Phantom Limb - The Shins
Hang Me Up to Dry - Cold War Kids
Secret Heart - Feist
Love is a Place - Metric
It’s that time again. Time to look back on the year that just passed and make goals for the year ahead that we’ll never live up to, and in fact, just forget about in a few weeks’ time. The year that just passed was a big one for me. My show became a hit in the USA, I met most of my musical heroes, and I made a hell of a lot of mistakes.
But I wouldn’t trade it for anything, because the mistakes are what help us learn, or at least I keep telling myself that.
My resolutions for this year are to focus on the show and make it the best it can be. I also want to be a better friend and roommate to Lucy, who has been gracious with me as I flit around the world. I’m sorry for being a crappy best friend sometimes. I also want to focus on what’s good for me, and who is good for me, even if the bad thing feels better in the short-term.
This year, Yulia Chuck is going to figure her shit out!
And I’m going to blog more, because trust me, I hear you, you want more. I will do my best to be on here as often as possible, no matter what’s going on with my life.
Without further adieu, let’s start the year by digging into the best from the end of 2006 and early 2007. I want to start with Phantom Limb by The Shins. The lyricism of this band always gets me, and I have a lot of respect for the work they put in, like look at this opening verse:
Frozen into coats
White girls of the north
Filed past one, five and one
They are the fabled lambs
A Sunday ham
The ancient snow
It’s evocative and surreal, and yet it fits so seamlessly into the moody song. The Shins have a kind of otherworldly quality about them that feels apt on a dark, January afternoon.
Then, on the other side of the musical spectrum is Cold War Kids’ new one Hang Me Up to Dry, which in comparison sounds harsh and staccato, with its simplistic throughline and lead singer Nathan Willet’s throaty vocals. It’s a banger, though, I have to say. Lucy yells whenever I sing this one out loud on repeat (because a singer, I am not).
Because the winter months always feel like there should be snow, I’ve been listening to some Canadian divas. That’s the one thing about LA, is sometimes the mood just calls for snow. Secret Heart by Feist feels like a music box of young love. I’ll never grow tired of Feist’s raspy, rich voice, whether it’s solo or in Broken Social Scene.
Secret heart
What are you made of?
What are you so afraid of?
Could it be three simple words
Or the fear of being overheard?
What's wrong?
Let him in on your secret heart
It reminds me that I’m not always going to get what I want in this life. That sometimes what’s best for me isn’t the thing that calls my name. That there is a love that has soaring highs, but also plummeting lows, and sometimes the other love, the simple one, is better for you.
Even if I don’t want it to be.
And while we’re on the Canadian indie train, I’ve been spinning Love is a Place by Metric. This is a shorter song, but it packs a punch with its gritty guitar and soft, introspective lyrics. Metric also takes chances by dipping into minor keys every once in a while, and it pays off by adding a darker layer to the song.
Where do you live?
Love is a place.
There’s a longing in Emily’s Haines’s voice that I can feel in my bones. A longing I feel in my own life, dreaming of a world that doesn’t seem possible. That doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else but the confines of my mind. But maybe Emily’s right and love can exist wherever we are.
I want to hear all your resolutions for the coming year. Do you think you’ll keep them? Will you try? If you could change one thing about the past year, what would it be?
Tell me everything, my loves. I need to hear it all.
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