A soundtrack for moving across the world - Listening Guide

A soundtrack for moving across the world is a playlist I curated to describe the journey through the emotions that I might expect to experience in the 24 hours between leaving my home in Denver, USA and arriving to my new home in Stockholm, Sweden.*

Follow along on Spotify here.

This playlist includes songs to accompany me through the following stages of my move:

1. Packing

2. Waking Up

3. Heading to the Airport

4. Boarding the Plane

5. Takeoff

6. The Flight

7. Falling Asleep On the Plane

8. Waking Up / Seeing My New Home from 30,000 Feet in the Air

9. Landing

10. Setting Foot On Swedish Soil

11. My New Home

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Packing

Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads

We know where we're going

but we don't know where we've been

David Byrne says "It's this little ditty about how there's no order and no plan and no scheme to life and death and it doesn't mean anything, but it's all right." It's like this upbeat, confident, full-force march into the uncertain future.

Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles

Strawberry Fields is is like a trippy fantasy of a beautiful place, so it only feels appropriate here.

I'm Bound To Pack It Up - The White Stripes

Some angelic 12-string guitar shii

I've thought about it for a while

and I've thought about the many miles

but I think it's time that I've gone away

So this song is probably about Jack White (or whoever) leaving a lover after the love has faded. And that's unfortunate or whatever, and while my love for Denver, my friends, etc. has not faded, I'm #sorrynotsorry that I'm...

bound to pack it up and go away

Afterthought - Fugazi

This one and a half minute interlude is a like a moment of innocent curiosity. But mildly reassuring, too, yanno

I Don't Know - Beastie Boys

I've always been intrigued by this song; it's so far removed from the reputation, image, and experience that the Beastie Boys are known for. Instead, it feels to me more like they are coming clean about something?? It's like admitting you aren't as confident as you like to act. I've told myself for years that I'm ready to move to Sweden - but...shiii... am I really ready?

I don't know :0

Go Round - Cortex

Building off of the doubt we had with the change in character from the Beastie Boys, what if we aren't as certain about this whole Sweden thing as we thought we were?

Leaving Home - Yo La Tengo

Encountering another feeling of acceptance that, yes, I am leaving – exciting, but holding close the memories I've made in this silly little life I've actually kinda come to enjoy! This song is like cleaning out your closet back at your parents' house and flip through a photo album you haven't seen in years.

Fascination - Everything But The Girl

I won't try to stop you when you try to think of the past

Are we beginning to regret this whole thing??? surely not...

Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins

Although no one in the world has ever figured out a single lyric from this song, apart from the chorus, when we hear "[something something] Heaven or Las Vegas!!!! [something something]". I mean, even Spotify doesn't have the lyrics for this one. Anyway, hopefully this is a bit of a pick up from the feels we were just in; a transition to dream pop before the end of the night.

Fade Into You - Mazzy Star

Damn. I mean this song is the sum of everything we've felt thus far, right? It's beautiful and bittersweet. Its dreamy and ambient sounds and beautiful vocals unlock the nostalgia! It's such a 'rose-tinted glasses'-type song. Looking back and seeing everything as better than it really was, and it makes me feel like I'm floating through a dream, looking at the ups and downs of life from a third-person perspective. (damn that was deep)

And, before long, this song does fade into a dream, as I fall asleep the night before moving across the world...

Waking Up

This Is The Day - The The

Shit dawg. How exciting. This is it!! This is the day!! I played this song all day the day in 2020 that I moved to Denmark for my exchange semester. Apart from the obvious, this song makes me feel excitement, hope, and genuine, overwhelming optimism for what is to come.

This is the day

Your life will surely change

This is the day

When things fall into place

Headed to the Airport

Satellite of Love - Lou Reed

Over the past few years, this has become my go-to 'bittersweet feelings in the Uber while I'm headed to the airport' song whenever I'm leaving a special place (i.e. every time I leave New York). While it is bittersweet, it is full of hope – especially in the buildup part of the song around 2:24 – which immediately gives me a sense of boundless excitement for wherever I'm headed next.

I Found a Reason - The Velvet Underground

Back-to-back Lou Reed?? This is another classic 'goodbye' tune. It inspired me to great an entire playlist of goodbye songs actually! In 2018, when I was moving out of my temporary housing after an amazing summer at IU, I was driving my family's old Toyota Tacoma which had this CD in the radio. This song played as I drove off, and although I don't think he's actually saying "bye, bye, bye..." at the beginning, that's what I like to think he meant.

