Can you tell I've had exams?

My lack of posts recently will tell you I've had exams. My impeccable punctution and use of capital letters will tell you I'm blogging on my iPhone. During said exams, I've had Justin Vernon's cover of Peter Gabriel's Come Talk To Me on repeat. The song is a lovely reach-out to a distant loved-one and Bon Iver is up there in my top 5 favourite artists, best debut albums, best side projects (perhaps more on that another day...) and best gigs. Also, no offence to Gabriel's Scratch My Back album, but this song also marks the beginning of the (more exciting, imho) follow-up, I'll Scratch Yours. The songs are being released full-moon by full-moon, and what better way to start than with this beautiful track and an extensive quote from it:

'In the swirling curling storm of desire
Unuttered words hold fast
With reptile tongue the lightning lashes
Towers built to last
Darkness creeps in like a thief
And offers no relief
Why are you shaking like a leaf?
Come on, come talk to me
...
I did not come to steal
This all is so unreal
Can't you show me how you feel
Come on, come talk to me
...
You lie there with your eyes half closed,
Like there's noone there at all
There's a tension pulling on your face
Come on, come talk to me
...
Don't you ever change your mind
...
I can imagine the moment
Breaking out through the silence
All the things that we both might say
And the heart it will not be denied
'Til we're both on the same damn side
All the barriers blown away'

[Come Talk To Me; Peter Gabriel]

Musicovered

Since the brilliant Musicovered (check out http://musicovered.wordpress.com/) took my suggestion to have Live With Me as their track of the day, I just had to write about it here. Musicovered called the track 'blinding' and 'perfect for Sunday morning', I said that it is a brilliant mix of Massive Attack's traditionally experimental style with Terry Callier’s bluesy, soulful voice.

'Either way, win or lose,
When you're born into trouble,
You live the blues.
I've been thinking about you, baby,
See it almost makes me crazy'

[Live With Me; Massive Attack]

Flowing Through My Fingers

Buck 65's remix of Sufjan Steven's cover of the Castanet's "You Are The Blood"? Works.

'And lemonade and sweaty sex
Hug me like I gave you cheques
...
Tell me things to make me blush
...
A melody to make me smile
Not that you've been gone a while
...
You kiss me like potted plants
Bite me like fire ants
Touch me like an old stamp
...
Not stolen cash, I'll pay you back
...
You are the blood
Flowing through my fingers
[That's what I meant to say
Blood in my fingertips
I couldn't tell you that it's the other way]
All through the soil and up in those trees
...
A mild snack, late evening hunger
DVDs and VCRs
...
Grass stains and flushed face
Refreshing like a glass of milk
Your shaven legs were like silk
You kiss me like a bon voyage
...
A lovely Saturday night alone'

[Blood pt.2; Buck 65]

Lyricists

NME's 17th April edition celebrated the "Greatest Lyricists in the World Today". And the most heartbreakingly true-to-life lyric?

'I won't kill myself trying to stay in your life'

[No Distance Left To Run; Blur]

Highs & Lows

Going back to the last post, like i said i would, about the relative lows and highs in life & love, this is what i made myself think of; a pop/rock/folk/glam/dance musing on a boxing match. Honestly:

"Now the world can be an unfair place at times
But your lows will have their compliment of highs"

[Ambling Alp, Yeasayer]

Mornings

Local Natives were a chance find - someone recommended them to me, i think, and after only a couple of listens, i took the risk of buying two tickets to see them at the Arts Centre near my Uni. I'm so glad i did since they were amazing live - considering i'd only bought their album two days before, i found myself bouncing along to all their catchy tracks.
And not catchy in the formulaic pop kind of way, but in the these-people-really-know-how-to-work-their-instruments-and-have-fun kind of way.
Clever lyrics too, if you needed any more convincing that they aren't standard pop (i've worried myself by calling them catchy and fun...). Subtly hidden - it's worth a peruse on lyrics websites to see what theyre saying.
To continue with this blog format of what lyrics mean to me, rather than band reviews, i'd say that this is just about how there are always massive highs to compliment any lows (a theme i might come back to, because i already have another couplet in mind!).

