The Sound of Transition

Music has a way of signaling change. Some instances are trivial, like the opening credits of a sitcom, or merely changing the dial on your car radio to fit your mood. Others are significant: Auld Lang Syne, the graduation processional, the wedding march, the funeral dirge.

I had never really thought about music this way, how pivotal its significance could be, until I was playing a video game one afternoon. Yes, a video game.

This one.

Red Dead Redemption (2010), was Rockstar Games’ 2nd attempt to move itself further from its beat-up-prostitutes-and-run-over-pedestrians-in-stolen-cars roots, and it really is a beautifully woven piece of immersive storytelling. In it, you play the role of John Marston in the waning days of the Wild West, being held from his family by a pair of FBI agents and sent to hunt down his old gang.

After a botched siege puts him emotionally further from resolution after feeling it so close, it becomes apparent that the old group has gone to shore up strength in Mexico. “You” get onto your horse, leave the carnage you just caused behind, and set course for the border. The sun begins setting in the distance, and the opening notes of Jose Gonzales’ Crosses fades in from the background. It creates such an impactful feeling of moving onto something new and unknown, it’s still frequently referenced in media journalism and listed near the top of most “Top 10 Moments” in video game lists.

Tomorrow, I’ll get in my car and drive to Manhattan, into an unknown future quite different than the last 14 years of my adulthood. To accompany that long and thoughtful drive, I want a soundtrack of new beginnings. I have a few songs in mind, but I need more.

Give me your best. I need suggestions that are ambitious, confident, and hopeful, new or timeless, any genre.

Harmony Hall - Vampire Weekend

Shine - Mondo Cozmo

Alaska - Maggie Rogers

Meet me in the Basement - Broken Social Scene

Butterfly - Delicate Steve

Cream on Chrome - Ratatat

Suggest away, friends.