I do believe

If you don't like things you leave

For some place you've never gone before

Arriving at the Airport / Waiting for my Flight

1979 - The Smashing Pumpkins

I'm not sure if there's a song as nostalgic as 1979, right?? This is such an innocent, child-like song that reminds me of my favorite memories. But in a good way - this is a happy moment. Smiling as I reflect on the past and look forward to the future. :')

Pink Moon - Nick Drake

This has got to be one of the most beautiful songs of all time. I first heard it in the depths of the pandemic as I was doing some lame nerd shit and researching automotive advertisements and heard it featured in a very beautiful and wholesome Volkswagen ad. After hearing it, I went on to (try to) learn it on guitar, and it became a summer favorite for me. Today, it still reminds me of the simple, youthful pleasures of life (and specifically those in the glow of the moon) that I felt when I watched that Volkswagen ad in 2020.

Vienna - Billy Joel

Why not, just one more time, some doubts about all this before boarding? Slow down you crazy child... also I kinda hate that this is on here but whatever yolo

Boarding the Plane

See You Later, I'm Gone - Robert Lester Folsom

A simple, acoustic track to remember the final steps I'll take on American soil (for a while) by.

Takeoff

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands​!​' - Sufjan Stevens

Ever since my first visit to Europe in 2018, this song has been my international trip takeoff song. It's an incredibly powerful instrumental with an obnoxiously long name that I don't try to remember, but it always takes me back to the overwhelming feeling of leaving the ground of a place you know before exploring a place you don't know. Which, honestly, is pretty ironic considering the name of the song links it to European colonizers kicking natives out of their homes, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder??

The Flight

These next several songs exist to help me pass the time as I fly across the Atlantic ocean, each adding their own themes to the canvas that makes up this sick journey:

• Apollo - Flight Facilities

• Porcelain - Moby

• Ageispolis - Aphex Twin

• Electric - Alina Baraz, Khalid

• I Know Places - Lykke Li

• Way Over Yonder - Carole King

• Fem fingre - Søn

• Demon Days - Gorillaz

• Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones

• Suddenly - Drugdealer, Weyes Blood

• Possibly Maybe - Björk

• Tiden Flyver - Boom Clap Bachelors

• Toto - SALES

Falling Asleep On The Plane

Headphones - Björk

This song could probably put anyone to sleep, even a dude who's currently watching his dreams come true. But that's probably because everyone has eaten, the plane lights are dimmed, and that dude could hardly sleep the night before.

Don't Get Lost in Heaven - Gorillaz

Alright so now we're in a dream. Which is made evident by the atmospheric and ethereal sound of this song. In the dream I've landed somewhere new - some wack shit is going down, too:

Got off a plane to the countryside

I drove to the mountain and a hole in the ground

There was crack on the corner and someone dead

And fire coming out of a monkey's head

No Surprises - Radiohead

An essential slumber song for Conner, going back many years... possibly depressing, but we're in a dream so it's cool.

Touch - Daft Punk

This is where things get interesting - still in that crazy dream, but this is where it turns into a real trip. This song might as well be an entire movie with how many scenes it explores. It's trippy, exciting, beautiful, groovy, and sad - in that order. This song has unquestionably occupied a spot in my Top 10 Favorite Songs list, almost since the first time I heard it. But anyway - this song turns this dream into a real bonkers adventure.

Waking Up / Seeing My New Home from 30,000 Feet in the Air

Vad Hände Med Dem? - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

The first few seconds of this song are opening my eyes, opening the window, and looking out to see the thousands of lakes, like little dark holes surrounded by green, that sit within Sweden's interior, as we make our descent to Arlanda International Airport. The song is in Swedish too so that's kinda convenient.

Anemone - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Back to back BJM!! Exciting stuff. This song tones it back a little bit, and it's a bit more atmospheric (but groovy) as we get closer and closer to the ground.

Landing

Honey - Robyn

I'll be the first to admit that I have no clue what the lyrics of song are supposed to be about, but what I DO know is that its reverb and pounding bass send me on an exciting journey of thoughtful anticipation and excitement. Plane touches down as this song ends.

Setting Foot On Swedish Soil

Raj, raj - Björn Isfält

We made it. Despite the hectic reality stepping into a busy international airport, finding bags, trying to connect to wifi because I don't have internet, blah blah blah...

Years of obnoxious obsession, legitimate longing, and actual, real, effort and energy have created this moment. Staying up late, revising "my plan to move to Sweden" again and again. Asking myself, from time to time, if all this effort is really worth it, but never losing ambition.

Each piece of the journey was a paint stroke on the canvas that is this exact moment. And to accompany me in this moment, I have this beautiful 60s Swedish instrumental, Raj raj.

I am in Sweden, finally, to stay.

My New Home

Les Fleurs - Minnie Riperton

From this moment on, the passing of time fades, as if the credits to this movie have begun rolling. I get to my new home, begin work with my new team, make new friends, stay in touch with old ones (who hopefully come to visit Sweden for their first time!), and continue my life in a new country.

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*Disclaimer: Who knows if any of this will actually ever happen lol