Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.
In this series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.
Here are their love letters to records that forever changed their lives.
Lucy Rose: U2 – Joshua Tree
I’m gonna put it out there, I have no idea how to chose a favourite record, I have so many, it’s taken me longer to think of the one than to write about it, but I’m gonna go for Joshua Tree by U2. It’s funny with this band because I don’t love everything they’ve done, they’re easy to hate. But let’s all be honest for a second, Joshua Tree is an amazing record.
What it really reminds me of, is driving in my dad’s car. My dad’s got a real thing for cars and driving them fast and when I was a kid there was nothing I loved more than aimlessly driving in my dad’s car, doing the gears, listening to this record. We had a lot of things in common but when it came to music, this was our only common ground.
There are not many records that take me back to a particular place – the smell, the feelings I had, the rush of understanding and appreciating good music, all of it.. and this record does just that. That’s the thing about this record and the beauty of listening to music at a certain point in your life – driving in car dad’s car, your first sleepover, when you first move out of home, you first fall in love, when you have kids – different records will mean completely different things to you and remind you of different times.
I could have chosen Blue by Joni Mitchell cause that record changed the way I felt about songwriting or Harvest by Neil Young which made me see the imperfections in songs were the perfections, but tonight, when I wrote this, I wanted to remember Joshua Tree by U2 and recall those memories. I have been listening to it on repeat and thinking for the first time in my life, ‘wow music really is incredible!’
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Lucy is currently on tour in Australia with Ben Folds as well as for a string of solo club shows in support of her latest record ‘Something’s Changing’. Catch her remaining tour dates, here.
