from their brand new semi-acoustic reworkings EP "All's Well That Ends"; i like all of the tracks so much (surprise! but no, really, if they were shitty i'd ignore them). they are all surprisingly restrained without losing that essential LC!-ness (the exclamation point?) and are wonderful. this is my favorite of the bunch, not coincidentally because it's one of my favorites from the record and has some of the best lyrics on the whole damn thing. and lovely background vocals.
i've pretty much been listening to joanna nonstop for two weeks (unsurprisingly), and with good reason. i've also been mixing an EP (!!), which basically entails listening to my songs over and over and over again and tweaking them slightly, which is driving me a bit batshit (but progress is being made-- hopefully in time for march 29). it will not surprise you to learn that i get a bit obsessive about my favorite records and listen to them incessantly and intently, which is why i'm sometimes bad at getting into new stuff. the plus side of all this is that my favorite records make me intensely happy, and that i can tell which records are really wonderful by how much time i put into them, because i am unconsciously drawn to listening to them over and over. when i have come up for air from have one on me in the last couple weeks, here's what i have loved:
los campesinos!
have i mentioned i love this record? yes? shut up. these two songs got me pumped up this morning.
phoenix
the perfect workout record. background music for my accidental 5 mile run up a mountain this weekend.
do make say think
possibly the best record to listen to at work (especially for those of us who love maximally wordy music and can't get any work done while listening to it); also, tremendously warm and rewarding, and perhaps their best record (along with a tender history in rust).
vampire weekend (WHAT?!?)
no, seriously. this song is awesome. and the snow is gone, thank fucking god. it's sort of natural that it's the only song of theirs that i like.
i've been anxiously awaiting the pfork review of the new LC! album for the last week-- there were several long-awaited releases last tuesday (beach house, magnetic fields) so i didn't know exactly when it would get published. leaving aside your feelings about the site, it's pretty undeniable that if they love or hate something it tends to solidify the consensus-- and honestly, the reviews recently have tended to be thoughtful and well-written, so maybe that's deserved. anyway, since i like this band so much i feel like i have a rooting interest. i think paul thompson's review is very flattering and well reasoned, and though i'm a bit disappointed they didn't give it a Best New Music tag, it's not the end of the world.
also, one of my favorite songs on the album reminds me of something else i recently talked about here (for better or worse), in the context of an LC! song. i like this record for being more upbeat and in your face than most stuff i listen to, but also for being right up my alley: it's about death, breaking up, etc.; in specific, it's about being with the wrong person, and finally coming around to that realization, whether it's that the person is wrong for you or that you're wrong for them, or whatever. whereas "the sea is a good place to think of the future" is the emotional centerpiece of the record, this feels like the third quarter of a relationship that's ending. plus, there's this:
In a note I wrote, "I think too much about the end But being around it made me feel like I'm coping now. When I view the cemetery, I don't see headstones I see rows of engraved middle teeth, hungry, waiting for me And though I am fearful, I think I just crave the relief"
Yup!
oh, and then the coda. i know it's a long record, but come on. this song is so good. it's the fifth quarter of a relationship that's ending.
ALSO ALL THESE SONGS ARE REALLY FUCKING GOOD. please don't sleep on that.
friends: i keep trying to write about this album but i can't without sounding dumb. i've listened to it a lot. i really, really like it, and i can see it becoming one of my favorites, and i would recommend it to others-- so here you go.
i know i've posted this before, but it bears re-posting. since i heard it, i've listened to it more than a hundred times. i put it on my ipod on the drive back to montevideo from punta del este yesterday, during a stretch of rolling hills and farmland(1), after which i listened to kid a in its entirety. that sets the general scene for where my mind was at. today we went to the cemetery in montevideo where there are plots for both sides of my dad's family-- one from 1903, and one from 1936. we put some very nice daisies(2) on each of them, and i listened to this song on the walk from one to another, just to be alone with my thoughts for a minute, since i've had increasing trouble over the last couple of years getting in touch with more than surface-level emotions. it really helped.
