And once more I provide a soundtrack for life… (Spotify link)

muck of spring 2012
the random gum of the feckless dupes you con

1) “Frown” – Mark Lawson …I couldn’t be the story that you wanted…
Beset by the appropriate weariness of voice, memories of living-room music sessions and a painful reminder every time this song played. “And like the setting sun, I guess now we’re all done…”

2) “On’n’On” – Justice …The story goes on and on…
Sitting in the dim light of morning realizing that once you have lost your passion for something, you might keep doing it, but it is its own form of vampirism. You go through the motions, but you are not really alive.

3) “So Cold” – The Dodos …Too late/is it too late to call back?…
For all the “frosty fuckers”, like me. But who do you think made us frozen?

4) “Me Me Me” – Lars and the Hands of Light …I want you to open your eyes up and know about me…
For the endlessly clueless and mercilessly self-absorbed. The more you care for them, the more they soak up and drain from you, rather than ever giving anything back. “Me me me me me, yeah it’s all about me.”

5) “Lie to Me” – Depeche Mode …Experiences have a lasting impression/but words once spoken don’t mean a lot now…
How this can remain relevant to both the inner teenager and the disaffected adult, I don’t know. ML, JKL

6) “Drink to Me, Babe, Then” – AC Newman …Now it’s come home, held on, held the truth,/Like a threat to point-blank eyes as proof,/You were too shy to lie to…
For whatever reason makes me think of ML and how easy it is to be attached to illusions.

7) “The Same Thing” – Cass McCombs …nothing in common, yet they’re both the same thing…
Racing along E18 to and from Oslo.

8) “Back in the Crowd” – Tom Waits …If you’ve found someone new, put me back in the crowd…
So melodic and sad. “And if you don’t want my love/don’t make me stay…” “Take back your name/take back these wings/take my picture from the frame… and put me back in the crowd…” ML, October-December

9) “Boxer” – Lovers …What a drag not to know how you are/which of us got the raw deal/I was a dagger but in whose heart/I was the dirt beneath whose wheels…
KKK: Which of us got the raw deal? She escaped a train wreck, and I avoided the intensity that scares the shit out of me. “What a drag not to know how you are/what a drag not to know how you feel…” “Today I’m thinking of you in a new way…” Don’t block the box.

10) “The Modern Age” – Exitmusic …Holding out for another way/On the run from the modern age…
Heard on KEXP and loved the layers of sound; sort of a surprising bonus to learn the frontwoman is Aleksa Palladino, also known as the ill-fated Angela from HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. “All our promises are lies.”

11) “Tender Mercy” – Au Palais …Sometimes it’s good to be a killer…

12) “Lovesick” – Lindstrøm & Christabelle
Norrrrrrwegian and lovely.

13) “L.E.S. Artistes” – Santigold
With love for Shaina. Infectious.

14) “A1” – Darkside
Another song for late-night, empty-road driving through tunnel after tunnel. Norway loves tunnels.

15) “It’s Real” – Real Estate …I carved our names into a tree/I walked on decomposing leaves…
For Jane; vivid imagery always makes me think of her and her pending novel…

16) “Drinking Problem” – Surfer Blood …at least I know who my friends are…
For all my real friends.

17) “Waiting for the Moon to Rise” – Belle & Sebastian …If there’s a place I wanna go, then I’ll be there with you/cause in my dreams the things I’m wishing for keep coming true…
For Bruno, in Stockholm, wandering the streets (sometimes crashing into them face-first). Drill away, take all the blame (but pronounce “blame” with a Scottish accent)! “Don’t try to say to me, that this was never meant to be…”

18) “Graveyard” – Feist

19) “Serpents” – Sharon van Etten …Everyone changes, in time/I hope he changes, this time…
“You enjoy sucking on dreams,/so I will fall asleep/with someone other than you,/I had a thought, you would take me/Seriously”. How disappointing the realization that while you change, no one else does. And no one takes you seriously.