"I'll endure the night
for the promise of light"

[Sun Hands; Local Natives]

Smug

This blog entry is me being proud of myself for putting in the effort to ask around, see if anywhere would offer me some work experience, and lo and behold, two places have already said that yes, they will.
Just shows that if you work hard enough, you can achieve your goals.
Also, i'm allowed to be proud now, because usually i am self-deprecating and shy.

'But then I go again, wishing never solved the problem
If you wanna get it big time, go ahead and get it get it big time'

[Tightrope; Yeasayer]

Taking a break from the essay...

I'm returning to the Civil Wars again because they have a lot of good lyrics and I feel that quite a lot are very relevant to me. Or at least how i interpret them is, and i guess that's what this blog is all about. A way for me to vent my feelings through the words of people who are able to express themselves better than me.
These here lyrics show how sometimes the people you end up closest to, end up loving the most, end up having the most fun with, can really come out of nowhere. People always go off searching for someone who will matter to them, but for the most part, (not to get all fake about destiny and crap like that) you'll just run into them by some twist of fate and that chance encounter/series of meetings will turn out to be A Very Important Thing.

'Oh dear, I never saw you coming.
Oh my, look what you have done.
You're my favorite song
Always on the tip of my tongue'

[Tip Of My Tongue; The Civil Wars]

I couldn't pronounce July earlier...

To claim.

'High up in the branch
Just out of my reach

Can I call you mine?
Can I call you mine?
Can I call you mine?
Can I call you mine?

July Flame
I'm seeing fireworks
They're so beautiful
Tell me why it hurts'

[July Flame; Laura Veirs]

Birds

Since i'm now home from Uni for nearly a month, i thought i'd take this opportunity to post a photo taken from my uni bedroom window, and then i can do the same once i get a nice one here.
These lyrics are from My Brightest Diamond's version of the song, as it's the version i own.
It's a non-depressing post for once, cos i'm, as the song says, just feeling really good at the moment, really happy.

'Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
...
Yeah it's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life for me
And I'm feeling good'

[Feeling Good; My Brightest Diamond]

Getting my melancholy on

Having discovered The Civil Wars via the getyourmelancholyon.com blog, I fell in love with the lyrics of Poison & Wine.
Joy Williams and John Paul White sing 'i don't love you but i always will' again and again, and i'm glad of the repetition - i just can't quite put my finger on why it makes me feel the way it does.. It's all happy-sad, and i really like it.

'I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back
The less I give the more I get back
Oh your hands can heal, your hands can bruise
I don't have a choice but I'd still choose you'

[Posion & Wine; The Civil Wars]

Excitement

I cannot wait to go and see Mumford and Sons on Saturday. It is bound to be amazing as they are some of the best musicians i've heard in a long long time.
As part of this excitement, this post therefore concerns an example of the genius that is them and their lyrics. It's relatively long, but more than worth it.
Everything Marcus M sings, i feel resonates deeply with me.

'Corrupted by the simple sniff of riches blown
I know you have felt much more love than you've shown
And I'm on my knees and the water creeps to my chest
...
The sky above us shoots to kill
Rain down, rain down on me

But I will hold on
I will hold on hope

I begged you to hear me, there's more than flesh and bones
Let the dead bury the dead, they will come out in droves
But take the spade from my hands and fill in the holes you've made'

[Thistle & Weeds; Mumford & Sons]

For future reference

I realised today that when i look back on all my past blog entries, it is so intrinsically linked to the way i feel on the day. As much as i've tried not to let my feelings cloud my choice of lyrics to the extent where it resembles a kind of therapy, i think it's almost impossible not to gravitate towards the songs that echo how you feel at one particular point in time, even if you know you're going to feel differently in a few days or even hours.
So the thought for today:

"Lesson learned and the wheels keep turning

This is the world that we live in
I can't take blame for two
This is the world that we live in
And maybe we'll make it through"


[The World We Live In; The Killers]

Moviefilm

This time a quote from a film.
Sometimes i think wishing the present was the same as how 'it used to be' is a mistake, because every present (and i mean current time, here, not gift..) has its issues and there are always fights and upsets; these are just forgotten about when looking back with those reliable old rose-tinted-retrospecs.
Sometimes this jeopardises the future. Saying 'it should be like it was' leaves no room for either 'it could be better than it was' or even 'evolution is natural'.
It runs the risk of saying 'if i can't have the past, then i don't care about the future'.
Don't throw anything away, preempting that it might break, cos throwing it only breaks it more.

