Every week, I get a call from my dad. The automated female voice that connects the call always instructs me to “press five” before I can speak. My dad calls from a correctional facility in my home state, while I call from my room. He updates me about his week while I do the same, probably rattling on about the handful of homework I inevitably have to finish. While it’s difficult to explain Gen-Z TikTok drama or who Sabrina Carpenter is to someone with limited internet access, there is one interest we both have in common: our shared affinity for music.
I recently went through a handful of letters I’d kept over the last seven years since my father’s incarceration, ranging from middle school to the present day. There are plenty of things I don’t understand about my dad, and vice versa, which is usually a universally shared feeling for most daughters. However, when it comes to loving music, our connection is rich.
My dad is a millennial who graduated from high school in 2004 and once told me that Raven-Symoné was his celebrity crush when he was a teenager. He’d also once coined himself as the “Music Trivia King,” introducing me to artists like PJ Harvey, Pixies, Joni Mitchell, M.I.A., and Björk before I’d known how great his taste in music had truly been. In one letter before my fourteenth birthday, he wrote, “Regardless of what you listen to, I’m glad that you’re a music lover. Music makes everything better. I couldn’t live without it.” I am wholeheartedly my father’s daughter, as I couldn’t agree more with his message.
Just like my dad, sharing music is my ultimate love language, which is why I’d love to share with fellow students at Swarthmore. In this monthly column, I’ll introduce favorites my dad and I picked. My ultimate hope is that these songs click with the person reading, whether they’re an expert at loving music or just getting started.
P.S. I’m taking submissions! If your dad (or you) has a song they’d like to share, please send them to my email (zwashin1@swarthmore.edu) to be featured.
Dad:
1. Tessellate – alt-J
2. Smother Love – Crass
3. Disorder – Joy Division
4. Zombie – Fela Kuti
5. Handlebars – The Flobots
Zoe:
1. Range Life – Pavement
2. Always Crashing in the Same Car – Chairlift
3. Digital Animal – Honey Claws
4. Strange Pleasures – Still Corners
5. Vicious Streak – New Order
