Considering that it’s outside of the mainstream, this is a very popular song.
While Randy Goffe, aka Home, has Spotify plays in the millions for several songs, none of his other tracks compare to the numbers of this one. It’s got massive amounts of plays across a variety of platforms: more than 200 million on Spotify, 10 million on Soundcloud, 100 million on YouTube. Add to that untold millions more in various modified versions on Soundcloud and YouTube, like the 10-hour looped version, the slowed-and-reverbed version, the slightly sped-up version.
This song motivates people to analyze it, cover it on the piano, re-create it on a choir of Nokia phones. (I prefer the “midwest emo” guitar cover played by what appears to be a very talented 12-year-old.)
In short, this song has an effect on people. It really does, as the title promises, resonate.
You can see it in the YouTube comments. One commenter after another struggles to describe the feeling it gives them without using the word “nostalgia” or describing childhood car trips.
For a long while, I was under the mistaken impression that it was a Tycho song because I’d heard it as part of the sunrise set he played as a DJ at Burning Man in 2017. It sounded so much like his brand of chillsynthwhatever music that I assumed it was his. It wasn’t until listening to a podcast about a “leaked Daft Punk song” that was actually a prank by Randy Goffe, aka Home, that I learned who was responsible for this nostalgia-inducing earworm.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The chords don’t change throughout the song, but they’re so packed with notes that it doesn’t matter.
2. The synth drums are so basic it almost sounds like he threw them in while the song was in its rough stages, and then just kept them.
3. It really does have a strong nostalgic quality, which is partially the way the synth sounds, but also partly the fact that it feels slightly familiar, as if it’s echoing something you’ve heard before.
Recommended listening activity:
Closing your eyes and imagining the furniture you’re on is a favourite piece of furniture from your childhood.