Okay, I have been very reluctant to do this, because I personally feel like it gives you guys a little too much of a glimpse into my life. What can I say, I’m shy. However, regardless of my insecurities, I have decided to venture forward with my top five idea as I feel it might be the perfect opportunity to get to know the PopWreck readers. My thought is that if I post my top five, hopefully you guys will also in the comment box, and we can all discuss our favorites of each topic picked. Hell, this may even turn out to be fun.
So lets start this week with songs.
My top five songs (in no certain order):
1). Ryan Adams: “Come Pick Me” Up from the album Heartbreaker
This song opens with a heartbreaking harmonica riff, which ironically and honestly might be the most positive part of the entire song.
The songs lyrics lend details to a story surrounding a man who is holding on to the past regardless of all of the crappy things that happened during it and how obvious it is that that situation wasn’t perfect. Yet, almost without choice he can’t release his white knuckled grip. It’s clear how strongly he still want that person to love and miss him, as being forgotten and ceasing to matter to a person who once loved you is one of the most destructive feeling encountered in life. Adams states: “When you’re walking downtown / Do you wish I was there, do you wish it was me / With the windows clear and the mannequins eyes / do they they all look like mine?”
I love that concept, and the fact that you can actually hear the hurt in his troubled voice. It’s beautiful in the most depressing and honest way possible.
2). Copeland: “Brightest” from the album Beneath Medicine Tree
This song is simple. Honestly it’s very little more than Aaron Marsh’s vocals and a piano. It just doesn’t get simpler.
And yet it does. There is really nothing complex to the lyrical composition of this song either. It’s simply Marsh explaining to a person he remembers from a rocky past, that he misses and remembers very little about why there were conflicts between them. But in it’s tiny little punch it packs a line that sums up the way I want to be loved better than anything in the world ever has:
“…and she swears that I was the brightest little firefly in her jar.”
With storytelling like that, there is no real need for complication. This song simply speaks for itself.
3). Kevin Devine: “Ballgame” from the album Make the Clocks Move
This is a brilliant song by a brilliant man who doesn’t realize the complete depth of his talent. However, his lack of realization, allows him to posses an honesty that few artist ever achieve.
“Ballgame” is one of his best examples of this.
In this song, Kevin says more in five minutes, than most people admit within their entire life. For example:
“I’m selfish enough to want to get better / But I’m backwards enough not to take any steps to get there.”
“When you realize it’s a pattern and not a phase / That it’s what you’ve become and what you will stay / That’s the ballgame.”
“And then I’ll drink those thoughts away / I’ve gotten good at that.”
He’s blunt, mostly because he forgets people are listening. And it really works for him. It got my attention.
4). Rilo Kiley: “A Better Son/Daughter” from the album The Execution of All Things
I’m not sure anyone captures depression better than Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley. She seems to flawlessly find the words for situations that simply have no words, or at least never have before.
This is a song about depression and the way it makes you feel having it. And the voice she uses to explain these heavy handed situations, seems so soft and comforting regardless of how pointy the words she chooses are. At one point in the song she opens her mouth and screams, “and sometimes when you’re on you’re really fucking on and your friends they sing along and they love you. But they lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap, and it teases you for weeks in it’s absence.”
Really? Who hasn’t felt that? That set of lines gives me goosebumps, every freaking time. Every time, regardless of the fact that I have listened to this song at least once a day, everyday, since since late 2002. It’s simply moving, and captures chapters of my life perfectly.
Few songs are more perfect.
5). Regina Spektor: “Somedays” from the album Soviet Kitsch
It doesn’t happen very often, but in that rare moment when Regina Spektor takes herself seriously, there is nobody in the world who is better. “Somedays” is that moment. In a way that reminds me of Ben Folds Five‘s “Evaporated,” the song sticks to a relatively simple progression featuring light string arrangements meant to highlight the lyrics “Somedays aren’t yours at all / They come and go as if they are someone else’s days /They come and leave you behind with someone else’s face/ and it’s harsher than yours, and colder than yours.”
Regardless of the stories jagged undertone, and the obvious pain that Regina is going through, she still finds a way to allow her story to be told without complicating the situation with overwhelming and useless emotional baggage. I mean, this song could have easily gone Bright Eyes on us. But Regina keeps her complaints to a minimum, and produces her masterpiece.
But enough about me. What songs move you, and why? Make your voice a PopWreck voice, and share with us your top five. You’ll be glad you did.
