With the sad news that R.E.M. officially broke up this week, I thought that I would pick out a few of my favorites as a thank you for 31 years (my lifetime so far) of completely awesome music. Picking favorites is a difficult task because there is such an amazing list of tracks to pick from. This list is a random picking of what has resonated with me a lot today, but tomorrow’s list could be dramatically different.
Oh My Heart
I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I’m always so emotional after hearing this song. It strikes me with a kind of beauty that makes me want to put it on repeat and listen for hours. This is a pretty cool video with the lyrics too.
Leave
This is one of those songs where I can turn up the volume and just get loud and mad to let all of my aggression out. New Adventures in Hi-Fi is one of my favorite R.E.M. albums. The album art alone kills me.
Strange Currencies
I was never a huge fan of Monster (there are some great songs), but this track in particular has always been special to me. It is fun.
Pale Blue Eyes
I have always loved this song. R.E.M. introduced me to the wonderfulness of The Velvet Underground through it. Peter Buck’s liner notes claim they butchered it, but it always sounds just right to me.
A few weeks ago (the day the car frenzy began), I went to a small, local record shop. When I was in high school, I lived for digging through crates of vinyl and had a pretty interesting collection. Somewhere around college, I gave most of it away. I didn’t think that I wouldn’t ever be interested in it again. Grrrr, me. Seeing the price of some of those albums now about kills me.
My trip has completely rekindled my passion. It has quickly turned into a feverish crazy, which has also caused me to become obsessed with eBay. I am particularly obsessed with finding Smiths albums, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll have better luck convincing Marr and Moz to get back together and record some new songs.
The Smiths – A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours
My first Smiths album was Strangeaways, Here We Come. I bought a cassette copy of it from the previously mentioned record store. It was only fitting that my first Smiths vinyl would be the same. I could come up with some pretentious, long-winded reason why I love this song so much, but really it’s all about the growl. My love is simple like that.
On my first website, I wrote an ode to Morrissey and The Smiths with particular emphasis on this song. It actually got me my first weirdo, internet stalker email proposal.
The Cure – Let’s Go To Bed
It would be redundant to express my emotions for The Cure again. This song has some significantly bad memories attached to it (think 14, Freshman year of high school, an immature boy, and a super emotional girl that worships The Cure), but I still think it’s completely hardcore awesome. Robert Smith… also still completely swoon worthy.
The Vapors – Spring Collection
So, we all have things in our life, small indiscretions that we’re not so proud of… mine was, *ahem* borrowing a few records from my brother’s DJ collection. We have polar opposite music tastes, so I’m not sure how he ended up with The Vapors ( a great, underappreciated new Wave band), but I’m glad that it ended up with me.
I would play this album constantly. I was obsessed with their accents and the idea of that cool British world where they lived. I particularly loved this song because he talks about blue hair and in my pinnacle of coolness, I had just dyed my hair blue. Probably not the most positive song to associate with myself, but whatever.
The last few weeks have been a little insane with the holidays, a miserable stomach bug, and some car trouble. After the car issues, I decided to buy a new car (an earth friendly Prius to fill out my hippie persona) and I ended up with a free trial of Sirius satellite radio. I never thought that I would want to pay for radio, but the 90-day free trial has definitely woo’d me harder that I would like to admit. My favorite channels are Lithium and 1st Wave. I’m not sure that I could make better playlists. Today’s selections are based on the time spent listening to 1st Wave.
Violent Femmes – Kiss Off
It is impossible for me to listen to this song and not dance and sing to all of the awesome parts, which basically constitute the entire song. I don’t know if it’s because it’s something that I grew up loving or if it’s just really that awesome of a song, but I love the humor and drama. Good times, good times.
The Smiths – Panic
Speaking of drama, Panic makes me want to dance and sing with complete conviction about the demise of radio today. I realize that the song was written more than 20 years ago, but in general, the quality of popular music has continued to decline. There are certain little pockets of alternative awesomeness, but mostly it is dismal. Mozzer falls in the category of awesomeness.
R.E.M. – Driver 8
Early R.E.M. (especially the Velvet Underground covers) blows my mind. I love all R.E.M., but the early stuff is especially gritty and fun to rock out to. It feels young and experimental. No one else sounds like R.E.M. They are so distinct and interesting.
