That’s When I Knew
Making an attempt to write short fiction things. This is sloppy writing at its best and I don’t know where I drew the courage from to post this on my blog. Groan.
“I’m being optimistic here,” you said. I looked into your eyes trying to ascertain if you meant those words. I swallowed hard and said, “The world is often ruined by your optimism.”
You didn’t listen to me then.
I remember when we had only time on our hands and endless evenings to roam the streets and pay for those cigarettes you could never get enough of. I recall with vivid clarity the names of all the songs that you liked and I told you that maybe you should try your hand at music.
The first time I decided you were going to be more than just a regular friend, I knew it was going to be a wrestling match. You were always proud of not being attached to anyone. I said to you, “You’re almost my best friend now.” There was only a half-smile and a slight nod from you.
You came to me for advice about things that I wasn’t particularly good at. How to get rid of a debt, how to not let nicotine show up on a blood test, how to hold back from calling up your old flames. I was never of much help to you and I was always confused why you came to me.
There comes a time in your life when you question if being with someone, platonically or otherwise, is more of a habit or if it’s really, truly a connection you formed over the years. Maybe you get up the next morning, you bring yourself to call them and their voice on the other end reaffirms those nagging worries. Maybe you are scared and you never call.
“I’m learning to play the piano,” you said to me, while I was seated in the front seat of your new secondhand car. After all of these years, you tried to tell me in that one sentence that I was right. You tried your hardest to elicit that I always understood you and you finally understood that.
We spent a half hour discussing what your future career in music would look like and I joked about you losing interest in it within a few weeks. Just like everything else. The expression on your face, the way your hands clenched the steering wheel when I chided you, that’s when I knew that you were going to see this through. That’s when I knew you didn’t need me anymore. I thought it best not to break it to you at the time but that’s when I knew it would be the last time I’d ever meet you.
Teach Me How To Be Loved – Rebecca Ferguson (Lexer) ♫
https://soundcloud.com/lexer/rebecca-ferguson-lexer
I eagerly await Lexer’s mixes of good tracks. This one, too, doesn’t disappoint. Melodious, house music with amazing vocals by Rebecca Ferguson. Leave on repeat, all day.
I’m Waiting Here – Lykke Li Ft David Lynch ♫
Who is extremely excited for David Lynch’s upcoming new album?
Answer: Obviously me.
Hear the preview of Lykke Li and David Lynch’s bonus track on this new album ‘The Big Dream’ on iTunes. It’s so good. SO GOOD.
For a preview of the album, watch this link.
Young and Beautiful – Lana Del Rey ♫
I don’t think Lana Del Rey has been this famous before. I heard this song in the Baz Luhrman directed ‘The Great Gatsby’ and I must admit this is the song that struck out the most. Extremely powerful, haunting, painful yet overwhelming. I haven’t seen the official video and I have no desire to because the scene in the movie when it played was brilliant enough.
Flight Facilities – Clair De Lune (feat. Christine Hoberg) ♫
Such a sombre song with a really haunting video. The way the story plays out in flashbacks is really something and adds meaning to the repetitive, hypnotic lyrics. The ambiguity at the start, the instrumental in the middle, the grief at the end.
Every Song – ON AN ON ♫
“A dream-washed textural journey armed with a biting perspective on life, love, and the commonality of loss. It is an affair that sizzles with electricity and calls one in with its unnerved openness.”
If you liked this, you’ll love their other singles from this album. Especially ‘Ghosts’ and ‘The Hunter’.
Daily Prompt: Earworm | Calling (Lose My Mind) – Sebastian Ingrosso Ft. Alesso and Ryan Tedder♫
So since I am somewhat anonymous here, I make it a point to share my love for the music world with the help of the written word. I am beyond the point of trying to make people understand why it is that I fancy certain kind of music over others and I am also aware that there’s nothing demeaning about preferring one not-so-popular band or genre over the other. There’s nothing wrong about the kind of music you love and I honestly don’t know what people who think otherwise are trying to prove.
Daily Prompt always has interesting and inspiring topics but I’ve never been one to write those posts just because I wanted to garner a truck load of views and followers. Coincidentally, today when I decided to share a song I’m very much into right now, I knew that Daily Prompt made that topic just to tempt me. Damnit.
“What song is stuck in your head (or on permanent rotation in your CD or MP3 player) these days? Why does it speak to you?”
The song that is stuck on repeat on my playlist at the moment is:
Calling (Lose My Mind) – Sebastian Ingrosso Ft. Alesso and Ryan Tedder
I have always been a huge fun of electronic and trance music with repetitive lyrics ever since I started understanding the distinction from genre to genre. It comes as no surprise that when I stumbled onto this song on Soundcloud I immediately had to drop what I was doing to remind myself to just breathe.
I love how this song keeps building up and breaking down. It leaves me famished. I cannot explain what celestial references in songs do to me. For a start, they take me to another world. This song gets me so elated I can barely control my Joy. Infinite Joy. I want to get up and sway and dance, feel and laugh, sing and clap.
