So Nate and I were discussing music that was super nostalgic to us the other day. Surprisingly, I didn’t really get too much into music until the end of high school (probably because CDs were way too expensive for me to ever buy and I didn’t have the incredibly enabling device that is the iPod just yet). But a lot of the albums I did buy are ones that hold a high level of nostalgia. Any time I hear a song on any of these albums, it brings me right back to the time in my life when I’d play said album on repeat on my little portable CD player.

Let’s recall a few, shall we?

Good Charlotte – The Young And The Hopeless
I bought this album at Hastings because I LOVED “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” and then realized I liked all the other songs on it as well. I played this a lot in my junior and senior years in high school, and probably a little bit before that as well. “Girls & Boys” is underrated for how good it is.

Black Eyed Peas – Monkey Business
Senior year of high school. I would start this CD EVERY TIME I drove to school in the morning. I lived close enough to the high school that it only ever got through “Don’t Phunk With My Heart,” haha, but that and “Pump It” immediately make me think of those early morning drives to school.

Ashlee Simpson – Autobiography
Another one I bought because I loved one of the songs after hearing it on the radio (“Pieces of Me”). This was mostly my first and second years of college, I think. “Better Off” is such a sweet song.

Weezer – Make Believe
The summer in between high school and college. I listened to this album SO MUCH, yo. I bought it for “Beverly Hills,” but “Perfect Situation” might be my favorite.

Green Day – American Idiot
Another one I listened to incessantly during that summer between high school and college. I also remember listening to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” back when I was in my bike-riding phase, but that was a few years earlier, I think.