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If you have not yet discovered The Magnetic Fields, you must listen to them. Seriously. I forgot how much I liked them, and then "Papa Was a Rodeo" came on my random shuffle playlist and I fell truly madly deeply back in love.
And actually, while I'm at it, eight songs I love by artists I love and the reasons why:
Papa Was a Rodeo by The Magnetic Fields
What are we doing in this dive bar?
How can you live in a place like this?
Why don't you just get into my car
and I'll take you away I'll take that kiss now
The Song: I listened to this song a few times before I actually processed the lyrics, and while the melody on its own is wonderful and I really enjoy the instrumentation, it's the lyrics that sell it. In fact, the entire album--69 Love Songs (and get your mind out of the gutter)--is just beautifully written. Sometimes absurd, sometimes poignant. Also, there's a song about Washington DC. Yeah, it wins.
The Band: I, um, love them.
Paper Boats by Nada Surf
as the express train passes the local
it moves by just like a paper boat
although it weighs a million pounds
I swear it almost seems to float
The Song: For a while last year, I was intensely depressed about the fact that I wasn't living in New York. I still am, in a lot of ways, but I've come to terms with it. While I was working through that particular issue, I put together a list of songs that either reminded me of New York or mentioned New York to listen to, songs that helped me relax when I was almost sick with hate of Madison. This one was one of the first that occurred to me, both because of the mention of the subway and because it manages to capture the way the city can be isolating, dehumanizing in a lot of ways. And the way it's beautiful despite (because?) of that.
The Band: I have to confess I don't know a whole lot about Nada Surf outside of their album Let Go, but I do like their mellowness, the way their songs have simple lyrics that mean so much.
Minneapolis by Lucinda Williams
Snow covers the streetlamps and the windowsills
The buildings and the brittle crooked trees
Dead leaves of December
Thin skinned and splintered
Never gotten used to this bitter winter
The Song: A good friend of mine introduced me to Lucinda Williams's music (right after we watched Transamerica together actually--she was on that soundtrack). I listened to this song first, at random, because it was called Minneapolis and my roommate is from the Twin Cities and so I figured that was a good a reason as any to pick it. And then it's just amazing. Seriously. The lyrics are beautiful, poetic; Lucinda Williams has a gritty, slightly-offkey voice that just sells it, and it's exactly like winter in the Midwest.
The Band: Like I said, Lucinda Williams is a wonderful artist. Her lyrics always have a wonderful complexity, and her voice makes me warm. I listened to her all last January on my way home along the lake, and she made it a much more tolerable experience.
The Day They Left the World Behind by The Healing Fields
it takes a certain kind of madness
to leave what you know
when you get that rush of badness
you know you gotta go
The Song: I have no idea where I picked this up. Seriously. I think someone sent it to me, or I downloaded it from an mp3 blog, or something. But it's just a beautiful song, happy and a little wistful, somewhat reminiscent of Counting Crows in both voice and instrumentation.
The Band: This band is based in London and as far as I can tell has only recorded a single and an EP. I want desperately to buy both, but neither is available through any of my normal music-buying channels, so for now I just listen to them on their website and wish I lived in London.
Stuck in America by Sugarcult
every town feels the same
I'm different and you're distant
Add it up and it makes no difference
The Song: The anthem of my freshman year of high school. I was worldly and liberal and seriously in hate with the United States. Politicians were corrupt little men. Republicans were most closely related to Nazis. I was an angry, cynical little bitch. Snerf. So anyway, this song was my favorite then and is still kind of nasal and annoying and makes me smile.
The Band: Like I said, I was an angry, cynical little bitch. And Sugarcult was childlike in all the ways I was childlike. Their music is fun and bouncy and peppy and *heart*.
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate by Captain Tractor
Well, Mountie Bob he chased me, he was always at my throat
He'd follow on the shoreline 'cause he didn't own a boat
But the cutbacks were a-comin' and the Mountie lost his job
So now he's sailing with me and we call him Salty Bob
The Song: Dude, it's pirates and Canada. You can't lose with pirates and Canada. And it has the catchiest melody ever--you won't be able to stop listening to it.
