A Parallel Planets piece by Unknown
Words by Kannika Pena
I don’t know about you, but I am a big fan of songs, and yet I’m not so particular about the music. I realize that each beat, each chord, each choice of instrument has a history and a tradition that it harkens to, but as a listener, I am not searching for those things. I am more particular about the world of the song that it paints in my imagination. As an avid song listener, I cannot tell you what differentiates one genre from another, or what musical tradition the musician is paying homage to, or if a song is a complete rip-off. While they fascinate me on a surface level, I am not wholly interested in such things. Instead, I’m fascinated by what each listener brings to a song, and what his/her current state of mind and emotions can do to a song. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that I have no background in music and that I do not consider myself an audiophile or a completist. Perhaps it has to do more with the fact that I deal primarily in stories, and that I see each song as a narrative of a feeling.
And this is why I cannot tell you what musical elements make Summer Heart’s “Thinkin’ of U” work. What I can tell you, though, is how it makes me feel, and the arc of emotions it takes me through as a listener. The steady beats at the beginning simply jumped right at me the moment I pressed play – without hesitation and without preamble. It feels just as if I were thrown into a particular moment as it is already happening. It leaves me no chance to overthink the situation, as I am wont to do. Instead, it carries me through its joyful suddenness. But just like the best summer songs, this one has an underlying feeling of “this is wonderful largely because it will not last”, so that it feels as if you’re already looking back on it with rose-colored glasses and dizzy longing, even as you’re in it. There is very little variation in its melody, only tiny disruptions that you probably won’t hear if you weren’t paying such close attention to it. And it ends just as suddenly as it started – without warning.
In a few words, it is just about as summery as you can get in a 3-minute song.
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