of that place, and while my time there didn’t end as well as it started, some really great songs played all the time that I still listen to today, such as:
THE SCRIPT - THE MAN WHO CAN’T BE MOVED
TAYLOR SWIFT - FEARLESS
BBMAK - BACK HERE
NO DOUBT - RUNNING
COLDPLAY - ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME
JASON MRAZ FT. COLBIE CAILLAT - LUCKY
LEE DEWYZE - SWEET SERENDIPITY
MALI MUSIC - BEAUTIFUL
JACK JOHNSON - UPSIDE DOWN
PASSENGER - LET HER GO
CÉLINE DION - THAT’S THE WAY IT IS
Well, how about that? I was able to fit 30 songs! Nice! Anyway, those are 30 songs that I listen to now that bring me back to the past. I apologize if I occasionally repeated myself or sounded a bit cliché, it was really hard not to. But what are some songs that make you feel nostalgic? Unless you feel like the reasons will be too personal, let me know some of your nostalgia-burst songs down in the comments!
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