Lonely Teenagers

Requiem For Lonely Teenagers With Passed-Out Moms-Atlas Sound

Sad, woozy, and lilting...this is simply late-night gorgeousness. Has a vaguely psychedelic feel. Its an interesting side project of Bradford James Cox, the lead singer of Deerhunter. Kind of surprised me that it is a side project, cause I could see this being on a Deerhunter record.

No matter...reminds me of Galaxie 500 a bit. Off of the Another Bedroom EP.

Seal Eyeing-Animal Collective

Starts out with all these underwater sounds, and then this gorgeous piano comes in. Its hard to describe after that. Either you know how creative Animal Collective is...and you get them. Or you don't.

And about 2 and 1/2 minutes in, the song gets even prettier.

I really like the band, and have since Sungs Tongs. I will say that sometimes I think they pack too many ideas into a song. Not on this one...again, like Atlas Sound...very late-night and beautiful. And to think, this is a "B-Side" of new single "Water Curses".

On Your Shore-Enya

Enya gets kind of a bad rap. I mean, some of it is deserved. She essentially makes the same record over and over. If you buy one, you have them all.

But, well before Beck, she was a bedroom artist herself. She plays all the instruments, records all the backing tracks, etc. And she is from the extremely talented Clannad family (huge in Ireland). I think she bailed on them because she was the youngest. Like Andy Gibb.

That said, with all the studio tricks she layers her songs with, it is this song, that always chokes me up, always gets to me. I've put it on mixtapes and people always tell me that they had to check, that they didn't know it was Enya. Its off her first (and best) record Watermark. Its just her singing about finding yourself always on someone's shore. Ignore what you are supposed to think and realize its beautiful.

Under The Ivy-Kate Bush

I could devote an entire blog to Kate Bush and how much I love her. So to say I am way more than biased about her entire recording output is well, a massive understatement.

This song always makes me cry. There is something just so simple and beautiful about it--plaintive and visceral...its just arresting. I don't know, the imagery...I can't explain it.

Deliver Me-Robin Holcomb

When I make mixtapes, I have songs which are old standbys--I always come back to them, always put them CD's. This is one. Robin Holcomb has released maybe 3 records in the last 15 years...and this is from her first. I bought in Chicago in '93--i found it in the 99 cent bin. I think I had a read a review or something...I honestly cannot remember. But I know I bought it for around a dollar.

Its worth 99 dollars (and you can get this song in ITunes, as well as the whole album, simply titled Robin Holcomb). The whole album is great...but this song, man, this song.

Its just her singing very quietly over a piano. Again, like the Kate Bush song, its so beautiful its hard to put down in words. Maybe like a sunset...a perfect sunset.

Which might be a cheesy image (guilty) but it works. In the song, she keeps repeating "deliver me, the light is only perfect, for a very short time." So I guess it alludes to the concept of the Scottish gloaming (in a literal sense) and about a relationship in a figurative sense.

Whatever, its fucking gorgeous. You know what, it sounds like a prayer...there is something religious about it. Insanely beautiful.