Song obsession friday! (for the week ending september 14)
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.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.
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Adrian (me):
Damien Jurado – Ohio (mp3) (buy)
As I was preparing the 50 songs for 50 states mix I was listening to a lot of “state” songs, some of them good, some of them not. I didn’t need to listen much to the Ohio songs—because it was a pretty clear choice for me (even though both Gillian Welch and Sun Kil Moon have good Ohio songs)—but I did anyway because I was reminded about how good this song was. It’s exactly where Damien excels: stories with all the right details.
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Keith:
Justice – One Minute to Midnight (mp3) (buy)
This isn’t one of the sexy picks off the new Justice album, in fact it’s the album closer. But damn if I can’t get it outta my brain. In concept it’s rather simple, just a menacing dirty synthline over some hard hard beats. But just try to put it on the car stereo and stay anywhere near the anemic speed limits in your town. Even better, just try to keep your windows up and the stereo at anything less than a speaker rattling level. Damn.
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Dave:
Nada Surf – Your Legs Grow (mp3) (buy)
I just generally all around like this song, especially the instrumental part the end.
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Andy:
Ben Lee – Float On (mp3) (buy)
I’m not a huge fan of the original version of this song, or of Modest Mouse overall, for that matter. Ben Lee, though, adds a nice, laid-back feel to the song. His Aussie twang is super-endearing, and the mini train-wreck about 2/3rds of the way through makes it even more so. It’s good to see that simple production and simple musicianship can make a good song.
