If I could sum up every memory this year with a Porter Robinson song, I could pinpoint the exact moment I was listening to that song. The WORLDS album has made an unbelievable impact on my personal life. I'll never forget all the times I listened to "Goodbye to a World" whether it was sitting alone at 12am on my birthday in Cambodia, or on my grad day, or a very late drive home after a night out. The depths of this song along brings back a childhood innocence, when the world wasn't complicated and everything was intriguing. The synths, the chord progressions, the intricate layers that went into his entire album never fail to blow my mind. It takes a genius to make music like this. His songs feel like putting a tiny flower under a microscope and seeing an explosion of details come to life. The exact feeling of ethereal. To me, it is truly timeless and has been a very integral part of 2016.
It makes me think about the world in a very simplistic way, a little bit of warmth and nostalgia. Like a fast motion rewind clip of the past- little bits and pieces of the new people I've met and the experiences we shared together. But everything feels fleeting and nothing is concrete, every person say "Goodbye to a World" daily. It only makes me think of the good memories. There is just something about every single song that evokes a strong feeling, as if to say- in the end everything will be ok. Like every moment is passing by and every person is just another passenger on the train of life. It doesn't matter what we've lost and what we've won, what we've done or whom we've met- those pieces of everything we keep within ourselves and in times of peril- the good memories keep us going. Those are the thoughts going through my mind when those songs come on.
Though my biggest regret is not seeing WORLDS live, I saw Porter's Shelter tour in collaboration with Madeon. The feeling of the seeing the person responsible for creating this masterpiece of an album is the closest feeling of unconditional love. Nothing mattered in that moment, and there were many thoughts running through my mind. Thinking of all the locations and times where his songs played and how he was just standing across the room from me. It was pure magic. Everything was healed in that moment. I thought about how far I've come and when "Fresh Static Snow" & "Goodbye to a World" came on, combined with the visuals and lights- it felt like pure ecstasy. That night was one of the best memories of my life.
