fredag 16 Mar 2007, 15:11
when the new personal playlist idea came along, i decided to use this visible tracklisting as a way to post songs that i've loved forever. you know, those songs that come on and you have to hear them all the way through and you pause whatever you're doing and fall into a dream. i have probably over 16,000 songs in my repertoire so there are quite a bit of timeless time-worn favorites (so far, i haven't added them all yet and there will be more) but it's probably size-proportionate considering. i'll probably list them and put them in increments of 10, while writing a little backstory of how awesome they are. here we go!
these are in no particular order.
one of the first colleen tracks i heard, probably middle of 2006. i've spent the most memorable and longg hours of my life in trains and train stations, this is exactly it beautifully. this song is the light passing over your face again and again, this song is like the mechanical timelapse of scenery that is being in the back of the train, almost nodding off, thinking melancholy thoughts about the one you left behind at the station.
unspeakably beautiful elysian fields track. melancholy rock-noir at it's best. i originally heard this in late 2003, and it formed a segue between a shitty relationship and a really good one. two people who are practically in love but have never met each other except for passing on the stairs everyday to and from their daily goings. they want to meet each other but are too shy. "if only you'd misplace your key. another night you walk on past, another night i walk on glass"
the verse "in the hall lights flicker hum/his dark lashes always hung/with a look so weary and so wise/when he passes he gently sighs/in his work worn boots he leans/and i wonder what it means/whatever does it mean?/passing on the stairs" still gets me swoony.
i was probably 12 or 13 and my dad had just gotten me the rotten apples/judas o smashing pumpkins collection for christmas. this was probably the first song in song history that struck me glory-comatose upon first listen. beautiful, beautiful piano part and probably the most bittersweet lyrics i've ever heard. meandering naivete, almost, as close as billy corgan could get anyway. "forever lost in town, drinking strawberry wine."
probably the only track i liked off of charlotte gainsbourg's album besides 5:55 really. it really reeks of AIR and jarvis cocker, so much that whatever is charlotte's is kind of obscured. but that doesn't make it a bad song! hypnotizing chord progressions and sweet lyrics. the only other bittersweet airplane song i know besides stratford-on-guy.
probably heard this summer of 2004. i'm continually amazed at metric. they make.. reverse pop. pop that not only the mainstream appreciates.. but even the bitter and closed-off picky people like me can love. this is one of those songs that is so simple and true that it just hits you like a big fucking brick of love. SPRING! SUN! LOVE! i hear this and i feel like hugging everyone and lying on the ground with the one i love and feeling the earth move and hippie lovey dovey stuff like that. oh man.
the song you've all heard of course, just a broken, melancholy one from a smashed music box. a-mazing. my rainy northwestern childhood.
flint (for the unemployed and underpaid)
to date, the only song i like or probably ever will like from this guy. but holy shit is it good. first heard in mid 2003. somehow tender song of submission, of giving up, but retaining pride. just wait for the horns, man.
amnesiac was the second album i ever bought, after nirvana's nevermind and before the pixies doolittle. i'm guessing.. 2001? i think i got it right after i came out, i think i was 13, or so. THIS song, oh man. i was listening to it on the way home from the mall. at this time i lived in southern california, and the way home from the mall involved a 10 minute drive by the beach. the sun was setting as he crooned "holy roman empire.." and "you forget so easy" as it spilled into the ghost horses chaotic ending and i probably almost exploded with joy and beauty forever.
that's enough for now, we'll continue this later. if anyone wants any of these tracks, just give me a ring and i'd be happy to help you out. ;p