#27 “All for the Best”- Thom Yorke

He was bound to show up here sooner or later.

This song sounds like one of those “off” days.  The type of day where you’re not really feeling at your best, but you don’t know why either. You wake up tired, you go through the day in a haze, and finish it hoping that tomorrow will be better. Oddly enough, it’s on these days that I find myself doing most of my reflecting and thinking.  Thoughts on the future, what’s really important in my life, and plenty of other types of questions that everyone wishes they could have an immediate and clear answer to.

“One day the stone will roll away/ Soon you’ll see/ Far away from home but never far away from me/ And that’s all for the best.”

The best way to cure these bad days is to go to people who you know care about you.  Doubts that anything what makes life worthwhile seem to dissipate whenever you’re around people that care about you and don’t like seeing you upset any more than you like being upset.  Friends, of course, come to mind, but don’t count parental-types out either.

”Promise me son not to do the things that I’ve done/ Walk away from trouble”

These musings may be apropos of nothing, but you can’t let yourself get too down.  If you can find meaning in life’s great mistakes, then embrace them; you have to fight through the hard times to get to the good times. Knowing that you’re not alone in your trials is only going to make it easier to keep your eyes on the horizon.

“It’s a long way to go ‘fore we can rest/ But it’s all for the best”

And even though Thom Yorke’s voice hardly needs an introduction, I gotta mention it: The way he maintains such a delicate melody to his pipes over the hypnotic beats and when the song’s tempo picks up is more than enough to remind me of what a great vocalist he is.

It’s his final repetitious statement that really sticks the idea of the song.  Like he’s desperately trying to reach for the people that he knows are there help and the only things keeping him from embracing their love are his own inhibitions.

“Say you love me, say you love me/ Say you love me/ Say you love me, say you love me/ Say you love me…

Third Saddest song.

#26 - Lua

There’s no denying how much I enjoy songs that feature just a vocalist and his or her guitar. Let’s face it, I’ve shared my share (pardon the redundancy, if that’s a word) of songs which sound similar to this one (and kudos to the alliteration in that sentence!).

I promise this one’s different; it’s Bright Eyes, after all.

This one isn’t just a pretty song. As a matter of a fact, Oberst’s hauntingly delicate voice and fragile guitar strums aren’t the only reason why I think this song is worthy of this list. Quite the depressing turn on an otherwise lighthearted and sweet album (I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning), Lua represents not only a desolate and lonely night, but also a wearisome and unending one.

I cannot begin to even attempt at relating with those who suffer the grievances of depression, eating disorders or addiction that Conor so harrowingly describes, but I can relate to instances in which my heart was heavy. I am painfully aware of how quickly the simplicity of the darkness can turn into a mess by sunrise, ‘cause what is simple in the moonlight by the morning never is.

Shit happens, and usually, it’s in the blink of an eye, or as fast as the transformation of dusk to dawn.

And I’m not sure what the trouble was that started all of this
The reasons all have run away, but the feeling never did
It’s not something I would recommend, but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight by the morning never is.

#25 - Been Afraid

(This is short because I’m both busy and am struggling to write these and not have them sound like I’m just regurgitating a previous post)

There is no way I could even begin to understand the type of emotional pain one feels when coming out of an abusive relationship, be that with a dirtbag parent or a dirtbag boyfriend/girlfriend.  Hopefully, P.O.S.’s Been Afraid is the closest I will come to knowing someone who has.

The song bears the trademarks of some of P.O.S. best songs.  The percussion immediately breathes life into the track and the lyrics are poignant and direct.  It’s amazing to me how well P.O.S. can paint the image of someone in only a few words.

“She’s the calm type/ You see the small scars/ Creepin down her arms/  Peeking from them long sleeves”

There’s this anxiety and discomfort that comes from that line, and immediately I begin to understand what this song is about.  The rest of the track continues to unravel this incredibly vivid story.

P.O.S. often starts this song at live shows by saying that it’s about “you or someone you know”.  The subject probably hits close to home with him and he feels (rightfully so) that it’s something that needs to be talked about.  There’s a particularly heartbreaking line that sums up perfectly the…well, just read it.

“And quacks say if he’s beat up he’s bound to smack you/ She’s down to step back now/ He ever get loud/ She couldn’t be proud of whatever she might do/ This is the first time she ever felt touched/ That didn’t bring her to hush like something was being done to her”

Dang.  I’m at a loss for words.  Like I said, there’s no way I can begin to even try and understand what it must be like to live through that type of pain.

I suppose the only thing I can take solace in is the last few words of the chorus, “We don’t gotta go through nothing alone.”

“While You Were Sleeping”- Elvis Perkins

Alright. So. I’m not positive that I can nail down exactly what it is about this song that makes me feel sad. Take the lyrics for instance: Their ambiguous nature keeps it from having a clear cut message, and thus I’m unable to give a line or two that offer a summative moral that I can equate to my feelings about the song.

It could be song of nostalgic feelings; a few lines definitely have a sense of a bunch of important incidents in life passing you by when you’re not paying attention: “While you were sleeping/ the babies grew/ the stars shined and the shadows moved/ time flew, the phone rang/ there was silence when the kitchen sang.”

