For a recent Twitter trend, folks listed the five “most ‘important’ albums” in their lives. I’ve been thinking about it a lot: how some music becomes a signpost in my life, inextricably linked to a feeling or place or event. It’s usually individual songs, but this prompt made me consider an outline of my life in 10 whole albums.

The Rough Guide to the Music of the Alps by Various Artists

Top track: “He-u” by Attwenger

I was born in Austria, though my family moved to North America before I was a year old. As a young child, I was obsessed with this origin story, and my parents—who had expected to live in Austria long-term—fed into my interest with all sorts of cultural paraphernalia. I always wanted this album ready to go in our 3-disc CD player.

Push by Christine Evans

Top track: “Give It Up”

I got this moody alt-CCM album along with a pink portable CD player from Sears. It was blasting through my brain while I played a short-lived, Skittles-sponsored survival game on YTV.com when I was interrupted by a family health scare—it was quickly resolved, but the initial fear remains tethered to Push.

Jonas Brothers by the Jonas Brothers

Top track: “Goodnight and Goodbye”

Every few years, we spent the summer visiting family and friends in Vancouver. Early during one trip, my parents bought me Jonas Brothers—a move I’m sure they later regretted; it became the sole soundtrack to our treks around the city in a rented bright-red Pontiac G5. My sensory memory with this album is so strong that even brand-new Jonas Brothers music, released after the band fell apart and reunited more than a decade later, still brings up images of the Vancouver summer.

Identified by Vanessa Hudgens

Top track: “Party on the Moon”

I played competitive soccer until I was twelve, and by the final season, I was decidedly not good at it. I tried to avoid practices, and games filled me with anxiety. I listened to Identified on my iPod Nano on the car ride to matches, and I’d time the queue so that the lyric “can’t figure out / how I’m gonna get through the next 10 minutes” played as we arrived at the pitch.

The Independents by Hokus Pick Manouver

Top track: “Nancy’s Song”

What better way to look like you’re into cool, obscure music than to obsess over a Vancouver-based ’90s alternative CCM band? My high school self clearly wouldn’t know, but I did nail the obscurity aspect: The Independents is almost untraceable on the internet, though the band’s other albums are available via streaming services.

How To Save a Life by The Fray

Top track: “Heaven Forbid”

My lifetime of excelling at math came to a stuttering halt in grade twelve. I gave up on calculus and opted for a dull, frustrating data and statistics course. My homework for that class became a vehicle for listening through How To Save a Life at the dining room table.

Astoria by Marianas Trench

Top track: “Dearly Departed”

I love Marianas Trench. I love every Marianas Trench album. This one, though, I can most precisely locate in my life: the forty-five minutes of buses and walking I took twice a week to and from my internship during my second year at Calvin.

Badlands by Halsey

Top track: “Colors”

Around the same time, I was busy embracing my newly-minted (and ultimately short-lived) bisexuality. I ordered the Badlands CD along with a box of blue hair dye and a floral snapback—an absolute caricature, I know, but I think I made the most of it.

Love You to Death by Tegan and Sara

Top track: “BWU”

I’d missed the Tegan and Sara rite-of-passage for sapphic Canadians in high school, but by the time SAO brought the band to Calvin, I was confident in my queer identity. The unbridled lesbian-ness of Love You to Death was a reprieve from the treacherous 2016 election season and a gentle promise of hope for my prospects, as it were, post-Calvin.

Fine Line by Harry Styles

Top track: “Golden”

Fine Line came out a few days before I received a life-changing piece of mail: the visa that first permitted me to move to Scotland. The album had been on constant repeat in the days—and indeed hours and minutes—leading up to that delivery, and it became an anthem of my excitement for the move that would ultimately reshape my future. (That only one Harry album made it on this list is a testament to my self-control.)

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