365 project: "love me. hate me. make me live again. i need you around"

140.

artist:better than Ezra
album:greatest hits

at some point during what was probably my junior year of college, i was re-introduced to the song "at the stars" by better than Ezra, and of course fell back in love with this band that i had really appreciated back in the '90's. soon after, if not at that moment, i was talking to my friend Jeff, whom I've known since elementary school (we went all through school together, and then ended up at the same college, he's 2 years younger than me but i did two years at another school), and mentioned that i needed to find my way back to this band. of course Jeffy is awesomesauce and burned me CD, which if i remember correctly, had more or less the same track list as this greatest hits album. my only wish to Jeffy was that the disk contained at the stars.

i don't remember the reason why i picked up this greatest hits album, or even where i got it. its possible that i threw it into the cart on a shopping binge at target one day, as the packaging resembles the target packaging, but i honestly don't know. all i know is that once i put it into my CD player, ill listen and listen and listen and listen. i have such a hard time taking this disk back out of the player once i put it in. its hard to pick a favorite song from this album, and equally hard to pick a least favorite. i know that sounds like a cop out, but i really love all of the songs, some for face value and others for how i relate to them.

there is just something about the bands that came out in the '90's that i tend to identify with more so than any other artists. i guess its because this is the stuff that was on the radio when i was doing my "growing up" and going through high school and college. i turned ten in 1990, so most of my big events happened within that decade. i guess its the same reason our parents relate so well to the songs of the '70s.

but the thing about these songs is that, while i did hear most of them for the first time in high school, and while they related a lot to me in those and my college years, there are elements that i think still apply today. there's a line in the song under you that i have always found to be insanely romantic:
And Ramen Noodles at 4:30 in the morning,
When we barely could survive, I was never more alive.
in the context of the song, it is obvious that this is about living in and trying to make it in Cali, but as a 31 year old who hasn't quite found her way yet, this could absolutely be me...starving and living off of ramen, but having the time of my life doing it. secretly this is one of those things that i really want to experience. i want to live with someone i love, be poor and struggle a bit, but have a damn blast while its all going on. i think the struggle makes you appreciate everything you have that much more.

I'm done typing. go listen to some better than Ezra.