On Repeat

Or, I finally listened to MUNA.

I got the offer this week of a free ticket to see MUNA with my friends on Saturday. I had heard one song (pretty good), so when I gardened yesterday morning, I went to their most popular on Spotify, starting with “Silk Chiffon.”

They’ve got some good lines in there.

Prior to deciding to queue MUNA, I’d listened to “Running Up That Hill” a few times. Don’t watch Stranger Things, don’t know what it’s about, don’t care. All I’ve done is watch David Harbour’s AD tour a few times, and that’s all I’ll ever do.

But as a namesake of Kate Bush (no, really), the resurgence of this song has been something great for me, bringing a focus to a theme I’m obsessed with: obviously, we can never know how it is to be each other, but it’s good to wish we could.

So I went into MUNA and maybe shot myself in the foot, because after loving the joy of their most popular song, I couldn’t move on and played it a few more times before ripping my cucamelon plant out of the ground.

Playing songs on repeat feels obvious. Something hits you, you want to feel it again, hear it again, hear it right. When I was growing up, my dad didn’t like playing songs too much, or too often. He thinks they can lose their charm, but maybe the charm doesn’t come from how often you hear it, but how primed you are to hear it, or how much you want to. Sometimes, you’ve gotta hear that song (and then hear it again, and again, and again).

So here I am, replaying:

• Silk Chiffon, by MUNA

• Yellow, by Kevin Abstract

• Quarantine the Past (album), by Pavement (seeing them in a week, gotta keep up)

• As It Was, by Harry Styles (thanks, Henry!)

Keep on keepin’ on.

Kate Coleman