The Band: Captain Tractor reminds me very much of Great Big Sea, which was a band I liked a lot growing up but no longer listen to regularly. But they have some great songs, all of which have strong melodies and interesting, memorable, or funny lyrics. I still have not gotten any of their albums, but friends have sent me songs and they're on my to-buy list. Once I stop being a starving college student.
(God Damn Right) It's a Beautiful Day by The Eels
The clown with the frown driving down to the sidewalk fair
Finger on the trigger I tell you he is quite a scare
God damn right it's a beautiful day uh-huh
God damn right it's a beautiful day uh-huh
The Song: God, this song makes me smile. Like, it can be raining outside and I can have to be at work at 8:30 and know that I won't be home until midnight and I can be shivering under my covers and desperately wishing I didn't have to get up because I know once my feet touch the floor I will be cold for the rest of the day, but if I put this song on? I will know all of that and smile. It's like, Yo, world? I'm going to have a fucking great day.
The Band: I don't really know that much about them, but my other two favorite songs by them (Woman Driving, Man Sleeping and Love of the Loveless) are simply fantastic. Basically everything they've ever touched is fantastic.
The Fiddle and the Drum by A Perfect Circle
You say I have turned,
Like the enemies you've earned,
But I can remember,
All the good things you are
The Song: This was originally a Joni Mitchell tune, but A Perfect Circle's cover of it is creepy as fuck, and beautiful in its acapella harmony. It's very much a dirge in this context, a song of bitter, December mourning.
The Band: I love this band. It's one of my guilty pleasure bands, up there with 3 Doors Down and Collective Soul. They have a huge variety of sound, from creepy and apocalyptic to much more melodic and mellow. On their album Emotive (which has a bunch of funky capitalization I never remember how to do), they do a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" that gives it a whole new, and much darker, meaning. Definitely something to listen to if you're in a sort of angsty mood.
And actually, while I'm at it, eight songs I love by artists I love and the reasons why:
Papa Was a Rodeo by The Magnetic Fields
What are we doing in this dive bar?
How can you live in a place like this?
Why don't you just get into my car
and I'll take you away I'll take that kiss now
The Song: I listened to this song a few times before I actually processed the lyrics, and while the melody on its own is wonderful and I really enjoy the instrumentation, it's the lyrics that sell it. In fact, the entire album--69 Love Songs (and get your mind out of the gutter)--is just beautifully written. Sometimes absurd, sometimes poignant. Also, there's a song about Washington DC. Yeah, it wins.
The Band: I, um, love them.
Paper Boats by Nada Surf
as the express train passes the local
it moves by just like a paper boat
although it weighs a million pounds
I swear it almost seems to float
The Song: For a while last year, I was intensely depressed about the fact that I wasn't living in New York. I still am, in a lot of ways, but I've come to terms with it. While I was working through that particular issue, I put together a list of songs that either reminded me of New York or mentioned New York to listen to, songs that helped me relax when I was almost sick with hate of Madison. This one was one of the first that occurred to me, both because of the mention of the subway and because it manages to capture the way the city can be isolating, dehumanizing in a lot of ways. And the way it's beautiful despite (because?) of that.
The Band: I have to confess I don't know a whole lot about Nada Surf outside of their album Let Go, but I do like their mellowness, the way their songs have simple lyrics that mean so much.
Minneapolis by Lucinda Williams
Snow covers the streetlamps and the windowsills
The buildings and the brittle crooked trees
Dead leaves of December
Thin skinned and splintered
Never gotten used to this bitter winter
The Song: A good friend of mine introduced me to Lucinda Williams's music (right after we watched Transamerica together actually--she was on that soundtrack). I listened to this song first, at random, because it was called Minneapolis and my roommate is from the Twin Cities and so I figured that was a good a reason as any to pick it. And then it's just amazing. Seriously. The lyrics are beautiful, poetic; Lucinda Williams has a gritty, slightly-offkey voice that just sells it, and it's exactly like winter in the Midwest.
