In life, when you move out of your 30s, you assume you've reached that stage in life where you're pretty much settled in your skin. Nothing can really surprise you that much. You've decided on the friends you want. You're no longer really that bothered by what's current.
You may be a music lover but you rarely buy any records. You know who your favourite bands are and now, nothing you hear ever really makes you feel like you did when you were younger. You and I, we're out of time.
I felt exactly like that until a couple of days ago, for that's when I heard the new single, Lights Out, from The 10:04's, a four-piece band from Edinburgh.
The song, Lights Out, resurrected in me that priceless feeling of teenage abandon that I thought I had left far behind me in a trail of lost loves and the forgotten litter of time.
Let me tell you: It is so great, so brilliant to be surprised, to feel music help shed the hardened exterior of a skin that I thought had seen it all before. Because here, with Lights Out, The 10:04's have taken me once more to places I had forgotten existed. Goodbye cynicism, welcome back wonder.
For me, only music, very special music, can really do that.
I have written only one fan letter before in my life - to the songwriter Mikey Georgeson, who now plays as Mr Solo (Mikey Georgeson and the Civilised Scene).
Many years back, I was moved to do so because, at a concert he gave - showcasing entirely new songs - I felt like somehow, somewhere deep and primal within me, I knew those songs already. Those amazing songs were already part of me, and Mikey had brought them to life. I was so grateful. The words of the album from where they came - Shiney On The Inside - are now tattooed on my arm forever.
So yesterday, I guess, was my second ever fan letter, written to Danny Scrimshaw, guitarist in The 10:04's. Now I don't like to write about music in technical terms so I thought instead I'd re-produce part of that letter for you here. I'm sure Danny won't mind.
"Danny, I am not kidding, when I listened toLights Outfor the first time (and still), I was like, 'Oh my God, they've cracked it! They've fucking gone and done it!'
I listened to it kind of predicting what I was hoping was coming next and each time...it delivered every hope. I just think it's an incredible, beautiful, amazing song. The guitar at the end just completely broke me to the point of total joy."
What I didn't tell him - because for a 41-year-old man to admit this to a young indie-punk kid from Scotland is, quite frankly, embarrassing - was that I had played the song for over three hours on constant repeat, on headphones, at full-blast, while lying in my bed where, for the first time in years, I actually cried tears of happiness.
The 10:04's have made me feel young again.
Shame on me, I'd forgotten music could do that.
The Youtube video of the song is here:
You can buy Lights Out on i-tunes here:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/lights-out-single/id551910320
The 10:04's are on Facebook here:
And you can follow them on Twitter here: