Music Time Machine: Night Music

I have a journal dedicated to mixes I make...it gets misplaced periodically then pops up again somewhere like a lost sock. I am rededicating myself to efforts to keep its location consistent by posting a mix from 3/21/02 entitled "Night Music"

While I fail miserably at keeping a journal with any regularity, I have done a good job of keeping my mixes. Music lovers know what this means; hit the play button on a mix and emotions, places, people, and events come rushing.


I'm gonna try something new (for me) and embed a playlist of these songs below. You can play it in the background of your activities if you feel so inclined. Brief descriptions/song details included further down the page. Some of these songs are ubiquitous to the music community, but some deserve special attention.





1. "Mojo Pin" from Grace, by Jeff Buckley. This is one of my "big four" albums. I wrote about it here.


2. "Time After Time (Annelise)" from Reckoning, by R.E.M.
     This jangly number reminds me of songs from the 60s...maybe it's the bongos.


3. "Damage" from I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, by Yo La Tengo.
     As simple bass lines go, there are not many as bewitching as this one. 


4. "30" from the single Good Fortune, by PJ Harvey.
     PJ has some of the best b-sides ever...a mysterious song full of hazard. Her guitar playing bespeaks her blues background.


5. "Blue Dress" from Violator, by Depeche Mode.
     I think DM is probably one of the few testosterone-filled, male-gaze oriented bands I passionately love. Nice Martin Gore vocal. Sense of ownership over woman...weird.


6. "Ava Adore" from Adore, by The Smashing Pumpkins.
     Me encanta la canción y es un video fabuloso.


7. "Sometimes" from Loveless, by My Bloody Valentine.
     This is the album I listened to after my childhood dog passed away, and I found it very comforting. I'm a lyric fan from the word go, but I almost don't care what the lyrics are to MBV songs because the music is SO GREAT! Cool line from "Sometimes" that sort of sums up this album for me:

Turn my head
Into sound

Thanks, Kevin and MBV. It totally worked.


8. "Exit Music" from OK Computer, by Radiohead.
     Another well known gem...I remember seeing grinning-Radiohead-bear patches on people's backpacks in high school and wondering who they were. Is it good or bad that I found out about them during Kid A? I think loving Kid A has prepared me well for King of Limbs. More about that later?
    PS Enjoy the crescendo...I know I do.


9. "Mysterons" from Dummy, by Portishead.
     I am shocked to realize that this album came out in 1994...


10. "It's Not Up to You" from Vespertine, by Bjork.
     A song about being in love...a song about living in the present moment with joy:

I can decide
What I give
But it's not up to me
What I get given
Unthinkable surprises
About to happen
But what they are

It's not up to you

Well it never really was

11. "Bethlehem Steel" from Copperopolis, by Grant Lee Buffalo.
    Imagine the drum/bass of this song as the rhythm of a steel factory. This is American history mingled with the religion of industrial revolution...the lyrics are heady stuff. LYRICS


12. "Grateful" from Gung Ho, by Patti Smith.
     A gentle song about death from a wise woman who's experienced the deaths of many loved ones. This is a song that cuts through pretense and straight to the heart; a close listening often results in heartache, tears, and joy: 

Die little sparrow
And awake 

Singing

13. "Beside You" from Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison
     Enthralling.


14. "We Never Change" from Parachutes, by Coldplay
     One of the sweetest albums around. Gimme heart over facade-of-cool any day.

I wanna live life and never be cruel.
I wanna live life and be good to you.

15. "Keep Your Dreams" from XTRMNTR, by Primal Scream
     This song helped me move past some bad relationships:

I believe in forgiveness
Hate will eat you whole
Bad blood, a lifelong curse,
You've got to let it go

It kept me going towards the end of college...and helped me develop some soul-attitude.

Keep your dreams, don't sell your soul
Be careful 

And still, nothing is gonna stop me from having heart, cause

I'm going down to the underground
As deep as I can go

16. "Here Comes a Regular" from Tim, by The Replacments
      Oh man, that piano...this song's a killer from the start to finish...a classic.The vocal is an everyman's, raw, on the verge.

These lines are a bumper sticker I'd like to own (they might be two different stickers):

All I know is I'm sick of everything that my money can buy
The fool who wastes his life, God rest his guts