“One of Us Cannot Be Wrong” – Leonard Cohen.
So, it doesn’t seem like it at first, right?
But if you’re not yelling along at the end, you’re doing it wrong.
For something to yell to the whole way through and a really gorgeous video, look here.
For something easy to blast in the car, look here.
It’s hard, because I constantly say that I don’t want to forget any experience or cast it aside because it helped shape me into the person I am today. Even if that is a person who stops and says, “fuck that. I’m never doing that shit again.”
But, here’s what I have to offer:
“Rolling in the Deep” – Adele.
I had gotten back from one of probably the most emotionally fucked up nights of my life. It was one of those situations that it honestly takes time for you to process and really chew and say that what had happened was severely fucked up. It has, since, helped me articulate my needs and really understand my self-respect.
To add to the fucked-uped-ness, the involved stated over and over how profound and deep the experience was.
Honestly, the only thing profound and deep about it was the degree to which it was fucked up.
But, at the time, I was a mess of confusion and feelings. I had been driven home and it was one of the true instances when I felt profoundly alone. I turned my Pandora on and this song came on and it just cut deep. I hadn’t begun to fully process, but the song somehow struck the right chord.
For another song I’ll be releasing to the universe, go here.
And for one I’m reclaiming because fuck that, go here.
This was probably the song I listened to most this summer. Which will make a certain be-trousered tumblrer get all smug. But it’s true: his ability to tag posts is only surpassed by his ability to curate good music.
Oh, and I guess he writes okay erotica as well.
Nonetheless, I’d like to imagine this is the song robots play when they have really gratifying angry sex.
You heard me.
For something (and a post) that recalls a little hiccup this summer, go here.
For something a little punchier, go here.
“Conversation 16” – The National
I’ve seen The National in concert and the show is somewhere between a dynamic musical experience and watching a man become progressively more and more intoxicated on a stage.
I’ve also got a teensy proclivity for zombies.
And this lyric: I’m a confident liar/Had my head in the oven so you’d know where I’ll be/I’ll try to be more romantic/I wanna believe in everything you believe.
For a cheesy 16 song, look here.
For something 16-related and completely different, look here.
No idea why these are all 16s.
So, I decided a fabulous way to procrastinate my thesis and other work would be to do the 30 Day Music Challenge.
And the first one on the countdown of sorts is Madeleine Peyroux’s cover of “Blue Alert”.
For another “Blue” song by the original creator of “Blue Alert”, look here.
For an impossibly forlorn “Blue” song, look here.
So, yeah, the beat’s really hot and so are Heart’s words.
And I’m really excited that Destiny’s Child is going to be a thing again, even if it may be too good to be true.
This remix sounds like a sexy dirge.
Can you conjure, in your head, the way it sounds when your name escapes their lips? The particular inflection, the rise and fall of the syllables? The way it sounds when they’re laughing it, shouting it, exasperated and forcing it, sleepily dreaming it, or moaning it against your lips? What do they call you in those moments? How does it command your attention, ply your heart, pull you to them? Nobody else says it quite that way.
Say My Name – Cyril Hahn Remix
Fuck to this.
“Heal the scars from off my back
I don’t need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
I’ve come home.”
When I was driving home from the gym, this song came on the radio. SG had sent it to me a month or so after it came out. That enough sort of stung, but then:
“Well, I know that I’m not all that you got. I guess that I, I just thought, you and me would find new ways to fall apart.”
Elle once told me radios were psychic like that. Once, when she and I were fighting in her car, our song came on the radio and she patted the dashboard with a chuckle.
It all sort of felt like a cruel joke.
But it was really those words that got to me. I had never been too upset about his girlfriend beyond the occasional hiccup, never cared about his other hookups at all. This one made me feel gutted. I thought of them, briefly, together, and I actually felt nauseous.
And so I started screaming in traffic. Windows up, of course.
I’m heading out in a bit to a friend’s 21st birthday. Hopefully it will take my mind off of everything. Odds are, I’ll probably need someone carrying me home tonight. Whatever.
Ivy out.
“Great Babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me,
and Bethlehem inflamed us both
like the shy one at some orgy.
And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
that I had to draw aside to see
the serpent eat its tail."
