Me and my playlist!
Here's my blog dedicated to my playlist; the songs that I wouldn't be with out and sometimes just the moments in a song. Shall we begin?
As I said already, sometimes it's just a moment in a song, a bridge, an opening or an ending. The last 1min 23 seconds of 'Mixtape' by Jamie Cullum journeys me away to the clouds where I can fly free of the present. When I open my eyes an find I'm packed on the tube surrounded by armpits I just click back, close my eyes and again I'm away.
Then there's Tori Amos teasing the piano keys and making fairy-tale music to black-soul lyrics. 'Silent all these years' is a perfect example, reaching into my heart and whispering a story so remote to me and yet so accessible. This is music to day dream to, music that fires my imagination and fuels drama.
When music touches you it can give you strength more than any kindness or friendly gesture. Mika (of all people) soothed my sadness over the collapse of a friendship, Kelly Clarkson knew my heart better than I did after a disastrous breakup and Shania Twain captured a moment I needed to remember after the greatest loss of my life. Sometimes it's like they've peeked inside your brain before writing the words. These songs are forever like musical snapshots of a moment in time.
It's not all about doom and gloom. Katy Perry lists all the reasons I know Guillaume is the one for me in 'not like the movies'. Not because she sings about 'mister right' but rather because she sings how it would feel if she found 'mister right'. It seems I was there first. Sorry love.
Some songs open your mind and give you a sense of the infinite and the forever. Muse do this as do the YYYs in 'Runaway'. The song just grows and grows, drawing you in before filling you with a sense of the impossible. I sometimes dream I'm coming apart molecule by molecule and dissolving into the world around me. It's a strangely beautiful thought when imagined to a soaring YYYs soundtrack.
Other songs, or rather, singers can envelope you with a dreamy calm. Nina Simone puts me under her spell everytime I hear her buttery voice. I can get a sense of her spirit in her soulful voice, her pain, her confidence, her fears, her strengths; it's all in there if you listen.
My light relief is brit-school marmite. To me, Lily Allen is quirky cool and her lyrics are a crossword puzzle of clues about our culture seen through her eyes. It's razor shop satire with killer lyrics like 'I'm not a saint but I'm not a sinner and everything's cool as long as I'm getting thinner'. She's the 'apocalypse now' of music, that's to say she creates the pop fodder that everyone can enjoy but litters it with enough intellectual nuances that it engages the brain.
But sometimes music is about disengaging the brain and surrendering to a beat. Kelis produced a soaring, futuristic album with 'Fleshtone'. A euphoric dance album dedicated to her son and a modern dance album, with dirty beats, electronica and a soul to boot. I can shutdown my fervent brain and let the music fill me up and take me over.
Music is always going to be subjective. A song that inspires me might stimulate another person's gag reflex. Although my tastes are eclectic, they do not extend to Metalica or Jedward, to me these are the musical equivalent of Crocs and Uggs. Respectively.
My music is my music and your music is yours. We cherry pick from the songs we encounter and build a musical library that reflects us, informs us and makes each of us unique.
I am my playlist and you are yours.
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