one-hundred twenty-nine

[cabaretlights.livejournal.com]

Book of James
We Are Augustines
Rise Ye Sunken Ships
2011

♥: I download endless amounts of music. At any given time I have 15-20 GBs of still-zipped albums -- great for some reasons, i.e. being able to unzip at my leisure, whenever I'm in a particularly music-y mood -- almost like I have my own personal CD store waiting for me to click through. Bad, though, for others -- one of the biggest being a lot of albums get forgotten, especially when they're down in the "W's -- even if when I download them, after previewing a few tracks online somewhere, I'm crazy excited to hear. Sometimes, when I finally get around to unzipping them, their time (my interest in that type of music? or whatever it was that clicked on that initial sampling) has passed.

Not so here.
I downloaded Rise Ye Sunken Ships when it was released, in mid-2011. Can't remember why. Maybe it just caught my eye on NAR as many albums do, maybe I heard about We Are Augustines somewhere (or even heard one of their songs) -- anyway, I've been making a point of, when I feel like unzipping albums, hitting up the ones I downloaded in 2011 (two years later? those poor guys' bytes must be getting dusty). Last week, before heading out to shop for Post 128's song, I unzipped this album. Low hopes. But it was good. Surprisingly good, actually. I was getting hooked, and then I heard this song, and it was done.

I'm SO excited for you to hear this song (if you don't already know it -- I'm just a little behind the times, after all) because I am SO excited that I found it. It has a certain gritty 90s alt-rock quality to it, that particular visceral sound we both tend to love -- and it is so, so beautiful. That first chorus, the leadup, and the quick transition into it, it makes me break out into a grin every single time. Musically, it's perfect. Lyrically:

He stood there in his shoes unable to move
Kid, I drove all night here to tell you I love you
And here lies my green eyes
Rolled back in my head, but they're alive

Lyrically...well, also perfect. The whole thing.

As I perused the rows and rows of used CDs on Mont-Royal, this album was on repeat. And every time this song shuffled up, my heart danced, so I did, too.

one-hundred and twenty-nine

[amethysting.livejournal.com]

Have Mercy
Loretta Lynn
Van Lear Rose
2004

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but this is one of my all-time favourite albums.

Yep.

I was reunited with it after scavenging the used CD stores on Mont-Royal; in the days afterward, I found myself turning towards my own hard-copy CD collection and, eventually, to Loretta Lynn.  Lynn's 2004 album is the result of a collaboration with Jack White (the picture of him skulking behind some trees in the liner notes makes me smile--a strange juxtaposition next to Loretta Lynn in her puffy, blue Glinda-the-good-witch dress) and the first album where Lynn wrote or co-wrote all of the songs herself.

I know I have a penchant for nasal voices, but sometimes even I am surprised by how much I adore this album.  I bought it during the beginnings of my outside-the-comfort-zone musical-discovery development...when I avidly read Rolling Stone and carried a copy of the magazine with me at all times--often pulling it out as a shield between myself and my classmates in my undergrad classes.  There was a lot of excitement surrounding the release of this album and, under the influence of what I had read, I too wanted to be a part of that excitement.

This is an album I can listen to from start to finish.  I wanted to pick the perfect introductory song for you ("Portland Oregon" was my initial choice--a song that has appeared on many a mix CD, but when I heard "Have Mercy" again, I knew it was the one I had to post).  THIS IS AN EXCELLENT SONG.  It just is.  Tinges of classic rock and country, those pounding drums, the range of Lynn's voice...It has an energy that fills me right up.

post one-hundred and thirty theme

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