Six Month Stickies # 4
March'09 - September '09

As usual the tracks of music that got stuck in my head in the last six months, in order.
I noticed this sticky list is more lyrically focused than usual.
Maybe my blindness to lyrical content in a song is a default I'm retiring.


* Click image to download a .rar of the compilation:



Ghostland Observatory - Stranger Lover

I imagine a gaggle of twenty somethings spending a night on the town in a big city,
tumbling over each other in subway cars and breaking into impromptu pillow fights with couch cushions
and promptly getting kicked out of whatever slick martini lounge they tore through.


Chairlift - Bruises

This was the central song in the soundtrack to my Parisian romance.
Highly recommend listening while gently smooching a cute Austrian girl,
with the window open looking out over a chilly spring afternoon in Paris.


Fever Ray

I drowned myself in this album, from the first listen, on repeat for a month.
Something about the unique tone and mood of this album struck a chord with me
and satisfied a long dormant craving I didn't know I had.

Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart

Dangling feet from window frame
Will I ever ever reach the floor?
More, give me more, give me more

Crushed and filled with all I found underneath and inside
Just to come around
More, give me more, give me more

There see something profound in that verse.
I can’t explain why,
but there is something going on in this song and in that verse in particular that overwhelms me.

Though I do prefer to pretend she's singing:
(...) with all I found underneath and inside out


Fever Ray - Triangle Walks

A delicious mix of electronic instrumentation with quasi island/jungle connotations,
give this song a more visceral underpinning,
imbuing it with a very appropriate mix of earthy mystery and engaging darkness.
Wow what a pretentious sentence!
But it accurately describes how a feel about this song!


Fever Ray - Coconut

I love the calm rhythmic pulsing,
with the subtle echoes to create space
and yawning strings playing over top for lift.


Elton John - Daniel

I heard this song play in a store in New York,
and when I got back to California I suddenly felt a desperate craving for it.
I don’t know what kind of weird suggestive voodoo they practice in New York
but if it causes me to become randomly obsessed with Elton John songs,
then I wish they would stop it.
There is something really engaging about the awkwardly present exposition
in what we're believed to be an address to his brother.
Like why would you say to your own brother: "Daniel my brother, you're older than me."
In any case irony and confusion aside, I genuinely like this song,
I just wish there were more Elton John songs like this for me to grab on to.


Kate Bush - Breathing

I’m not sure if I already went into my deep love of Kate Bush in one of my previous sticky lists,
but suffice to say she is up there with Brian Eno as an artist who really can’t do wrong in my book.
I have such an enormous amount of respect for her and her work I can’t even begin to get into it here.
This song is a good example of her talents,
there is so much going on it’s easy to not catch all the great song writing choices constantly being made,
and immaculately executed,
but it’s that very reason Kate Bush songs reveal themselves in new ways even after many listens.


The Radio Dept. - Your Father

I like this song for its quirky lazy wistfulness.
The languid guitar, peppery drums,
all the various plucky jangly sounds sparking around like fireflies.

Sticky point:
1:09
We were only kids when we first laid eyes on each other

I think the song really comes together with that line.
Something about it really cuts through me.


Belle & Sebastian - Sukie In The Graveyard

This is why I like Belle & Sebastian.
Angsty schoolyard quirky rock for people who don’t take their melodrama too seriously.

Sticky points:

0:58
She had a slut slave and his name was Dave
She said ‘Be my photo bitch and I'll make you rich'
He didn't believe her but the boy revered her

1:58
She had an A1 body and a face to match
She didn't have money, she didn't have cash


Elliot smith

I go through distinct Elliot Smith fazes every couple years.
This time it came back around centered around a few songs I had previously overlooked.
I find myself with a new found appreciation for how effective his understated bass lines work
and for his lyrical content, which I had previously not given him much credit for.

Elliott Smith - Baby Britain

Sticky point (1:36):

You've got a look in your eye when you're saying goodbye
Like you want to say hi

I don’t know why but that line really cuts through my cynicism
and creates thick and satisfying poignancy.
He has a real gift for expression beautifully simple sentiments like this.


Elliott Smith - Independence Day

Another beautifully simple sentiment.
Expressed exactly right (1:54):

Everybody knows
Everybody knows
You only live a day
But it’s brilliant anyway


The Books - Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again

The books are right on the line of respectively original/unexpected musicality and straight noisy nonsense.
But I really feel that their talents work wonderfully in this track.
Everything is in perfect balance.

But really what makes this track special is the Jewish woman's monologue and the inspired moment at the end:

1:58 – 2:02

That moments sends shivers up my spine in all the right ways.


Blonde Redhead - Elephant Woman

Blonde redhead is a perfect example of one of the bands I loved to listen to when I was in college
but for whatever reason have little to no interest to hear again.
At least not until a friend put this song on a mix she made for me.
Even though I had heard it many times before,
something new opened the song up to me and I listened to it with relish,
it even inspired me to write a short piece/variation on some of the lyrics:

Feed me from your heart
cause an accident unfortunate
tear myself through you
my loose arms snag on your sharp brambles
i shed no tears for broken me.

