paythetab's Recent Activity

  1. paythetab liked Melody Bot's post in the thread My Life In 35 Songs, Track 30: “The Days” by Hailey Whitters.

    <div class="import_notice">This article has been imported from <a href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-30-the-days-by-hailey-whitters/">chorus.fm</a> for discussion. All of the <a href="http://forum.chorus.fm/help/rules/">forum rules</a> still apply.</div> <br> <div class="ch_import"><h3><em><strong>Instead of counting up the days, I just want to make ‘em count</strong></em></h3> <p>In books and movies, it’s easy to spot the foreshadowing – the little details in the narrative that hint at something bad coming around the corner. In real life, you often only spot those warning signs in retrospect, when you’re looking back after some catastrophe transpires and wondering whether you could have known what was coming. Such is the case when I look back on the music that was dominating my life in 2019, right before the world went into a tailspin. And it is especially true about “The Days,” an achingly wistful summer song by country singer-songwriter <a href="https://chorus.fm/tag/hailey-whitters/"><strong>Hailey Whitters</strong></a>, about making every good moment count lest they run dry a whole lot sooner than you expect.</p> <p>In the moment, the good times seemed to be in endless supply in 2019, at least in my life. By the time that summer rolled around, I felt like I’d reached a state of total contentment. I was 28 years old and things were finally falling into place with my career. As a runner, I was getting back into racing after having not run competitively since high school, and my training had me feeling like I was in the best shape of my life. Most importantly, by moving back to our hometown, my wife and I had reignited our social life, which had mostly fallen by the wayside since our college years. We reconnected with old friends, made new ones, and spent a lot of time with family that we’d seen too little of in our years away. Everything felt just about perfect.</p> <p>If there was one thing causing me angst that summer, at least judging by the music that made my annual summertime mixtape, it was that time was flying by too quickly. Nearly every song or album that was striking a chord with me seemed to be speaking, in some way, to the inertia of life, and to the “blink and you’ll miss it” sensation I was experiencing more as I got older. Maybe it was a product of being busier and having more fun in my day-to-day life. Maybe it was just the fact that I was 10 years removed from my high school graduation, a fact I dwelled upon a surprising amount in <a href="https://chorus.fm/blog/craig-mannings-top-albums-of-2018" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">my end-of-the-year writeups from 2018</a>. Whatever the reason, time suddenly seemed to by flying by faster than I’d ever seen it go.</p> <p>The soundtrack of my summer spoke to that sensation. “I still see all the wonder in those eyes/We can live life before we die/Counting the days I wanna fall in love with you.” So went the lyrics to “Better Light,” a slow-burn sundown song from the then-brand-new Dangerous Summer LP <em>Mother Nature</em>. I reached for that album every time I found myself in a car after dark that summer, and it reminded me of how the band’s music had made me feel when I was younger. That cascade of memories and carpe diem platitudes filled up other defining tunes of the season, too, from the carefree country songs (“Life is short, make it sweet,” went one of my favorites, the Old Dominion jam “Make It Sweet) to the sad, forlorn lullabies (“She was boarded up and gone like an old summer song/Nothing but an empty shell,” Springsteen sang on “Moonlight Motel,” his greatest song in years, from that year’s <em>Western Stars</em>). There was even foreshadowing right there in the first song I put on my summer playlist that year: “And I’m so alive, best year of my life…it’s gonna break my heart to see it blown to bits,” goes a Charley Bliss track that felt almost alarmingly clairvoyant when I went back to listen to it just a few months later.</p> <p>But “The Days” is the one I always wind back around to. I remember driving home on Labor Day that year, from an afternoon and evening spent at the beach, and playing that song loud as I gazed out the window at the sunset refracting off the water. “The other day, it hit me like a hammer/That you can’t get back those moments that really matter,” goes the pre-chorus, a hardly-profound statement that sure as hell feels profound when you hear it against the backdrop of the last night of summer. This song is about all the things that pile up too quickly: the candles on your birthday cake, the calendar pages you don’t need anymore, the hellos and goodbyes, the plans, the memories, the regrets, the “we’ll do it next year” assurances. “You blink, another year under the sun we all go ’round,” Whitters sings, fretting because it’s all going by too fast. “I know that they’re flying away, and there’s no way to slow ’em down,” she laments, before coming up with a pledge: “Instead of counting up the days/I just wanna make ’em count.”