Train Journeys

Credit @Anant Jain

By Erin Deborah

There is true catharsis in listening to music on a train in the rain. I would say for me there are few greater pleasures. Permitting me to go through all the feelings, whether applicable to my own life or not, train journeys are best when set to beautiful backing tracks. Main character moments, yes, but far more than that. The experience of music at its full existential capacity.

Listening to Léon’s And It Breaks My Heart is truly the best example. Not my favourite Léon song, but definitely the one that makes me cry the most. Put it on when you want to think about the meaning of love and the loss of it. When I stare out of a train window with Léon’s wishful vocals, nothing compares. Sing it loudly while driving fast, windows down.  

Sometimes, though, it’s necessary to pull myself into a hole, drag myself into a self-induced pit of romantic despair. JP Saxe’s A Little Bit Yours, never fails to make me want to sob passionately over love felt and love lost. Dangerously addictive, it might make you feel sad for that one person, or wish you had such a person to whom you could belong. 

And, for those of us with someone in mind, listening to James Bay’s Scars, will make you want to call them and seize the moment. Because moments can be fleeting, and we do not always have the privilege of remaining in a time or place that may be perfect. Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide similarly always makes me think about finishing university; I was afraid of changing, leaving the nest I had so carefully built, which was full of some of the best people I have ever known. I hope my life will continue to always be, at least a little bit, built around them. 

Life can move quickly, so much so that we don’t always notice it. There are things that will happen that we cannot foresee. And I would not have it any other way. The newest addition to my spotify repeats, Elina’s Paper Planes song has some of my favourite lyrics ever on this sentiment:

All our dreams and all our desires

Are paper planes in front of our eyes

Everything we've always believed in

Will it hold us back

‘Cause love is harder than it used to be

And life is nothing like we pictured it

My gratitude and dedication for this metaphorical playlist goes, as it always does, to my best friend, without whom I could and would not have spent many hours staring out of train windows, feeling many feelings all at once. Thank you.