I heard a song I had never listened to before. Coming Back to You by Biru Baru. I checked, and it turned out that this song was first released five years ago. Somehow, it finally made its way to my ears a few days ago. Since I liked it, I kept playing it over and over while working in my room.
What is it about this song that I like so much? I wondered to myself. For some reason, certain notes in the song brought a deep sense of comfort to my heart. It was as if they were throwing me into a past memory, though I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was. Music often has a way of evoking a particular feeling.
As I listened, something was happening inside my brain—an unconscious process, yet I could feel it. Scientists call this auditory evoked memory retrieval. The music I heard was activating my hippocampus, the part of my brain responsible for storing and recalling memories. Interestingly, I couldn’t remember a specific event linked to the song. It was as if the song was opening a door to the past, but only letting me feel its atmosphere without revealing its details.
I kept listening. There was a warm chord progression, soft guitar strums, and vocals that felt like a whisper in my ear. The song was not only beautiful but also strangely familiar, even though I was sure I had never heard it before. This feeling is known as the reminiscence bump, where certain music can evoke strong emotions, even if we have no direct memories associated with it. This happens because our brain has networks connecting emotions with memories—particularly the amygdala and prefrontal cortex—making emotional experiences often stronger than factual memories.
This song reminded me of something, or maybe someone, but I didn’t know who or what. There was only a sense of peace, as if the song were an old friend I had just reunited with. Research suggests that rhythmic patterns and harmonies in music can create this illusion of familiarity. Our nervous system responds to repeated sound patterns by releasing dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. That’s why, sometimes, we can instantly fall in love with a song from the very first listen, even without knowing why.
As I closed my eyes and let the song play, I felt something difficult to describe—a sensation of falling in love, but not with someone. It was more of a connection with something larger than myself, as if I were drifting in an ocean of emotions without knowing where the shore was. It was a form of nostalgia without a face, a longing without a name.
Eventually, I realized one thing: maybe it wasn’t the song reminding me of something, but rather my brain searching for meaning within it. Music has a unique way of awakening emotions that have been tucked away inside us. Sometimes, we don’t listen to music to remember—we listen to feel something we cannot put into words.
So, I kept playing the song. Not to find answers, but to enjoy the journey.
