I'm thinking it's more situational than the music itself. Like, what was going on in your life when these songs came to you is what makes them emotionally resonant. Or the attachments you formed to the songs way back when is what triggers in you, listening to them now, when you're life is so different, changed from all the choices you've made, a feeling, a longing that turns your insides into balls of putty.
The last entry made me think of other songs. Songs that can get me in the gut given the right mood and situation. Here are the ones I can think of right now, in no particular order and many of them quite embarrassing. (Although listing them is taking away some fo their potency, I can tell already.) What are yours?
Blackbird, The Beatles
Priests and Paramedics, Pedro the Lion
Take Me Out; Grace Cathedral Park; Follow You, Follow Me; okay most everything by Red House Painters
Never My Love, The Association
Indian Summer, Luna (or Beat Happening)
Diary, Bread (okay, just about anything by Bread)
some Neil Young song I can't think of right now
Vapour Trail, Ride
America, Simon & Garfunkle
This Night Has Opened My Eyes, The Smiths
Question, Old 97's
Last Day of Our Acquaintance, Sinead O'Connor
Track 1 of Charm of the Highway Strip, Magnetic Fields
The Drugs Don't Work, The Verve
That's Heaven to Me, Sam Cooke
It goes on and on.
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