Friday Listen: Music as Memory- Young the Giant

There was this strange middle era in music history — after we stopped buying CDs all the time, but before streaming platforms completely took over. You would have to purchase albums digitally and download them to your phone or iPod, but suddenly you had this freedom to carry entire soundtracks to your life everywhere you went.

That’s the era when I first discovered Young the Giant.

It was 2010, and I was heading to New York City for a work trip with one of my good friends, Jake for a work conference. You know those periods in life when you’re searching for new music because you need something creatively? Some new inspiration? I was in one of those slumps.

Jake told me I needed to download a new band for the trip. That band was Young the Giant.

So, I purchased and downloaded their debut album, Young the Giant, without really knowing much about them.

The first morning in New York City was exactly what you would expect from a work conference. Endless seminars in hotel meeting rooms while one of the most vibrant cities in the world sat waiting outside. Useful information here and there, sure — but mostly the kind of stuff that makes you stare at the clock.

Our hotel sat near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, and all morning I kept thinking the same thing:

This is a waste of New York City.

So after lunch, I made a decision. I skipped the afternoon seminars, grabbed my phone, put my earbuds in, and headed out on my own into Manhattan.

And that’s when Young the Giant hit me.

As I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge under perfect blue skies, that album became the soundtrack to the entire day. The music felt alive in a way I desperately needed at that point in my life. Every song seemed to fit the energy of the city around me — movement, possibility, reflection, excitement. New York almost seemed to welcome me in through those songs.

Even now, whenever I hear tracks from that album, I’m immediately transported back to that walk across the bridge.

That’s the thing music does when it truly matters. It becomes tied to memory so tightly that you can’t separate the two anymore.

Jake taking a photo of our NYC view from our room (left). Meeting up with Jake and taking the subway after he attended the afternoon seminars (right)

And as a side note — because New York City can feel magical in ways no other place really can — that day somehow became even more surreal.

Later that afternoon, after wandering around for a bit, I heard music coming from a nearby park. I followed the sound and saw maybe a hundred or two hundred people gathered around a stage.

At first, I thought, “No way"...I recognized the music.

It was Fishbone.

Now, if you grew up listening to Fishbone like I did, you understand why that felt impossible. There was no social media buzz telling people where to go. No livestreams. No algorithms feeding you events. I had simply wandered into a park in Brooklyn at the exact moment one of my favorite bands from my teenage years was casually performing in the middle of the afternoon.

I walked right up to the front and watched Fishbone perform live in a random Brooklyn park while Young the Giant still echoed in my head from earlier in the day.

Oddly enough, the sounds of those two bands don’t really fit together stylistically at all. But somehow, they perfectly fit that moment in my life.

I still have the setlist from that Fishbone show.

That whole day remains one of those experiences that burns itself permanently into your memory. So, when Young the Giant released their newest album, Victory Garden, I was excited all over again.

And I was not disappointed.

The first song I immediately latched onto was “Evergreen,” the opening track on the album.

What really grabs me about the song is the tension at its center. To me, it feels like a song about trying to live spiritually while also existing inside the harsh realities of life. We all want to believe kindness, empathy, patience, and spirituality are enough to guide us through the world. But life can also be competitive, cruel, unfair, and exhausting.

The lyrics ask difficult questions:

“Eye for an eye / Is it karmic suicide?”

That line says so much in such a simple way.

Part of us — maybe our ego, maybe culture itself — tells us retaliation is fair. Somebody hurts you, so you hurt them back. Eye for an eye. Balance restored.

But spiritually, most of us know it’s not that simple.

You know deep down that anger, revenge, bitterness, and ego eventually damage you too. Karma catches up to all of us in one way or another. But still… trying to live peacefully in a world that often rewards aggression can feel impossible sometimes.

That’s the struggle the song captures so beautifully.

I love music that does that. Music that sounds great and creates a mood but also forces you to think. Music that asks questions instead of pretending to have perfect answers.

The best songs don’t just entertain you. They verify you. They make you feel seen.

And somehow, while listening to “Evergreen,” I found myself right back on that walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in 2010 — blue skies overhead, New York City opening up in front of me, and Young the Giant once again becoming the soundtrack to a new moment.