Where Are You From?

On borderless love and cities as the places and identities we choose.

London’s character changes dramatically in the sprawling stretch between Liverpool Street Station and Kingsland High Street. The route begins between the towering skyscrapers of the city’s inner core—an overdeveloped neighbourhood full of suits, expensive office buildings, and apartments only oligarchs can afford. Then, quite suddenly, the wide pavements give way to the hipster haven of Shoreditch High Street with its trendy coffee venues, graffiti-laden walls, and fusion food stands. Further on, it morphs into off-licenses, secondhand phone shops, and jerk chicken takeaways—Dalston.

It’s all of London in a two-album walk, which is convenient since new records from Daughter and The National just dropped. As I walk around, I see both albums advertised on billboards while I’m listening to them—pretty strong evidence for the idea we’re living in a simulation, if you ask me; a video game where the world generates based on the player’s behaviour. Or perhaps it’s just that the crumbling capi…