Despite being tired from a fitful night of sleep, and coming in later to work than usual (due to an early morning doctor’s appointment), it’s been a productive day. Things seem to be running more smoothly than normal, and I’ve gotten quite a lot done in just a few in-office hours. Days don’t always run this smoothly.
I’m hoping the rest of the day goes the same, and that tonight will be a good one without stress or upset. The start of the week can be tricky in respect to stress and upset, but I’m rooting for an evening with as little of both as possible. Or maybe even a nice surprise of a good night with good moods and a house full of happiness.
My commute in was soundtracked by the newly launched online radio station, The Original Roq of the 80’s (on radio.com). This is a total nostalgia indulgence station full of all the songs from my teen years that I used to tape off the radio, and then some. It was a keen reminder of how much affection I have for the music from my adolescence. So many memories attached to so many songs.
Two tracks from today’s Top 5 Music Obsessions came from the station, this morning.
I wish I still had those mixtapes full of songs I recorded from the radio on my pale pink double cassette recorder. This online station makes up for it though, as it plays just like those tapes from the past. Check the station out if you get the chance, and if you, like me, have a love for KROQ music from the 80’s (think punk, new wave, darkwave, ska, goth, etc.)
Top 5 Music Obsessions – Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Listen via Spotify and YouTube
1. “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” from Talking Heads
from the album Remain In Light (1980)
“All I want is to breathe.
I’m too thin.
Won’t you breathe with me?
Find a little space,
so we move in-between.
In-between it.
And keep one step ahead,
of yourself.”
I like the idea of keeping one step ahead of yourself, though I’m not sure I completely understand what that means. Does it have to do with planning? With giving oneself the grace to not always feel good, sleep good, react well, or do everything right? Is it giving life the grace to not always go how you plan? Does it mean to look to the future only? Or maybe to not look at it at all?
Thinking too far ahead tends to make me worry, stress, and not sleep. I try hard to stay in the moment. To focus on the good in life, in myself, and in the present. To not waste now by worrying about tomorrow.
Of course, some days I lose myself in the past. Over-thinking the things I’ve done and said, or not done and said. Missing things. Giving the past too much credit, or too much weight.
Its hard to know what the right way to human is.
On a side note, this track is off of my favorite Talking Heads album (or really, one of two of my tied-for-favorite Talking Heads albums).
2. “Garlands” by Cocteau Twins
from the album, Garlands (1982)
“I could die in a rosary.”
I woke up with this song stuck in my head. I found myself singing it to my cat, Clyde, while I made coffee and he meowed at me for a cat treat.
If my memory serves, this is the first Cocteau Twins song I ever heard.
3. “Sugar for the Pill” by Slowdive
from the album, Slowdive (2017)
“And I rolled away,
said we never wanted much,
just a rollercoast’.
Our love has never known the way.”
Love is complicated and love is easy. Or maybe its the love that’s easy, but relationships that are complicated. I don’t know. I wish it was easier to hang on to joy and bliss. I wish life didn’t always swoop in and make joy and bliss harder. I wish I could bottle them both up, joy and bliss, and share them. There really is so much to be thankful for, especially if you are lucky enough to have love in your life.
On a separate note, I’m still so obsessed with this Slowdive album, from last year.
4. “Harvest Moon” by Sunflower Bean
from the EP, From the Basement (2016)
“When we were strangers,
I watched you from afar.
When we were lovers,
I loved you with all my heart.
But now it’s getting late,
and the moon is climbing high.
I want to celebrate,
see it shining in your eye.”
I’ve been obsessing over Neil Young covers lately. Here’s one I found this morning that I’m really enjoying. It comes from an EP from 2016 that also includes a very cool cover of T-Rex’s song, “Life’s a Gas”.
“Life’s a Gas” by Sunflower Bean
5. “Country Disappeared” by Wilco
from the album, Wilco (2009)
also from the original motion picture soundtrack – Juliet, Naked (2018)
“So every evening we can watch from above,
crushed cities like a bug.
Fold ourselves into each other’s guts,
and turn our faces up to the sun.”
This almost sounds like a post-apocalyptic love song. Maybe that’s what it’s meant to be. Or, I suppose, it could be a love song for the middle-aged. All that jadedness on how life isn’t what one hoped for, or wanted. That “things were better” when (fill in the blank for year, decade, era). And yet, love still happens.
This is another track from Juliet, Naked (2018). I’m really loving the soundtrack today.
Top 5 Music Obsessions – Week of September 3, 2018
