tisdag 22 Maj 2007, 8:45

Perhaps it is a result of my utter distaste for studying in the unbearable heat, or perhaps it's just that it's time for a break, but I have found myself philosophizing a great deal more lately than usual - which is a remarkable amount of thinking.

I haven't been watching any movies or reading any books lately, just studying my horrid basic sciences so I can be well on my way to that medical degree. So I came to the conclusion that it must be my music that has been making me think so much in the recent past.

I realized that that probably is the case when i looked back on who my highest played artists have been in the past week or two.

Right now Nick Drake is right up there at the top, with his quiet, brooding lyrics and misleadingly gentle chords. At first listen, his music seems simple and kind, sweetly contented, but if you listen carefully, his music will turn you inside out - i guarantee it. Honestly, can you listen to Man in a Shed without your heart hurting? just a little bit?

Ane Brun's A Temporary Dive has grabbed me by the collar over the past week, and i cannot stop listening to it. Laid In Earth has an eerie quality to it, almost as if a disembodied voice is calling back, already beyond the grave. My Lover Will Go and Where Friend Rhymes with End serve to remind that whatever we might think, our connections with people are temporary, fleeting even. Who knows where I will be in a year? Who knows who will be with me? Will I be alone?

And that's when Damien Rice comes into the picture… with his soulful, mournful songs, which almost make me resign myself to the inevitable sorrows of life. 9 contains several songs which make me think i really have no choice but to curl up and give up. Accidental Babies is so beautifully hollow that it makes me cringe. In such a soft voice, with such soft words, Rice stabs into some deeper self of mine, which I don't even know how to shield from the wounds that beautiful music can inflict.

Both Karyshma and the soundtrack for The Namesake have done something similar to me, by reaching a conflicted part of me that I think I generally do my best to avoid. The beauty of the Indian raagas blends in such a lovely way with Western sounds and energy in tracks like Eastbound and Monster. Listening to them makes me want to search deeper within myself and find that harmony in myself, in the reconciliation between the indian mysticism and the western rationalism, to be overly simplistic.

And of course, any talk of harmony and melody is not complete without mentioniing the one artist who can make me smile one instant and in a split second, wring anguish out of my soul. Yes, of course, Jeff Buckley.
I've always loved Jeff, and the standard tracks that everyone who loves Jeff loves and can't live without, like Lover, You Should've Come Over and Hallelujah, but i've started to listen even more closely to other tracks that might tend to take more of a backseat. Jeff's cover (Strange Fruit (live)) of Bille Holliday's Strange Fruit is haunting, listen carefully to the words.
You and I, Morning Theft, and Opened Once have all captured my attention a little bit more recently, and how can Jeff's lyrics not make you think?

So there you have it, folks.
What music can do to you.

I'll provide you with another installment soon.
Trust me, I'm not even close to being done.