But, just as easily, it could be a memorial to Perkins’ mother who died in the 9/11 attacks. The strain in his voice as he sings “were you falling/ were you flying/ and were you calling out or were you dying” could suggest as much, as could the way Perkins takes a more uplifting tone when his subject is finally awakened. Maybe he’s singing of a longing that his mother was sleeping and wasn’t able to get on that fateful flight that day?

“Thank God you’re up now/ Let’s stay that way/ else there’ll be no mornings and no more days”

It could be anything (or any number of things) that Perkins is trying to coney to the listener, but trying to pick the lyrics apart may mean I’m doing the song any justice.  The ambiguity of the words definitely isn’t a hinderance to the impact the song leaves on you.  In fact, when I listen to it, it feels like an experience, like I was just lead through some number of incredible trials, and left it feeling drained.  

And really listen to the way the instruments in the background swell and blossom.  That gentle hum of the harmonium, the subtle taps of the drums.  The way that single horn at the climax that seems to pierce you right in the heart.

I know what the song is doing, technically speaking, but I’m still not sure how it’s making me feel so depressed. In a way, I think that’s one of the best compliments I can give a song: It touches me in such a way that I can’t really feel like I’d do it any justice by trying to put it into words.  So yeah. Listen.

OH SH-

theothermansh-deactivated201007 asked: I've got an assload of recommendations for this blog... any chance of enabling a submit function for current non-contributors who want to get involved?

Aw snap.  I was gonna wait till later to have a submit thingy, but there’s no time like the present!

#23 - Theme (If I Started Crying)

If there is a way to capture the sound of a nervous breakdown, Rites Of Spring have absolutely done it.  The way each instrument collides as Guy Picciotto screams his throat out, on the verge of tears; This band puts more guts into a song than most bands put into their entire careers.

I complain a lot about how tricky it is to describe the indescribable.  That is, I suck at explaining what it is exactly that makes a song “good”.  Sure, it’s easy to just blurt out that “Theme” is about coping with a terrible emotional pain that brings you to tears, and that the line, “Now I started crying, why are you not crying?” addresses the fear that what tears you down the most won’t be understood by anyone else.  I could also point out that my favorite lyric in the song, “And hope is just another rope to hang myself with / to tie me down, somethin’ real comes around” both fascinates and terrifies me.  Once I’ve gotten to that point however, I feel as though I’ve already broken down the song too much.  By the time you’ve gotten this far into the post, you should probably have stopped reading and started listening.

Guy’s never shied away from bearing his heart on his sleeve, and this song is certainly no exception.  Rites Of Spring have never failed to make me feel like I’m both on top of the world and underneath it.

I’m out of ways to talk about this song.  Are you listening yet?

#22 - “Intuition” by Feist

There’s something incredible about Leslie Feist’s voice backed by a single guitar. It’s all she needs in order to break my heart and, consequently, earn a spot on our search for the saddest song.

I wish I was as eloquent as she is in trying to explain the effects of her crooning voice and simple guitar strums. The thing is, as much as I want to convey my admiration for this song, I cannot even summon the words necessary. Somewhere between her whispers-turned-wails, she’ll lead you to question all your previously conceived notions pertaining to the intuition. Yes, it will guide you home, but sometimes it’ll leave you more confused than you began.

A lot of things have come to an end for me this year, and that will only continue to remain true as my senior year winds down in these next few weeks. But amid the craziness and the excitement, I have turned to the nights minutes before I sleep to make sense of everything that’s whirling around me. There are a lot of “what-if’s”, plenty of unknowns, and things that have left me wondering, “Did I miss out?” Things could have been different - maybe for better, maybe worse - if only I had done this or that, hadn’t chosen “poetry over prose,” and so on.

Although this song is specifically referring to a relationship of the romantic type, it can be applied to anything that you’ve ever felt you never gave the chance. At that moment, your intuition led you in a different direction, perhaps the opposite of the alternative option, and now you’ll never know what could have been.

My favorite part comes aorund 2:40 with the line, “And in came a heatwave, a merciful save.” Her voice is just flawless, yet it has this unrehearsed and raw feeling to it - much like the unplanned consequences of applying one’s intuition to decision making. From there, the song builds up to the integral quesiton of it all: Did I, did I? The repetition of said words over and over again, echoed by a supplicating audience, completely overtakes you into this womb of wonder and reminiscent thought and leaves you there until a short but powerful unnerving silence brings the song to an end.

What gives, what helps
The Intuition
I’ll know, I’ll know
(Oh) I won’t have to be shown
The way home
And it’s not about a boy
Although, although

They can lead you
Break or defeat you

A destination known
Only by the one
Whose fate is overgrown
Piecemeal could break your home
In half
A love is not complete
With only heat

They can tease you
Break or complete you

And in came a heatwave
A merciful save
You choose, you chose
Poetry over prose

A map is more unreal than where you’ve been
Or how you feel
A map is more unreal than where you’ve been
Or how you feel
And it’s impossible to tell
How important someone was
And what he might have missed out on
And how he might have changed it all
And how you might have changed it all for him
And how he might have changed it all
And how he might have changed it all for you

And did I, did I (x7)
And id I, did I miss out on you?