This is a second third edition of this column. Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.

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Adrian (me):
Simon & Garfunkel - Blues Run the Game (mp3) (buy)

I was reintroduced to this song when I was listening to the forthcoming Nick Drake album. He did a version of this Jackson Frank song (who, incidentally, had a fascinating story). I went back and listened to various versions by Drake, Frank himself, but my favorite is still the version I first heard of this beautiful folk song, the Simon and Garfunkel version. I’ve been listening to this song rather than a particular version obsessively, so I’m just posting my favorite.

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Scott:
Raincoats - In Love (mp3) (buy)

they were one of those bands i’ve always meant to hear/discover, but never had a chance…until this week. i can’t figure out if that violin freaks me out or makes me happy. maybe both.

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Natalie:
Rubies - Diamonds on Fire (mp3) (band site)

san francisco based rubies is simone rubi’s new project (member of call and response). i love this song - simone’s voice is so sweet and the beat makes me bounce around.

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Chris:
Thes One - Target (mp3) (buy)

Head-noddin, bouncy synth goodness over a big hip hop beat

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Andy:
Shearwater - Hail Mary (mp3) (buy)

I’ve had Palo Santo for a while now, but just recently, it’s been living in my car stereo, and I’ve had the opportunity to really listen to it. Two things about it stuck out in my head - first, a wonderful, noisy solo on what sounds like a French Bombard, but I’m pretty sure is actually a farfisa. It hits all the right notes in all the right places, and all the wrong ones in between. It’s very reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens’ guitar solo in “Springfield,” from The Avalanche. Off-putting and difficult at first, but has grown on me to a great extent since. After the final verse, the song climbs (or descends) into a crashing wall of noise - guitar sounds, percussion, and then abruptly, stops. I fully expected the song to ride out one more hushed, intense verse, as the band is wont to do - but on Hail Mary, nothing. It’s the first song in some time that has truly left me
wanting more.

So of course, I skipped back to the beginning of the track, and listened to it again.

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Rob:
the Long Winters - The Commander Thinks Aloud (mp3) (buy)

A couple of summers ago I had a job doing yard work and I would usually have a radio tuned to KUGS, my hometown college radio station. KUGS has a daytime format wherein recently added CDs get played pretty often, so I heard this song quite a bit and got it stuck in my head just as much. I never found out what it was or who it was by, though, until, just recently, as I was perusing the KZSU library I happened upon The Long Winters’ Ultimatum CD, and, lo and behold (behear?) there was that song again. What luck!

Anyway, the point to this (there is a point, I promise. Watch:) is that, when hearing this song while digging holes outside, I listened to it in a digging-holes-outside-while-listening-to-fuzzy-radio mindset, and my reception of the song was completely different from the way I hear it when I listen to it now. I feel like music gets sterilized somehow when I listen to it at home/dorm as opposed to listening to it on the radio outside somewhere — it really highlights the fact that there is a real listening benefit to the quasi-inaccessibility of radio (the fact that you can’t just grab a song or sound and possess it, you have to wait and hope to hear it again and discover a bunch of new stuff in the meantime.) Ironically, I think it’s the fascination with this psychological shift in song association just as much as it is any of the song’s own merit that is causing me to obsessively listen to it.

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Dave, store manager of Cross Roads Music:
The Editors - All Sparks (mp3, live version, from a KEXP session) (buy)

alright, so this one isn’t necessarily an obsession because we’ve been
on vacation and i haven’t had a chance to really obsess. but i
listened to it a few times yesterday when we were driving around
because i like it a lot.

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Edwin:
The Clientele - Here Comes the Phantom (mp3) (buy)

Like most of their best songs, it sounded deceptively simple and like something I’d already heard at first. But by the end of my first listen I was completely entranced by the perfectly crafted guitar and vocal melodies, left wondering how they manage to write so many similar but completely unique songs, and reminded why this is one of my favorite bands.

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And there you have yet another great set of song obsessions

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2007 at 9:51 am Posted by adrian in mp3s, song obsessions. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.