Ryan Tedder has always held a soft corner in my heart. He has one of the finest voices I’ve ever heard. Most persons don’t know who he is but when I tell them with a matter-of-fact face that I’m actually talking about the OneRepublic vocalist they’re bound to agree. When an artist like him joins with DJ’s like Sebastian Ingrosso and Alesso you know to expect nothing less than the best.
If you hear the lyrics carefully, the song speaks about “fame”, it talks about leaving it behind for Someone unless you can shine alongside that Someone. I like how the lyrics also imply that it’s easy to lose your mind when you don’t have a person to add colour to your fame. Also, it’s ever so easy to lose your sense of right or wrong, heaven or hell.
Honestly, this song speaks to me on way too many levels.
“Can we just for a night let the stars decide where we belong…”
Tell me those words mean nothing to you and I will have something to keep me up all night.
Addicted – Morgan Page Ft. Greg Laswell ♫
If you like electro house music and Greg Laswell’s enchanting voice, then this song is yours. Also, I must find out more about Morgan Page. Seems like I’ve found a new DJ to stalk.
2013 is working wonders for my music needs.
“Yeah, I might be addicted
To how you always get the best of me.”
These Broken Hands – Joe Brooks ♫
Heard this song on Grey’s Anatomy and I’m hooked. Seriously, what is it about British singers?
Catch Me – The Jezabels ♫
CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THIS SONG. Help me out by being as obsessed with it as I am.
Little background for the ones who care:
The Jezabels are an Australian four-piece indie and alternative rock and disco pop musical group which formed in 2007. The Jezabels formed in 2007 after the four members met as students at the University of Sydney. The Jezabels’ Facebook page describes their genre as “intensindie”.
Nonesuch – Tanlines ♫
The word nonesuch means something with nothing like it; an unrivalled thing; a paragon.
Hearing this song late last night was quite cathartic. If you like Tanlines you should give a listen to the various remixes they’ve done too.
Electronic and indie rock music all the way!
Love You More – Sunday Girl ♫
Jade Williams, a British pop singer who performs under the stage name Sunday Girl belts out this very catchy song while swishing her hair back and forth. Yes, this does seem like a shampoo commercial. But I can’t help but love it more.
I really enjoy her voice, check out Jade’s Tik Tok cover by Ke$ha, I daresay it sounded better than the original.
Hit Me Up – Summer Heart ♫
I wish I knew more about this band because I have almost all the songs from their album About A Feeling. With some of their music, I guess it’s intended to not make the lyrics audible. That confounds me. So does this video. I like things which confound me.
Song Named After A Girl – Color Theory ♫
I just had to share this song right away. I stumbled on it a while ago when my playlist decided to have a shuffle mind of its own.
Such an expressive song with poetic lyrics. This seems like the kind of track someone would write as their very first song. Very smooth and beautiful.
If I Lose Myself – OneRepublic ♫
ONEREPUBLIC IS BACK! Rejoice everyone.
With their first official single in 2013 ‘If I Lose Myself’ it seems like we can now stop worrying what happened to our beloved OneRepublic. A very catchy song, typical OneRepublic undertones. This song can stay on your playlist for a long, long time.
“It’s actually about my buried, latent fear of flying and going down in an airplane,” frontman Ryan Tedder told Billboard. “Having that moment of sheer panic, looking out the window, seeing your life pass before you and somehow finding comfort in the fact that the person next to you is experiencing the same traumatic event.”
In Your Eyes – Kate Boy ♫
I really don’t think I’m a music snob and I most definitely do not force my music down anyone’s throats (or ears) but I’m thinking it’s very important that everyone watch this video by the Swedish pop band Kate Boy.
I have always been captivated by electronic music. There’s something hypnotic about electronic sounds and the drum beats and synth lines in this song are just right. This is the song I can listen to first thing when I wake up and jump out of bed halfway through the song and feel wide awake.
Whatever I say about the video will not be good enough to describe how freaking brilliant it is. Minimalist and greyscale. They got my favourite checkboxes ticked on My What Makes A Good Music Video checklist.
What is even more enticing is that Kate Akhurst is wearing a baseball cap paired with a raincoat and dancing away like her body is a river which is rippling back and forth. She ensures that although the song is about eyes, hers remain perfectly shadowed throughout. Must say she reminds me a lot of Lykke Li. Or rather a sobered up version of her.
Music That Dominated My Playlist in 2012♫
Everyone has certain small worlds inside the big world they live in. It forms a cocoon for you to escape from the bigger world. For me, it’s words, sentences, grammar, poetry, books and music. Today I choose to delve into the odd one out among them. Music.
Music stuns. Music inspires. Music hurts. Music heals.
There are songs which can influence you in a way no book can. No matter how hard words try, sometimes and I daresay most of the times, they’re nothing without music lending them a helping hand. So this is using words to describe music. As if that’s even possible.
So in no particular order, here it comes.
