Simple heartfelt song from an outstanding writer...
Showing posts with label best 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best 2013. Show all posts
Dec 27, 2013
Dec 26, 2013
Top 20 Songs 2013: Moby - Almost Home
All this time
In a moment's time
To turn away
Leave it all behind
So we climb
So we all uphold the line
The crowd is home
The treasure found
(Chorus x2)
So let it go
Wake up, wake up, wake up
We're almost home
Time to scout
When I was a child there
I know at heart
To be at your side
So we climb
So we all uphold the line
I dream it too
The stars remind
All this time
In a moment's time
To turn away
Leave it all behind
So we climb
So we all uphold the line
The crowd is home
The treasure found
Dec 22, 2013
Top 20 Songs 2013: Yo La Tengo - Ohm
This came out early in the year, but has been on steady rotation in my home; the drive , the harmonies, the magic… Listen again!
Sometimes the bad guys come out on top
Sometimes the good guys lose
We try not to lose our hearts, not to lose our minds
Sometimes the bad days maintain their grip
Sometimes the good days fade
Hurts the brain to think, hurts the hand to drink
But nothing ever stays the same
Nothing's explained
The higher we go, the longer we fly
Cause this is it for all we know
So say good night to me
And lose no more time, no time
Resisting the flow
I heard you calling from far away
I thought I heard you cry
Hadn't the voice to make it right
So I just cry
I felt her slipping, slipping away
Before I could even see
Tried once more, lost my grip, you were gone
But nothing ever stays the same
Nothing's explained
The longer it takes, the looser the ties
'Cause this is it for all we know
So say good night to me
And lose no more time, no time
Resisting the flow
Doo doo doo doo
But nothing ever stays the same
Nothing's explained
The stronger the wind, the faster we'll fly
'Cause this is it for all we know
So say good night to me
And lose no more time
No time
Resisting the flow
Dec 21, 2013
Top 20 Songs 2013: Nightlands - Time & Place
The son of a genetic engineer, Dave Hartley has eschewed his father's profession but decidedly inherited his analytical proclivities and love of "the lab." As Nightlands, Hartley is a scientist trying to create and understand art through analytical process. Here, with sophomore album Oak Island, his follow up to 2010's superb Forget the Mantra, new questions are explored: what happens when the human voice is layered exponentially? Is the sum more man, or more melancholy machine? In seeking these answers, Nightlands takes us on a spirit quest through lush forests down into The Uncanny Valley. Each distorted, silver-voiced melody is wrapped in the sounds of 70s AM gold -- plucked acoustic guitars, trumpets, dulcimers and hand percussion. In using these pop touchstones, the songs become something close to memories, the faded feelings that tide in and out of you when conjuring the past.
Dec 19, 2013
Top 20 Songs 2013: Michael Feuerstack - Trees
TREES
Just ask the Sycamore, or the Juniper
The old Oak, the Redwood and the Fir say the same
You can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
Even the cactus and the evergreen
Lining your forest or your desert scene
They say you can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
Mighty up above shining down on us all day
There must be something we can do
Soaking up your beautiful rays and drops from on high
You make the trees so happy they reach for the sky
You feed the animals and you keep them warm
The wise old owl and the calf just born
They say you can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
On a dusty and arid or a humid and stifling day
There’s always somewhere we can catch some shade
Under the trees, the sweet green glowing leaves
The trees are so happy they reach for the sky
Meet me in the summer and we’ll take a walk
With your generous manners and your beautiful talk
You say you can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
Mighty up above shining down on us all day
There must be something we can do
Soaking up your beautiful rays and drops from on high
You make the trees so happy they reach for the sky
Dec 17, 2013
Top 20 Songs 2013: Jake Bellows - New Ocean
New Ocean is sentimental in every good way possible. Bellows’ songwriting, while not necessarily highly evolved technically from the output of Neva Dinova, is grounded in an inherent wisdom that can only come from having been writing songs pretty much nonstop for over 15 years. paste
Dec 15, 2013
Top 20 Song 2013: Islands - Becoming the Gunship
Islands, the Canadian art-poppers led by former Unicorn Nick Thorburn, are preparing to unleash their new album Ski Mask upon the world. The first single they shared was the lush but twitchy “Wave Forms,” and now they’ve got another one called “Becoming The Gunship,” a title that Thorburn claims came to him in a dream. The song is a slow, sweeping, assured ballad with a poised and powerful lead vocal from Thorburn, who seems to be getting better as a singer all the time.
