The year is 2009. I am a recent college graduate making the transition between living at home and moving in with a friend who has the largest record collection I have ever seen. They are constantly loading my iPod with what they deem essential releases, operating as a sort of crash course for what I might hear when we live together.

At the same time, I am very early in a dating relationship with my now wife. In the awkward limbo of dating while both of us are still living with our parents, we would frequently sit in my car at the park to talk and listen to music. I often used these times with my girlfriend to work through the enormous catalogue of post punk, new wave, Krautrock, shoegaze, noise rock, lo-fi, and so much more that my friend gave me. In one of these instances, I threw on Gone: A Collection of EPs 2000-2007.

At the time, I had no language to describe what I was hearing. Despite listening to bands like Sigur Ros, Saxon Shore, and Unwed Sailor, I had never heard the term “post rock.” I had no idea that the cinematic, largely instrumental music I loved was part of a larger movement, nor that MONO was one of the major players in that movement. As the collection unfolded, I struggled to find the words to react to it.

Then, my girlfriend summed it up in three words. “This is epic.”

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It took me a long time to become a poptimist. For much of my formative years as a music fan, pop was a four-letter word. I felt deeply that music had to MEAN something, and that the music should make an effort to stretch beyond the typical four chord, four four banality dominating the airwaves.

But as I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that there’s a reason those simpler formats are as popular as they are—and not because they’re easy to write. It takes a rare skill to take these archetypal building blocks and create something electrifying.

That realization came over several years, but it probably would have come a lot faster of someone would have showed me this as a teenager.
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