20) “Haunted Heart” – Dream Brother …I can’t make it out tonight/Got a real good alibi/Haunted heart and pretty eyes wise…
“It’s been one year and I still love her/thought I’d be fine by the end of summer…” So many missed opportunities.

21) “Origins” – Tennis
“Sensitive heart, you’re doomed from the start/Meant to play the penitent part/Inquisitive mind, you’re destined to find/Tempted fate and knowledge divine…”

22) “You’re a Wolf” – Seawolf …The one that you are looking for/you’re not gonna find her here…

23) “True Love Ways” – Buddy Holly

24) “Soft Shock” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

25) “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” – Jan & Dean …well she’s gonna get a ticket now sooner or later/but she can’t keep her foot off the accelerator…
All my promises to Annette not to drive like a maniac. This music reminds me of earliest childhood when my brother, Kyle, and I would play this and other records even though our parents did not allow us to use the record player. Disobedient…

26) “Into Black” – Blouse

27) “In Every Direction (Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Remix)” – Junip
I love me some Swedes!

28) “Fairy Tale in the Supermarket” – The Raincoats
Pickled herring, Felix ketchup, Swedish cheddar, Max rolls. Remnants of a “fairy tale” that only existed in the confines of the supermarket. ML.

29) “Green Aisles” – Real Estate …all those wasted miles/all those aimless drives/ through green aisles/our careless lifestyle/it was not so unwise…
Long, languorous summer drives…

30) “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” – Elvis Presley
Does this song make anyone else feel sad?

31) “Wintered Debts” – of Montreal …Can’t survive another comedown day/when my spirit houses so much pain/so much bitterness…
“I need to teach myself to feel again…” What about those who never knew how to feel and are wrapped in total self-hatred? For ML.

32) “The Ship Song” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Never been a Nick Cave fan but somehow liked this one.

33) “Lee Cross” – Aretha Franklin …he’s a troublemaker/heartbreaker/love maker…
A song that more or less describes the “penis power” problem we are all laughing about. “A fire under the skin!”

34) “Devil’s Work” – Miike Snow …We all need somebody to love,/Be we clothed or naked…
“My hands, I feel like I’ve been here before/she has already spoken” (not one of those times you do something first without speaking). Yet another Swedish band – Swedes are the best, aren’t they?

35) “Green Light Go” – Modeselektor
Memories of the old days, living with a robot and a teddy bear.

36) “Borderline” –Flaming Lips & Stardeath and White Dwarfs
Madonna song from the early years – only better.

37) “The Wicked and the Blind” – The Dø …Anything to reach you…
For Bruno. “I will give you all I ever owned/All my belongings and/Treasures found/Sand and water is all I can offer/For the moment but/I will change…” Cupcakes and hairdryers.

38) “I Will Always Love You” – Dolly Parton …I wish you joy and happiness/but above all of this, I wish you love…
I love Dolly; this song was catapulted into popularity by the late Whitney Houston (I could not stand her, so I can’t bring myself to put one of her songs here. May she rest in peace, but I will take the Dolly original of this song any day).

39) “Uncertain Smile” – The The …A broken soul stares from a pair of watering eyes/uncertain emotions force an uncertain smile…
For beloved Inken and memories of last summer, salads and Strömstad.

40) “You Make the Wave Become a Sound” – Mark Lawson …All I want is something sweet…
Oh, if only.

41) “Must I Paint You a Picture?” – Billy Bragg …And there’s you/A little black cloud in a dress/The temptation/To take the precious things we have apart/To see how they work/Must be resisted for they never fit together again…
Apparently I am a little black cloud in a dress. ML

42) “Stranger” – Nick Africano
The coincidences of the vastness that is New York City.

43) “The Hours” – Exitmusic …Give me back the hours are mine to waste…
“It’s written in sand, the cities and plans, the ocean…” Love to the APs

44) “Vater” – Soap&Skin
For Catherine S, Aurélien P

45) “So So So” – Tomten …Have you figured out this living thing?/It’s been a couple months/Have you yet become the people’s king?…
ML, JKL, BB. “Well, I’m falling into something/falling into something/I’m falling into you.”