When it was dark
I was a question mark,
Becoming the gunship. wooh oh oh ooh
I had a heart, but it was thorn apart
Now, I'm the gunship.
Run away
Runs away
You don't wanna be here
When I hit 'em all.
Unlike the wealth that doesn't know itself
I am a bird that doesn't fly.
I lost desire to whom my file
I am the gunship.
Run away
Runs away
You don't wanna be here
When I hit 'em all.
When it was dark I was question mark,
Becoming the gunship.
I couldn't stop,
Had no control to turn it off.
I was the gunship. I am the gunship.
Will be the gunship, becoming the gunship
Dec 14, 2013
Top 20 Songs: Tindersticks - I Know That Loving
Absolutely love this track from tindersticks latest release Across Six Leap Years… Sultry, smokey, the sway, the groove hits on all the right notes.
She sinks inside me
It's so beautiful
Not hear her calling
And I would raise myself
To live up to her love
And not look down on me
Forgiving me again
And I hear her calling
Do you wanna get out of the water
Do you wanna try and carry on
It gets so low
I get so low
She sinks inside me
It's so beautiful
Not hear her calling
But it's like a waterfall
Falling down on me
Forgiving me again
And I know that loving
Chorus:
Like feet that have never been walked on
I know that
Hands that never held no blame
Can't you see that I guess you're staying
Eyes that have never cried angry tears
It's always the same
A face that never felt that shame
Well that's my heart
It's calling out your name
She sinks inside me
There like chemicals
I see the birds fly
And I'd disgust myself
To be free of that love
Pull myself from under the weight of it all
And I hear her, hear her
Chorus
I've got to give it up
I've got to give it up
It's just that quality of forgiveness
Forgiveness is what I need
If I could only get out of the water
If I could only get myself clean
I've got to give it up
I've got to give it up
Like feet that have never been walked on
I know that
Hands that never held no blame
I'm running on my knees again
Eyes that have never cried angry tears
It's always the same
A face that never felt that shame
She's standing at the altar
Like feet never walked on
I know that she's waiting there
Like hands never held no blame
If I could only get out of the water
No crying angry
If I could only get out of here
but I've gotta give it up
that felt no shame
I've got to give it up
Dec 11, 2013
Dec 8, 2013
Top 20 Songs: Said The Whale - Mother
I try to always be a gentleman
and try to always be a better friend
lately I’ve been feeling half a man
like maybe I should be more who I am
Maybe I should fuck something up good
or maybe I should act like someone bad
I try to live my life like David does
But something always feels just slightly off
I’m young and maybe that’s why days to me
they seem like opportunities to test my reach
adopt some ugly habits that are bad for me
and treat some others not so equally
If I thought I knew me well it’s clear as can be
that things are gonna change like a hundred degrees
If I thought I knew me well it’s plain to see
that things are gonna change like a hundred degrees
Don’t tell my mother
Don’t tell my mother
Don’t tell my mother till I pull myself together
It’s undercover
I hope forever
Don’t tell my mother till I pull myself together
I think it’s me
but I just need to see
if this real or just something that I need
Don’t tell my mother
Don’t tell my mother
Don’t tell my mother till I pull myself together
Try to always do what people like
And try to be a man that someone might
look up to in a minute when they’re feeling down
Like maybe I could be somebody that you love
Or maybe I’ll just keep thinking all about me
Until I get the proper opportunity that I need
Maybe I’ll just keep thinking all of myself
Until I find a way to be in love with somebody else
Maybe I’ll just keep thinking all about me
Until I get the proper opportunity that I need
Don’t tell my mother
Top 20 Songs: Parquet Courts - Time at Death
Parquet Courts are high as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. Stoned, starving, and maybe just a little bit irritable, they're approached by a clipboard-carrying do-gooder seeking donations. "'A minute of YOUR time?'," they ask co-frontman Austin Brown, who quickly sends Mr. Greenpeace off with a snide-beyond-belief "for-GET about it" and a (questionably apropos) reminder that Socrates died in the fucking gutter. Munchie money secure, there are far more important details to attend to: roasted peanuts or Swedish fish?
