Songs of the Week #11- Editors Pick
“That’s all you really need to know about the 90s”
CARRIE:
"Anonanimal" -- Andrew Bird
The strings in this song are heartwrenching. The fingerpicking/plucking sort of plays its own melody, like there are two singers, Bird and the unnameable stringed instrument that is being distorted or pulled in an unusual manner to sound like fowl or some undiscovered animal. A non-animal. Bird is undoubtedly talented with clever lyricism that plays word games that are a stretch more than tricks and hardly fall short of worthy verse. This song changes just enough times to keep the lump in your throat plump and ripe, and the pen in your hand wildly conducting words on the paper.
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JOHN:
"Benediction" -- Thurston Moore
It is a beautiful song, especially at twilight, possibly while driving alongside a wide river, with half your face hanging out the window, sunset dappling the freeway, interspersed with Doug Fir trees. You are sunset-dreaming joyfully of the prospect of love, of the scent on the wind, of warm evening air flowing through your hair, of the joys of simplicity knowing you have nowhere to be.
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SHENYAH:
“Cosmic Dancer” -- T-Rex
When I listen to this song, a kaleidoscope of memories plays through my mind. The passing of time, continually shifting. "I danced myself out of the womb...I danced myself into the tomb." I have a deep appreciation for music that can remain simple all the while building an epic experience. It's simply magic.
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ROY:
"It's a Shame About Ray" -- The Lemonheads
In 1992 I was 17. I listened to music on cassettes. Some drug-addled longhairs often made the simple, solid pop songs on those cassettes. This song was one of those pop songs. I didn't know then and don't know now (and cared never) who Ray was or what was such a shame about him. At a Lemonheads concert I attended in college someone threw my hat up on stage. Evan Dando picked it up, put it on, and said, "Cool hat." That's all you really need to know about the 90s. The end.
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MATTY:
"Coming Up" -- Paul McCartney
My music guru confidant decided that McCartney II was the album that we needed to listen to on Halloween night, 2012, and though I've not yet been able to find the vinyl anywhere, I've never stopped thinking about this strange and perverse work of synth-inspired art. If you thought that Beatles-era McCartney was nothing more than the poppy cupcake to Lennon's more gravity-laden peace flower, think again. McCartney plays EVERY instrument on the songs that grace McCartney II, and some of them sit comfortably as edgy, proto-pop tunes that signal sounds that barely exist at this point in musical history. For true music aficionados only, perhaps, but worthy of much attention, nonetheless.
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