The Good Goo of Random Gum
Spring Fling 2011
01. “Cossacks Are” – Scott Walker …A moving aria for a vanished style of mind A noble debut tackling vertiginous demands/Has absence ever sounded so eloquent so sad…
I went for avant-garde Scott this time, thinking of a long overnight conversation with southern Jake in San Fran.

02. “Paradise Circus” – Massive Attack with Hope Sandoval …Love is like a sin, my love/for the ones that feel it the most…
Came to my attention as the theme song from BBC’s Luther. Great show, great song. Sometimes life is reduced to that.

03. “Converter” – The Helio Sequence …but we don’t wait for justice/we will wage the fight…
The fog-bound, 3 a.m. drives in autumn from rural Värmland to Oslo.

04. “Dreaming of Another World” – Mystery Jets …There’s nothing left to say/sleep is for the dead/it’s time to live out/the dreams inside your head…
For some unknown reason, this song makes me think of PF… fondly.

05. “Electric Twist” – A Fine Frenzy …You should be wilder, you're no fun at all/Yeah, thanks for the input/Thanks for the call…
“And the touch of your lips, it's a shock not a kiss”

06. “We Don’t Want Your Body” – Stars …You’re just a tramp, you're just a trick/Our hunger starts to make us sick …
“Lie down and try to talk to me/Sleep now and dream of who you'll be/But will you actually be anyone?” For has-beens who never were. And the uncontrollable urge to feed hunger for things I should not even want.

07. “Animal Arithmetic” – Jónsi
Apart from making me long for Iceland, I think fondly of Katalin when I hear Jónsi. 🙂

08. “Northern Man” – Detroit Social Club
In 1989, my original “northern man”, Peter, even with his incomprehensible English accent and slang, stole my heart.

09. “Ours” – The Bravery …And we are here/But I already miss you/Even as you’re lying next to me…
Vaguely sounding like Alphaville, this song hooked me. Coinciding with a strangely emotional, brief encounter at the end of 2010, it spoke of hope, excitement and seizing the moment. (For A-x.)

10. “The Suburbs” – Arcade Fire …But by the time the first bombs fell/We were already bored…
A few years ago, Gabe introduced me to Arcade Fire… and it’s like a hot tip that keeps paying handsome dividends.

11. “Endless Eyes” – Alain Johannes …it’s tearing me apart, we’re so connected/it’s the you in me, each day I’m resurrected…
From a singular album, full of pain and hope, on which I have overdosed, thanks to Lenore.

12. “Ice Queen” – My First Earthquake …You go out on a Tuesday night/You go, grope and pout/I stay in and curl up with Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman…
For my ice queen, Lóa, with love.

13. “5 Years Time” – Noah and the Whale …In five years time/I might not know you…
In five years, five days, five minutes… we do not know who will come into and fall out of our lives.

14. “Bees” – Warpaint
Another of those recommendations from many sources, mostly Aurélien in this case. Many thanks.

15. “Coquet Coquette” – of Montreal …I don’t want to catch you with some other guy’s face under your eyelids…
No real inspiration for this – it just had a particular sound.

16. “La Perdue” – Bertrand Belin
Another Aurélien recommendation… I fell madly in love with Belin. Addictive.

17. “No Illusions” – 78 Saab …I'm under no illusions now/How can I see when I am blind/To all the same old faults now?…
I may tell myself repeatedly that I am seeing things clearly but judgment is often clouded by illusions.

18. “Substance” – Girls …who wants something real/when you could have nothing/why not just give up/who wants to try?/let go of the wheel/turn your ass over/come on, take it, it’s a simple lie…
End-of-2010 letting go and regret.

19. “Miles Away” – Corin Tucker Band …now this rock-bottom hurt has a whole new feel/feels like the moon since I saw you here…
Corin Tucker goes solo. I don’t love the whole album, but was struck by the clarity and beauty of this song.

20. “Cake” – Wild Moccasins …how many cakes must I bake to be your friend? …
But is it fruity cake? Trying to stop being “too nice”, I begin 2010 vowing to curtail my baking habits.

21. “Five Little Rooms” – Menomena …Five little rooms/one for each of my husbands/one for each of my bridegrooms/and their prostitutes…
A song to represent my big plan to assemble a man harem/handyman service. 🙂 “All this could be yours/someday…”

22. “All These Things That I’ve Done” – The Killers …Oh don’t you put me on the back burner…
Following on all those accusations that I always have alternatives waiting on the back burner

23. “Just Dial My Number” – Jeremy Jay
For no particular reason…

24. “Feel” – Teenage Fanclub …Life without you is so cold…
No such thing as listening to Teenage Fanclub without thinking with love of Naomi.

25. “Happy to Be Myself” – The Boy Least Likely To …I wish I had collected tea towels/at least then I’d have something useful/to remind me of all the places that I might never get to/go back to…
Makes me think of my mom and a hilarious shared reference to flaming tea towels.

26. “Cruel Summer” – Bananarama
Too many times in the middle of bitterest cold winter, “Cruel Summer” got stuck in my head.

