Music roulette 7 - Reality Sound Bites
Midlife Musings

Music Roulette 7 – Reality Sound Bites

June 7, 2026 /No Comments

Music is a powerful, accessible memory cue. Therefore, I am setting the shuffle loose again for another round of music roulette to resurface my deep memories. This has been helping me recall personal experiences and process the emotions that are clogging my memory storage. Especially since I don’t have my journals on hand for me to scour for memory triggers. Part of a midlife renewal plan, the music based therapy part of my sabbatical. I’m going to let the music do the heavy lifting again. Here we go.

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1. Halo :: Depeche Mode

Starting strong with Depeche Mode. Though I may have started listening to them when I was in middle school, there is no stronger memory tied to Depeche Mode than my sophomore year of college, courtesy of my dorm roommate. She only listened to Depeche Mode, and when it was her turn to play music, we were going to be serenaded with the throaty sound of David Gahan singing to us. It’s a good thing I was a fan, because she was obsessed, and if I wasn’t into it, it could have led to big fights. Fortunately, music was not a point of contention for us. So on her side of the room, she had his pictures and posters of this album in particular on her wall. I had a collage of Chris Cornell on my wall where I had torn his picture out of multiple copies of the music mag that was circulating on campus. I must have found every available copy I could get my hands on. Good times.

2. Drunk on Love :: Basia

I introduced the ex to Basia. I forgot who introduced me to her, this was when I was still in college, but I had this CD on crazy rotation for some reason – it is fun to sing along. After I played it for the ex when we were dating, it got played a lot in the car on our many road trips. Le sigh. I guess at the time I was in fact, drunk on love. My how things change. I try to think back and encapsulate the feeling I had of being in love with mr horrible, and I struggle to believe that relationship was even real. It often feels like something that happened to someone else. Funny how life is, am I right? Like Basia said: You never know.

3. Big Love – 2018 Remaster :: Fleetwood Mac

Ok, this song evokes two funny memories. One – it reminds me of the beginning of a completely different song (1901 by Phoenix). Two – that I went to see Fleetwood Mac in concert with La Llorona and my brother. It was on her bucket list; they were playing together with The Doobie Brothers. Both bands, which I grew up waking up to since my alarm clock was set to play music, and 99.1FM was the classic rock station in my hometown. I am not a big concert goer, so the list of bands that I have seen is all over the fucking place – speaks to my eclectic and varied musical tastes 🤣😅 This is probably their least Fleetwood Mac-kie sounding song in my opinion.

4. AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM :: Beyonce

I may not be part of the Beyhive but I can appreciate Beyonce. This song is catchy as hell, and I think this was the year she had her big tour. I was OBSESSED with watching posts on social media of her backup dancers. I definitely appreciate good choreography.

5. Faith ~ Instrumental Remastered :: George Michael

Ok, funny story time. When this song came out, my mother ABSOLUTELY would not allow me to buy this cassette. However, my cousin had it – they had gotten their older brother to buy it for them. So I convinced them to let me make a copy of their cassette. I remember it was a big to-do. I brought the blank tape with me to their house when we all got together for a big family BBQ (these were in the days before my mother alienated herself and us from the family at large) and while all theadults were outside getting drunk on beers and wine and telling stories, the kids (me and my cousins) were inside and I was making a copy of the cassette. Ha! Where there is a will, there is always a way.

6. Cabo Time :: Dr. Dave & The HouseCall Band

I have no recollection of when or how this song was added to my liked songs. If I had to guess, it would be because it sounds like the music from the original Sims game (Sims 1). I can’t begin to express how much that music has been, and still to this day continues to be, music I listen to. I may not have played that game in over 20+ years, but I still have the soundtrack to the game on my heavy rotation playlists. And this song, sounds just like it. I also happen to like whatever genre of music this happens to be – electric jazz? Doesn’t matter. It appeals to me.

7. Stwisted :: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians

8. Toss A Coin To Your Witcher :: Sonya Belousova, Giona Ostinelli, Joey Batey

Firstly – Henry Cavill is THE ONLY Witcher in my book. As far as I’m concerned, this show ended on Season 3. Fuck season 4 and that nonsense. They should have never bothered. Fuck that noise. Second – this song was THE SHIT when this season came out? Who didn’t see this online, it was everywhere. Everyone was talking about tossing a coin to your witcher. Thirdly, The bard, I forget what his name was, but he was essential to the plot. And this song was off the hook. And lastly, 2020 just colored everything differently. Nothing has been the same since. I can’t even explain it. If you know, you know. And for those of you that don’t know you can familiarize yourself with my pandemic adventures and laments here, here, and here.

9. White Christmas (feat. The Manhattan Transfer) :: Pentatonix

Remember when Acapella music had its heyday thanks to Glee? I do. And Pentatonix is a leftover from that mania. Hey, even I had a brief stint in a glee club. Granted I was a freshman and I certainly can’t believe I ever put myself out there like that. That was definitely another version of me that died a long time ago. Oh well.

10. BEAT UP CHANEL$ :: Slayyyter

I don’t know how anyone discovers new music nowadays. But me? It’s all about social media. If I hear a new artist I like, I’m saving it to my spotify playlist. I’m thankful for that. Because I do not listen to the radio anymore. It sucks and there are too many ads and they don’t play anything new. That’s how I found this song. I mean, if it wasn’t social media, how do new artists get discovered anymore? So much has changed about the way we interact with music, I hardly understand where we’ve ended up.

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