I became obsessed with this Gipsy Kings album while spending a summer in Seattle 4 years before actually moving here. I spent my days listening to this album nonstop and reading Marquez' "One Hundred Years of Solitude" on the green slopes of the Ballard Locks.  "Montana" and "Trista Pena" still get me to this day.

The other album is also interesting because, though I know the story behind Christopher McCandless' ultimately tragic exploration of human freedom, I have never read the book or seen the film that this soundtrack comes from. I was able to listen to all of it in one sitting while driving back from my parents in the rain and darkness along Lake Washington. I can say that it made me visibly uncomfortable traveling in the complete opposite direction of McCandless (back into the city) and the music made me want to drive towards rainy wooded mountains far far away. Maybe I shouldn't see the film.