an agreeable noise

Okay, I know.
I had my reasons. (Like that the file storage site I've been using sucks. All the old files are gone as far as I can tell, so don't even try.)
But I'm back.

I knew that to make it up to you, I had to come back with something awesome. So I give you:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Breathless*
(You really want to turn this one to 11. Trust me. And I actually think it's something little kids would love, too, because it's sort of strange and whimsical. Whimsypunk. With whimsypunkal flutes and stuff.)





*Hurry and download it. It will only be up for a limited amount of time. I have to find another way to host these files.

 I love me some Elton John. Between 1970 and 1980, in particular, he could do no wrong. Gotta admit - I don't love him as a celebrity persona, and I think he's completely given himself over to Greatest Hitsville. But classic Elton is, for me, sublime. Here are a few of my favorites of his more melancholy stuff. He was so prolific (I guess that's what snorting mountains of coke does for you) that I really could dedicate this entire blog to his music, but I won't. I will, however, be back with more EJ as inspiration strikes.




  I Feel Like a Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford) from Rock of the Westies, 1975 - This  recording is a much scaled back version, live in 1977

  Planes, recorded in 1975 in the ROTW sessions but not on the record 

 Someone's Final Song, from Blue Moves, 1976. Oh. Sad.

 In Neon, from Breaking Hearts, 1984. Yes! 1984! BH is actually a great album, taking into account the 1984-ness of the time. This song is an on-the-floor-between-the-speakers-and-sing loud kinda deal. You can be the lead or the background ahhh-ahhh-ooohhhhhs.

 Breaking Hearts (Ain't What It Used to Be) from same. Elton's voice is just so lovely here. 

 Okay, I've got a whole bunch  more, but I will feed them to you in digestible chunks.

 All lyrics here compliments of Bernie Taupin.

These songs are at least tangentially related to the post over on my other LJ about the human metanarrative of longing for reconciliation.



From Ben Lee's Awake Is the New Sleep: "The Debt Collectors"  (Sounding an awful lot like fellow Aussie Paul Kelly.)



From Aimee Mann's Lost In Space: "Invisible Ink"

I don't know much about Richard Shindell, but I heard this song on KRCL last week and had to have it for my very own. It's not the most amazing song in the world or anything, but I think it's special in a James Taylory sort of way and it's worth a listen if only for his delivery of the lovely lyric, "Did he who made the lamb / put the tremble in the hand / that reaches out to take my quarter." Also, the instrumental break is a little Richard Thompsonesque. 



From Richard Shindell's Reunion Hill: "The Next Best Western"

Speaking of RT, this is a favorite favorite favorite song, one that has always struck me as an angry prayer:



From Richard Thompson's Mock Tudor: "Hard On Me"  (lyrics - scroll down)

This will be the first of what I hope will be a series of posts for the Lent season. Not chant or gospel or CCM (ack!), but regular songs I like that are spiritually significant in some way. To me, at least.



From Over the Rhine's Ohio: "Jesus in New Orleans"  (lyrics)

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From Tegan and Sara's If It Was You: "Living Room"

Don't know much about her, but I just picked up one of her albums. This song gives me total Phair-ja-vu.

From you think it's like this but really it's like this: "Sweepstakes Prize"

I'm really in love with Brandi Carlile right now, and this song in particular. Listening to it makes me feel like I've got a new boyfriend. You should get Brandi's album if you like the rock and roll, if you like female singer/songwriters. She is merely 23, so I'm very excited to watch her career.  I think of her a little bit as a female Ryan Adams, but I guess that's sort of reductive. 

Anyone under 30 who knows about Elton's "Sixty Years On," let alone covers it, is tops in my book.

From Brandi Carlile's self-titled album: "Closer To You"