Playlist in Progress: Comfort Food

This is the soundtrack of the kind of day that makes you want to refuse to get out of bed: music that's comforting just because it is so damn good. Heavy on the strings, and the luminous voices, and the contented beats.

1. Iron & Wine/Calexico - Burn That Broken Bed (off of In the Reins)

It's just so good--it sparkles and flows and hisses like cooling, molten metal.

2. Ben Taylor - Digest off of Another Run Around the Sun

One of those lovely songs that admits that life is hard, to the tune of a contented groove.

3. Kristin Hersh - Trouble off of Sunny Border Blue

4. Beth Hart - Leave the Light On off of the CD of the same name

One of the few girl-powery CDs I can stand; the acoustic bit at the end is the loveliest.

5. Kings of Convenience - Love Is no Big Truth off of Riot on an Empty Street

First song by them that caught my ear. A cheerful, snappy disco tune denying that love is a big deal? It might ring a bit hollow, but how can anyone not be comforted?

6. Res - Tsunami from How I Do

Laid-back beat and sweet, sweet vocals.

7. Neulander - Flying off of Smoke + Fire

Still a laid-back beat, but with more movement to it; and sweetly distorted vocals.

8. Mike Doughty - I Hear the Bells off of Haughty Melodic

Upbeat, with Doughty's gravelly voice; and hearing joyful bells is one of those Things. It's good.

9. Spoon - Chicago at Night from Girls Can Tell

10. Rogue Wave - Screw California off of Descended Like Vultures

Somehow very irrelevant and lovely; Zach Rove's voice on showcase.

11. Alexi Murdoch - Breathe from Time without Consequence

12. Ben Gibbard - Carolina from Home vol. V

Maybe just because I'm from a Carolina.

13. The White Stripes - In the Cold, Cold Night off of Elephant

Always did wish Meg would sing more.

14. Ernie - I Don't Want to Live on the Moon from Bert & Ernie's Greatest Hits (yes really)

The ultimate comfort song.

15. Dar Williams - This Is Not . . . from The Honesty Room

Girl's voice is like a flute.

16. James Taylor - Line 'Em Up from Hourglass

This song was my alarm clock when I lived in the Netherlands; I always see sunlight on the walls of my bedroom there when I hear it. So o'course it's gotta be on the list. Plus, it's James Taylor, who might have the most comforting voice ever.

17. Some By Sea - The Beginning of the World Often Comes from On Fire

Well, I said it was gonna be heavy on the strings.

18. R.E.M. - Sweetness Follows from Automatic for the People

Michael Stipe goes with James Taylor in the voice category. What is that quality--timbre? Expressiveness? Hard to pinpoint.

19. Aaron Copeland - Simple Gifts from Appalachian Spring

Just for the times when the brass carry the melody.

Relevant tags: [Music], [Playlists]

Playlists in Slow Progress

Building coherent playlists carefully is hard to do once you have a certain amount of music, but if it's well done it can make a CD that's listenable for years, and takes with it the feel of the time when you made it. I'm working on two right now; the tracks that're on YSI are the ones I think are most representative of what I'm aiming for.

One: The Intuition of Mortality, or, We're All Gonna Die
Pedro the Lion - Priests and Paramedics
John Vanderslice - Nikki Oh Nikki
Headphones - Slow Car Crash (the live Undertow Orchestra version)
Death Cab - What Sarah Said
Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day
Psapp - Leaving in Coffins

This is taking me longer than most--I'm being pickier than most, but it's a good idea that needs to be done well. Somebody suggested Godspeed You Black Emperor - "Dead Flag Blues", but I found it too apocalyptic; what I'm really looking to convey is the moment when you realize you don't go on forever, to quote Rosencrantz; or the moment when you realize with Big Bird that Mr. Hooper isn't coming back--when the idea of death in all its strangeness and impenetrability comes close.

Two: Dress
Dirty on Purpose - Your Summer Dress
Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You
The New Pornographers - Jackie, Dressed in Cobras
Margot & the Nuclear So-and-So's - Vampires in Blue Dresses
Belly - Sad Dress
P.J. Harvey - Dress
Mark Lanegan - Wedding Dress
Red House Painters - Summer Dress

Maybe because it's summer and too bloody hot for much else, or because my fashion-conscious friends are proclaiming it the Year of the Dress, but I've had dresses on the brain. Cool thing about this group is that half of the them are gritty and powerful (PJ Harvey and Mark Lanegan, unsurprisingly) and half of them are graceful and dreamy (Sufjan and Red House Painters); it could be cool, I think. That's one of the humps of making a good, coherent playlist: you get to a certain place where you have all the right songs, and then they're either too short or too long for a CD, and you have to decide whether or not to fix it, weaken the list and make it burnable, or leave it as it is.

Relevant tags: [Playlists], [Death], [Music], [Dress], [mp3]

We're All Gonna Die: Progress

Pedro the Lion - Priests and Paramedics
John Vanderslice - Nikki Oh Nikki
Headphones - Slow Car Crash (or maybe the live Undertow Orchestra version?)
Death Cab - What Sarah Said

Gotta find a lot more tracks for this to materialize. Hm. Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead might work in a pinch, but it doesn't really fit very well; more about aging and time passing than the real "we're all gonna die" idea I want.

Earworm

Pedro the Lion - Priests and Paramedics--one of these days I'll make a CD and call it We're All Gonna Die. This and John Vanderslice - Nikki Oh Nikki will be featured, and maybe Death Cab for Cutie - What Sarah Said (Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark is a better fit thematically, but What Sarah Said is a better song).