Upon even the smallest glance through an iTunes Library, most people can acknowledge a certain song that reminds them of a specific time in their life. Music has the capacity to evoke many different emotions, even those not necessarily reflected by a given song. As I was sorting through old playlists from college last week, I dug up and began listening to a long-time favorite: “You’re Always On My Mind,” the sophomore album of Brooklyn-based band A Great Big Pile Of Leaves.
I first heard A Great Big Pile Of Leaves on a local college radio station in August of 2013. The song “Back To School" really resonated with me in my weeks before actually going back to school for my second year of college, and I began to realize that I had stumbled upon a keeper. I brought the album with me as I settled into my suite later that month, and immediately it became the soundtrack to the school year. Seven of my fraternity brothers and I made the hypothetically cool choice of rooming together in an eight-person suite (two per room) and sharing a living room. In the “Eight-Man” as we dubbed it, things were loud, company was always over and at least one person could always be found sitting on the living room couch, ready for an adventure. Tracks one through four on the album really seem to highlight this for me. From the brutal and tired honesty of “Snack Attack," to the realization that living with people isn't easy in “Pet Mouse," these were songs that would get stuck in our heads, and quickly become anthems for the Eight-Man. After track five, “Back To School,” “You Are Always On My Mind” really begins to examine how relationships affect one’s own life. The all-too-familiar feeling not being on the same page as everyone else is reflected in songs like “Egocentrism” and “Ambiversion.” While many songs focus on love, the song “Fun In The Sun” really hits home with the line “losing it, / even though I never had it.” Sophomore year had a lot of time devoted to introspection about lifestyles (track nine, ”Locus Of Control”) and careers (track 10, “Pizzanomics”). Most of us in the suite really had no clue what real life was going to be like, much less how hard the next few semesters would be.
A lot has changed since Sophomore year. None of us living in the suite could have ever realized how little we would all hang out after the two semesters under the same roof. While we all still saw each other plenty of times during the week, schedules conflicted and sleeping more than six hours a night began to triumph over 2 a.m. Whataburger adventures. Over half of us already graduated, which makes spending time together an even more difficult task. While living with seven other dudes was a grimy, crazy experience, it is certainly an experience that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Looking back on it after graduation, each track on “You’re Always On My Mind” reminds me of so many times when we would stay up until four in the morning for no apparent reason and skip classes the very next day to drive to the river. The tracks remind me of being introspective and growing as a person. Most of all, “You’re Always On My Mind” reminds me of how much I miss the antics of the Eight-Man, and how much David, Adrian, Stiles, Dustin, Cason, Rudi and Andres are always on my mind.
Bonus Track: "Learning Curves"
