I was driving the other day with some heavy thoughts–the kind that can only be attributed to love–and with the 101 freeway as my guide and my iPod on shuffle, a song I had never heard came on. At the very moment, rather than change to the next song, I listened. It was everything I needed to hear and everything I needed to shake the drab and welcome some peace of mind. It found me.

Very early on in my life, I started making seasonal playlists, comprised of songs that found me every winter, spring, summer, and fall. In making these playlists, I started to give my memories an afterlife. Even more importantly, these songs that found me at various points in my life inevitably influenced choices that I made.

Some of these songs make me want to dance, some make me remember to laugh, some make me melancholy, some make me do things I would never do otherwise (but that should be done). Some of them just remind me of a person, place, or thing that I can identify with, and some shake me to the core of my bones.

They all make me think, and they all found me.

So here are my 10 current favorite songs, all taken from my most recent playlist, “Meet the Rabbit 11.” They are the songs that currently rule my domain, and they are all very unique and very much unique to one another. My taste is eclectic, as is made evident by the sore thumb that is “I Need A Doctor,” and that’s the beauty! They all do something different, and I hope that you can find a gem amongst these that will affect you like they have all affected me.

Happy listening!

- “DNA” – The Kills

(free download at the band’s website)

- “Ladder Song” – Bright Eyes

- “Royal Blue” – Cold War Kids

- “Lions In Cages” – Wolf Gang

- “Helplessness Blues” – Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues by subpop

- “Bruises To Prove It” – Say Hi

Say Hi – Bruises To Prove It by Architecture In Sound

- “The Night Will Always Win” – Elbow

- “I Need A Doctor” – Eminem and Dr. Dre

- “Satellite” – The Kills

- “Helena Beat” – Foster the People

*Honorable mention goes to “Games” by The Strokes for their new album Angles.