Playlist: When You Were 13

[Heather]

Apple Music (I'm a Mac loyalist from forever, I won't lie) pulled up this playlist for me today that was some alternative hits from 1983, the year I turned 13, and thus, entered my teen years. We had some great radio stations in Chicago then, so I got lucky and was able to hear music that resonated much more for me than the mainstream stuff of the time (not pissing on mainstream pop, btw, just wasn't my thing).

Listening to it really reminded me of both the turbulence (my life was a very real hell in a bunch of ways around that time), but also the...I don't know, excitement, or intensity, or just feeling like I was starting to come into my own-ness of that time.

So, it got me curious: what songs came out when you were 13, and that you also really attach to that time of life for yourself? In a word, what was the music that came out then that you really loved that ushered in the start of your teen years?

Some of the ones for me were:
U2's War (the whole album): this was basically their debut, and I remember it all feeling just the right blend of angry, intense and sad.

Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams: I literally wore this record, their US debut, right out. Between the whole thing just feeling so swoony to me and Annie Lennox giving me such a great non-girly model so I felt less alone in that, it was just the bomb.

Culture Club (their first album): see above. Boy George was just EVERYTHING in my eyes.

Tears for Fears: Mad World. Talk about an anthem for sad youth feeling seriously unheard and disrespected.

The Violent Femmes (debut album, by the same name): I have great memories of myself and my fellow disaffected, pissed off friends sitting in someone's basement and basically ye;ling every word of this whole record in unison like some kind of off, punk choir.

The Plimsouls: A Million Miles Away. I think what felt a million miles away for me was getting to 18 and being able to get out on my own (I wound up leaving home before then, but obviously lacked the ability to see into the future).

New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies (whole record): New Order gave me the kind of grrr or weirdness that felt like a fit for my headspace, but it also was something you could dance your arse off too, which made it great for both sad and happy moments alike. Nice.

Yaz, Nobody's Diary: Well, except that of 13-year-old me and probably quite a lot of other people. That whole album was another I wore through, and scribbled the lyrics down to while sobbing more than my fair share of times.

[Atonement]

The only song that Immediately came to mind was "Bring me to Life" by Evanescence. I still love that song to this day.

It was just so desperate and dramatic in a beautiful sort of way that really resonated with me at that age, and 12 years later it still doesn't get old.

[Mo]

The Breeders album Last Splash came out a little before I turned 13 but I discovered it about a year after it was released. It was definitely a constant in my tape deck around that time and even now, listening to it feels a bit like a jaunt in a time machine.