Myth | Beach House

Today i have to say goodbye to a friend.

Well…they’re not really a friend…they’re more of a service really. But when you come to depend on, find comfort in, and in a way, love something it feels like a friend.

I joined Rdio on June 4th, 2010. 

On Rdio, I listened to 1,773 house of music.

The first song I listened to was “Love Will Tear Us Apart”

The album I played the most was ‘Camp’ by Childish Gambino.

The most popular comment I made was this take on MS MR’s “Fantasy” on August 7th 2013:

People say love is blind.

But no one talks about how awesome it feels to find your way in the dark.

How scared, unbalanced, and lost you feel when you first start. How your heart races when everything goes black. But after a few minutes of you waving your arms in nothingness, your heart slows down and you start enjoying this experience you so rarely get. Your brain trying to create an image based on what touch. Your head trying to give you a sense of direction and place with every little sound you hear.
And when you finally take the blindfold of you have to laugh at yourself for being so far from where you thought you were. You giggle when you look back and see the meandering path you took just to move a few steps forward. And you smile when you put that blindfold back on so you can do it over again.

But the one thing I want to know the most about my  time on Rdio I’ll never find out: the song I listened to the most.

They tell me it’s “Safe and Sound” by Taylor Swift but I know that’s not true. I don’t doubt it’s the song that was played the most (which is what happens when you listen to a song after watching The Hunger Games, and then take off your headphone to do something, not realizing the ‘track repeat’ button was on, then go to bed, and then wake up horrified to find out your phone was playing Taylor Swift all night long). But now because of that one night I’ll never know the song I listened to the most on Rdio.

It might be “Real Life” by the Tanlines. A track that I can always count on to get my butt moving no matter how tired I am.

Or maybe it was ‘The Riot’s Gone’ by Santigold. Because that’s the song I play when there’s a little too much happening in my head.

Part of me thinks it was “Ribs” by Lorde. The song that puts me that fun haze I get when I’m up all night long doing the things you’re not supposed to do but that that you totally should. 

Or Maybe “Hyper-Ballad” by Bjork. The track that, no matter how low I might be, or how hard everything feels, forces me to realize me I’m not as weak as i think I am. 

But I don’t think it’s any of those tracks. I think it actually might be ‘Myth’ by Beach House.

I remember listening to this track on repeat during one of the hardest times in my life. When everything in my life was shifting and the things that I thought were most important to me were gone. When, in less than a month, my life looked so different from what it had been and what I thought it wad going to be.

I would take the train to and from work and listen to nothing but this during that hour commute. And consuming what felt like the most perfect lyrics

found yourself in a new direction…eons far from the sun…

can’t keep hanging on…to all that’s dead and gone…

I remember looking out the window, hearing Victoria Legrand asking “help me to make it”, and hoping for the same thing from anyone or anything that could hear me silently ask.

I played that song a lot back then.

And I still play it now. 

When I’m sitting in an airport, waiting for my delayed flight to start boarding. Or when I take the ferry to visit friends in Oakland or Marin. Or when I’m taking the F train home after a really long day. I put on this song.

It’s kinda perfect for when you find yourself moving from one place in your life to another.

Just sad I won’t be able to listen to it on Rdio anymore.