'all the time ya spend trying to get back what's been took from ya, more is going out'
[Ellis; No Country For Old Men (2007)]

Back from a break

To avoid too much blogging and/or over-emotional and rash blogging, i took a little bit of a break there.

Related to that - my knee-jerk (though, thankfully, ignored) reaction to write/say/do over-emotional things when i got (/get) hurt - i was considering how i swing from two extremes. In the course of about twenty minutes, one person said i was emotionless, and another that i was too emotional. I decided that this comes from countless occasions of having to put on a strong front in "public" and being crushed/devastated/jealous/angry in private. Months of feeling more about someone than they do about you teaches you not to broadcast your feelings for fear of rejection. Years of trying to keep your temper under control ends up tethering all your emotions. A decade of not allowing bereavement to shadow everything you do gives you an edge on not letting hurt play across your face.
But to think, even for one second, that it isn't there..

"There is love in our bodies and it holds us together
But pulls us apart when we're holding each other
We all want something to hold in the night
We don't care if it hurts or we're holding too tight

There is love in your body but you can't get it out
It gets stuck in your head, won't come out of your mouth"

[Florence + The Machine; Hardest of Hearts]

Photo blogging

Sometimes it's worth being up at half 7 in the morning, if only to look out over the lake and see a low, morning sun rising; golden behind the trees.


"And there's gold falling from the ceiling of this world"

[Angus and Julia Stone; And The Boys]

An almost instantaneous deviation from the format!

Though not strictly song lyrics, i had to include these quotes which i found in the Feb edition of (American) Elle.
They just hit me with such an emotional weight. It really resonated with me with its sense of trauma becoming embedded in you, something you can never truly dismiss. Sometimes i feel that i have buried mine somewhat under the surface, but then there are the days when i gaze into it, 'clinging' to my trauma, as Flynn would say, and i fall apart. But then other days i can be composed. This all sounds too depressing. Just read it!

"...it does seem that some of us, men and women alike, use our past turmoil, cling to it
...
This reenactment of trauma is perhaps the opposite of finding a way to embody the trauma, which might be another way of saying to integrate the experience into your everyday life, so that it no longer pulls your strings, makes you dance
...
Come spring, everyone is damaged again, whether they talk about it or not. It's just the world waking up. It's the sap running through the trees, it's the ice starting to thaw
...
True damage is not merely a reenactment of past turmoil, but part of our nature, part of our cellular structure. That's why it's not a good idea to imagine you can contain it in one place and neatly chop it out"

[Nick Flynn; Damage Done]

And so to begin...

Seems fitting, given the last/first post, to start with the xx.
For me, this epitomises the occasional tensions between me and one of the people i've kept closest to. My own personal brand of curling up inside myself and lashing out, which manifests itself whenever i'm worried about getting hurt, isn't meant to upset anyone, and it kills me when it does.
Those lyrics are what i wish i could say - i still want you, i just react against my fears about the potential to lose something brilliant..

"So don't think that I'm pushing you away
When you're the one that I've kept closest"

[The xx; Crystalised]

Another 'first blog'

The idea for this blog sprang from a quote in NME from 30th Jan 2010. Oliver from the (amazing) 'xx' said..:

"I'm reluctant to go into detail about my lyrics. Just thinking about my favourite songs and how i fit them to my own personal experiences, if the person that wrote it explained exactly what they meant word for word and it didn't fit my own personal interpretation, i could imagine it being heartbreaking. So i wouldn't want to destroy anybody's interpretation of what they think we're trying to say"

Simples - i'll rabbit on about my interpretation of the songs that mean the most to me.