What Song(s) or Albums Bring You Back, Really Hit You Hard For Nostalgia?
Posted by Notabagofdrugs@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 140 comments
For some reason, when I listen to either of The Killers first two albums, and only these 2, I feel like it’s like the mid 00s again and just hits differently than other music. I do like them, but they’re not even a fave of mine, just no other music makes me feel this way. Does anyone else have an artist, song or music that just hits like this?
Ambitious-Crow-4195@reddit
Breath by Faith Hill does it for me. Found it nostagic songs on https://wantnostalgia.com/year/2000/
CyDJester@reddit
Anything 1994-1999 pretty much shuts my brain down and I forget for a little while that I'm not a teenager
thatsryan@reddit
Brand New
Jonestown_Juice@reddit
Mostly stuff from my childhood that, when I was a teenager, I thought was super lame.
Stuff like Journey, any hair metal, power ballads, easy listening. I was a goth growing up so naturally I was "too cool" to listen to any of that stuff. But now I find it to be very nostalgic and actively listen to it and appreciate it.
cutreamthread@reddit
Hum - Stars. Nobody has mentioned it yet...are you even Xennials?!
absentlyric@reddit
Same! I was just listening to the Spiderman 2 soundtrack from 2004 and it hit me HARD! That soundtrack had Dashboard Confessional, Yellowcard, Hoobastank, Taking Back Sunday just to name a few, I remember seeing that with my college girlfriend at the Drive in back then. It just hits me different.
DBDIY4U@reddit
John Michael Montgomery's letters from home. Right around the time that song came out my ex and I were writing letters back and forth during deployments. Someone who has never been in that situation or setting has no way of understanding the power of that song
therobotscott@reddit
Theme from Family Matters
Worth_Specific3764@reddit
Anything from My So Called Life
Relic180@reddit
Metallica - Ride the Lightning Deftones - Around the Fur Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power Tool - Undertow Sublime - 40oz To Freedom Nirvana - Incesticide NOFX - So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes Alice in Chains - Dirt Babes in Toyland - Fontanelle A Perfect Circle - Mer de noms Crowbar - Odd Fellows Rest Helmet - Aftertaste
Agreeable_Mind3454@reddit
On the same wavelength for Undertow and Dirt. But, for some reason, Betty is the Helmet album that takes me back.
OlDirtyTriple@reddit
Mine is Meantime.
OlDirtyTriple@reddit
What a list. Helmet seems forgotten. No nostalgia for the band and kids don't seem to have gotten into them.
I tried to see Helmet in 94 but the show was canceled. Helmet headlining with Sausage (Claypool side project) and Rollins Band opening. But it was an outdoor show and it poured so they never played.
Fuck.
pushdose@reddit
Good list! Sounds like we ran with the same crowd in 95.
UncleanlyCleric@reddit
Your Crowbar entry just made me think of the first time I heard Sleep’s Holy Mountain while I was assistant manager of a Hot Topic. Not sure I could get more 90s than that.
_____AMOK_____@reddit
Melancholy and the infinite sadness
inexplicably_dull@reddit
Totally. I bought this on its release date from Best Buy. Drove to my community college and sat in the parking lot listening to the album until it was time to go to class. Core memory for me.
miqcie@reddit
The very first track
MedSPAZ@reddit
Man, that piano.
Geoff-Vader@reddit
Mayonnaise by Smashing Pumpkins
Ironic thing is I didn't really care for them all that much back then. And that song I just barely knew. But when I think of the 90s sound (and a lot of the newer bands I follow now that were clearly influenced by that era) SP was the band that epitomizes that tume for me. And Mayonnaise in particular just HITS like an melancholic truck.
Delta1225@reddit
I hadn't heard of that song before '60 songs that explain the 90s' podcast covered it, it's freaking awesome.
Notabagofdrugs@reddit (OP)
Yeah, the Killers aren’t close to being a fave, I like them, but something about those albums just tales me back.
Geoff-Vader@reddit
I'm only a casual Killers fan but those first couple albums were awesome. Finally saw them live a few months ago. Being able to perform Mr Brightside live and absolutely command an entire arena must be such a trip.
Notabagofdrugs@reddit (OP)
Yeah, I’m probably considered a casual too, I didn’t really like the 3rd album and never really listened after, but that second album more specifically, just bam, 20 years ago.
