Mandy Moore – MSN Concert (sometime in 2007)

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Mandy Moore (mind you, I had a very fond girl crush on her throughout high school with her new music from Wild Hope and Amanda Leigh, and she pretty much changed my life with her role as Jamie in 2002’s A Walk to Remember).

If you hadn’t known, she’s one of the very few tremendously successful tween artists who made in big in the early 2000s, and has shied away from the media only to grow into an entirely grounded and well-balanced woman today.

She had written Wild Hope in collaboration with some very successful and well-respected singer-songwriters in the industry at the time–such as Rachael Yamagata, Michelle Branch and the Weepies–and the music featured in this set is from that.

I’ve been dying to see and meet Mandy in person for such a long time (meeting her would be on the same level as meeting Ryan Gosling or Zac Efron, for me). But, when I had discovered her music, she had already finished touring and I wasn’t able to see her live in concert! (Also, this was the time my mom finally let me go to my first concert/Warped Tour for Meg & Dia.)

Mandy Moore has so much goodness about her, and her music has that ol’ hint of sweet bubble-gum pop we used to know of her fused with a lot of raw angst, growth, heartbreak and heartache and the internal discovery riding on her. She’s produced some really great albums and music as of late (and, heck, she’s disappeared! when is her new music coming again? After all, she married the greatly successful musician Ryan Adams years ago!).

But, this is entirely nostalgia music for me. Because, at the moment I first discovered her album late in my freshman year of high school was the moment I fondly remembered I told myself, “I want to do this.” I want to do music. And I want to avidly pursue it, and write, and do what I saw my loves doing–Meg & Dia Frampton, Mandy Moore, etc. Her album was the soundtrack of that entirely new revelation and realization for me. That was the moment I realized I wanted it (which is also why that time is when I put up my first YouTube video, if you hadn’t known–light bulb!).

So, sit back and enjoy a little Mandy lovin’. It’s feel good music that also puts a little strain on my weak heart because, in those times, I remember how desperate I was for a life of music.

#nostalgiaSaturdays