Until We Bleed – Lykke Li Ft. Kleerup
There are no words thick or strong enough to describe this song. It is simply my song. It is my song for every damn occasion. It is my walking song, it is my running song, my dancing song, my sleeping song, my travelling song, love song, breakup song, getaway song, my Tunnel Song. It’s sad that Sam from Perks Of Being A Wallflower didn’t know for so long the name of the song that played on the radio which made her feel Infinite.
But I do. And for that I am grateful.
I first heard Lykke Li’s mystifying vocals in the Twilight Saga’s ‘New Moon’. Immediately I went home and devoured her YouTube channel. I also learned that her name isn’t pronounced as I did. It was ‘licky lee’ and not ‘like lee’ (likely). Not that it changed anything, especially how much I adored and wanted to emulate her. So anyway, Until We Bleed creeped its way into my life. I am in an irretrievable daze ever since.
For months, it was the only song I could listen to, on repeat. I conveniently forgot the rest of the 400 songs on my playlist which meant something to me onceuponatime (I guess). Nothing could compare to what it made me feel. Also, the Unofficial YouTube video plays scenes from the Edie Sedgewick’s life inspired ‘Factory Girl’ starring Siena Miller. Cherry on top.
Minimal lyrics. Repetitive techno-electronic background music. Hypnotising vocals. That’s what you get when you add Kleerup to Lykke Li.
One of the video comments said,”this clip makes me want to smoke.” For the first and probably the only time in my life I added a ‘thumbs up’ to such a comment.
Recently, my friend messaged me saying that someone in his neighbourhood is playing “Until We Bleed” real loud. I asked him to jump that person’s bones already. Period.
Moon – Slow Magic
I discovered this song in one of these ridiculous Internet k-holes I fell into.
It is a typical chillwave, shoegaze genre song. You can put it on repeat for the entire day and just lay in bed and ponder about everything you never gave thought to. It could be the finale instrumental track to the soundtrack of the movie which stars you as the protagonist. The last stage where you are about to attain your ‘happilyeverafter’, that’s when Moon by Slow Magic starts playing. Automatically you will see yourself transform into an Oscar winning performer.
Best video comment I found here: “The stars make love to this song.”
I like to believe it’s not just the stars.
You’re The Shade of My Heart – Owsey, Stumbeline and Resotone
This track is a mixtape of vocals by Rihanna and Ellie Goulding. Add to that some spoken complementary words and you get the most chill, harmonious track ever by a very strong trio. Such different voices beautifully blended into one song. This song is so perfect when you’re writing. No wonder most of my bearable writings happen while listening to it.
I have had a soft corner for Owsey remixes ever since I heard their mix of Skinny Love – Birdy. Clearly this one beats the rest. No one has a right to dislike this song.
Open – Rhye
Okay, so I’ll just say it. This song plays in a Victoria’s Secret commercial. (GOOD LORD, DON’T JUDGE!) Haunting tune, secret identity of the vocalist, repetitive lyrics, very very sensual I mean come on read the lyrics.
“I’m a fool for the shake in your thighs, I’m a fool for the sound in your sighs, I’m a fool for your belly, I’m a fool for your love.”
Quietly fabulous.
So, just a month or so ago Rhye finally revealed their identity. What came as a shock was that they are just a duo and the vocalist is a man. Not being sexist here, but give the song a listen and you’ll know what I mean. Also, I ain’t posting the official (explicit) video here, because it’s too beautiful for its own good and I am greedy.
A comment on Soundcloud: “This song gives me something to live for.”
Apparitions – The Raveonettes
This song was made for a different universe altogether. It played for a mere 15 seconds or less on The CW’s Ringer. The Sarah Michelle Gellar lead comeback on television after Buffy The Vampire Slayer. My celebrity girl crush playing twin sisters on a show which ran for 24 episodes after being called off. Unfair or what.
I will hold this true till I die. Ringer had the best soundtracks ever. In close competition with The Vampire Diaries.
Apparitions is a frightening song. I say this because the official video gave me sleepless nights. Okay, not really. But there is something very dark about it.
The Raveonettes, I believe are a well-established band. And I say this because it’s not easy to produce such music and have it loved. The lyrics to this song are everything to me. They play in my head randomly when I’m walking on a dark street, driving or unable to sleep.I am fumbling for words here, because I watched the video again. Ah. Damn. Just give it a try.
The YouTube video description reads: A couple hot chicks get murdered, and there’s some serious haunting going on. Anyway, it’s a pretty awesomely affecting video, and the song will be in your head all week.
Fire Escape – Matthew Mayfield
Another Ringer find, I think I have an affinity for black and white. The lyrics forced invisible tears down my eyes, but it was the voice that arrested. Matthew Mayfield’s voice is what lifts this song to what it is. That’s it. Nothing else.
Also, Brittany Snow has never looked oh so stunning in her entire acting career. Something about her reminds me of the Olsen twins. I sound like I am fantasizing. I will stop. Sorry.
The abrupt ending is so apt. I want to be in such a relationship just so I can feel those complicated emotions and write deep, profound poetry and sing hard-hitting songs about it.
There’s going to be a Volume II to this post because too many songs on my playlist are feeling left out.
Sloppy Etymology 