ManOfTeele@reddit
Mayonnaise is such a great song.
EsotericAbstractIdea@reddit
ATLiens, Aquemini, Sublime, Loyalty and Betrayal, Rhythmalism.
PinotFerret@reddit
I throw any of these in my discman:
Green Day - Dookie Sublime - self titled Third Eye Blind - self titled 311 - self titled
…..close my eyes and I’m transported to summer after 8th grade before 9th.
LeftHandStir@reddit
Oh man, that self-titled Sublime was everything back in the day.
EsotericAbstractIdea@reddit
They have a new album coming out soon. Til the Sun Explodes. I preordered 2. His son jakob is lead singer. He has his own style and has been in a few bands. But when he sings sublime, he channels Brad.
ShitfaceMcPooperson@reddit
Dookie and Offspring’s Smash were basically played front to back over and over again. Memories of listening to them on the bus to/from school
JTynanious@reddit
I came here to say Smash !
chawrawbeef@reddit
That 3EB album is a guilty pleasure of mine. Actually, you know what? I can finally admit it’s a straight up pleasure- no guilt attached. I usually play it at least once each year when the weather finally starts to get nice. Feels like I’m at a backyard kegger during senior year
thedoc617@reddit
Green day Good Riddance
GreedyComedian1377@reddit
Weezer Blue Album
kulneke@reddit
Happiness… is Not A Fish That You Can Catch by Our Lady Peace. First album I ever played in my first car
Notabagofdrugs@reddit (OP)
Damn, Our Lady Peace, it’s been a minute.
kulneke@reddit
It holds up well. That album still kicks ass.
Agreeable_Mind3454@reddit
Same birth year - Clumsy takes me back (I lived for Superman’s Dead).
kulneke@reddit
Clumsy is another banger and got me into OLP
Primary-Strawberry-5@reddit
STP’s Tiny Music…, Sponge’s Wax Ecstatic. Type O Negative’s Bloody Kisses. Antichrist Superstar. In Utero. These are my mid to late 90s soundtracks
NPC261939@reddit
Stabbing Westward's Whither, Blister, Burn and Peel.
I spent countless hours listening to that album while staying up late and playing Mech Warrior 2. It was the perfect accompanying soundtrack.
Electronic_Rope4178@reddit
Panthers- Vulgar Display of Power Acid Bath- When The Kite String Pops Korn- self titled Vision of Disorder- self titled Tool- Undertow Sublime- 40 oz to Freedom Nirvana- In Utero Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dreams Any late 80s hair metal that was on MTV
geoduckSF@reddit
The Bends.
geoduckSF@reddit
Ok and going to go a little crazy here:
Discovery Music Has The Right To Children Post Ladies and Gentlemen We’re Floating in Space
CrouchingDomo@reddit
August and Everything After is a stargate to 1994.
MetsFan3117@reddit
100%. Takes me back to my 8th grade Washington DC trip!
JohnGatling00@reddit
I see what you did there
the-BBC-news@reddit
You just took me to Elizabeth W’s bedroom at her dad’s house. Eighth grade sleepover. We stayed up all night - lights on - with that album on repeat as we memorized the lyrics insert.
caramelcoldbrew@reddit
I think the version on Apple Music was remastered because it is not the same melodies that I remember crying to. It makes me so sad that I no longer have my cd. Or CD player.
MetsFan3117@reddit
Cracked Rear View— Hootie and the Blowfish.
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
U2 - Zooropa
Loved it so much. The memories are tangible.
Morrissey - Vauxhall and I
Tori Amos - Under the Pink
Pearl Jam - vs and Vitalogy
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Pink Floyd - Division Bell
Cranberries - Everyone Else is Doing It...
Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
1993-1995
Gullible_Rich_7156@reddit
Linger - The Cranberries
Until I Hear it From You - Gin Blossoms
The intros to those two songs in particular feel like they’re transporting you back.
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Definitely with Linger!! Takes me right to like October 1993 and staying over at my friend's house for the weekend, and us sneaking out at 1 a.m. to TP the neighbor's house with the 55 rolls we'd stolen from everywhere lmao! 11th grade, good times.
TallTXTrash@reddit
Oasis' first 2 albums, Rage's Evil Empire, and Beck's Odelay all bring me back to certain times and places with certain people, sometimes so much so I get goosebumps.
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Yes!! Odelay is way too cool.
