Today’s Top 5 Music Obsessions are almost all from this week’s Discovery Playlist from Spotify. So far, the playlist has been stellar. All of these songs (the 4 from the Discovery Playlist and 1 that I woke with, playing in my head) feel curated for the rain, or at least that’s how it seemed while they played in my car in the downpour, my windshield wipers keeping time as they kept my view clear.
Listening to these five tracks now, warm in my office with reports running, they remind me that today is pretty good, even if it started out challenging. I’m feeling very lucky right now. Lucky to be living, to be listening to great music, to have a family who I love (and who love me right back), and to have a wonderful love in my life. One I waited all my life to find. It’s good to be me, even with my anxieties, money worries, stresses, flat tires in the rain, and all my failures. Despite all that, I feel really damn lucky.
Top 5 Music Obsessions – Monday, January 14, 2019
Lyriquediscorde
1. “A Certain Kind of Memory” by Kacy and Clayton
from the album, The Siren’s Song (2017)
“It’s a memory,
a certain kind of memory,
that you cling to ’til you’re dead and gone.
I try my best to forget,
but I just can’t shake it.
I didn’t give you my heart just to break it.”
A new discovery for me, both the song and the singers.
Kacy’s voice reminds me of the women in First Aid Kit and The Dove and the Wolf. Indie-Country-Alt-Country-Folk is a favorite genre/sub-genre of mine. Singer-songwriters get to me big time. I’m looking forward to digging into this album – The Siren’s Song – and find more tracks on it that I love as much as this one.
“A Certain Kind of Memory” (live) by Kacy and Clayton
2. “Save It For a Rainy Day” by The Jayhawks
from the album, Rainy Day Music (2003)
“Waiting for a breakthrough.
What will you set your mind to?
We stood outside the Chinese restaurant in the rain.”
I woke up with “Save It For a Rainy Day” in my head, while the rainy day outside made its presence known with the drip-drip greetings of drops on the window glass.
Ever since my boyfriend and I went to San Francisco together, and picked up a Jayhawks CD, The Jayhawks remind me of the city by the bay, and the love of my life right there with me. It seems fitting to be playing an album called Rainy Day Music while outside it is so rainy and cold.
I love the Summer-warmth in this rainy day song. The juxtaposition works perfectly and has me embracing hope, and a positive mood, even amidst this “the universe wants to make it all so hard on me”.
“Save It For a Rainy Day” (live) by The Jayhawks
3. “There Must Be a Place” (Naive Melody version) by Shawn Colvin
from the album, Cover Girl (1994)
“Home,
is where I want to be.
Pick me up and turn me ’round.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard this track until today (thank you, Spotify Discover Weekly).
It’s really resonating with me right now, especially in regards to “home”. One of my goals for the month is to put some work into our home to make it feel more like “home”. We’ve been there since late July, but it still feels temporary to me, a limbo-house, and it’s hard for me to live like that. I want and need it to feel more like our home, even if we don’t stay forever. Even if we don’t stay past this year.
This past weekend I hung up twinkle lights in the kitchen. They make me happy every time I see them. My boyfriend helped me hang a picture, and some antique plates from Belgium that once belonged to my Grandparents (unfortunately a lot of their china I inherited got shattered in the move – boxes must’ve been dropped). I also cleaned our room and organized my spaces in the room.
I’ve rarely felt “home” anywhere. Well, I’ve always felt it with my kids, but not in a certain place. My kids still feel like home (they always will), and my love feels like home, too (especially when I’m laying with my head on his chest). But, I’d like our space to feel like it, too. I’ll keep trying to make it feel that way. Hopefully, everyone else will try to, as well – it would mean a lot to me if they did.
“This Must Be the Place” (live) by Shawn Colvin
4. “Wild Imagination” by Kurt Vile
from the album, b’lieve i’m goin down… (2015)
“I’m laughing out loud,
so much it appears that I’m crying babe, yes.
Come out on the porch, mama.
I’ll tell you about my past.
There’s believers and lovers,
and druggers and dreamers
And drunkards and schemers,
And I’m afraid that I am feeling much too many feelings,
Simultaneously,
at such a rapid clip.
Give it some time.”
“Wild Imagination” is the last track off of Kurt Vile’s 2015 album, b’lieve i’m goin down…
It is my favorite track from the album, an album I obsessed over back in 2015, the year of its release. The song and the album are both stellar. I’m always looking forward to
what Vile releases next.
What do you think of the song? The album?
“Wild Imagination (live) by Kurt Vile
5. “Hello In There” by John Prine
from the album, self-titled (1971)
“Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger,
and old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day,
old people just grow lonesome,
waiting for someone to say,
‘Hello in there, hello'”
My favorite John Prine song.
It was a nice musical reminder to hear this track in this week’s Spotify Discovery Playlist. It had been years since I heard it. I love the story in this, the songwriting, the emotional weight, and the chorus – about trees and rivers and people, and how we can sometimes forget the people around us, especially with time and age.
Another song that sounds perfect on a rainy day like this one.
“Hello In There” (live) by John Prine
Top 5 Music Obsessions – Week of January 14, 2019
