Got a girl crush on: Natalie’s teenage music cataloguing project, DiscoDex

Today, I’m catching up on my friend Natalie’s latest endeavour: to catalog one song from every CD in the CD case she kept between the ages of 15-19. (she’s 25 now). Along with each song, she will tell you a story.

An excerpt from Jimmy Eat World - “A Praise Chorus”:

My mom is particularly finicky when it comes to music in the car, but she really liked this album. Surprising, since it’s fairly guitar-heavy. I remember driving home with her one evening and I put Bleed American* in the Discman, tentatively awaiting her response. She told me “The Middle” reminded her of me. As a result, I simply linked that song with the band and kind of forgot about the rest of their music over the years. Listening to it now, I know that “A Praise Chorus” was my favorite song off of this album. This song made me feel excited about life and my preferred time to play it was when my parents were out and I could take over the entire house with my dance moves. Years later, it’s still an exciting song to listen to, but I haven’t budged from my seat. I have to say, though, I’m pretty glad I’ve been reminded of this song. In general, this is an incredibly accessible album.

Thanks to Natalie, I’m downloading Bleed American as we speak so I can revisit my own memories related to this album.