Year of Songs: It's Hard to Hold a Candle

Whew - last post of the Year of Songs. Let's work our way backwards through the last two months:




December:

Gold Soundz - Pavement
The Air Near My Fingers - The White Stripes

Both these lyricists go for the classic "remember"/"month ending in -ember" rhyme (best exemplified by "Try to Remember (The Kind of September)" from a previous playlist in the series). I love "Gold Soundz," but I found it to be a rather out-of-left-field choice for Pitchfork's #1 song of the '90s. But then again, the folks at Pitchfork sure love them some Pavement.

Horchata - Vampire Weekend
 
Speaking of obvious rhymes, I'm so tired of all these songs that rhyme "horchata" with "balaclava." Sheesh.

Back to December - Taylor Swift

My friend Peter: "There's a great Taylor Swift song from her latest studio album Speak Now called 'Back to December.' I dare you to use it." Game on, Peter!

Love Her Madly - The Doors

Also from Peter: "I just realized that 'Love Her Madly' by the Doors has a Carol of the Bells reference in the keyboard solo." So it does.

Having gone through a major Doors phase in junior high, I still harbor a fondness for the Doors which was rekindled recently by Jimmy Fallon's spectacular interpretation of the Reading Rainbow theme in the guise of Jim Morrison. Unfortunately, the official video has expired, so the subpar video below is the best I can do:



Summersong - The Decemberists

Befitting a band with a month in their name, the Decemberists have made numerous appearances on this playlist in previous months. Lacking a song that actually has December in the lyrics (that I know of, at least), I thought we could use a nice song about summer to shake things up. 

If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard

Just discovered this one courtesy of the All Songs Considered podcast. Speaking of summer, this one features this sad little line in chorus:

If we make it through December
I got plans of being in a warmer town come summer time
Maybe even California...

And speaking of California...

Long December - Counting Crows

I love the classic Counting Crows song ending: repeating "yeah" over and over again with rapidly depleting energy until the whole thing just falls apart. Perfect way to send the Year of Songs project limping off at the end of its run.

November:

Young Pilgrims - The Shins

The album Chutes Too Narrow, named after a line from this song, was easily one of my favorite albums of the past decade. In case you haven't heard, after five years The Shins will finally release a new album in March.

Hard Candy - Counting Crows

After that Shins interlude, let's keep the Counting Crows rolling, shall we? This is one of the few post-"Long December" songs that I actually like (don't get me started on that Shrek song).

Allerseelen (All Souls' Day) - Richard Strauss

All Souls' Day, also known as the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, falls annually on November 2.

Today the graves are full of lights and flowers,
One day a year the dead shall hold their sway:
Spend on my heart again those lovely hours,
Like once in May.

Congrats to Richard Strauss for being the most represented German art song composer on the Year of Songs playlist (this and "September").

November - Andy Dwyer (from Parks & Recreation)

The character Andy from Parks & Rec wrote a song about a girl named November to try to win his girlfriend April back (makes sense if you know the character). How could any girl, regardless of the month of her namesake, resist a sensitive ballad with lines like "Let's spread our wings and flyyyyyyyy... on a date"? Grooveshark didn't have a copy, so watch the clip below:




On the Radio - Regina Spektor

The last song on this November list is so epic, we need this song just to preface it:

On the radio
We heard "November Rain"
That solo's really long
But it's a pretty song

November Rain - Guns N' Roses

This song came out when I was in 6th grade and it sparked the equivalent of the Team Edward vs. Team Jacob conflict at my elementary school. The popular kids, led by this girl named Kari, literally walked around the playground during recess asking people if they were Team "November Rain" or Team "Rumpshaker," another song that was popular at the time (I was going to link to it, but after listening to it for the first time in almost 20 years I was a little embarrassed - at the time I didn't understand how gross it was, though the title should have been a pretty good tip-off). The two groups got pretty chippy, and I remember making a case that it was possible to like both songs, but my musical eclecticism was too far ahead of its time.

****************************

For those of you who bothered to read these "Year of Songs" posts and listen to some of the music, thanks for indulging me. Special thanks to those who suggested songs for the project - I discovered some cool music thanks to you. Overall it was really fun to put this mega-playlist together month by month, and the final tally is a whooping 95 songs.

Let's go out on a song that mentions every month of the year: Neil Sedaka's 1961 "Calendar Girl." It's a major cheese-fest, but just close your eyes and picture it playing during party scene on Mad Men, and then it will be a whole lot cooler.

Merry Christmas!

SST: Don't Eat the Pictures

SESAME STREET TUESDAY

A few years ago my friend Jessica posted something on her blog about her trip to Mexico that really caught my attention: "The anthropology museum was great, mainly because I put on my iPod and walked around looking at ancient Mexican cultures while listening to Arcade Fire. I think the visual/audio juxtaposition made the visit all the better." At the time I read that it sounded heretical to me - how could you take in the gravity of a museum while listening to your iPod? However, on my next museum visit I decided to give it a try and I instantly fell in love with all the unexpected "visual/audio juxtapositions" that resulted.

This past week was exceptionally museum-y for me and my iPod's shuffle mode came up with some inspired pairings. For instance, hit play on the song below:



This song ("The Rainbow," by The Apples in Stereo - if you don't know them, you should definitely check them out) cued up just as I walked into a room full of Modernist paintings, including "Political Drama" by Robert Delaunay:

I think the standard museum setup tends to do some artwork something of a disservice - the setting is too reverential as we silently cast our rueful gazes on the canvas. I think that tends to drain a lot of the vibrancy from the paintings and make you forget that the thing was dreamed up by a living, breathing person just like you or me. But this song broke up the sterility of the museum and unlocked a ton of energy inside the painting. Admittedly, this really isn't the most imaginative pairing - they are both really bright, high-energy works, and the title of the song seems rather obvious given the crazy arrays of colors Delaunay throws at us - but there were other unexpected combos of music and art that brought out subtle qualities in the latter that I might not have noticed otherwise.

So thanks, Jess, for the first museum tip: rock out to some tunes while you look at art. The second museum tip I observed on my trip came from Cookie Monster. This song comes from an old one-hour Sesame Street special that was a favorite around the Tanner house, and it's some pretty solid museum-going advice: