College Radio

"Music Monday" turns out to be a good place for embarrassing confessions.

Fosco had a fit of nostalgia the other night (conveniently, during a fit of insomnia). He was thinking back to his college years and the music that he and his roommates used to listen to. It turns out he has very vivid memory images of certain songs/albums that are associated with very specific years of college. So, as an exercise in self-archaeology, Fosco has attempted to identify the albums that provided the soundtrack for each of his years in college.

Freshman Year:

• 10,000 Maniacs, Our Time in Eden: "These Are Days" was the song of autumn 1992.
  
• Peter Gabriel, Us

Sophomore Year:

• The Cranberries, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?: Remember when people liked this album?
  
• Pet Shop Boys, Very
  
• Ace of Base, The Sign: this may be the most embarrassing admission of all. If it helps any, I blame most of this on Dr. Steve.
  
• Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. I haven't listened to this in a long time--I should dig it out.

Junior Year:

• Liz Phair, Whip-Smart: did I mention Fosco got a little cooler that year? But just a little.
  
• Toad the Wet Sprocket, Dulcinea
  
• Weezer, "The Blue Album"
  
• REM, Monster

Senior Year:

• Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill: In all honesty, I can't think of any other album that I associate with senior year of college. Realistically, this was probably the only album being played at Harvard that entire year. Yes, that's pathetic--I get it.

I think one conclusion we can draw here is that Fosco and his roommates were complete tools, even with the exception of several really good albums from Junior Year. Which just goes to show that, for all of the credit college students get for listening to hip and obscure music, lots of college students have musical tastes lodged solidly in the mainstream.

In related news, the other day Mashuptown.com suggested that its readers should

find an album that you haven't listened to in years and refresh yourself with why you loved it in the first place. At the very least it might resurrect some good memories--really, what have you got to lose?

You know what? I'm going to listen to Whip-Smart right now.