Random Music Talk CXXX: The AFL Finally Gets Revenge on Meat Loaf

[iron yuppie]

Originally Posted by gump

- Alabaster dePlume's Gold is one of the most unique things I've heard in quite some time. I'm not quite sure if it's jazz, ambient, classical or art pop. It's super long and overwrought, but a touching spiritual and meditative album that I think may appeal to a lot of people here. Thinking of iron yuppie in particular.

Thanks, I'll give it a spin.

Also, new Jessie Ware: https://pitchfork.com/news/listen-to...free-yourself/

[LemonMelon]

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Tim Bernardes album Gump was talking about is in my top 10 for the year. Incredible record, extremely warm, lovely and subtly ambitious.

[cobl04]

This gave me chills. Kate Bush reached out to them, she loved it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxWKjv_mc2Q

[gump]

Joni! This was so moving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlB2V2X-Z8g&t=75s

And she played lead guitar too. Queen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7wOdpxGctc

[lazarus]

It’s the latter clip that really wowed me. Such a unique sound and playing style, and that she can still do it after her medical issues is life-affirming.

[cobl04]

Super cool, and what a place to do it.

[cobl04]

Wow. I was just brought to tears by this clip! And I'm not even a fan, really.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiluPSmAF8

[cobl04]

I know there's not many of us here anymore, but for those who see this, what's a song that's resonating for you emotionally right now?

I've had a really fucking hard year. It's the first time ever that I've not listened to music. I've been playing footy/comedy podcasts because I'm better able to distract myself with talking rather than music.

Things aren't great between me and my partner. We're having some pretty tough conversations and exploring some super confronting things in our relationship at the moment. I don't know what the future holds. If anyone has experience of challenging times in their relationships that they've worked through, and you feel comfortable sharing, I'd love to hear. It's really scary.

Yesterday we got everything out in the open and it was the first time all year that I felt safe enough within myself to listen to music. I listened to Both Sides Now - thanks for kicking off the Joni discussion, Gump, I think it helped, watching those clips made me emotional - and Radiohead for the first time in forever, specifically three tracks from the Com Lag EP: I Am Citizen Insane, Fog (Again) and in particular Gagging Order, which is just one of my favourite songs ever, and really met how I was feeling.

But the song that's been coming to me a lot this year, despite the fact I haven't been listening to music much this year, is this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v-wPOk82to

The light
From the TV
Runnin' parallel to you
...
I am so
Outta tune
With you

[iron yuppie]

Originally Posted by cobl04

I know there's not many of us here anymore, but for those who see this, what's a song that's resonating for you emotionally right now?

I won't go into detail, but I've had a prolonged, stressful family situation. It kicked into high gear right around the time Beach House's latest album came out, so that one has been a real source of comfort for me. Especially the song Over & Over: it's nothing about the lyrics, which are typically oblique, but the mood of the song, particularly when it locks into the groove for the second half. There's no end in sight, but you can find beauty in it. The band really has a distinct talent for creating little moments of wonder and bringing them to the fore in inventive ways. When I saw them a few weeks ago, they closed the show with it, which I was not expecting at all. One of the highlights of my year so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOLicFUmza0

[mikal]

Originally Posted by cobl04

This gave me chills. Kate Bush reached out to them, she loved it.

I prefer this version for obvious reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GdcPmGukyk

[lazarus]

Originally Posted by cobl04

I know there's not many of us here anymore, but for those who see this, what's a song that's resonating for you emotionally right now?

I've had a really fucking hard year. It's the first time ever that I've not listened to music. I've been playing footy/comedy podcasts because I'm better able to distract myself with talking rather than music.

Things aren't great between me and my partner. We're having some pretty tough conversations and exploring some super confronting things in our relationship at the moment. I don't know what the future holds. If anyone has experience of challenging times in their relationships that they've worked through, and you feel comfortable sharing, I'd love to hear. It's really scary.

Yesterday we got everything out in the open and it was the first time all year that I felt safe enough within myself to listen to music. I listened to Both Sides Now - thanks for kicking off the Joni discussion, Gump, I think it helped, watching those clips made me emotional - and Radiohead for the first time in forever, specifically three tracks from the Com Lag EP: I Am Citizen Insane, Fog (Again) and in particular Gagging Order, which is just one of my favourite songs ever, and really met how I was feeling.

But the song that's been coming to me a lot this year, despite the fact I haven't been listening to music much this year, is this one.

The light
From the TV
Runnin' parallel to you
...
I am so
Outta tune
With you

Sorry to hear about the recent troubles, Cobbler. Hope you’re able to work things out.

For the record, Sunken Treasure has always been my favorite VWilcock song, very moving stuff. And hard agree on Gagging Order as well.

[GirlsAloudFan]

That Biffy Clyro version of Running Up That Hill sucks ass.

[mikal]

Originally Posted by cobl04

I know there's not many of us here anymore, but for those who see this, what's a song that's resonating for you emotionally right now?

I've had a really fucking hard year. It's the first time ever that I've not listened to music. I've been playing footy/comedy podcasts because I'm better able to distract myself with talking rather than music.

