This Loud Morning: My Experience

It just dawned on me that This Loud Morning came out seven years ago yesterday. Where has that time gone? Digital Vein was three years ago and I’m not exactly sure if that seems crazier or not. I know it hasn’t been a decade or anything and that seven years is a weird time to write this but I just wanted to talk a bit about how This Loud Morning was a big part in my growing up and the discovery of who I am. By June of 2011, I had already dipped my toe into music and the idea of albums telling stories, and the 2008 release of David Cook, in a way, really kick started that. But This Loud Morning was the first album I was really looking forward to as I followed all of the news stories and every interview leading up to June 28. I don’t think I have ever listened to any song more, ever, than the lead-off single “The Last Goodbye”, released in April of 2011. I had that track on repeat for a long time. I remember when the tracklist was revealed, and at the top was a song called “Circadian”. I had no idea what that word meant and immediately went to look it up. I noticed too that the last track was “Rapid Eye Movement”, another reference to sleep. With those tracks in mind and the name of the album, I instantly fell in love with what I thought the theme of the album was going to be and it turned out that that is exactly what the themes were. I also remember when the bonus Tracklist came out, one of the songs was called “Sunrise” or “Sunshine” or “Sunlight”, but now that track is nowhere to be found. I have a feeling it may have just been “This Is Not The Last Time” (very, very underrated song) as one of the lyrics in the song is “I will see the sunrise”. The other moment that stuck out to me was when the Walmart Soundcheck from Cook and the band surfaced online. “Circadian” didn’t jump out immediately, actually none of the songs really jumped out at me on first listen (minus “Paper Heart”, a song I had already heard performed acoustically) but after about three listens I knew “Circadian” was something special and haunting.

When finally the album was released on June 28, 2011, just after school was out for the summer, I had this album on repeat. The introduction to the album on “Circadian” sets the mood perfectly. I’m not about to do a full review of the album but this song is incredible and to this day is my favourite song, ever. This Loud Morning was my first real summer album, the first time I ever listened and paid in depth attention to lyrics, music, instrumentation, tracklisting, album artwork, I think it was the first album to open my eyes to the fact that, it was seriously possible to make a piece of art like this, this cool, this intricate, this beautiful and make a living doing it. The music I heard here has moved me then and now in completely different ways as I’ve grown and have experienced the different parts life has thrown my way. Whenever I’m feeling down, or I feel like I’ve failed, like I’m lacking confidence or fire in myself, I throw this album on and feel like fucking living my life. In short, This Loud Morning inspires me. It inspires me every time I listen to it. I can’t thank David Cook enough for creating this piece of art and sharing it for the world and specifically a boy, just figuring out his footing in this weird world. This Loud Morning has meant so much to me in the past seven years and will be something I will always look back on with extreme care and love.

The only thing I still need from this album is to own it on vinyl. Maybe one day… soon.  ​