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):
Oh No! Oh My! - the Party Punch (mp3) (buy)

In preparing my best of 2007 list I was listening through some releases last minute and this one really stuck out. It’ really good, quirky pop. I’ve been listening to the whole EP (all 5 songs, 15 songs) pretty obsessively with this song and “Oh Be One” being the leaders in obsession by a slight margin.

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Keith:
Hello Saferide - Long Lost Penpal (mp3) (buy)

My obsession with Swedish pop both current and past knows few limits, and when you add a female singer relating past teenaged angst through a darkly humorous filter … we’ll just say multiple buttons have been pushed. This song takes its time setting up the listener but the reveal is certainly well earned.

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Natalie K:
Okkervil River - Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas (live) (mp3) (live, buy the studio version)

The version off of the Golden Opportunities Mixtape. I’m not one of those people that gets depressed during Christmas time, but there is something strange about going home when that’s not really where your life is anymore. Fewer and fewer friends from high school make it back each year, or if they do, it’s only for a few days and it’s hard to get in touch. It’s even weirder for me, because my parents moved into a new house when I was in college, so it’s not even the place I grew up. But thankfully, I have three siblings that I’ve gotten closer to as I’ve grown up, which more than makes up for the lack of old friends coming home. I think this song perfectly encapsulates that strange feeling of calling someplace home when you’re only there a week or two out of each year.

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Rob:
mewithoutYou - Messes of Men (mp3) (buy)

I realized a while ago that every time this song comes up on my shuffled iPod I play it back again at least two or three times. This happened again this week (only this time it turned into a dozen or so listens) and in the process I was reminded how much I love Aaron Weiss’ vocals and lyrics. Though Brother, Sister isn’t anywhere near as good as Catch For Us The Foxes [CFUTF is to my listening habits as Light Poles and Pines is to Adrian’s– nothing can touch it on Last.fm], they really haven’t ever put out anything that isn’t solid. I don’t know why this song in particular grabs me so much, though, only that for some reason just about every line in the song has jumped out at me
at one point or another… And then of course there’s the chimes. I’m such a sucker for chimes.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 2:29 am Posted by adrian in SF bay area, mp3s, song obsessions. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.