Swan Lake/All Fires. Sitting in the autumn leaves, and the grass is wet, and so are our hands.
Hefner/ Hymn for Cigarettes. Smoking while laying in bed, a vertical line—not minding the cover of “Heartbreaker”
Pastels/ Yoga. Doing stretches towards the sun in a winter-lit kitchen, arms raised and legs tight.
Billy Bragg/ Accident waiting to happen. A bright computer screen, a gin and tonic.
Helen Love/ We Love You. Sneakers and mud in Ohio.
Grizzly Bear/ Knife (Girl Talk remix). Caffeine overload, and headbobbing, a misguided Charleston—none of these things make any sense.
Arab Strap/ One four seven one. The morning, and choosing to go back to sleep.
Of Montreal/ Grolandic (edit). A car, Tennessee, a pharmacy.
Beaten Awake/ Browns Town. Sidewalks at 5 AM, summer exudes from boring pavement, and screaming.
Look Blue, Go Purple/ I don’t want you anyway. Sentimental neuroses.
I’m from Barcelona/ This boy. An orange bedroom, and then one with trim painted the wrong color.
All Girl Summer Fun Band/ Later operator. An airplane back, a convincing. Lies.
Kimya Dawson/ Fire. But, but. Everyone I know is a liar.
Pipettes/ I love you. I mean that.
Bound Stems/ Wake up, ma and pa are gone. Lovely city streets, right after dusk.
Magnetic Fields/ Yeah! Oh yeah! EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SONG IS AMAZING, except for the song itself: “Though I need you more than air/ is it true you just don’t care/ are you having an affair? Yeah! Oh Yeah!”
Manhattan Love Suicides/ Crush whatever. Saturday night.
Joanna Newsom/ Cosmia. Monday night, and airport security lines.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone/ Graceland. Headphones and static, and a reason to believe.
Tullycraft/ 8 great ways. Love, love, love.
Lovenotes and Lithium/ When Love Gets in the Way. Accuracy.
Deerhoof/ Come See the Duck. Absurdity.
Tom Waits/ Goonight Irene. Lullaby, of the terrifying kind, under Little Mermaid sheets which look like water.
Readyville/ Life is Rough. Psychotic behavior, embodied and justified, to some degree.
World of Pooh/ Someone wants you dead. Accuracy, again.
Dressy Bessy/ Side 2. The library stacks, and music squeezing out too loudly.
Cat Power/ He War. A rushed choice, a regret, a triumph.
Hello Saferide/ The Quiz. Don’t settle for less, but on a night like this, how can you want too much?
1.15.2007
Sweden, seriously.
In terms of music, I am notoriously anti-Sweden in a manner not particularly fitting to the current indie (especially twee) climate. Among the most popular acts from Sweden are adorable mainstays such as Jens Lekman (cute, but a painfully awkward lyricist) and I’m from Barcelona (cute, but kind of terrifying in their pressured sweetness). Though I’ll admit to liking both Barcelona and Jens, I can’t listen to either for a long period of time, usually because their lack of grasp of the English language and forced rhymes get to me—not to mention that they constantly sing about unrequited love. Ick.
However, my new favorite Swedish act is none other than Hello Saferide, a band notorious for singing specifically about unrequited love. Hello Saferide is the essence of adorable—but unlike the other Swedes, their lyrics don’t have such an irritating quality (i.e. they don’t write their songs in weird couplets which rhyme ‘make believe’ with ‘maple leaves’ or ‘goddamn’ with ‘last tram’). Hello Saferide’s last EP (my preferred method of listening to Swedish pop) Woud You Let Me Play This EP Ten Times A Day? has two fantastic songs on it. They are both hopeful and broken, sarcastic and honest. “The Quiz” is a laundry list of things that are important in a new relationship: “Would you freak out if I said I liked you?”, “Can you at all times wear socks because I’m still scared of feet?” and “Do you read at least two books a month?” The criteria may be random and strangely idiosyncratic (staying quiet during Seinfeld and sloppy eating also make appearances), but it has a well-articulated heart. “2006” ("January 1st and it's already clear, it's gonna be another shitty year") also functions as a list song—resolutions ending, of course with “I haven’t told you yet, I’m gonna be with you." I’m also a fan of the resolution “learn a new word everyday, today’s word is ‘dejected’”. I think it’s just the right kind of adorable.
But what is Swedish and definitely not adorable? The answer is, of course, both August Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman, my two obsessively self-involved Swedes. They are adorable in a misogynistic, hateful way (exploring the depths of human cruelty, if you will). I’m particularly into Strindberg, currently. In many ways he is completely insane, but his plays (Miss Julie and The Creditors are especially entertaining) make normal people into monsters, based mostly on their horrible decisions and some compelling character flaws. The mileage Strindberg gets out of this intimate betrayal and manipulation is really marvelous. It also totally redeems Sweden from the cloying, saccharine grasp of even the best twee pop.
However, my new favorite Swedish act is none other than Hello Saferide, a band notorious for singing specifically about unrequited love. Hello Saferide is the essence of adorable—but unlike the other Swedes, their lyrics don’t have such an irritating quality (i.e. they don’t write their songs in weird couplets which rhyme ‘make believe’ with ‘maple leaves’ or ‘goddamn’ with ‘last tram’). Hello Saferide’s last EP (my preferred method of listening to Swedish pop) Woud You Let Me Play This EP Ten Times A Day? has two fantastic songs on it. They are both hopeful and broken, sarcastic and honest. “The Quiz” is a laundry list of things that are important in a new relationship: “Would you freak out if I said I liked you?”, “Can you at all times wear socks because I’m still scared of feet?” and “Do you read at least two books a month?” The criteria may be random and strangely idiosyncratic (staying quiet during Seinfeld and sloppy eating also make appearances), but it has a well-articulated heart. “2006” ("January 1st and it's already clear, it's gonna be another shitty year") also functions as a list song—resolutions ending, of course with “I haven’t told you yet, I’m gonna be with you." I’m also a fan of the resolution “learn a new word everyday, today’s word is ‘dejected’”. I think it’s just the right kind of adorable.
But what is Swedish and definitely not adorable? The answer is, of course, both August Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman, my two obsessively self-involved Swedes. They are adorable in a misogynistic, hateful way (exploring the depths of human cruelty, if you will). I’m particularly into Strindberg, currently. In many ways he is completely insane, but his plays (Miss Julie and The Creditors are especially entertaining) make normal people into monsters, based mostly on their horrible decisions and some compelling character flaws. The mileage Strindberg gets out of this intimate betrayal and manipulation is really marvelous. It also totally redeems Sweden from the cloying, saccharine grasp of even the best twee pop.
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