Three days into the New Year. Three days into new starts and resolutions. Three days into what I believe is going to be the best year yet. Three days into love and hope and commitment towards happiness and love. I am feeling so very hopeful right now.
Music is playing its part in these first three days of 2019. That’s nothing new though. Music is always playing a part in my life. I find myself leaning into old favorites, and opening my ears up to new discoveries. I’m always musically-curious, combing through playlists and recommendations, replaying old mixes and albums, and digging into new music, and new-to-me music. I hope to never lose my desire to hear more music. I hope to never hit that point in my listening life where I only want to hear what’s come before. No, I want to keep listening forward, and backward, and everything in-between.
Music Obsession requires open ears, open minds, and ever-evolving playlists. What are you listening to, and obsessing over, on this third day of the New Year?
Top 5 Music Obsessions – Thursday, January 3, 2019
Lyriquediscorde
1. “Low Rising” by The Swell Season
from the album, Strict Joy (2009)
“For the love of you.
Low rising,
low rising.
I wanna sit you down and talk.
I wanna sit you down and talk about it now.”
Love is everything.
Love is magic. But, love is work. You have to show up every day with an open heart, with patience, and with a wanting to make it work with every part of you. Its worth it, the work, the patience, the wanting, and the showing up. It’s worth everything.
I know I waited so long to find the love I have in my life now. And, I know, without any doubt, that even on the rough days, our love is worth it. It is everything.
2. “Save Me” by Aimee Mann
from the Magnolia soundtrack (1999)
“You look like a perfect fit,
for a girl in need of a tourniquet.
But, can you save me?”
Love is magic, yes, yes that is true.
But, it isn’t a cure for everything that ails us. Sure, it helps. How can it not? Loving, and being loved, helps everything. It makes the world a little brighter, it makes hope a little more clear. But, we still have to do the work. On ourselves. We still have to show up for ourselves. We still have to try to save ourselves, before we can even think of saving another. Before we can believe that love can save us.
I’m grateful though, to have love in my life. And, even though I know I have to save myself, heal myself, and work on myself, I think that love helps in all of it. So, maybe, just maybe, love saves us, at least a little bit. I believe in love and its magic. And, I believe that it helps in all of it.
3. “Crack the Case” by Dawes
from the album, Passwords (2018)
“Countless revisions of history,
tryin’ to tell us the future,
between each commercial break.
I wanna call off the cavalry,
declare no winners or losers,
and forgive our shared mistakes.
You can pick the time and place.
Maybe that will crack the case.”
I love Dawes’ lyrics.
It is their lyrics that attracted me to their music first. The storytelling, and the insight into the human condition, especially in terms of love and relationships, and living, always seems to hit spot on. I feel it, and understand it.
I love the sentiment in the above lyrics of “forgive our shared mistakes”. I think that its sometimes hard to see both sides, to recognize that we all play a part, that we all make mistakes – and that mistakes in a relationship are shared. And that forgiveness is vital, for ourselves, for each other, for love, and for living itself.
This song is a nice reminder of that truth.
4. “Fruits of My Labor” by Lucinda Williams
from the album, World Without Tears (2003)
“Traced your scent through the gloom,
’til I found these purple flowers.
I was spent,
I was soon smelling you for hours.”
I love the desire in this song, the recollected passion, the way it evokes all of the senses in the lyrics.
This is a lyrical magic, this song. Easily my favorite Lucinda Williams track. I’m grateful to my boyfriend for introducing me to the song, and to more of Lucinda’s music than I’d previously been familiar with.
This song is one of many (so many) that remind me of us, of my love for him, for all our early moments of trading songs and lying in each other’s arms taking turns picking albums and introducing each other to our favorites.
I love that we still do that. That it is still so much a part of us, and our connection, and love. I think it always will be. I hope it always will be.
5. “What I Am” by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians
from the album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)
“Shove me in the shallow water,
before I get too deep.”
Another song, and album, that is full of memories of a much younger me.
The end of the ’80s, or at least near the end. I was 19. Another big year for me in terms of living and life experiences. There were be moments of great change, excitement, “firsts”, and little joys. There were also moments of pain, loss, sorrow, and damage that would leave semi-permanent scars (I’m always hoping to heal my past, wherever possible).
I heard this song, and album, for the first time working at my first record store job. Sam Goody. I remember buying it very soon after. On cassette. And playing it in my car. It had heavy car stereo rotation for the summer of my nineteen, and for some time after.
I hadn’t heard this song in a long while until it came on in my car this morning off of an old playlist I’d made. I think I’ll have a listen to the entire album today, as well.
Top 5 Music Obsessions – Week of December 31, 2018
