Big romantic stuff

[sovay]

I haven't posted any music in a while. I'm not sure I'd call this a mix in the consciously assembled sense so much as a selection of songs that have been on rotation recently. Some have more obvious aetiologies than others. I could have sworn I owned the Dresden Dolls cover about ten years ago, as a concert bootleg, but I had to go looking for it again after being reminded of its existence. In my junior year at Brandeis, I learned "If Love Were All" from the singing of Alan Rickman in Private Lives. When a song gets in my head, I listen to it wall to wall. I've never known if that was normal and I don't think it makes much difference.

Alan Rickman & Lindsay Duncan, "If Love Were All/Someday I'll Find You"

But I believe that since my life began
The most I've had is just
A talent to amuse

Alan Vega, Alex Chilton, Ben Vaughn, "Fat City"

Looking at my tracks, I miss my train

Angela Burns, "All Together"

No, I don't need you to keep me whole and safe
From the dangers behind that thick brick wall

The Dresden Dolls, "Life on Mars"

Oh, man, look at those cavemen go

Elvis Perkins in Dearland, "Weeping Pilgrim, 417"

I weep
I mourn
And I move slowly on
I'm a poor mourning pilgrim, I'm bound for Canaan's land

Jake Xerxes Fussell, "Pork and Beans"

See my clothes string hanging on your line
Tell by that, well, I got a rambling mind

The Jezabels, "Dark Storm"

But when I took it to the sky
To the bright white cockatoo on a satellite
She looked down on all my years
With a click of a finger

Joan Armatrading, "Woncha Come on Home"

Every light is on, but all the rooms are empty except one
Oh, baby, don't stay too late
You know I hate to be alone
And I'm alone

Johnny Flynn, "Lost and Found"

Just a lonely radio
Just a makeshift show and tell
Playing out the lives of the lost and found

Comments

[thistleingrey]

...Taking it strictly analytically, I'd expect a lot of variation. For myself, when a song's in my head, it plays on the mental jukebox without external reinforcement, but I don't imagine that that's "normal" either. I dunno.

[sovay]

For myself, when a song's in my head, it plays on the mental jukebox without external reinforcement

That is also the case with me: a lot of the time, I then play it externally to see if I can get it out. I'm not actually sure if it works. I've had songs on mental rotation for months.

[gwynnega]

I love that Joan Armatrading song, and the whole album it's from.

[sovay]

I love that Joan Armatrading song, and the whole album it's from.

I'd never heard it until shortly before Arisia. It's amazing. It sounds like a skeletal demo, but it's the album cut. It sounds the way Edward Hopper's paintings of night cities look.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I approve this playlist! I have a good two thirds of the songs, and YES, they go together very well indeed.

And weirdly, the Jezebels have come back up in my own on-rotation list, along with "Walter Reed," via you.

The Jake Xerxes Fussell I've been playing in combination with Jolie Holland.

[sovay]

I approve this playlist! I have a good two thirds of the songs, and YES, they go together very well indeed.

Thank you!

(Busted Statues was just passing through iTunes at the time when I made this post, but here: "Blue Cheer." The only other song I have by them is "Red Clouds"—melody by Clint Conley, who later gave them credit when he reused it for "What a Body Could Do," a song I like much better—which makes me think inaccurately that they must have been assembling a palette of color-punk songs.)

The Jake Xerxes Fussell I've been playing in combination with Jolie Holland.

That sounds like an excellent pairing. I'll have to try it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I actually like the "Red Clouds" version! Thank you for all three!

[sovay]

I actually like the "Red Clouds" version! Thank you for all three!

You're welcome! I'm glad to hear it.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I downloaded this playlist and will probably reassemble it in order when I get back into my office, where my primary iTunes setup is.

At the moment, I'm still fighting off the con crud, simultaneous with having various people in to assess and fix up the new apartment, so extended periods of listening are not yet a thing.

[sovay]

At the moment, I'm still fighting off the con crud, simultaneous with having various people in to assess and fix up the new apartment, so extended periods of listening are not yet a thing.

I'm sorry to hear it. Feel better! The playlist is just alphabetical, if it helps. (If I had been making a story out of it, it would have ended with the Jake Xerxes Fussell. [edit] And begun with Joan Armatrading, but I'd have to think about what comes in between.)

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

When a song gets in my head, I listen to it wall to wall.
I don't know if this is normal, but I tend to do this, too. Except I'm just as likely to do it with entire albums as with single songs. (And let's not even get into my Hamilton obsession/addiction.)

[sovay]

Except I'm just as likely to do it with entire albums as with single songs.

I listen to new albums straight through, and I can play them on repeat if they catch me—as with Fussell's self-titled debut, which was a solid soundtrack for two or three days—but in almost all cases favorite tracks eventually emerge and these are the ones which see the most replay.

All these rules change with writing music, I think. If I am writing to an album, it just plays over and over, alternating with whatever else is in my head at the time, and usually rates a mention in the text somehow. So John Roberts' "The Boatman's Cure" and Cordelia's Dad's "Delia" are individual songs that influenced the writing of "The Boatman's Cure" (Ghost Signs), but I also listened to a tremendous amount of Peter Bellamy's Kipling settings and a soundtrack mix for The Lady's Not for Burning that I got from derspatchel, a lot. [edit] I did not track music for that story as carefully as I have with others, I suspect partly because it was written over a period of nearly three years. I have much more in the way of notes on "The Salt House."

(And let's not even get into my Hamilton obsession/addiction.)

I know! Everybody on my friendlist is listening to Hamilton except me! I will almost certainly like it when I do!