Things aren't great between me and my partner. We're having some pretty tough conversations and exploring some super confronting things in our relationship at the moment. I don't know what the future holds. If anyone has experience of challenging times in their relationships that they've worked through, and you feel comfortable sharing, I'd love to hear. It's really scary.

Yesterday we got everything out in the open and it was the first time all year that I felt safe enough within myself to listen to music. I listened to Both Sides Now - thanks for kicking off the Joni discussion, Gump, I think it helped, watching those clips made me emotional - and Radiohead for the first time in forever, specifically three tracks from the Com Lag EP: I Am Citizen Insane, Fog (Again) and in particular Gagging Order, which is just one of my favourite songs ever, and really met how I was feeling.

But the song that's been coming to me a lot this year, despite the fact I haven't been listening to music much this year, is this one.

The light
From the TV
Runnin' parallel to you
...
I am so
Outta tune
With you

Probably not the best person because I've failed in relationships more than succeeding, but the best thing I learned is complete vulnerability. And when things aren't in good shape, it's not all about "going back to the beginning when things were better" and to look at your current situation as a new beginning and working through it will make you stronger. So focusing on that portion instead of "remember when" will be more beneficial.

[LemonMelon]

To say I have had a difficult year would be a gross understatement as well as an unrealistic perspective on what's actually been happening in my life.

 

I don't really want to go into detail, but basically I turned 30 in early 2021, decided I wasn't happy with the direction I was going and voluntarily blew up my life, made new relationships and recast myself as a new person. Now, having discovered some of these people were very broken and destructive, not unlike myself, I'm paying for it and suffering a great deal emotionally. I've been on the verge of a breakdown for months. Of course it's been hard, but that's really besides the point. I'm grateful that I still have the same core support system in my life that I've had for years despite pushing so many people away and I've learned a lot about myself, how strong I can be and how selfish and stubborn I can be as well. I've learned to love myself, but I'm less sure if I like myself. Sometimes I feel terrible for my loved ones, even when they say it's all good. Something to talk to my therapist about, I guess.

True to form, I have also leaned heavily on music during this time. There are a few songs that stand out as being especially important to me right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uaN60k0-zY

Not a new song by any means, but I rediscovered it over the past two months having really paid attention to the lyrics. It's one of the greatest breakup songs ever written, not because it's triumphant or inspiring, but because it paints such a complex picture of what it's like to go through that experience.

To forget you is to hide
There  is still so much left to recover
If  only we could start again
Pretending we don't know each other
I could not come back the same
This  city's changed, it's not what it was
Back  when you loved me
Walking down that path we made
When  we thought what we had was such a good thing

Hiding out inside my head
It's me again, it's no surprise
I'm on my own now
Every  time I turn to you
I see the past, it's all that lasts
And all I know how
Learn to look me in the eyes
Yet I still don't feel it's me you're facing
Say your heart is always mine
What about old times? You can't erase them

There's regret, anger, sadness, disappointment and longing in every word and it's all blown up to a cinematic scale with that explosive arrangement. The drama in this song is overwhelming, which is appropriate, because losing a person isn't something you feel quietly. There have been hours I've spent just listening to this song.

The next one is from this year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ed_WWmFy9I

Ethel Cain's album is an expansive work of gothic brilliance, but American Teenager is a fantastic fake out. There's some U2 in there, some Taylor Swift, and a very direct homage to Don't Stop Believin' to bring it all together. It's a massive track but it's built on a number of very specific details - the line about a neighbor dying in the military tragically bringing it on themselves because their love of country made them want to go is one of the heaviest I've heard in a minute - in the way a great coming of age film would be. It touches on all the concerns of small town American adolescence in a little over 4 minutes without feeling rushed or underwritten.

Sunday morning
Hands over my knees in a room full of faces
I'm sorry if I sound off, but I was probably wasted
And didn't feel so good
Head full of whiskey but I always deliver
Jesus, if you're listening let me handle my liquor
And Jesus, if you're there, why do I feel alone in this room with you?

And I feel it there
In the middle of the night
When the lights go out
But I'm still standing here

Say what you want, but say it like you mean it
With your fists for once, a long cold war
With your kids at the front
Just give it one more day, then you're done
I do what I want, crying in the bleachers
And I said it was fun
I don't need anything from anyone
It's just not my year
But I'm all good out here

It's such a cathartic song. Not happy or satisfied, certainly, but epic and fearless and confident in a way that inspires me.

The last song that's meant a lot to me is a track I guess I don't really need to say much about but I will anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftjEcrrf7r0

I think we all go through phases with this song where we're completely numb to it but I've been back to loving One, or at least the studio version of One, for a couple of years now.

At some point during the pandemic, the concept of carrying others - through their fears, through their poverty, through their ignorance - really began to resonate with me in a profound way. I couldn't listen to One without crying. There is so much selfishness in the world that it becomes difficult to even conceptualize what it means to "get" to carry each other. Sacrifice is a gift, it's something we are able to do if we are fortunate. I am a high school English teacher who works with dropouts, students with a record, recovering drug addicts, etc. and One has gone from a series of platitudes that Bono preludes with a speech to a way of life for me.