*There is a tip of the hat to my favorite Microphones song if you can spot it.


The Knife - Heartbeats

Another song off my friends mix that infected me.


The Postal Service - Nothing Better

The postal service is another example of one of my listen-in-college-only bands.
But suddenly one day I woke up with this song stuck in my head.
Luckily it didn’t last long.


Elliott Smith - Punch and Judy

Not much to say about this song. Just nice and delicately handled.


Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun

I heard this Cyndi Lauper song in a friend's car driving down to L.A.
She’s a composer and was dissecting the anatomy of Cyndi Lauper's voice.
Remarking that the shivering duel note quality of the ways she sings “Girls”
is actually a rather difficult thing to pull off.
Hearing a composer applaud Cindy Laupers technique disarmed the unexamined prejudice I always had against her
as a simple pop star tied to a specific time in pop culture.
And it wasn’t until months later that this dormant new found respect for her as a artist
broke the surface and I suddenly felt the need to listen to this song.
I was in Berlin at the time and it rather confused my friend to see me
suffering through sudden Cyndi Lauper cravings.
After the obligatory teasing, she actually turned me onto her favorite Cyndi Lauper song
which wasted no time in becoming the next song on my sticky list.


Cyndi Lauper - When You Were Mine

My friend took advantage of my weakened state to infect me with this choice Lauper song.
Now I vaguely associate Cyndi Lauper with her and Berlin, which is kind of an awkward combo.


Silver Jews - Smith & Jones Forever

Another song that got stuck in my head while in Berlin.
The seed was planted while I was still in California and began listening to Silver Jews,
but broke out in full force during breakfast one morning
before a long day of walking through stern, stoic German streets.
A good fit.

Sticky points:

Smith and Jones forever
Smith and Jones forever
Smith and Jones
forever together forever and ever
together forever and ever.

Mew - Introducing Palace Players

Mew is one of the few bands in my music library that sound like nothing else in my library.
This track of their new EP is a perfect example.
I can’t really imagine any other band writing this song.
Such a well handled off beat,
and the way it tumbles into the release at the one minute mark
sends energy coursing through my body each time I hear it.


Vivaldi - Stabat Mater RV.621 - 1. Stabat Mater

I’m a sucker for a composer who knows his way around strings and voices.
And Vivaldi is definitely one of them.
This is probably my favorite piece by him.
For me it’s all about 2:00 – 2:30
I can say without hesitation that 30 seconds worth of music affects me deeper than almost anything I’ve ever heard.
When I listen to Vivaldi at work on my headphones, and I get to the two minute mark,
I can’t help but shut my eyes and whimper like a little baby.
I come out the other side hoping no one at work saw me during my black out time
when I’m hidden from the world and lost in the music.


The Knife - A lung

Though I shouldn’t be surprised after how obsessed I got with the fever ray album,
that I should fall so deep into a knife song.
I mean I like the song and everything,
I'm just not sure why I felt the need to listen exclusively to it
and nothing else straight for three days,
racking up over fifty consecutive track plays.
I mean isn't that kind of demented?

Anyway click here if you want the proof.


The White Stripes

I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder about The White Stripes
as I saw them as an affront to The Black Keys
who I always felt were a much stronger though much less celebrated band.

Still for whatever reason I heard a couple white stripes songs in passing
and they jingled around in my head enough to encourage me to get their discography.
I actually ended up liking many more of the songs than I would have guessed.
These were the ones that especially infected me.
Right around the time crunch time arrived on a film I was working on,
so I spent many a long night rocking out to these sharp guitar licks and crashing cymbals until the early morning.

The White Stripes - Ball and Biscuit

This song really builds up well to it’s release points.
At each one I’m inspired to jump into the air and break out into my little nerd jig
which involves flailing elbows and pained lunges.


The White Stripes - I'm Slowly Turning Into You

Not much to say about this song.
Just ass shacking rock that feels good.


The White Stripes - A Martyr For My Love For You

While the straight ahead narration is cute the first time,
it does get old on repeated listens.
Still it didn’t stop it from getting stuck in my head.


The White Stripes - The Denial Twist

Far too relevant to my romantic life currently.
Got to work on that.


The Byrds - You Ain't Going Nowhere

I made it a goal to delve into country music recently.
I solicited a few recommendations from knowledgeable friends,
and this early cross over country song from The Byrds was the first to infect me.
I won’t even bother enumerating all the things this song does right.
I just like everything about it.


Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

This song got stuck in my head after two separate and non related occasions
people I was hanging out with showed me the youtube video for this song for the purpose of laughing at it,
as they thought it was obvious that her dancing and performance etc. were awkward and ridiculous.



But I of course found it to be like all of her work,
namely amazing and likewise found her dancing a perfect fit for the song and the song itself brilliant.
Listening to Kate bush reminds me of when I eat carrots: I just feel good afterward.

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Six Month Stickies # 3
Six Month Stickies # 2
Six Month Stickies # 1