I’ve been meaning to write about this song for ages. It’s one of those songs that you listen to once, and instantly you know you will never be able to forget it. Yet, it isn’t one of those songs you place on any playlist, because if it were to come on in daily life it would completely consume you; it might make you break down into tears, or search for a view on which to ponder. There are only a few songs that have impacted me enough to give me chills every time I listen to them, this is one of those songs. Even though some time has passed since this song made a huge presence in my life, it would be a disservice not to write about it. The impact this song has had on me will never go away, and I don’t doubt that it will become relevant to my life once again sometime in the future. All My Friends will always stay with me.
I’m not sure when the thought first crossed my mind to listen to LCD Soundsystem. I know my brother had suggested I listen to him at one point, but I wouldn’t take his advice until much later. If there has been anything constant in my life, it has been my ever-evolving taste in music. I remember when I was a kid I only listened to the pop songs I would hear on the radio, and it wasn’t until I got a Spotify account of my own that I began to explore other genres. For a while, I listened to more “sad” songs, Girl in Red was a staple of my listening. I branched out into other artists like Ricky Montgomery and Mother Mother, but for the most part, everything I listened to was pretty similar—at least, to me, that’s how it seemed. Eventually, I would switch to listening to rap and hip-hop, getting started with Tyler the Creator but slowly branching out into other artists. Nonetheless, it felt as though my listening habits were built off jumping from one specific genre to the next, even if the boundaries between those genres were blurred. However, when I began listening to LCD Soundsystem, it was at a time in my life where I was starting to throw away the idea that I could be into only one genre at a time. I stopped with my previous habit of creating one playlist for the current genre I was into at the time and began to make multiple playlists as I started to explore various genres at once1. It was around this time that I first listened to LCD Soundsystem, beginning with his album This is Happening. While I wasn’t immediately into it, the music grew on me and I noted that one day I should listen to his other popular album Sound of Silver.
Some time would pass between my first listening to This is Happening and my listening to Sound of Silver. While I might not remember the exact date I listened to other Albums, I’ll never forget where I was when I first listened to This is Happening. It was during a flight back home from a family trip to Saugatuck when I decided to put on one of the Albums that I had downloaded to listen to during the flight. That album ended up being This is Happening. There was something about the environment surrounding my listening that made everything piece together perfectly. I was sitting next to the window looking down upon the world as All My Friends came on, and it was as though everything else became nonexistent. I might as well have been a bird soaring over the land on my way home, the frame of the window and the glare on the glass simply vanished. All I could see was the plains and suburbs quickly passing by, accompanied perfectly by the song that was beginning in my headphones. I instantly started getting chills.
There was no better time in my life for which this song could have come on. Having just graduated high school, I was living through the final remnants of my last summer, and every day felt as though it was the last day of youth. Each of the lyrics played into these feelings, even if not directly, by telling a story about throwing one last party for all your friends who have now grown up. The melody did an even better job, with its enchanting piano melody and subtly somber synth rolling in the background. It was like a lullaby, but instead of soothing me to sleep, it was soothing me into change. Watching the land roll by and hearing those lyrics, feeling those feelings felt more perfect than anything else in my life at that time. I was scared of leaving everything behind, scared of where my friends would go, scared of who I would become, but experiencing this song at this time felt right when everything else was uncertain. And then this lyric came on, and tears rolled down my face.
Where are your friends tonight? If I could see all my friends tonight, if I could see all my friends tonight
And with that final cry, the song rushed to a halt and the album continued.
All My Friends became my mantra for the rest of the summer, which was rapidly approaching its conclusion. Though the other lyrics were insightful in their own right, it was that last verse that always stuck with me. Something about the way James Murphy sings those lyrics, like he’s crying out to the world, is so instinctually beautiful. Every day I’d go hang out with my friends, and as I’d drive home I’d listen to that song. It always felt impossible not to get emotional, but it was that perfect bittersweet feeling of “sad that it’s over, but happy that it happened.” It wasn’t the kind of emotion I wanted to stray away from, it was something I wanted to feel and experience with every fiber of my being. I’d start sharing it with friends and then one night on a final drive to a place we’d been so many times before, we’d share tears as the song filled in the silence. Never before had I felt so inherently connected to a piece of media as I was to this song. I’ve never really believed in fate, but it felt as though there had to be some force that brought this song to me at just the right time.
While some people might try to shy away from change and the emotions that come with it, I find those to be the items that give my life its meaning. As humans, we are gifted with the ability to feel, to experience the world rather than simply survive in it. That is the fruit of life, being able to experience the good, the bad, and all in between. To revel in every emotion and see them not as an ailment, but a gift. I listened to All My Friends nearly every day leading up to the moment I left for college. Every day one more of my friends would leave for school and I’d contemplate the thought that this might be the last time I ever see them. If I had wanted to shy away from those feelings I could have, but I chose to revel in them. All My Friends became the anthem to this moment in my life. It was truly life-changing.
As I’m writing this, it’s been about 9 months since that period in my life, yet I still get chills when I hear those piano keys begin to sing out. Embedded in my listening to this song are all the memories I experienced while listening to it. I remember when I got to college I wanted to write about this song while the experience was still fresh in my mind. Since I’ve been gone a lot has changed, and I’ve experienced that
This song will never leave me, and I’m sure that it will continue to make appearances in my life; after all, the transition from high school to college is only the first of many changes in one’s life. If you’ve never listened to All My Friends, I’d go ahead and write it down somewhere. While you could listen to it anytime, I think it’s best enjoyed at just the right time—like a fine wine. No matter how much you might try to avoid it, change is always going to be right around the corner. Next time you feel the course of your life changing, for good or bad, put on this song and revel in it. You’re experiencing what it is like to be human.
Not really liking how much I’m using the word genre in this article, but I see no other alternative. I generally don’t find much value in strictly defining things, even more so when it comes to art. I understand their appeal, and to some these values of specific “kinds” of music are very important, but to me, they just seem alright. Nonetheless, during this time I was still very much tied to the idea of genres, however it wasn’t so much that I was exploring specific genres but, rather, specific artists. Anyway, figured this discussion was rather unimportant in the discourse of this song, hence the footnote. ↩