Home
Home
Dec 6, 2013
Top 20 Songs: Nathaniel Rateliff - When Do You See?
Some of the purest songwriting out there right now… The heart, the passion, the delivery all work to make this song sail on simplicity!
Top 20 Songs: Foxygen - No Destruction
Bob Dylan's straight-on delivery of crooked, impressionistic lyrics, the warm weariness of the Velvet Underground's self-titled third album, and the lazy anthems of Pavement. In short: big-budget feeling, played with shoestring ambition. What makes it sound fresh isn't that it faithfully imitates the past, but that it somehow fails to-- a product of alluringly broken logic.
Listeners coast-to-coast will no doubt notice the jab "There's no need to be an asshole/ You're not in Brooklyn anymore", but the lyrical heart of the song comes later: "You think it's over, oh you think it's over / To be someone who smokes pot in the subway with me", a semi-desperate diss from an old friend who can't see how things really are in part because they can't let go of how they were. Awkward nostalgia is a good subject for a band whose music sounds like it traveled decades to get here and got roughed up every step of the way.
I'm sending you this photograph
Of me in my new car
But I hate to say I miss you
'Cause you don't need me anymore
You politely say, "I miss you"
But we know you don't mean that anymore
Like when the doctor thought he caught you
Then you weaseled through the door
Through the door of consciousness
San Francisco
Oh you think it's over
Oh you think it's over to need
Someone who smokes pot in the subway
Pot in the subway, to me
Oh, Destructo, you're so destructive
Oh, you're so destructive to me
No destruction in the waking hour
No destruction in the waking wind
No destruction in the waking hour
There's no corruption in the waking wind
I'm talking to my grandma who lost her arms in the war
The aliens and armory that bombed her cigar store
Now you think that I don't know but I know you to know quite well
That I caught you sipping milkshakes in the parlor of the hotel
There's no need to be an asshole, you're not in Brooklyn anymore
You may take what you are given but you leave it on the floor
And I know they're gonna try to take my big mouse
Take the panels off my greenhouse
Oh, but the door of consciousness isn't open anymore
Oh you think it's over, oh, you think it's over to me
Someone who smokes pot in the subway
Pot in the subway with me
Oh Destructo, you're so destructive
Oh, you're so destructive to me
No destruction in the waking hour
No destruction in the waking wind
There's no destruction in the waking hour
There's no corruption on the mountain hour
No destruction in the waking hour
No destruction in the waking wind
Top 20 Songs: Mark Kozalek & Jimmy Lavalle - Gustavo
For the album LaValle chose a more minimalist approach to the music than The Album Leaf's large sonic soundscapes... Kozelek's story-telling narratives playing against LaValle's hypnotic synth sounds and drums beats should come as a pleasant surprise to fans, and should serve as a great introduction to those previously unacquainted with these prolific and acclaimed artists.
