Apologies for stealing the format from High Fidelity. Watched it this afternoon after several years, it still holds up...shame about Jack Black's career though.
We've all gone through break ups. Some are easy. You look at your partner, your partner looks at you and it is done. There are no hard feelings, and life starts anew. Then there are the hard ones. The ones that are a seemingly never-ending unburdening and dismantling of all the emotions that have built up over the relationship. Then there are the ones that hit you out of the blue. Those sting like Zeus raining lightning down on you. Through all of them one thing remains constant. Music. Music soothes the pain and makes the forgetting possible. These are my top five.
1. "I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)" performed by Chet Baker off Chet Baker Sings. Covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Nina Simone to Marianne Faithfull, Chet Baker's simple and quiet rendition perfectly captures the melancholy of how long your ex-lover can live within you. The tinkling bar room piano reflects the fragility of ever really being "over" someone you love.
2. Lovage's "Archie & Veronica" off of Music to Make Love To Your Old Lady By A cheeky macabre song of a lover standing over the grave of their beloved. The song's title evokes the idea that this is the funeral for one of the eternal high school sweethearts. The breathy refrain by Jennifer Charles of "I never loved you" is haunting and reinforces the idea that love is not eternal, but perhaps the longing it inspires is.
3. "Calling And Not Calling My Ex" by Okkervil River off of The Stand Ins A far more positive song this. An ode to the stupidity of letting someone go when you should have fought and worked harder to keep the relationship alive. All the time knowing that the only right thing to do is wish your ex well and hope they kick the world's ass.
4. Martina Topley-Bird's "I Still Feel"off of Anything A mixed up topsy turvy song. One that connects you to the convection of emotions you experience when your beloved is gone. Up and down, wanting the one thing you can't have.
5. Spiritualized's "Home Of The Brave" off of Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space A song for when you have hit rock bottom. Life seems meaningless without her and you have numbed the pain. Always knowing that the pain is still there and will be roaring back as soon as I sober up.
Of course there are tons more. Would love to hear what songs soothe during the hard times.
1. Someone like You - Adele
2. Your so Vain - Carly Simon
3. You Oughta Know - Alanis Morisett
4. Since You Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
5. We are never getting back together - Taylor Swift
xo
I'm Every Woman - Whitney Houston
Crocodile Tears - Catie Curtis
Dear John - Taylor Swift
I'll Think of a Reason Later - Lee Ann Womack
Lesson in Leaving - JoDee Messina (Bye Bye is also a great one)
Actually, you just put on Broken by NIN...
wish
last
happiness in slavery
gave up
suck.
just perfect.
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
I agree with the princess but will throw it back to Pretty Hate Machine
Terrible Lie
Head Like A Hole
Down In It
Something I can Never Have
Thats What I Get
Unbreak my heart - Toni Braxton
Somebody like you - Adele
If you were mine - Anouk
Don't Speak - No Doubt
Black - Pearl Jam
These are old, but they get right to the point.
1. Hit the Road Jack - Ray Charles
2. Heard it All Before - Sunshine Anderson
3. Not Gon Cry - Mary J. Blige
4. Get Gone - Ideal
5. Free - Destiny's Child
and one honorable mention...
Bust Your Windows - Jazmine Sullivan
1. It must have been love - Roxette
2. Maggie May - Rod Stewart
3. Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
4. The Sign - Ace of Base
5. Foolish Games - Jewel
'Company' - Rickie Lee Jones
'Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken' - Llyod Cole and The Commotion
'I Want You' - Elvis Costello
'Goodbye Louise' - ME!
'Why' - Annie Lennox
xx SF
Love that movie.
As for the list:
White Stripes - There's no home for you here
Bob Dylan - It ain't me, babe
Belle & Sebastian - Don't Leave the Light On ("old sad bastard music")
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Fucker
Black Keys - Next Girl
Post-avant-retro-demelodicized-electro-yodel-core is my jam.
1. I'm Going Down - Bruce Springsteen
2. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
3. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
4. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
5. Nothing Compares To U = Sinead O'Connor
1. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
2. Suspicious Minds - Elvis
3. Take the L - Motels
4. Crying - Roy Orbison
5. Goodbye to You - Scandal
no particular order:
tears dry on their own -amy winehouse
i will survive -chantay savage's cover (TOTALLY different spin on it!)
you oughta know -alanis morissette
out my mind, just in time -erykah badu
it's not right, but it's ok -whitney houston
honorable mention:
sleep to dream -fiona apple
This is easy .. buy any Taylor Swift album ... choose any 5 tracks.. voilà !!!!
My current choices don't soothe... but hey if you love a good cry or you want some heart wrenching sentimental torture, they have sure been packing a punch!! I could probably fill a whole page because I'm hook, line and sinker for context and the perfect lyrics combo but think these would be my top five:
Almost Lover - A Fine Frenzy.
This is number one, and my cathartic crybaby anthem. I'm a puddle with this line.
"And now you're gone and I'm haunted, I bet you are just fine.... did I make it that easy to walk in and out of my life?"
All I Wanted Was You - Paramore.
The song is so-so but this line hits me in the guts because radically over the top memory reminds me of a near word-perfect conversation.
"I could follow you to the beginning just to relive the start, and maybe then, we’d remember to slow down at all of our favourite parts"
All Over You - The Spill Canvas.
"... I'm all over you, I'm not over you.... This life is way too short to get caught up in all this stuff when I just want you to love me back, why can't you just love me back?"
Black - Pearl Jam.
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky, but why, why, why can't it be, can't it be mine?"
It Must Have Been Love - Roxette.
"It must have been love but it's over now, it must have been good but I lost it somehow / it was all that I wanted, now I'm living without"
Special mentions also to:
The Flame - Cheap Trick.
"I'm going crazy, I'm losing sleep. I'm in too far, I'm in way too deep over you. I can't believe you're gone"
Just Give Me a Reason - P!nk & Nate Ruess
"I let you see the parts of me, that weren't all that pretty, and with every touch you fixed them"
Call Me - Shinedown.
"I'll always keep you inside, you healed my heart and my life..."
Landslide ( Fleetwood Mac)
Human Nature (Madonna)
Down In It (NIN)
Being In Love Really Sucks (The Stunned Guys)
I Dreamed a Dream (Les Misérables)
I hope the second last poster here is OK. She sounded a bit distraught and now her profile is gone. Love hurts.
Accidents will Happen - Elvis Costello (I feel the randomness of the damage we inadvertently do to others. And from others, to us)
I Won't Stand in Your way - Stray Cats (late night mourning)
Its Alright - Social Distortion version of Dylan's song (I'll get along very nicely, thank you. "...a light I've never known")
Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac (anger well channeled)
Love in Vain - Robert Johnson (watching her leave...)
1. We are never ever getting back together - Taylor Swift
2. Someone like you - Adele
3. Go your own way - Fleetwood Mac
4. Since U been gone - Kelly Clarkson
5. Cry me a river - Justin Timberlake
