albums i listened to all the way through

posted this week and every week (14)

May 11, 2025

With it being Mother’s Day, I am feeling rather homesick.

Wanting and having to connect with my mom from five states away, I made and mailed a card & zine surprise. I thought that might alleviate some of this loneliness, but the second she sent me a photo of our beagle this morning, I started weeping.

I think it’s been the general feeling this past week. It’s just that time of year. Outside my office, students said goodbye to their friends for the summer and headed back to their homes all across the country. Commencements and graduations are all coming up this week. Other than the Winter holidays, this is typically the time when families are together.

Meanwhile, I’m drowning in assessment reports, prepping for a long summer of New Student Orientations, and longing for any sort of vacation.

Also, Andy’s Weird Ohio made me a mix with a James Taylor song, so of course, my little Southern heart cracked open just a little more. I spent most of my week listening to James Taylor records, which is not something I do unless I’m really and truly very homesick.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m always a sucker for a James Taylor song. I just can’t spend a lot of time listening to him because my thoughts drift back a little too far. Put on “Carolina in My Mind,” and I’m lost in the memories.

A few years back, I watched the entirety of The Orville on Hulu. I’m not much of a Star Trek or Star Wars person (sorry), but something about this particular show spoke to me. Despite being a Seth MacFarlane project, it’s really not Star Trek meets Family Guy. Yes, it’s funny, but there are so many more interesting philosophical discussions about AI, human nature, gender, race, religion, economics, and so on and so forth. It’s one of the most optimistic portraits of the future of the universe I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch. I think it might be my Roman Empire, as the kids would say.

The last song from the Season 3 finale is a James Taylor song, performed by Scott Grimes. The choice to frame this futuristic, seemingly far-advanced society with a folk song from the twentieth century is just so human.

The show does this a lot. There are so many great songs sprinkled in—a stunning rendition of ”Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall,” a new acoustic interpretation of “That’s All I’ve Got To Say,” and even an upbeat orchestral arrangement of “Singin’ in the Rain.”

This bout of homesickness brought me face-to-face with my musical upbringing. My parents are big 60s and 70s music fans. Growing up, these particular decades made up the bulk of what I heard. I liked some of it but felt estranged from most of it, seeing as though my parents thought it was coooool. When you’re from a place like North Carolina, James Taylor occupies a sort of “Well, my parents love him so he’s kinda lame” space. That’s obviously not true, but kids will be kids. We all grow out of it at some point and realize just how honest and good he really is.

To me, James Taylor’s music is representative of these complicated feelings. It almost hurts to listen to him. I listened to “Terra Nova” a few times this past week and felt a crushing sense of guilt. I long for a time and place that don’t really exist anymore. By leaving, I pretty much cemented my own feelings of isolation and loneliness. Sure, I can and will go back there, but there’s some undercurrent of other present between me and everyone I grew up alongside. It’s inexplicable and makes me sound just the slightest bit arrogant or alien if I try to talk openly about it.

Still, going back over these albums, I also feel remarkably settled—like something in my brain finally clicked. I imagine James Taylor writing about his Carolina homesickness in places like London and Ibiza. I find myself doing the same. I smile. I cry. I daydream. I appreciate things about home I never would have at sixteen.

In other words, the older I get, the more I get it.

(Well—except smooth jazz from the 90s. Sorry, parents. I just can’t listen to that stuff.)

Anyway, wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and & a very Happy Birthday to my stepdad this week. May you two always be the biggest James Taylor fans.

Here are the albums I listened to all the way through this past week: