Plugged in: new music suggestions from Moira McAvoy

By RUTH BORDETT

“Chicken nuggets rule everything around me,” said English and linguistics double major, Moira McAvoy, who certainly has a way with words.

As a part of Class Council and member of the Finance Committee, McAvoy’s interests do occasionally extend beyond the child-approved food staple of chicken nuggets. Between her love for Fall Out Boy and distaste for American Authors’ “Best Day of Life,” McAvoy ignores indie street cred in favor of expressing her love for the wide variety of genres to which she finds herself drawn.

“Gypsy” – Fleetwood Mac, Mirage (1982)
“A lot of people come to music through their parents, and both of my parents hate Fleetwood Mac,” McAvoy said. In spite of her mom’s distaste toward this classic rock staple, McAvoy considers the song to be perfect for this time of year. As a senior graduating this spring, the song’s melancholy tone speaks to the nostalgia McAvoy already feels for “…something that’s not over yet.”

“I Can Lift a Car” – Walk the Moon, Walk the Moon (2012)
After recently seeing Walk the Moon in D.C. McAvoy said she had the opportunity to “Be the rebellious 15 year old I never was” and gain a new perspective on this particular song. McAvoy describes the song as having a low guitar that carries into drums at the end. The song possesses a general sense of longing that lifts at the end into hopefulness.

“I Wanna Get Better” – Bleachers, Strange Desire (2014)
Fronted by Fun. Guitarist Jack Antonoff, the high energy of the song gives it a summer-jam quality. McAvoy quotes the lyric, “Now I’m standing on the overpass screaming at the cars,” that reminds her of UMW’s pedestrian bridge. The song as a whole gives her, “A weird sense of autonomy and freedom to reconcile that my life is on it’s own terms.”

“Champagne Supernova” – Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
“There is a very specific soundtrack to college in America,” McAvoy states, a soundtrack she believes contains heavy amounts of 90’s music and would be incomplete without Oasis. After many exaggerated renditions of the song and puns weaved into the title during her freshman year, the hit holds a lot of nostalgia for McAvoy.

“The Trapeze Swinger” – Iron and Wine, Around the Well (2009)
The fact that McAvoy wants this song played at her funeral stands as a testament to the manner in which this long-winded mortality-based song resonates with her. Citing the beautiful songwriting of singer Sam Beam, who records under the name Iron and Wine, McAvoy describes the song as being “Like listening to a beautiful lyric poem…it is so weird, calming, small and human.”