Blogocentric Formulations

All You Wanted

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Song: "All You Wanted"
Artist: Michelle Branch
Album: The Spirit Room


I was actually surprised to find that I haven't included any Michelle Branch songs in any of Soundtrackers playlists so far. Except for that time ("Do you want to run away together?" ) when I wrote about a song she released when she was part of The Wreckers duo. But considering how much I listened (and still listen) to her solo albums, it's a little crazy to think that I haven't used anything from her yet. I was really tempted to use "Breathe" from her follow up album Hotel Paper, but I ultimately opted for this song because it was the one that first caught my attention when he debut album The Spirit Room was released in 2001. I practically wore this CD out listening to it as I drove back and forth between home, community college, and my job at Borders Books.

That was kind of a crazy time in my life in terms of the number of hours I was logging. I figured out that I wanted to go to film school after it was too late to apply, and I ended up needing to attend community college for two years in order to build up enough transfer credits to get into film school as a junior. I was also trying to save money at the time, so my days were a blur of work, school, hanging out with friends, and intermittently coming home to sleep. I took a really heavy course load to make sure I got all my transfer requirements done, which meant I was usually in school from about 7AM to 2PM or so... and then I went right from there to Borders, where I worked the closing shift from 3PM to 12AM. Friends on the closing crew would usually hang out for a while after work, so we'd spend a couple hours at a bowling alley or bar or wherever else we could find that was open and hang out until I grudgingly had to take myself home and get some sleep. I'd crash around 3AM and then wake up at 6AM to do it all over again. Man, I'm getting tired just remembering this schedule! It's a good thing I had a young metabolism back then and could operate on only a couple hours of sleep a night!

Anyway, my parents' house was in a suburb and the community college was a 30-minute drive away. It was another 30 minutes to get from school to the bookstore, and then 15 minutes to get back home. While that commute is a dream by my standards today, it meant a lot of time in the car and this was the album that most frequently played during the first semester of my sophomore year. If CDs could wear out, I would have done it with this one! It got to the point where I had almost all of the lyrics for all of the songs memorized and I could sing along (albeit poorly) with the entire album.

I still listen to Michelle Branch's albums fairly regularly, which is unusual for me. In an iTunes playlist world, I almost always mash up songs, taking a few from this album, a few from that other album, a few singles I downloaded, etc. to make the playlist I jam to in my car when I'm not listening to audiobooks or podcasts. Michelle Branch's albums seem mix-proof though, as I often find myself listening to her albums straight through without interspersing it with any other music.