29flavors@reddit
Pearl Jam- Ten. Completely transports me to another time and place.
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Vs and Vitalogy also take me back to junior and senior years of high school.
chawrawbeef@reddit
Ten brings me to a very specific place. On the bus back from a field trip to the city with my head against the window listening to Black on my yellow Walkman, which was a cheap clunky knockoff of the yellow Sony sports Walkman
Notabagofdrugs@reddit (OP)
This is what I’m talking about, I walking my dog now listening to Hot Fuss and I can feel like it’s 2006 and I’m walking to the T for work.
Left_Maize816@reddit
Weezer the blue album
Nirvana Nevermind
The Crow soundtrack
Stone Temple Pilots Core
Salty-Esq@reddit
Scrolled too long to find the Blue Album
grunkle_dan78@reddit
lifters 402, reel big fishs turn your radio off, everclears so much for the afterglow... oh jeez my old man brain just hit a fog
Emannuelle-in-space@reddit
For me it’s all those r&b songs from the early 90’s. I found a radio station that plays them and it’s like a journey through the caverns of my memory every time.
StrayPointer@reddit
Live - Throwing Copper
Soul Asylum - Grave Dancer’s Union
Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity (forget if that’s the album title or just the track…)
maddie_pickles@reddit
Finally someone mention's Throwing Copper !!
Verbull710@reddit
Stuff from the 80s and 90s - works every time!
_Internet_Hugs_@reddit
Hootie and the Blowfish Cracked Rear View
Instantly transported to 1994. It was everywhere and then I rarely heard it again.
MedSPAZ@reddit
Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails put nostalgia right into my veins. I know it really a late 80s album but it got me through some shit in high school.
drodenigma@reddit
Dmx
ohmeursault@reddit
I quote this at my kids so much that they finish the line for me 😂
datsmn@reddit
These are a handful of the ones that can fling my tired soul back to a time when only possibility lay on my horizon. Some of them I owned, some were in someone's car that I drove around in a lot, others belonged to a girl that I liked. Certain CD's were almost ubiquitous...
The Hip- Day For Night/ Road Apples/ Live Between Us
Radiohead - The Bends
Live - Throwing Copper
Bush - Sixteen Stone
Matchbox 20-Yourself Or Someone Like You
Our Lady Peace-Naveed
Pearl Jam - No Code
Hootie And The Blowfish - Cracked Rearview Mirror
ljf137@reddit
RHCP- Under the Bridge
chawrawbeef@reddit
Mentally and emotionally, I am back at a middle school dance each and every time I hear this
ljf137@reddit
For me its on my middle school trip to D.C., specifically on the charter bus driving around town to see the sites.
songbirdistheword@reddit
Mariah Carrey Music Box Ben Folds Five Whatever and ever amen Cake Fashion Nugget
6thBornSOB@reddit
The first CD I owned was This Toilet Earth by GWAR. I was in Jr High and made friends with the kid that got held back a year. He introduced me to weed & GWAR. That’s my instant transmission to 94(ish)
prettyokdiscgolfer@reddit
Saw GWAR and the misfits two years in a row for Halloween. Went for the misfits but the GWAR sets were wild. Never really did listen to their music though.
TraditionalTackle1@reddit
3 Doors Down album with Kryptonite on it
drekness@reddit
Rancid - and out come the wolves
prettyokdiscgolfer@reddit
Masterpiece
Retrendo85@reddit
RHCP Blood Sugar Sex Magic. I played it non stop all summer ‘91. Always takes me back every time!
prettyokdiscgolfer@reddit
One of the first cassettes I bought with my own money.
prettyokdiscgolfer@reddit
Screaming Trees - Sweet Oblivion and Radiohead - The Bends always hit the hardest for me. Always takes me to early high school days.
analogthought@reddit
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Dreams - The Cranberries
Roam - The b-52s
Live Through This - Hole
Nevermind - Nirvana
No Rain - Blind Melon
Hands On Me - Sinead O’Conner
Rock and Roll - The Velvet Underground
Dime a Dozen / Nancy Drew - Tuscadero
…I can keep going
darksideofmypoon@reddit
Franz Ferdinand, self-titled. Always brings me back to backpacking in Europe with my bff. I mostly listen to 90’s and earlier music anyway, but I’ve only put the franz Ferdinand album on maybe 4x since 2005 and it’s always so much fun.
