Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Playlist | The Memo by Rachel Dodes & Lauren Mechling
Author Guest / June 21, 2024

https://spotify.link/mfop8FmZ4Jb )   Africa by Toto This iconic 1980s hit has become synonymous with college acapella performances (see here for Ohio University’s adorkable version). So when we decided that our main character, Jenny Green, would be an acapella enthusiast, we knew that she would absolutely have to sing this song, the sooner the better. With its upbeat synth-pop drum tracks and nonsensical lyrics, “Africa” is an earworm imbued with emo-positive vibes. It can even cheer up Jenny, a 35-year-old woman riddled with regrets – especially that sinking feeling that she didn’t get the memo. “To think of all the money I had wasted on therapists,” Jenny muses as she belts out the song alongside her fellow Looney Tunes in her newly adopted city of Pittsburgh. “It turned out the most dependable way to shake off my troubles and improve my mood was to lose myself in a cluster of loud, searching souls.” And when we cue up this song and hear the layered harmonies and nonsensical musings about “gonna take some time to do the the things we never had” we, too, are swept up in a wave of nostalgia for the life unlived.   Daughters by John Mayer Jenny…