I’ve been reading the most depressing books lately. If you’re planning on reading If I Stay and don’t want a spoiler, stop reading now. If I Stay is the story of Mia Hall, a young cellist that ends up the only survivor of a car accident that killed her entire family. From her coma, she narrates while trying to decide if she really wants to live. Here’s the spoiler – she lives, but ends up leaving her boyfriend Adam. Where She Went is from his perspective. It describes when fate forces them to meet up again. I enjoyed reading both of these, but multiple times while reading the book, I did get the wiggins thinking about being trapped near my own comatose body. I found Mia a little annoying, but I still liked the story. I preferred the second book because I liked Adam better as a narrator, but the end of their story got a little too saccharine for my tastes.
I absolutely adored this collection of letters that various celebrities (mostly British people that I needed to look up) wrote to their 16 year old selves. The letters range from hysterical to heart breaking and were a great collection of advice and thoughtfulness. It made me think a lot about what I might write to 16yo Annie. I also wondered what I would have wanted to write to a 31yo version of me back then. Maybe I’ll get around to writing that letter one of these days. (I did finally write this letter. See: Dear Me (#tweetyour16yearoldself))
Teenage vampire novels are definitely one of my guilypleasures. Both of these are from the Vampire Academy series. Neither of them were particularly awesome, but I still tore through them. I’m sure that I will also attack the final four books at some point. I’m not sure which one of these was written first, but this series reminds me a lot of the House of Night series.
This wasn’t exactly reading, but I kind of worship this book. Annie Leibovitz inspires me and has since I was a budding photographer back in high school. I’m not much into photography anymore, but I love the way that she uses her art to capture the essence of a person. She has a knack for capturing beautiful, truthful moments. I can’t help but look at the pages and feel inspired to do the same thing.
This is one of those dangerous songs that gets me all amped up. I can’t listen to it anymore when I’m driving. It has a revved up sound, and I love to scream out the lyrics. This is especially true on Monday mornings. Judging by the number of times I have been caught car dancing and working those magical lyrics with Jarvis, I guess I feel this way about most Pulp songs.
Belle & Sebastian – Expectations
Sometimes I wish that I didn’t enjoy Belle & Sebastian quite so much. There are far too many annoyingly pretentious snobs that like to quote and talk about them like a secret society. The truth is that they are pretty awesome, and I do love this song.
Lately, I have been into music that sounds and feels beautiful. It is amazing how a piece of music can communicate something between people that can’t be communicated with words. There is feeling and a life to music that is near impossible to describe. Maybe it’s our miracle. It is a secret way to communicate our feelings to each other.
Remy Zero – Fair
When this song came on in the car on the way to work, I was struck by how beautiful and disarming it is. I’ve listened to it plenty of times during my obsession with the Garden State soundtrack, but now I’ve really heard it and feel how special it is.
The Cure – Treasure
There is something magically awesome about The Cure. They are known as being dark and gothic, but I hear beautiful, emotional odes to love and feelings. Sometimes they are sad, like this song, but they are always filled with such lyrical imagery and interesting music that it feels like getting lost in a land of make believe. In my world, The Cure writes my bedtime stories.
Mr Mister – Broken Wings
I like to think of this as my first favorite song. It wasn’t. The Annie soundtrack, Michael Jackson, and the Violent Femmes all predated this musical obsession.
This song is cheesy and time stamped, yet it is still kind of awesome. It holds a special memory for me. I’d wait for it to air on MTV. These days, everything we want to see or hear is a few clicks away on our computers. I like to remember a time when my patience was rewarded with getting to hear my favorite song.
I’ve been a bit musically selfish since starting my music lessons. Music usually just invites more music to me, but lately, I’ve needed to concentrate on playing. Sometimes, I turn off my iPod and just try to hear the music in my head. I’m moving past that, and I’ve been listening to a lot more music again.
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
This song will always be special to me for so many reasons. It has connections to people I love and it’s the first song that I’ve learned to play on guitar that I really connect with. It’s a beautiful song and the lyric (We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year...) is probably one of my favorite of all time. I learned this song on the day that I bought my first electric guitar. Something clicked for me playing that day and I guess that I’ll always attribute it to this song.
Langhorne Slim – Blown Your Mind
Driving into work this morning, this song sounded so perfect for how I was feeling. It’s been a pretty odd, thinking sort of day. It’s a day for feeling introverted and reflective. Plus, it’s one of those songs that is super cathartic when you sing along with it.
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
I was watching some random video on YouTube the other day, and this video displayed down the side. I can’t remember the last time I watched the video, but it’s funny how when I watch it, I remember exactly what it was like to be a 14 year old. It reminds me of the summer that I refused to wear anything but cut off jean shorts, flannel, and combat boots. It makes me feel young, cool, and so very full of life. I love how a song has that much power.
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