Morning Music

I wouldn't exactly call these songs a morning playlist, but there are some songs that I keep returning to. This morning I've been listening to these tracks, in order to start my day off correctly.


Beach House - "Real Love" and "Take Care"
Yeasayer - "O.N.E." and "Madder Red"
Hot Chip - "I Feel Better" and "One Life Stand"
Okkervil River - "For Real" and "Song of Our So-Called Friend"
Devendra Banhart - "A Sight to Behold"
Joanna Newsom - "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie"

Reeaaallll Luuuuvvvv

There are days when the music I'm listening to at the moment is better than all the albums of the past decade.


"Real Love" - Beach House
I grew up with my parents' stories of how they met, and knew they were meant to be. If there was ever a song that more perfectly summed up their faith in the fate of their love, it would be this. With the single line, "Real love, it finds you somewhere with your back to it", I remember the blush in my mom's cheeks when she admitted to loving my dad when she first saw him. I remember the bewildered expression that overcame my dad's face, recalling my mom's antics of pushing him away to reveal his true feelings. If I had actually heard this song the moment my parents first told the story of how they'd met, I might have become an irreversible romantic. Thank goodness that didn't happen.


"My Way" - jj
I've listened to this song way too much. I only want someone to say to me, "Mama ya wine fine" and mean it.


"The Great Elsewhere" - Owen Pallett
Heartland is an amazing album, but by far my favorite track is "The Great Elsewhere". Who else can use words like blunderbuss and mizzenmast. I can't get over the line, "No I've seen His work upon the panes of the cathedral, in the sweat of the workers and the flight of the seagulls".


"Madder Red" - Yeasayer
I still can't get over this song. The opening, "Even when my luck is down/I take joy in knowing that our love grows/But if my vices are a burden/Please don't let me off/Cast me from your home" is so penitent, and yet way too enjoyable to sing along to.

You're Not the Only

So I guess I'm kind of a lazy cheater, at least when it comes to finding new music. But really, Pitchfork makes it much too easy. Not to say that I buy every single thing that they say. But...I have to say that I am a reformed Pitchfork hater. And aside from that, I love their best new music section, especially best new tracks.

I may have jumped at Animal Collective, and overlooked Beach House's new song, "Norway". (Well who wouldn't, it's Animal fucking Collective).

Oh, and if I can expound on Animal Collective some more, the lyrics to "What Would I Want? Sky" are just too amazing.

What would I want... Sky!

Is everything alright?
You feeling lonely?
You feeling homely?
You're not the only
Is everything alright?
You feeling moany?
you feeling stoney?
You're not the only
Do you get up up up?
I stop and go above me
Too bad they can't help me
Here in the right way
Do I get up up up?
I stop and look around me
Green, where the color should be
What is the right way?
Old glasses clinking and a new board is blinking
and I -
I should be floating but I'm weighted by thinking
That I got on the river
Really can't make it change
And the sky got filled up too fast
and the taxi man's saying, "You betta
give him your money;
stop daydreaming, dude!"
When the point of horizon is hiding from you
What would you want? sky?

Are you taking it lightly?
Lost in the flurries
You start to worry
You will be buried
Taking it lightly
and so I hurry
I start to worry
Here come them flurries

Do you get up up up?
I stop and go above me
Too bad they can't help me
What is the right way?
Do I get up up up?
I stop and look around me
Green, where the color should be
What is the right way?
Old glasses clinking and a new board is blinking
and I -
I should be floating but I'm weighted by thinking
That I got on the river
Really can't make it change
And the sky got filled up too fast
and the taxi man's saying, "You betta
give him your money;
stop daydreaming, dude!"
When the point of horizon is hiding from you
What would you want? sky!
What would I want? sky!
What would I want? sky!