27. “Temporary Title” – Butch Walker …I took a lot of shots for you/some made my hangovers worse some days…
Another song reminding me of my long commute, although my most vivid memory of this song involves a part of the drive I can now circumvent, thanks to a new stretch of highway.

28. “Moves” – The New Pornographers …These things get louder…
Loved the New Pornographers since I took a long-haul flight on which I heard “Mass Romantic” repeatedly.

29. “Stranger in the Window” – Elf Power …It might take 20 years to know me/I guess it all depends on what you show me…
Evokes the Go-Betweens. “Tell me your secret if you’d like to meet the freak inside my mind/in the dead of midnight”

30. “The Tailor” – Blitzen Trapper …I was born again/as a tailor in an unknown land/with a needle and some thread in hand/mending suits and slacks/stitching up the cracks in the backs of my neighbors heads…
I enjoy the storytelling in Blitzen Trapper songs. (Stitching up cracks in neighbors’ heads sounds a bit funny too.)

31. “Summer” – Magic Kids …Now I’m scared that I’m losing touch with you/is it true?/I survive/but it takes more than a Valentine/You keep secrets your eyes tell/someday I’ll know them so well…
Airy, summery quality. Brings my brother to mind: “Disappear in the arms of college girls set free”

32. “Rise Up, Careful” – Bodies of Water …You did not need me very much/but you did all you could just to keep me here…(JKL)
The sound envelops me during the dark, long drives to work in the morning, picking up the pace as it goes along.

33. “Silver Rider” – Robert Plant …sometimes your voice is not enough…
I never would have imagined including not one, but two, Robert Plant songs, but the two on this mix are lovely.

34. “Spanish Sahara” – Foals …I’m the fury in your head/I’m the fury in your bed/I’m the ghost in the back of your head…

35. “Creep” – Scala and Kolacny Brothers
Interesting interpretation of this Radiohead (and other, unexpected) song(s). Thanks to Aurélien.

36. “Lying” – Martina Topley-Bird …I walked out of your house in your girlfriend’s clothes/they fit me better than I would have supposed…
More thanks are due to Lenore. Plays to the guilty conscience of someone who is always a cheat helper, never a cheat.

37. “Lullaby” – Sia …a dying wish before the grave…
First heard in the TV show The Big C, which was kind of a roller coaster in itself, I felt a connection to this song.

38. “Start a War” – The National …walk away now/and you’re gonna start a war…
Funny that The National is just coming into much deserved recognition. I noticed this song in TV soundtracks ages ago.

39. “Paris Blue” – Lykke Li …I’m Paris blue/I miss you/I’m not good enough for you/Paris blue/I’m no good…
At Aurélien’s encouragement, embraced this song. “I wasn’t faithful in your bed”. Feeling not good enough, but “wishing he was by my side” (for the man against whom I launched a pre-emptive strike)

40. “La tranchée” – Bertrand Belin
Another great Belin song. As usual, the endless, seductive charm of the French

41. “Love Fade” – Tamaryn
The first song I heard when I started listening to KEXP in Seattle from home in Sweden. Yay for Internet radio.

42. “Ben seni sevdugumi” – Kazim Koyuncu
Once Koyuncu was actually identified, I fell in love with the sound and could hear more. Thank you again, Roxane.

43. “Dog Days are Over” – Florence + the Machine
Although another Florence song was initially introduced to me by music goddess, Roxane, I found this song inspiring.

44. “I Walked” – Sufjan Stevens …For when you went away, I went crazy/I was wild with the breast of a dog/I ran through the night,/With a knife in my chest with the lust of your loveless life…
Played at the exact moment when I had the most moving message, at exactly the right moment. Absolute flood of tears. For A-x. “I walked/cause you walked/but I won’t probably get very far…”

45. “Unfinished Plan” – Alain Johannes …You almost got the truth out of the lie/Then folded into the weave/To never say bye/No, never goodbye/Oh you were not afraid of letting go/So I am not afraid of letting go…
With love to Lenore. This makes me think so much of enduring love and how unconditional it can be.

46. “Please Read the Letter” – Alison Krauss and Robert Plant …It’s crazy how it all turned out/we needed so much more…
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant together made a beautiful record; surprised at myself for including it.

47. “Truss Me” – Lower Dens
Randomly heard on KEXP, this immediately haunted and roused a flood of emotion as 2010 ended.

48. “Time Has Told Me” – Nick Drake …time has told me/you’re a rare find/a troubled cure/for a troubled mind…
Rare or not, some things, some people, we must let go of… 🙁

49. “Close Watch” – Agnes Obel …I keep a close watch on this heart of mine…
It is not often that I get to include a Danish artist among my favorites!

50. “Breakin’ the Chains of Love” – Fitz & the Tantrums …No way/I’m gonna find you/and make you goddamn pay…
Totally addictive 60s-sounding song – could not stop listening to it. Rather a first to end one of my mixes with an upbeat sound (not that it is an upbeat song). “I’m hoping that you won’t find a new love”

(The whole Spotify list except for the songs that do not exist on Spotify…)