</p> <p>Today, Hailey Whitters is a relatively well-established, well-regarded country singer-songwriter. Back then, though, she was still just picking up steam. Her first single, “Ten Year Town,” had garnered some attention for its honest and unvarnished portrayal of what life is like for aspiring country singers in Nashville (“I’m 12 years in to a 10-year town” is the key line). “The Days” was the follow-up, a lilting, sepia-toned beauty perfect for summertime bliss. Six years later, it remains, for me, her best song.</p> <p>When I hear “The Days” now, I think of a lot of things. I definitely think of the friend group my wife and I had built since moving back home, and everything we shared together: day trips and hikes and explorations all around northern Michigan; trivia nights at the bar; evenings full of laughter, sharing a bottle of wine (or four) and chatting until the wee small hours; Friendsgivings and New Year’s Eves; times spent dancing the night away to the cover band at the local brewery; weddings where some of us got too drunk. Up to that point, my wife and I had never really had the “grown-up friendship” thing – the thing they depict in TV shows like <em>Friends</em>, where you get together with your buddies all the time and they eventually come to feel like family. Now I did, and I loved it. No wonder I was so drawn to a song about cherishing the moments of your life as they pass, and making every single one of them count.</p> <p>On February 28, 2020, Hailey Whitters released what would become her breakthrough album, called <em>The Dream</em>. “The Days” and “Ten Year Town” were both on it, along with 10 other deeply-felt, smartly-written country songs. It was the album I listened to most during the final two weeks of relative “normalcy” in my life, before the simmering fears around COVID-19 boiled over and everything changed. Suddenly, making the days count seemed veritably impossible. My wife got sent home from the office on March 13, and didn’t go back for months. Every plan I’d been making for the year, from a cousin’s wedding to what would have been my first-ever half marathon, got cancelled or delayed. And the way of life I’d fallen so in love with since moving home – the hangouts with friends, the evenings out to dinner or drinking in bars, the summer nights alive with revelry and celebration – went up in smoke.</p> <p>I cherish a lot of albums that came out in 2020, because they helped me get through that scary, uncertain, and ultimately heartbreaking period. I’ll talk more about some of those albums in the coming weeks. But I still can’t really bear to listen to <em>The Dream</em>. It’s too fraught with that feeling of foreshadowing. When I hear most of those songs, it’s like I’m watching a horror movie starring myself and set during the first week of March 2020. No matter how hard I scream at the screen about just how bad things are going to get, past me can’t hear or heed the warnings.</p> <p>When I wrote about this album <a href="https://chorus.fm/blog/craig-mannings-top-albums-of-2020" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">on my best of 2020 list</a>, I talked about how most of the songs “are reminders that the best things in life are often the simplest, and the most taken for granted: a partner who can make you laugh; a home that makes your heart feel full; a paycheck at the end of the week.” The blurb continues: “At the end of the worst year that most of us have spent on this planet, there’s something incredibly comforting about hearing someone as empathetic as Whitters sing a song like ‘Living the Dream,’ about mundane things that maybe aren’t so mundane after all. ‘Ain’t we all down here livin’ the dream?’ she asks in the chorus; we aren’t right now, but I can pretty safely say that, if we ever get ‘normal’ back, I won’t be stupid enough to take it for granted again.”</p> <p>I wouldn’t say “normal” ever came back, at least not in the way I would have defined it pre-pandemic. Living through a global catastrophe can’t really help but change your life irrevocably, and I know that I was a completely different person coming out of those years than I was going into them. A lot of things around me shifted too, from my family relationships to my circle of friends. Some of those changes were good, and some of them were bad, but they were cumulatively so substantial that COVID-19 ended up marking the end of a life chapter that I’d previously thought was just getting started. And while I’m generally happy about where my life is circa 2025 – sans the global political landscape, which…well, fuck – I still mourn the premature demise of the life my wife and I built for ourselves in 2018 and 2019. Sometimes I find myself wondering: if there was an alternate universe where the pandemic never happened, how different would my life be right now? I’ll never have the answer, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop asking.