The sun shines in through the shades as you awake and begin to remember that it is New Year's Eve. As you eat breakfast and start to get ready, excitement takes its hold. Seasonal affective disorder also begins to kick in right on time. You bring your coffee levels up to what you deem a sufficient amount to defeat it. You promise yourself that you will approach the night with a carefree spirit as opposed to your typical neurotic misgivings. This is the one day a year where your insomniac tendencies allow you to thrive. These songs play as you begin to map the course of the day:
Bent Shapes - "Panel of Experts"
Protomartyr - "Too Many Jewels"
Beach Fossils - "Careless"
As you wait for your friend to pick you up, your thoughts drift to a nostalgic shade of melancholy. You remember passing out by yourself on the couch before midnight the previous year and getting blindingly drunk the year before that. "This year will surely be an improvement over the past" you try and convince yourself. What is it about the New Year that brings out either a blind optimism or a helpless darkness? You realize that you will probably ping-pong between the two throughout the night and accept this fate. You think about how disturbing it was that ABC continued to have Dick Clark host the New Year's Not-So-Rockin' Eve even after his unfortunate stroke. The last thing people want as they start their year anew is the grim reminder of death looming over the night. You feel a slight guilt over these thoughts. As you wallow in your pensive state, these tunes serves as ample accompaniment:
Widowspeak - "Ballad of the Golden Hour"
Angel Olsen - "The Tiniest Seed"
Sera Cahoone - "Naked"
Jason Collett - "Where Things Go Wrong"
Cold Showers - "BC"
You travel to a city that is vaguely familiar. On the way, you and a friend discuss the plans of others while you contemplate the party you are about to attend.
Empty, half-hearted conversations begin the festivities. You wonder if this will be setting the pace for the night. Thankfully, conversations take surprisingly interesting turns as you discuss the impact of current pop culture, the rise of police state surveillance and crony capitalism, and the futility of marriage, which clears out most of the ladies present. You join a card game that was designed with the sole purpose of engineering a dangerous drunk. You watch as someone that could only be described as a 'bro' does an ill-advised keg stand, almost decapitating himself in the process.
You think to yourself that it must be midnight soon and check your phone to confirm. 9:45. Fuck. OK, you realize that the pace at which you have been drinking is greatly eclipsing your earlier ambitions. You seek a glass of water to slow your inebriation. While drinking the water, you begin dancing wildly by yourself as you listen to the music from the next room. A cute girl that you made eyes with earlier asks why you aren't dancing with everyone else and drags you back into the living room. She has big smokey eyes, jet black hair, and an hourglass figure, all things you have a debilitating weakness for. You are finally drunk enough to dance and unsure whether this is a good thing. These songs play over the course of said events:
School of Seven Bells - "Secret Days"
Rone - "Bye Bye Macadam"
How to Dress Well - "& It Was U"
Why? - "Strawberries"
Tweak Bird - "People"
Fergus & Geronimo - "No Parties"
The girl you were dancing with catches you off-guard by kissing you at midnight. She's too smart to fall for any of your typical pickup strategies and you are well aware of this. You flirt as best you can while trying to keep an air of togetherness to mask your apparent drunkenness. As expected, she batters every advance you make with a graceful ease. You finally arrive at common ground with your shared love of blogging. This reminds you of that stupid Twix commercial that you loath and you become frustrated and distracted. You begin to exchange stories of past interactions at parties. Suddenly realizing what an asshole you sound like, you begin to carefully dissect pieces of your story.
You get a text from an old friend that serves as a welcome distraction. You laugh quietly to yourself as you can only imagine what they are up to based on what could barely pass for English. The girl you are with asks who it was and you efficiently change the subject. The two of you watch as a wave of intoxication engulfs the party, each adding your own playful narration. She seems to be slightly taken by your lighthearted musings. "I hope she is foolish enough to hook up with me" you joke to yourself. She flicks a light above where you are both sitting on the floor. "I wonder what's in here?" she ponders as you gently tumble into a room... which turns out to be more of a closet.
Matthew E. White - "Big Love"
A.C. Newman - "Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns"
Ólöf Arnalds – "Treat Her Kindly"
Los Campesinos! - "Tiptoe Through the True Bits"
The drive home is rife with stories of the previous night: the girl who passed out on the porch before midnight, the man who striped naked to run into the street and wish the neighbor a Happy New Year, the awkward exchanges between people who shouldn't have been in the same place, your hookup in the closet, and so on. Your friend reminds you of something slightly cruel you said to a girl you didn't much care for and you cringe as you recall it. These songs make the drive bearable even though you are both desperate to get home:
Cymbals Eat Guitars - "Hawk Highway"
Paul Westerberg - "My Road Now"
Quiet Loudly - "Deleting People is Easy"
By the time you arrive home, you are too exhausted to move from your couch. You queue the following videos while flashes of the preceding night play in your head. You enjoy a funny smelling cigarette and indulge in some of the year's best music videos in pure wonderment. Overall, it is indeed a Happy New Year!
M83 - "Wait"
Ava Luna - "Ice Level"
Shout Out Louds - "Blue Ice"
Local Natives - "Breakers"
Flying Lotus - "Tiny Tortures"
Nick Hood - "Sirens" feat, El-P and Rood
White Lung - "Glue"
Eternal Summers - "Good As You"
Majical Cloudz - "Turns Turns Turns"
Yacht - "Second Summer"
The Octopus Project - "Whitby"
Lushlife - "Magnolia"
Fine Times - "Hey Judas"
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