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This really touched me. I appreciated the reference to lock down as I think that is definitely when I found myself again. It’s a positive amongst many negatives from that time. It also spoke to me of that terrible contradiction that comes from really loving a piece of music where you desperately want everyone to hear it and love it but you also feel strangely possessive of it, because those emotions and associations make it uniquely yours.

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Great piece! And as a dad of what sounds like the same general vintage, I can very much relate. My third kid was a HORRIBLE sleeper when he was a baby, and we went through a phase in which the only way I could get him to sleep was to gently swing him in my arms while listening to music. What band? The Cure. Would any Cure album do? Oh no, my friend, he had a favorite: Pornography. None of this namby-pamby "Friday I'm in Love" for him. He's turned out... like you'd expect.

Also, there's nothing at all inexplicable about liking Shostakovich. Shostakovich is great!

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Amazing taste in Cure albums

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You might like this recent piece specifically about the hunt for the 'right' music for a little kid ...

https://open.substack.com/pub/tracksontracks/p/jesses-fav-tunz

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