Then 2021 came and went and One took on another meaning. Someone came into my life who I loved and still care about, a very flawed person wracked with trauma who ultimately fucked my life up and vice versa.

If you've ever been in a toxic, one-sided relationship where you feel obligated to stick around and carry someone through their problems even when it drains the life out of you, One describes your situation perfectly. One has to be among the most universal songs ever written, a musical Rorschach test that can reflect any situation, but I can't hear it any other way at this point.

They're so simple and direct that perhaps we take them for granted, but "You gave me nothing, now it's all I've got" and "I can't be holding on to what you've got when all you've got is hurt" are two of the most resonant lines I've ever heard. They really sum up the feeling of love and dedication to another person running you right into a brick wall. I'm sure that sometimes the people who care about me must feel the same way.

I could keep going. There are dozens of songs I've run into the ground over the past year as I've leaned more on playlists and less on albums, but three tracks is fine for now. I guess the theme across all of these songs is that I'm being drawn back to outsized emotions because that's what I feel so often.

[LemonMelon]

As far as albums though, I've played the new Big Thief and Kendrick albums to death. Dragon New Warm Mountain gives me such strong Tusk vibes, it's loose and untamed but also incredibly warm and comforting. It's what solace sounds like in 2022, or at least the closest approximation that we get. Somehow the best album of their career.

It's incredible to me that Mr. Morale even exists, let alone that it came out when it did, at this point in my life. It sounds like Kendrick has been grappling with a lot of those thirty-something-with-a-family anxieties that I've been having and he turned them into a great album, one I've listened to more than any other this year. Mirror and Rich Spirit have been in constant rotation.

[cobl04]

LM, will reply to your longer post later on!

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

I won't go into detail, but I've had a prolonged, stressful family situation. It kicked into high gear right around the time Beach House's latest album came out, so that one has been a real source of comfort for me. Especially the song Over & Over: it's nothing about the lyrics, which are typically oblique, but the mood of the song, particularly when it locks into the groove for the second half. There's no end in sight, but you can find beauty in it. The band really has a distinct talent for creating little moments of wonder and bringing them to the fore in inventive ways. When I saw them a few weeks ago, they closed the show with it, which I was not expecting at all. One of the highlights of my year so far.

This one is nice. I'm sorry to hear you've been having a tough time. My fav Beach House song does something similar, in terms of the vibe it creates, less the sound. It's the first half of this song. So fucking incredible. Unfortunately I really only love the first half - the piano, my favourite part, drops out at 3min and doesn't return.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUWVoxcK5Q4

Originally Posted by lazarus

Sorry to hear about the recent troubles, Cobbler. Hope you’re able to work things out.

For the record, Sunken Treasure has always been my favorite VWilcock song, very moving stuff. And hard agree on Gagging Order as well.

Thanks man and nice to know you love both those songs as much as me.

Originally Posted by mikal

Probably not the best person because I've failed in relationships more than succeeding, but the best thing I learned is complete vulnerability. And when things aren't in good shape, it's not all about "going back to the beginning when things were better" and to look at your current situation as a new beginning and working through it will make you stronger. So focusing on that portion instead of "remember when" will be more beneficial.

Many thanks, mikal. Vulnerability, for sure. It's still a hard thing to do, to be completely vulnerable, even for someone like me whose job is to encourage teenage boys to be vulnerable! And a good point about the past vs future as well, Em said the same thing.

[Hewson]

Originally Posted by cobl04

, even for someone like me whose job is to encourage teenage boys to be vulnerable!

(I know we're in a serious discussion, but this was just such a huge meatball left over the plate that I had to swing)

[cobl04]

I had a good laugh at it!

[lazarus]

[HeartlandGirl]

Just wanna offer you my support and positive vibes, Cobbz.

I've also been in that place lately where I don't have the emotional capacity to listen to...well, the same kind of music I always have. I've been sticking to a lot of downtempo electronic stuff that's melodic and calming. Not a lot of lyrics. Although I did listen to Zooropa in its entirety the other day, and it was just what I needed.

El Mel's writeup about One reminded me of how I feel about Love Is All We Have Left. That song, as well as Iris, have both made me tear up in the car. The world kinda feels like it's on fire. It's been tough to be a teacher in America and have all this vitriol directed toward the profession. Watching sweet baby angels get shot up in their classrooms has been too much. Just about anything on the news makes you feel like the earth is gonna tilt off its axis and slingshot into the void. Then on the personal level, both my siblings are getting divorced. Close family members are sick with covid as I type this. There's a potentially tough situation at work waiting for me next month. I think a lot of us are dancing around the breaking point.

Occasionally when I practice yoga, I'll go back and listen to old yoga mixes I put together for the classes I used to teach. This song starts one of the mixes, and it has become my go-to the past two years. It walks the line between monotonous and hypnotic, and it's got just the right balance of emotion and apathy that I can still listen to it when needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EXCm0GR0Do

Sending you lots of good vibes for better times ahead, friend.