The music I mentioned
Aug. 5th, 2004 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaWent out and had a nice mopey psychogeographic ramble this evening (I suppose I was vaguely affected by those spoilers XD). Got out at Lionel-Groulx, wandered in a several-block circle around the metro station in the sunset, past churches and community vegetable gardens and 3,884 greasy-spoon diners, bought a Jamaican beef patty, got back in the metro, got out at Snowdon and ate a spicy tofu/seafood/miso soup thing at Korean House. Essentially vegetarian and by my standards ridiculously healthy. The nice thing about Korean restaurants is that they give you all these neat veggie preserves and cold salads for free, whereas a Japanese restaurant would charge you 6$ for a rough equivalent. (And a bowl of rice. Nowadays rice isn't even complementary at Chinese restaurants.) I was totally stuffed at the time, but now it's half past midnight and my stomach is reminding me that veggie preserves do not contain a lot of calories for their bulk. ^^;
Anyway, the music! The ramble-mope mood shows in the choices.
Zazie - J'envoie valser
I keep reminding myself that I should buy one of Zazie's albums, and I keep forgetting. ^^; One of her other songs, "My vie en rose", is one of the very few songcalls I associate with Utena, in terms of lyrics and mood (Faye Wong's "Ashura" is another). This is a simple little minor-key waltz, that would feel very old-fashioned if there weren't that bit of dissonant electronic stutter.
Luna - Mermaid Eyes
Have to buy this album too; I think I'm afraid it won't live up to this song. It has this perfect sad-happy, summer-gloaming feel, like sitting on the curved branch of a weeping willow that extends over the dark water of the lake, watching fireflies weave through the boughs. Waiting for a lover who may or may not come. (It also kind of reminds me of barley-tea summer days in NYC. *g* The bassist for the band who sings the girl's part in this is... the VA for Jem, in the 80s cartoon. I had it on a mix CD I played for Jae and Fio, and Jae was like, "She doesn't sound cheesy enough!")
Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust
Joan Baez's "Famous Blue Raincoat", I suppose this would be, though rather than cough out some sort of half-baked analytical retread I'll just say that the two songs remind me of each other. I'm a sucker for beautiful poems that read like literary prose confessionals, or is it the other way around? In the Cohen interview I linked in the earlier entry he talked about how the universal is achieved through the particular. Cufflinks, a booth in the Midwest, a raincoat torn at the shoulder, Washington Square or Clinton Street. The love and resentment and regret could be anyone.
Matsu Takako - Sakura Fuwari (Acoustic Live)
Tracked this one down entirely by accident. Figuring out the song title was even harder: I first heard this from a burnt copy of her album lent to me by the friend of a friend, marked only with the word "JPOP". This was back when I'd heard very little contemporary Asian pop, and spoke only first-year Japanese, so I listened to it obsessively even though the album as a whole was shite. XD In retrospect I don't think the problem was with the songs but the production, which was generic early 90s mass-produced jpop idoru synth ballad horribility. "Sakura Fuwari" was a single, and one of the best three cuts off that seminal CD. Thus I was really happy to find this version, which is acoustic-guitar-accompanied and a million times classier. It has that nostalgic, folk-tinged, 和風 feel to it.
Suede - Everthing Will Flow
I don't actually like Suede very much *is sporked by all and sundry*, but I get the feeling it's one of those Belle & Sebastian situations, where it's a matter of listening to more of them until I've separated the wheat I like from the chaff I don't. Except I haven't gotten around to bothering. The listener-band relationship got off on the entirely wrong foot, because I expected them to sound like this song, and they basically don't. XD
I really like this song, though. I like it enough for one whole band. If I had a top ten pop songs list this would be on it, maybe #7 or #8. (#1 is New Order's "Regret". #2 is Southern All Stars' "Manatsu no kajitsu". #3 is a platonic ideal of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" that bounces between Pet Shop Boys and Tommy February6, and whatever forgotten cover version of it I first heard as a kindergartener in China.) It... sounds like drugs to me, always has, but in a good way. XD;;; The words he's singing and what the music does, there, that's what people take drugs for.
P.S. You don't have to comment to download, but it's nice if you do - especially if you haven't yet, so I can get an idea of what you like. ^_^
Anyway, the music! The ramble-mope mood shows in the choices.
Zazie - J'envoie valser
I keep reminding myself that I should buy one of Zazie's albums, and I keep forgetting. ^^; One of her other songs, "My vie en rose", is one of the very few songcalls I associate with Utena, in terms of lyrics and mood (Faye Wong's "Ashura" is another). This is a simple little minor-key waltz, that would feel very old-fashioned if there weren't that bit of dissonant electronic stutter.
Luna - Mermaid Eyes
Have to buy this album too; I think I'm afraid it won't live up to this song. It has this perfect sad-happy, summer-gloaming feel, like sitting on the curved branch of a weeping willow that extends over the dark water of the lake, watching fireflies weave through the boughs. Waiting for a lover who may or may not come. (It also kind of reminds me of barley-tea summer days in NYC. *g* The bassist for the band who sings the girl's part in this is... the VA for Jem, in the 80s cartoon. I had it on a mix CD I played for Jae and Fio, and Jae was like, "She doesn't sound cheesy enough!")
Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust
Joan Baez's "Famous Blue Raincoat", I suppose this would be, though rather than cough out some sort of half-baked analytical retread I'll just say that the two songs remind me of each other. I'm a sucker for beautiful poems that read like literary prose confessionals, or is it the other way around? In the Cohen interview I linked in the earlier entry he talked about how the universal is achieved through the particular. Cufflinks, a booth in the Midwest, a raincoat torn at the shoulder, Washington Square or Clinton Street. The love and resentment and regret could be anyone.
Matsu Takako - Sakura Fuwari (Acoustic Live)
Tracked this one down entirely by accident. Figuring out the song title was even harder: I first heard this from a burnt copy of her album lent to me by the friend of a friend, marked only with the word "JPOP". This was back when I'd heard very little contemporary Asian pop, and spoke only first-year Japanese, so I listened to it obsessively even though the album as a whole was shite. XD In retrospect I don't think the problem was with the songs but the production, which was generic early 90s mass-produced jpop idoru synth ballad horribility. "Sakura Fuwari" was a single, and one of the best three cuts off that seminal CD. Thus I was really happy to find this version, which is acoustic-guitar-accompanied and a million times classier. It has that nostalgic, folk-tinged, 和風 feel to it.
Suede - Everthing Will Flow
I don't actually like Suede very much *is sporked by all and sundry*, but I get the feeling it's one of those Belle & Sebastian situations, where it's a matter of listening to more of them until I've separated the wheat I like from the chaff I don't. Except I haven't gotten around to bothering. The listener-band relationship got off on the entirely wrong foot, because I expected them to sound like this song, and they basically don't. XD
I really like this song, though. I like it enough for one whole band. If I had a top ten pop songs list this would be on it, maybe #7 or #8. (#1 is New Order's "Regret". #2 is Southern All Stars' "Manatsu no kajitsu". #3 is a platonic ideal of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" that bounces between Pet Shop Boys and Tommy February6, and whatever forgotten cover version of it I first heard as a kindergartener in China.) It... sounds like drugs to me, always has, but in a good way. XD;;; The words he's singing and what the music does, there, that's what people take drugs for.
P.S. You don't have to comment to download, but it's nice if you do - especially if you haven't yet, so I can get an idea of what you like. ^_^
