...In which our heroine has a record for the year.

Around this time last year, I made a playlist of all of the songs that were the soundtrack to high school. Of course being the completist/nostalgist that I am, I had to do the same for this year. We cleaned the apartment out last night which was a much sadder task than anticipated, but my awesome Motown playlist helped.

There's 130 songs on the list, and there's a 130 I'm forgetting. A lot of these songs are representative of full albums – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Feed the Animals, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Led Zeppelin IV, In Rainbows, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, A Ghost is Born, Frank's Wild Years, Person Pitch, Merriweather Post Pavilion, You Forgot it in People, Electric Warrior – but then the list would be ridiculously long.

A lot of these songs are too hard to listen to right now, but I think that'll get better. Even though they make me sad for the moment, they are all sonic memories of a year well spent, more or less. They are all moments that I can archive with a single song, hoping that I can hold on to the memory attached.

Without further explanation, here's the list of songs that I laughed, cried, slept, played cards, argued, had sex, built forts, made out, drank, cuddled, sang on trains, smoked, had adventures, ate, cooked, met people, lost people, made connections, got infatuated, fell in love, hated, studied, wrote, wasted time, and grew up to in my freshman year of college.

Can't Get Enough of Your Love – The Afghan Whigs
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed – The Allman Brothers Band
The Purple Bottle, Banshee Beat, Bluish, My Girls, For Reverend Green, Lion in a Coma, No More Runnin – Animal Collective
I Say A Little Prayer for You – Aretha Franklin
My Body is a Cage – Arcade Fire
God Only Knows, Feel Flows – The Beach Boys
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Dear Prudence, Blackbird, Rocky Raccoon, Penny Lane, With a Little Help from My Friends – The Beatles
E-Pro – Beck
Thirteen – Big Star
It's Oh So Quiet, All is Full of Love – Bjork
Your Touch – The Black Keys
Sweet Leaf – Black Sabbath
No Woman, No Cry, Exodus – Bob Marley
Skinny Love – Bon Iver
Landlocked Blues, Lover I Don't Have to Love – Bright Eyes
7/4 Shoreline, Lover's Spit, I'm Still Your Fag, Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl – Broken Social Scene
Video Killed the Radio Star – The Buggles
Lovefool – The Cardigans
Sea of Love – Cat Power
Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry
Everyday is Like Sunday – Colin Meloy
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes – CSNY
Fascination Street, Just Like Heaven, Same Deep Water as You, Disintegration – The Cure
Touch It, Technologic, Television Rules the Nation – Daft Punk
Woof Woof – Dan Deacon
Changes, Space Oddity, Suffragette City – David Bowie
What Sarah Said – Death Cab for Cutie
O Valenica, Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect, The Mariner's Revenge Song- The Decemberists
Sludgefeast – Dinosaur Jr.
The Cover of the Rolling Stone – Dr. Hook
Miss Misery, Thirteen – Elliot Smith
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man – Elton John
White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes
Like This – Girl Talk
Apology Accepted – The Go-Betweens
Cry – Godley and Creme
Album of the Year – The Good Life
Mockingbirds – Grant Lee Buffalo
Glad Girls – Guided by Voices
Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson
ABC – Jackson 5
Acid Tongue, Rabbit Fur Coat – Jenny Lewis
Do You Wanna Touch Me? - Joan Jett
25 Minutes to Go, Folsom Prison Blues, Jackson – Johnny Cash
Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush
There She Goes – The La's
Good Times Bad Times, The Battle of Evermore, Dazed and Confused, Whole Lotta Love, That's the Way, Tangerine, Kashmir, Misty Mountain Hop – Led Zeppelin
Do You Believe in Magic? - The Lovin' Spoonful
Paper Planes – MIA
Heatwave – Martha and the Vandellas
I Heard it Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
Angel – Massive Attack
Master of Puppets – Metallica
Beat It, PYT – Michael Jackson
Cowboy Dan, Gravity Rides Everything, Doin' the Cockroach, Tiny Cities Made of Ashes – Modest Mouse
Mahgeetah, Golden, One Big Holiday – My Morning Jacket
Fake Empire – The National
After the Gold Rush, Cortez the Killer, Cowgirl in the Sand, Like a Hurricane, Old Man, Ohio, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere – Neil Young
Buffalo Stance – Neneh Cherry
Holland, 1945, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Oh Comely – Neutral Milk Hotel
The Man Who Sold the World, About a Girl – Nirvana
Comfy in Nautica, I'm Not, Carrots/Good Girl – Panda Bear
Shine on You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd
Street Spirit, 15 Step, Nude, Idioteque – Radiohead
Kiss Me on the Bus – The Replacements
Beeswing – Richard Thompson
Portions for Foxes – Rilo Kiley
Under my Thumb, Wild Horses – Rolling Stones
Then He Kissed Me – The Ronettes
All I Want is You – Roxy Music
Kenya Dig It? - Ruby Suns
A Change is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
America, Cecilia – Simon and Garfunkel
1979 – The Smashing Pumpkins
Mambo Sun, Jeepster, Monolith – T. Rex
Marquee Moon – Television
The Eraser – Thom Yorke
Goin' Out West, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, Hang on St. Christopher, Hang Down Your Head – Tom Waits
Ball and Biscuit, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground – The White Stripes
Reservations, Jesus Etc., Radio Cure, Spiders (Kidsmoke), I'm the Man Who Loves You, California Stars, The Late Greats, Handshake Drugs - Wilco