And it was hanged with gold so red

ok, now there is nothing definitive about this collection at all. it is simply what come's to mind. on the other hand most of these songs are the ones i have the greatest difficulty in trying to forget when i have been playing them all day.

so here you are, my non-essential, roughly, songs i am kinda obsessed by.

in no particular order


Jeff Buckley - Corpus Christi Carol
it's a bit of a cleche to call these ethereal but dang nabbit it's true. i know a lot of people like 'hallejuliah' but this just pips it to the post as my favourite.

The Kings of Leon - Joe's Head
'They're making silly faces and it's tasting bitter sweet'. Exactly. 'People can be so cold when they're dead'. This is seriously a good good song folks. I defy you not to like this song

Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen
'Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth. One more thin gypsy thief.' Anyone who doesn't feel moved by this song is seriously messed up. Even though you may have little idea about what LC is singing about you really feel it dammit. 'And what can I tell you my brother, my killer. What can I possibly say?'

Darker by the Day - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Is a bit personal but this song is fairly important.

Emily - Joanna Newsom
Although a bit mad, this lady is all kinds of awesome. Ignore her at your peril Mr World.

Bat For Lashes - Sad Eyes
Bit of a newer song for me to like but, Best Beloved, I really love this song. Is all kinds of pretty. If i was the ruler of a totalitatian dictatorship I would make these people my magical minstels in waiting or something

The Mama's and the Papa's - California Dreaming
Because it's important.



Anyway there you have it. A few of the songs i've been kinda obsessed over in the last few years. I'm not sure if it's particually telling but regardless they are all good music. I would recommend you listen to some of them.



"As so with that, I thought I'd take a final walk
The tide of public opinion had started to abate
The neighbours, bless them, had turned out to be all talk
I could see their frightened faces
peering at me through the gate

I was looking for an end to this, for some kind of closure
Time moved so rapidly, I had no hope of keeping track of it
I thought of my friends who had died of exposure
And I remembered other ones who had died from the lack of it

And in my best shoes I started falling forward down the street
I stopped at a church and jostled through the crowd
And love followed just behind me, panting at my feet
As the steeple tore the stomach from a lonely little cloud

Inside I sat, seeking the presence of a God
I searched through the pictures in a leather-bound book
I found a woolly lamb dozing in an issue of blood
And a gilled Jesus shivering on a fisherman's hook

Babe
It seems so long
Since you've been gone away
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day

Back on the street I saw a great big smiling sun
It was a Good day and an Evil day and all was bright and new
And it seemed to me that most destruction was being done
By those who could not choose between the two

Amateurs, dilettantes, hacks, cowboys, clones
The streets groan with little Caesars, Napoleons and cunts
With their building blocks and their tiny plastic phones
Counting on their fingers, with crumbs down their fronts

I passed by your garden, saw you with your flowers
The Magnolias, Camellias and Azaleas so sweet
And I stood there invisible in the panicking crowds
You looked so beautiful in the rising heat
I smell smoke, see little fires bursting on the lawns
People carry on regardless, listening to their hands
Great cracks appear in the pavement, the earth yawns
Bored and disgusted, to do us down

Babe
It seems so long
Since you've been gone
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day

These streets are frozen now. I come and go
Full of a longing for something I do not know
My father sits slumped in the deepening snow
As I search, in and out, above, about, below

Babe
It seems so long
Since you went away
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day"