Seven Songs

By request:

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to."

The tags: W.Coast Bethany, Pete, Ken, Cate, Jeff, Grace, Chris

The songs:

I’d like to write descriptions for each but I’m in a rush -- maybe I'll add them later. I mainly listen to music in my jewelry studio or when I’m singing it to Lyra. Here are some:

Don’t Tell Me To Do the Math(s) – Los Campesinos!

Right Hand on My Heart – The Whigs

That Summer I Had Become the Invisible Boy – Twilight Sad

Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe – Okkervil River

Head Rolls Off – Frightened Rabbit

Barfly – Ray LaMontagne

Eyes – Rogue Wave

2006 Music

At the request of my dear hubby, some of my favorite songs I listened to in 2006 (though not all from 2006) were by:

American Ambulance – Particularly good when driving or singing loudly. This winter I sang "Leave This City" and "Ain't Life Good" in the car a lot. See Pete's blog linked in the sidebar here.
Belle and Sebastian – Mellow, calming.
Better than Ezra – I was in a phase of this, and then fell out of it. Extra produced, but moving, earnest alterna-pop.
Bettie Serveert – Love the new acoustic album. It's mellow and interesting and wonderful.
Bright Eyes – I love the album I'm Wide Awake It's Morning. Love. Maybe overplayed it. It hits me in some poetic, gut-real place.
Jeff Buckley – A lullaby every now and then of "Hallelujah. "
Neko Case – Also good for belting out while driving. Especially like "Rated X"
Death Cab for Cutie – Mellow, and "I'll Follow You into the Dark" was so lovely.
Tanya Donnelly – She's constantly in rotation, particularly when I'm writing.
The Essex Green – "Don't Know Why (You Stay)" got lodged in my brain a bunch this year.
The Go! Team – Thunder, Lightening, Strike is still my favorite get psyched or get moving at the gym album.
Ida – A bit down in the Low realm, but so moving and pretty. I really loved "Laurel Blues"
Kasabian – I know it was overplayed, but I did love "Club Foot" and listened to it a bunch.
The Killers – Again, overplayed, I did love "When You Were Young"
Kings of Convenience – This always calms me down. Kind of a modern Simon & Garfunkel effect I suppose.
Love is All – "Talk Talk Talk Talk" pleased me in its thrashy throwback to Blondie era stylings
Luna – I couldn't have told you I listened to "Still at Home" as often as I did without iTunes telling me.
Magnet – "Where Happiness Lives" I love.
Morningwood – I found 5-yr-old glee in singing "Nth Degree" to glenn repeatedly until it showed up in some TV commercial.
My Morning Jacket – "Off the Record" and "Gideon" made me really happy. "Off the Record" put me in the Clash/REM/late '80s mode of reminiscence.
The Raconteurs – I don't think I'd like a whole album, but I did have fun bopping around to "Steady as She Goes"
Shout Out Louds – I liked the whole album, but especially "Hurry Up Let's Go"
Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped was a Rather awesome album, best in many years of subpar Sonic Youth
Le Tigre – "T.K.O." again in the silly bopping around the house department.
M. Ward – Enjoyed the Post-War album and especially "Right in the Head"
Wheat – Not new guilty bop pleasure in a the strummy pop of "I Met a Girl"
World Leader Pretend – "Bang Theory" was a good get up and go anthem in that same rising mood of say "When You Were Young" (Killers)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Like Garbage, gets into that threateningly powerful but pained mode.

Lullabies

Let's make a list. Do you have any favorite songs that make good lullabies, or compilations of lullabies?

Where is Id?

Tanya Donelly put out a new album today. I have been waiting for this for some time. I adore Tanya Donelly. Her voice travels my spine with its range of emotion, and her lyrics have always been this free-flowing spew of id that has freed my own creativity; I've written a number of poems and letters while listening to her previous albums.

I went and watched her play an acoustic set at an in-store preview to celebrate the CD release at lunchtime. It was a tiny store and there was not a huge crowd; a huge crowd would never fit in that little store. Several people held babies. I sat on the floor, about five feet from her and marveled at the amazing emotional spectrum issuing from a woman who was basically sitting still on a stool. She truly pours it out of some other dimension.

I wasn't entirely sure what I thought of the songs while listening. I was so caught up in the performance. However, upon first listen, this album is very mellow and has some nice songs but I'm missing the id. Please world, do not have beat this out of Tanya Donelly. The album was recorded mostly live at a hotel in Vermont, and it includes Joan Wasser (dambuilders), Rich Gilbert, and Bill Janovitz among others.

On a similarly mellow front, the new acoustic album from Bettie Serveert is a really pretty mellow listen. I'm looking forward to checking out the DVD that came with it, which looks to include her cover of Bright Eyes' "Lover I Don't Have to Love."