Approaching genres for the first time can be a ridiculously exciting ritual. Although it seems goofy to think so now, I remember listening to the heavy anglophilia of Blur’s “The Great Escape” for the first time and thinking it was one of the most alien and edgy pop records I had ever heard. Such novel charms like this can only last for so long, as obessions quickly breed contempt and banality.

What I find more interesting these days is not the notion of looking back, but the idea of coming back to this music that was your introduction to a genre. It’s amazing how such a fixed medium like music or “the album” can be so amorpheus and evolving. Snow’s “Informer” was the first single I ever bought and played to death, but after recently hearing it for the first time in nearly a decade, it sounded completely different to me and brought up a completely new set of feelings.

This experience has convinced me to start an experiment where I gauge what the nebulous emotions of certains songs/albums are over the course of my life. I’ll get back to you with some results in a couple of decades.