</p> <p>Fortunately, even though I didn’t realize at the time that the summer of 2019 would be the end of an era, I still lived it to its fullest. How could I not, when my favorite song of the moment was constantly reminding me that, instead of counting up the days, I just had to make them count?</p> <p><strong>Past Installments:</strong></p> <ul class="sul"><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-1-one-headlight-by-the-wallflowers/" target="_blank">Track 1: “One Headlight” by The Wallflowers</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-2-hanging-by-a-moment-by-lifehouse/" target="_blank">Track 2: “Hanging by a Moment” by Lifehouse</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-3-hide-by-creed/" target="_blank">Track 3: “Hide” by Creed</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-4-wheel-by-john-mayer/" target="_blank">Track 4: “Wheel” by John Mayer</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-5-kill-by-jimmy-eat-world/" target="_blank">Track 5: “Kill” by Jimmy Eat World</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-6-fix-you-by-coldplay/" target="_blank">Track 6: “Fix You” by Coldplay</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-7-walk-on-by-u2/" target="_blank">Track 7: “Walk On” by U2</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-8-feeling-a-moment-by-feeder/" target="_blank">Track 8: “Feeling a Moment” by Feeder</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-9-when-canyons-ruled-the-city/" target="_blank">Track 9: “When Canyons Ruled the City” by Butch Walker</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-10-truth-is-by-sister-hazel/" target="_blank">Track 10: “Truth Is” by Sister Hazel</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-11-breaking-free-from-high-school-musical/" target="_blank">Track 11: “Breaking Free” from High School Musical</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-12-come-around-by-counting-crows/" target="_blank">Track 12: “Come Around” by Counting Crows</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-13-someone-like-you-by-safetysuit/" target="_blank">Track 13: “Someone Like You” by SafetySuit</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-14-crashin-by-jacks-mannequin/" target="_blank">Track 14: “Crashin’” by Jack’s Mannequin</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-15-thunder-road-by-bruce-springsteen/" target="_blank">Track 15: “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-16-go-by-boys-like-girls/" target="_blank">Track 16: “Go” by Boys Like Girls</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-17-ride-by-cary-brothers" target="_blank">Track 17: “Ride” by Cary Brothers</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-chapter-18-growing-up-by-the-maine" target="_blank">Track 18: “Growing Up” by The Maine</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-19-dusk-and-summer-by-dashboard-confessional" target="_blank">Track 19: “Dusk and Summer” by Dashboard Confessional</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-20-the-sound-of-you-and-me-by-yellowcard" target="_blank">Track 20: “The Sound of You and Me” by Yellowcard</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-21-holocene-by-bon-iver" target="_blank">Track 21: “Holocene” by Bon Iver</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-22-handwritten-by-the-gaslight-anthem" target="_blank">Track 22: “Handwritten” by The Gaslight Anthem</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-23-cant-smile-without-you-by-barry-manilow" target="_blank">Track 23: “Can’t Smile Without You” by Barry Manilow</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-24-the-house-that-heaven-built-by-japandroids" target="_blank">Track 24: “The House That Heaven Built” by Japandroids</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-25-miles-apart-by-the-dangerous-summer" target="_blank">Track 25: “Miles Apart” by The Dangerous Summer</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-26-song-for-the-road-by-david-ford" target="_blank">Track 26: “Song for the Road” by David Ford</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-27-speed-trap-town-by-jason-isbell" target="_blank">Track 27: “Speed Trap Town” by Jason Isbell</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-28-dibs-by-kelsea-ballerini" target="_blank">Track 28: “Dibs” by Kelsea Ballerini</a></li><li><a href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-29-carry-me-home-by-the-alternate-routes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Track 29: “Carry Me Home” by The Alternate Routes</a></li></ul></div> <div class="expand"><span id="ex">more</span></div> <br> <div class="import_notice_bottom">Not all embedded content is displayed here. You can <a href="https://chorus.fm/features/articles/my-life-in-35-songs-track-30-the-days-by-hailey-whitters/">view the original</a> to see embedded videos and other embedded content.</div>

