Review Summary: It's autumn now so please forget me
Summer 2014: End of Junior Year
This marks the first time I fully listened to
Summer Death by Marietta, an album that remains as one of the most significant albums in my short life. I was struck with sadness about having to go back to school in less than a week, so I went for a drive in the middle of a late August day as an attempt to take my mind off the inevitable. Only having heard a couple of Marietta songs, I decided that the death of my own summer was the perfect time to listen to their debut in its entirety. I remember ‘Cinco de Mayo Shit Show’ standing out the most with its infectious gang vocal chorus, “I’m getting to old for this shit, I’m throwing fits and acting like a kid again!” Only being 17 years old the lyrics themselves didn’t resonate with me, but I pretended to understand and shouted along anyways, not yet realizing the irony in my actions. Satisfied with myself for picking an appropriate album for the finale of my summer, I vowed to return to it over the rest of my senior year, singling out the aforementioned track whenever possible. Although I enjoyed the album, I realize now that I enjoyed it mostly for the fact that it was named Summer Death and I listened to it in August. It had not yet struck a personal connection with my life. It soon would.
Summer 2015: End of Senior Year
One stressful year later filled with breakups, failures and anxieties about college and my future, I’m on the couch, home alone in early August. I receive a text from my mom asking me to drive 45 minutes to pick my sister up from some backwoods Wisconsin town. Reluctantly, I slump into my car and begin driving on the seemingly unmarked highways, rarely seeing another car pass me by. Realizing that this summer would be cut short due to leaving for college early, I decide to listen to
Summer Death. Remembering how much I loved this album for its charming, twinkly guitars and the infectiously half-shouted, half-sung vocals, I excitedly plug my iPod into the aux. Anxious to hear my favorite track, I almost completely ignore the first song, but suddenly the lines “Have I been forgotten? Oh yeah, I’ve been forgotten. I don’t see the silver lining, I give up on trying” intoxicate me and forcefully immerse me inside every track on the album. Everything fell into its place and I soon realized the impact this album had made on me over my senior year of high school. While screaming “I’ve got my head back, again” as ‘Fuck, Dantooine is Big’ came to a close, I surprised myself with the amount of lyrics I knew by heart. I remember this moment as the first time I was able to differentiate every song from each other, a defining quality in an album for me. Every track became crystal clear through the viewfinder of my ears, something as satisfying as the click of a camera’s shutter just before an image is captured. Looking out the window I am reminded of the first time I heard the album almost exactly a year ago. Filled with nostalgia, I pick up my sister. I listen to the album a second time, smiling the whole way back.
Summer 2016: End of Freshman Year//Present
Having heard the album enough times by now, I often attempt to pinpoint why I love this album so much. Feelings of nostalgia, bliss, regret, and uncertainty blur together throughout the entire album, yet I am unable to differentiate my own feelings with those that are conveyed through the music, a beautiful sign of an album dissolving itself inside the pools of my own memories. Intense moments of energetic breakdowns, like the closing of ‘Ever is a Long Time’, convey the loss of love almost perfectly (“Wait, don’t go, I’ll hold you on my own”), while the quieter, more somber moments convey the resentfulness and uncertainties of growing up (“I screamed at my skin ‘Please stay younger’” in ‘Chase, I Hardly Know Ya’). Still, there’s a sense of mystery as to why this album is so deeply engraved in both my mind and my heart. Maybe it’s something as simple as the catchy gang vocals, destined to be shouted by any adolescent within the scene. Yet, maybe it’s something as complex as the interplay between the guitars, or the disposal of the verse, chorus, verse pattern most bands are used to, making every track inherently interesting and unique. As I sit and type, I almost look forward to the end of August, knowing all these memories will flood back in full color as I drive in my car on a hot summer day and press play to ‘…So They Left Me at a Gas Station’. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to eloquently explain why this album is so moving and poignant, but for now it remains as the soundtrack to the end of my summer.
Maybe I’m not getting too old for this shit.
