Here Come The Future

Handsome Furs “Memories of the Future”

A few days ago I got a vinyl copy of Sleater-Kinney’s The Hot Rock in the mail. It’s one of favorite records, it was something I listened to quite a lot during some very miserable times in my late teens and early 20s. I put it on for the first time in a while and it felt very comfortable and worn-in. I knew every note and every word. I thought about how that album is connected to a lot of bad memories, but I can’t really remember any of them. The lyrics still have a lot of resonance — the “It’s not real / you don’t need to tell me that it’s not real” part in the title track will probably always make my heart sink in bitter recognition — but I don’t remember many details of the personal context I had for this music. I have a hard time remembering a lot of my past, really.

This is part of why “Memories of the Future” clicks with me. I sorta nod in agreement when Dan Boeckner sings “I don’t remember anything at all.” And the part of me that hates to be sentimental will gladly sign off on a hook like “nostalgia never meant much to me.” I think that particular line works because Boeckner sings with the sort of passion that is rooted in some kind of sentimentality. You can definitely be sentimental about not being sentimental. At the song’s climax, he sings “I throw my hands to the sky / I let my memories go,” and that rings true to me too. It’s nice not to carry this baggage around. Memories can be overrated and unreliable. Forgetting is underrated and sort of beautiful.

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