    Oct 14, 2025 at 8:57 AM

  2. paythetab liked peoplearepoison's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Vibes were out of control tonight

    IMG_0925.jpeg Oct 12, 2025 at 7:17 AM

  3. paythetab liked zeketheplmbr's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    We need a repress of Dredg - Catch Without Arms now.

    Oct 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM

  4. paythetab liked trevorshmevor's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Eternal Youth arrived today. Did not realize the cover would be so reflective! Not sure I love that aspect lol. Biiiiig fan of the full size lyric booklet though - feels just like the CD days

    Oct 11, 2025 at 1:17 PM

  5. paythetab liked Jason Tate's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    We love our good mails days don’t we.

    IMG_1373.jpeg Oct 11, 2025 at 1:16 PM

  6. paythetab liked satellitexyears's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Holy crap its happening!!!!!!! Please remind me. I may forget haha

    Oct 10, 2025 at 8:01 PM

  7. paythetab attached a file to the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Listening to the album I ordered on release day, just like the vinyl gods intended!

    IMG_4566.jpeg Oct 10, 2025 at 4:23 PM

  8. paythetab liked Drew Beringer's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Loose lips sink ships

    IMG_0145.jpeg Oct 10, 2025 at 2:55 PM

  9. paythetab liked Patterns in Traffic's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Hell yeah! Didn't think we'd see the day

    Oct 10, 2025 at 2:55 PM

  10. paythetab replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

    OMG! [MEDIA]

    Oct 10, 2025 at 2:26 PM

  11. paythetab replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Has anyone spun the newly re-mastered version of Fall Out Boy's From Under The Cork Tree yet?? I'm curious if it's worth a purchase. https://www.discogs.com/release/35337928-Fall-Out-Boy-From-Under-The-Cork-Tree

    Oct 10, 2025 at 11:40 AM

  12. paythetab liked satellitexyears's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    The Cab Symphony Solider is coming! Sign up here for the notification!!!! Vinyllaunchsymphonysoldier | The Cab

    FB_IMG_1760114179518.jpg Oct 10, 2025 at 10:53 AM

  13. paythetab liked Jason Tate's post in the thread Yellowcard – Better Days.

    Thank you! Appreciate that! May be like four of us still writing while everyone else talks into YouTube but I'm ok with it. I still find it fulfilling. I still like having the written word and the posterity. It makes me happy.

    Oct 10, 2025 at 9:19 AM

  14. paythetab replied to the thread Yellowcard – Better Days.

    Very well-written piece here, Jason! Your relationship with the band really shines in your word choices and of course I feel like reviews still have a welcomed place in our music scene. Great review!!

    Oct 10, 2025 at 8:28 AM

  15. paythetab liked Craig Manning's post in the thread Yellowcard - Better Days (October 10, 2025).

    Wait until you hear how old Ocean Avenue is.

    Oct 10, 2025 at 7:26 AM

  16. paythetab replied to the thread Yellowcard - Better Days (October 10, 2025).

    "City of Angels" sounds like a million bucks to me. What a song, what a band. Love this album!

    Oct 10, 2025 at 7:24 AM

  17. paythetab replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

    Great deal on Maggie Rogers - Surrender over at Amazon for under $10: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WJ4R345/?tag=absolutepunk-20

    Oct 9, 2025 at 10:44 AM

  18. paythetab liked satellitexyears's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

    My bestie decided to upgrade the meme above... Ugh lmao.

    IMG_20251008_181708.jpg Oct 9, 2025 at 10:39 AM

  19. paythetab liked strummer's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    I couldn't agree with this more. I love American Idiot (and some of the diminishing returns after) but am so curious what would've happened if they continued in the more eclectic, power pop direction of Warning.

    Oct 9, 2025 at 7:53 AM

  20. paythetab liked blaubs21's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    Here to support the "it is their best album" party American Idiot may have made them famous again, but it absolutely ruined the interesting direction they were going with this record

    Oct 8, 2025 at 5:09 PM

  21. paythetab liked WadeCastle's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    'church on sunday' landed on many a mix CD i burned for girls back in the day :cd:

    Oct 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM

  22. paythetab liked strummer's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    Agreed!

    Oct 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM

  23. paythetab liked DooDooBird's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    Great album. Lots of memories tied to that Dookie-American Idiot era. Elite stuff during that time. I agree with the review though. I fucking hate Misery. Feels better suited for the Shenanigans album. But whatever. I can live with it. lol

    Oct 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM

  24. paythetab liked Sean Murphy's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    its their best album.

    Oct 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM

  25. paythetab liked reachingfor's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    I revisit this album the most from their catalog

    Oct 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM

  26. paythetab liked MusicFan_3f9b2deb's post in the thread Green Day – Warning.

    It is SO under appreciated. It felt like Green Day's popularity was dying down some, to the extent that I saw them at the Warped Tour! They went from arenas to headlining warped and I remember alot of kids not even staying till the end for their set or leaving in the middle of it. The songs are so catchy and good and a bit slower paced compared to their other releases. Then they added in some keyboards/organ, violins, acoustic guitar and harmonica to the songs. Love it.

    Oct 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM
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