How quickly another year rolls around. Perhaps because our perception of time is so wildly different as children but as an adult time just flies. It is strange to think we have already been based in this post-war new town for over five years now. We moved into our home on New Years’ Eve 2015.
The first week back at work after the festive break was always going to be a struggle but I successfully manoeuvred myself to Thursday afternoon with some limited success. The only meeting had been a short thirty meeting reporting catch-up with my boss at 10am. With the afternoon schedule free, I had cleared the decks to actually get some substantial tasks ticked off the to-do list.
Of course, I needed a motivational soundtrack to help induce the delivery of some high-quality work. I switched over to Spotify and decided to listen to some Kygo playlists. You will recall one of his most commercially successful and popular covers (are they really covers? I would prefer to use the word reimaginings) of Whitney Houston’s cover of Steve Winwood’s 1982 hit ‘Higher Love‘.
This is a moment of pure genius when the streaming platform comes into its own. I played a random Kygo song from my liked songs playlist but it just randomly then selected a Kygo playlist based off his most recent studio album and began playing songs which I was listening to while working. Then the next song started.
I would call it one of my superpowers but others may refer to such ability as a curse. I can listen to the same song on loop for what feels like an eternity and do not lose my passion or love for the song from the first moment my little ears were exposed to it. When Pure Shores was released at the start of this millennium, I can recall driving my friends crazy by listening to the song nonstop while driving around the Bucks, Berks and Oxon tri-county area in my Mum’s red 1990 Mini Mayfair. For the record, I still have not seen The Beach.
Do you sometimes have this out-of-body experience when you hear a song for the first time and truly believe it was not only written for your current circumstances but there was some divine intervention that resulted in you hearing those lyrics just when you needed them most. On the first Thursday of 2021 and after such a challenging year we were all looking for hope that this period, when this little rock we call Planet Earth starts a fresh journey around the Sun, there would be tangible good news on the horizon.
Instead, we found ourselves in yet another lockdown, watching the news as the season finale of the United Divided States of America ends with the leader of the free world banned from the world’s largest free social media site microblogging site.
I first listened to the song at 2:50pm on Thursday 7th January and as we swiftly approach 1am on Saturday 9th January I have listened to the song 65 times, practically non-stop this evening into the early hours. So why is this my new obsession and how long will it last? I suppose deep down it is that recognition that everything is going to be fine. I am trying every day to be a better person. This year is going to define so much for the future of everybody and that is even before we consider the certain milestone to be reached 32 days (or 2,764,000 seconds) before Christmas Day.
And I been praying to be a better man for you
Oh, oh
I Hope I’m changing
I just wanna be a better man for you
For you, for you
Could you love me
With all my crazy?
Could you look past all the goodbyes, all the maybes?
Could you love me
With all my crazy?
Could you look past all the goodbyes, all the maybes?
Could you love me?
‘Cause I’m crazy
Could you love me?
‘Cause I’m crazy
The song, of course, is Could You Love Me by Kygo featuring Dreamlab from the 2020 album Golden Hour which completely slipped my radar. I suppose as we get older our priorities change and we are not those experts in pop culture we once were. In any case, the song has refocused my mind on all the positive opportunities that lie ahead for 2021 and beyond. We just have to seize them with open hearts and minds.