TronMuir@reddit
Born Slippy
Mondub_15@reddit
Yellow card debut album of Hoobastank debut album. A lot of cruising around last at night with friend while home from college for the summer.
Frazzlefart@reddit
Frente - Marvin the Album
dirtbagmagee@reddit
Blue skies- the ataris
MikeRoykosGhost@reddit
The Exploding Hearts' "Guitar Romantic." They released a perfect album and then died on the road a couple months later. Every time i hear it im immediately put back into 2003-2005.
squee_bastard@reddit
Such a fantastic album, I can remember an ex of mine crying when he learned they died.
LeftHandStir@reddit
It's a deeeeep cut, but when I hear the opening plug-in-the-amp sound of Saves The Day's Through Being Cool it's an instant woooooooosh back to 15-16 years old.
squee_bastard@reddit
It was really disappointing to learn that Chris is a sex pest groomer. When all that came out a few years ago I was stunned.
K2sX@reddit
Tori Amos - Boys for Pele Jamiroquai - Traveling without moving Seven Mary Three - Rock Crown
picknwiggle@reddit
The cure- both disintegration and hot hot hot. Especially just like heaven and homesick
plac3b0guy@reddit
Gotta have a shoutout to the album “Wish”.. “Open” with the extended intro on the Wish Tour sounds absolutely amazing
jarosity@reddit
Digable Planets - Reachin’
Radiohead -Kid A
bumblebeetown@reddit
Gin blossoms are hard-coded as late night car rides with my mom in my brain.
Leaningthemoon@reddit
On my first time listening to them, the entirety of Clarity, in a dorm room with towels stuffed under the door and trying acid for the first time too. Goodbye Sky Harbor was a portal to someplace that felt like being bathed in magnetism and I could feel its push and pull all over.
tc_cad@reddit
Caring is Creepy - The Shins. The first woman I loved had the album (Oh Inverted World) and this song was always on repeat and in a mix tape. The three years we had together were fun, chaotic, amazing and ultimately so sad. I hear this song occasionally and it takes me back to my time with her. That time was 2001-2004.
Background_Title_922@reddit
Jagged Little Pill
Ten and Vitalogy
August and Everything After
Congratulations I'm Sorry - Gin Blossoms
Bringing Down the Horse - The Wallflowers
Yourself or Someone Like You - Matchbox Twenty
Dookie
Dizzy Up the Girl - Goo Goo Dolls
Stunt - Barenaked Ladies
Automatic For The People and Out Of Time
Flood - They Might Be Giants
Lost and Gone Forever - Guster
Wildflowers - Tom Petty (well most of his stuff, but this came out in my early teens)
fleetinggglimpse@reddit
Today the song “I want you” by Savage Garage came on while I was driving and I just got hit by a wave of nostalgia so strong that I started crying. So dumb lol. It’s not even that great of a song but it came out at the end of my senior year of high school and is intertwined with some really great memories from those times.
Aardet@reddit
Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66 — that was ‘retro’ when I was a kid and I’d hear it in stores and stuff
pushdose@reddit
Offspring - Offspring
Sublime - 40 oz to Freedom
NOFX - Punk in Drublic
Weezer - Blue Album
Ok_Flamingo8870@reddit
The Wallflowers, Bringing Down the Horse. Always takes me back!!
Background_Title_922@reddit
Just saw the Bringing Down the Horse tour! Had a blast with many fellow Xennials.
LeftHandStir@reddit
There are dozens of us!
redditidothat@reddit
Tupac, How Do You Want It; All Eyez on Me
JeffTS@reddit
The Doors - The Very Best Of
Metallica - Black Album
Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction
Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
Third Eye Blind - Self titled
Soul Asylum - Grave Dancers Union
Candlebox - Self titled
Pearl Jam - Ten
Grateful Dead - Live/Dead
Fedquip@reddit
Offspring Americana warps me 100% back to '98/99 and spending weekends at our tiny Ontario snowboard hill
shady-p1nes-ma@reddit
Jagged Little Pill brings me right back in time. Steal My Sunshine by LEN has me instantly transported to a specific moment when my dad was bring me to college in our family Astro Van and was fighting campus traffic.
Sashabadger@reddit
The Crow soundtrack - bring back the 90’s!