on the drive back the day before, i got to thinking about a few things that i hadn't had the time or desire to chew over very much recently. i'm not particularly interested in going into a detailed overshare, but i have been undersharing for a good while and since i assume only my friends (and only a few of them at that) read this(3), it may be worthwhile. my farcical relationship over the summer is something that has not totally settled in my mind, but it definitely bothers me. when i listen to the song i posted above, apart from the bits that trigger very specific personal memories, it mostly reminds me of how hard i tried, in that instance, to be the sort of person i've always wanted to be-- calm, reasonable, interested, flexible, supportive, etc. basically, an adult. and guess what? i did! i totally fucking did. best boyfriend ever. i would recommend me in the future. part of being a good person, in my mind, is doing what you can and having faith that other people will do the same. when that turned out not to be the case, i at least rest easy knowing that it absolutely was not my fault. the trick, though, is this: when you've been so burned, you've got to still be able to extend that faith to other people, but even if you (as i have) tell yourself that you are, and can, and will again, it's hard not to be a bit wary. as much as i feel like i've grown into somebody pretty cool, it's still difficult to allow chaos into my pretty well-ordered world. in fact, i think it's harder to allow myself to feel any sort of more-than-surface-level vulnerability now that i feel in control of things a bit more, since, you know, i've grown up a bit since i was 16. or 18. or 20. or 22. whatever(4). i don't know whether it was the drive, the music, the several months that have elapsed for me to unconsciously go over and over all the crazy bullshit that happened and try to find some sort of rationality in it or accept it for being insanity, or the insane driving down here in a recalcitrant stick shift truck, or what, but it feels pretty good to at least feel scared or tired or sad in a less controlled way. being in a strange country(5) helps that. and, of the many, many things i like about this song, my favorite part during the first couple days of my trip has been the first crescendo into the chorus:
She said one day to leave her sand up to her shoulders waiting for the tide to drag her to the ocean to another sea’s shore.
This thing hurts like hell but what did you expect?
who doesn't feel that way? fuck, man, i started feeling strange and guilty for NOT feeling like i was buried to the shoulders. but this is not a sad song, and really, i'm not telling a sad story. it's just life. lots of things remind us of that. including the chorus:
And all you can hear is the sound of your own heart And all you can feel is your lungs flood and the blood course But oh I can see five hundred years dead set ahead of me Five hundred behind A thousand years in perfect symmetry
there's beach and sea absolutely everywhere you go here. and it's not a bad place to think about anything.
footnotes: (1): the eucalyptus trees are all planted in straight rows, probably about a meter apart, so from a distance they look like patches of forest. when you drive by, though, since their trunks are mostly free of vegetation, you see the lines perfectly in a flip-book or stop-motion effect, and the foliage makes for a kind of archway. it's like driving through the alhambra. so wonderful.
(2): we bought them from a lady at a stand across from the cemetary, who we talked to at length. long conversations with strangers happen all the time and i expect they will continue as the trip goes on. they're usually wonderful and interesting and she was no exception. turns out she is italian (from salerno, south of naples), has lived in montevideo for a long time, has family in italy, australia, and toronto and so has been to all of them though she speaks no english. she said, interestingly, that americans and canadians "son frios" or are cold. i thought that was pretty interesting, and from her perspective she's exactly right. as an example, she said, with apparent amazement, that her son lives in an apartment building but knows none of his neighbors! it's amazing to people here. everyone, and i mean everyone, is extremely friendly, neighborly, and helpful, to the point that they even tolerate my crappy spanish.
(3): dangerous. i may make this invitation only but i feel like that'd be a lot of work. bah.
(4): i may join a gym in the new year. i still either eat way too little or too much. i'm not ever as funny as i think i am. it's a process. it's certainly not done.
(5): that is especially strange because a lot of things seem so familiar but aren't,