I wrote a check and I bought an old house
I got a TV and a worn-out couch
Hired a guy named Gustavo and his friends
To fix it up from the foundation
Oh god, those motherfuckers drove me nuts
With their electrical saws and mariachi music
But they really stepped it up man
And put their backs into it
But they lived pretty far away
They wanted to stay for a couple of months
'Til the work got done and I said sure
Made em a key and got em a microwave
Gustavo was an illegal immigrant
He took the money that I gave him
And he went and spent it on strippers and casinos
And every once in a while with them I'd go
It gets boring out in the mountains, you know
Chopping wood, falling asleep to the TV snow
Making ground beef tacos
On the top of a potbellied stove
Eating noodles from a Styrofoam cup
Waiting for a ride that never shows up
Walking into town, browsing the windows
Looking at rifles, looking at ammo
At night when everything's closed
In my wet boots, in my winter clothes
One night they were headed for Tahoe
They asked me along but I said fuck no
'Cause I was tired and my money was tight
And they just laughed and said alright
And on the way back they got stopped
By a redneck sunnyside highway cop
Gustavo was drunk and had an ounce of pot
And spent the night on a jailhouse cot
They deported him back to Mexico
He called me collect from a Tijuana pay phone
Asking man, could you wire me money?
2500 for a border coyote
He needed work and he missed his family
But I hung up and I said I'm sorry
But I hung up and I felt uneasy
I hung up and my heart was heavy
I hung up and my back was aching
Picking up the work they'd left in front of me
The demoed walls and the pulled up floors
The busted up cabinets and the broken drawers
The kitchen sink was laying in the backyard
And I looked down and my hands were trembling
And I looked up and my roof was leaking
Now I still sleep on my beat-up old couch
In the living room of my unfinished house
I got a licensed contractor
But he quit cause his wife was dying of cancer
But what the hell, I'm just here trying to find answers
To find peace of mind, to get a piece of the rock
A place to put my mental clock
And my old guitars and gently rock
Back and forth in my front porch chair
Without a worry, without a care
I'm doing alright but I'm still not there
My house ain't done, but it's alright
Floors ain't level, but I ain't some suburban
Who cares about bathroom tiles
Straight lines and building codes and Chinese wind chimes
My house ain't done, but it's fine
Come out here from time to time
In December for the snow
And in July to watch the roses
My gardener asks had I seen Gustavo?
I just laughed and I said fuck no
Not since that night he left
His hair combed back, headed for Tahoe
My girlfriend asked had I heard from that guy from Mexico?
I said you mean Gustavo?
And I just laughed and I said no
Not since he called from the Tijuana pay phone
Really I don't give much thought to Gustavo
I love to go out to the mountains, though
And in the fall, feel the breeze blow
And in the winter, watch the falling snow
And in the spring, love the rainbows
And in the summer smell the roses
White and red and yellow
Dec 5, 2013
Top 20 Songs: Vampire Weekend - Ya Hey
Such a mature song for VW - incredible lyrics and production on this song. Top Song!
Top 20 Songs: Phosphorescent - Song For Zula
The persistent catch in his voice, meanwhile gives him an unstable, baby chick fragility, magnifying the pathos of a line like, "See honey I am not some broken thing/ I do not lay here in the dark waiting for thee" from "Song For Zula". Pf
Dec 3, 2013
Top 20 Songs: Low - Just Make it Stop
2013 marks Low's 20th anniversary; although the song suggests something more stylistically in line with 2011's fine, formalistic C'mon than 2007's incendiary, astounding wheel-reinvention Drums and Guns, "Just Make It Stop" is more ample proof that Low are excellent at turning out a song with a simple architecture and deceptively complex emotions.
Here I am just make it stop
I can tell the whole world
to get out of the way
if I could just make it stop.
If I could just make it stop,
breaking my heart,
get out of the way,
if I could just make it stop.
You see them close to the edge,
I'm at the end of my rope
the rope is starting to thread,
I'm trying to keep my hold.
You say I'm something I'm not
but I'm not what I seem,
get my back off the wall
If I could just make it stop
Chorus:
If I could just make it stop
I can tell the whole world
to get out of the way
if I could just make it stop.
If I could just make it stop,
breaking my heart,
get out of the way,
if I could just make it stop.
If I could just make it stop.
Now I'm looking up from a ten-foot hole
see nothing but blue sky, shining on my soul,
as I untie the cord and untwist the knot
we could get where we're going,
if I could just make it stop.
Dec 2, 2013
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