The Band: Like I said, Lucinda Williams is a wonderful artist. Her lyrics always have a wonderful complexity, and her voice makes me warm. I listened to her all last January on my way home along the lake, and she made it a much more tolerable experience.
The Day They Left the World Behind by The Healing Fields
it takes a certain kind of madness
to leave what you know
when you get that rush of badness
you know you gotta go
The Song: I have no idea where I picked this up. Seriously. I think someone sent it to me, or I downloaded it from an mp3 blog, or something. But it's just a beautiful song, happy and a little wistful, somewhat reminiscent of Counting Crows in both voice and instrumentation.
The Band: This band is based in London and as far as I can tell has only recorded a single and an EP. I want desperately to buy both, but neither is available through any of my normal music-buying channels, so for now I just listen to them on their website and wish I lived in London.
Stuck in America by Sugarcult
every town feels the same
I'm different and you're distant
Add it up and it makes no difference
The Song: The anthem of my freshman year of high school. I was worldly and liberal and seriously in hate with the United States. Politicians were corrupt little men. Republicans were most closely related to Nazis. I was an angry, cynical little bitch. Snerf. So anyway, this song was my favorite then and is still kind of nasal and annoying and makes me smile.
The Band: Like I said, I was an angry, cynical little bitch. And Sugarcult was childlike in all the ways I was childlike. Their music is fun and bouncy and peppy and *heart*.
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate by Captain Tractor
Well, Mountie Bob he chased me, he was always at my throat
He'd follow on the shoreline 'cause he didn't own a boat
But the cutbacks were a-comin' and the Mountie lost his job
So now he's sailing with me and we call him Salty Bob
The Song: Dude, it's pirates and Canada. You can't lose with pirates and Canada. And it has the catchiest melody ever--you won't be able to stop listening to it.
The Band: Captain Tractor reminds me very much of Great Big Sea, which was a band I liked a lot growing up but no longer listen to regularly. But they have some great songs, all of which have strong melodies and interesting, memorable, or funny lyrics. I still have not gotten any of their albums, but friends have sent me songs and they're on my to-buy list. Once I stop being a starving college student.
(God Damn Right) It's a Beautiful Day by The Eels
The clown with the frown driving down to the sidewalk fair
Finger on the trigger I tell you he is quite a scare
God damn right it's a beautiful day uh-huh
God damn right it's a beautiful day uh-huh
The Song: God, this song makes me smile. Like, it can be raining outside and I can have to be at work at 8:30 and know that I won't be home until midnight and I can be shivering under my covers and desperately wishing I didn't have to get up because I know once my feet touch the floor I will be cold for the rest of the day, but if I put this song on? I will know all of that and smile. It's like, Yo, world? I'm going to have a fucking great day.
The Band: I don't really know that much about them, but my other two favorite songs by them (Woman Driving, Man Sleeping and Love of the Loveless) are simply fantastic. Basically everything they've ever touched is fantastic.
The Fiddle and the Drum by A Perfect Circle
You say I have turned,
Like the enemies you've earned,
But I can remember,
All the good things you are
The Song: This was originally a Joni Mitchell tune, but A Perfect Circle's cover of it is creepy as fuck, and beautiful in its acapella harmony. It's very much a dirge in this context, a song of bitter, December mourning.
The Band: I love this band. It's one of my guilty pleasure bands, up there with 3 Doors Down and Collective Soul. They have a huge variety of sound, from creepy and apocalyptic to much more melodic and mellow. On their album Emotive (which has a bunch of funky capitalization I never remember how to do), they do a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" that gives it a whole new, and much darker, meaning. Definitely something to listen to if you're in a sort of angsty mood.
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But I love music. Music makes my heart happy. ♥
And Saskatchewan Pirate? Oi, I was born in Sask. I want to hear that. XD
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Let me know. :)
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Thank you! I really need to become more well-versed in, well, North American music. -wince- I'm very out of it.