StillyMcDaniels@reddit
So many. I have songs and albums that remind me of seasons within years or even particular vacations and roadtrips. Those Killers albums included!
DeadSharkEyes@reddit
The Postal Service, a bunch of their songs makes me achingly nostalgic. That time of my life was really fun.
I was really into The Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer and was in a horrible relationship at the time with a guy that literally made me crazy. There is a sad song on her Who Killed Amanda Palmer album called Ampersand that makes me both cringe and feel like I’m having flashbacks at the same time.
Ok-Sign5678@reddit
Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy still takes me back, especially Last Exit and Corduroy. I don’t even really listen to their stuff from the last 15 years, but that record just takes me back to such a specific time in my teenage angsty years. I played that CD on repeat almost daily.
cloudydays2021@reddit
There’s something about Vitalogy that is wildly angry and creepy and I love it so much for that reason.
Ok-Sign5678@reddit
Eddie’s angry howls were so great, the whole thing seemed like a response to how crazy popular they’d become
“P R I V A C Y is priceless to me”
Other-Improvement410@reddit
I'm not at all nostalgic for anything past '01. For me it's all HS stuff...Counting Crows, Radiohead...I don't listen to it but even Alanis makes me nostalgic
BiscottiLeading@reddit
G. Love & the Special Sauce. Takes me back to my early 20's. I won't say it was the best time of my life, but it was definitely the most irresponsibly fun time of my life.
the-BBC-news@reddit
I have a mix tape somewhere a friend made me in high school that all Pearl Jam, STP, Temple of the Dog, Alice In Chains…..I’m sent straight back to my bedroom or driving around in friends cars listening to it.
And some specific songs / memories attached to certain people & places (not necessarily the best songs but the most memorable ones):
Bruce Springsteen - Secret Garden Moby’s debut album Pearl Jam - Smile Counting Crows - A Long December Dire Straits - Romeo & Juliet
Solid-Hedgehog9623@reddit
Anything new Jack swing transports me instantly.
alipratt25@reddit
The Verve - Urban Hymns
Chaz_Charlie@reddit
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Chaz_Charlie@reddit
And also…Tragic Kingdom
IzzyBoris@reddit
Radiohead's Creep really defined an era around that time for me
nighmeansnear@reddit
Dummy
Notabagofdrugs@reddit (OP)
Ha, for a second, I was wondering why you were calling me that.
cmgww@reddit
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Stomping Ground.... i'm not even big into that type of music but they played at Ball State my freshman year and every time I hear that song, it immediately takes me back to college. Plus it's just a great bluegrass fusion song.
Piercegirl23@reddit
August and Everything After
laurenishere@reddit
Mumford & Sons. I don't even like them, but if I hear them, it's 2011, and I'm pregnant, and I just lost my dog, and I'm crying.
Notabagofdrugs@reddit (OP)
For me, I think it’s that it takes me back to when I just moved right next to Boston, got a great apt and then met my wife a couple years later.
Chibry888@reddit
Green mind - Dinosaur Jr
UncleanlyCleric@reddit
The Cure - From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea will always and forever make me think of my high school girlfriend.
casdoodle527@reddit
Tim McGraw “A Place in the Sun” Album Kenny Chesney “Everywhere We Go”
CottaBird@reddit
The Dancehall Crashers live album
It’s still so good.
therealskittlepoop@reddit
Any of the popular tunes — I never really listen to a lot of the popular music so most of it, when I hear it today, I haven’t heard since then. Most of the other stuff I’ve heard repeatedly thru the years
username__0000@reddit
“I'm packed and I'm movin' Smilin', she's livin', she's golden She lives for me, says she lives for me Ovation, her own motivation She comes 'round, she goes down on me And I make her smile, like a drug for you Doo ever what you wanna doo, comin' home with you Keep on smilin' what we go through One stop, rhythm that divides you”
Semi charmed life
And I didn’t even like that damn song. But it was everywhere one great summer in high school, so it hits the nostalgia button hard.
Canadianbeltbuckle@reddit
I forever hate “love in the club” usher and lil Jon! I hear it and instantly I’m brought back to the worst relationship in my life lol
caramelcoldbrew@reddit
I have a playlist of my old favorites but the ones that hit me the most today were California Love, Round the Way Girl, and Summertime. Oh! And Santeria.
Brings me back to HS.
DDrewit@reddit
Force MDs - Tender Love