Some of us know that place too well, and it hurts. I probably got the idea from Iman’s last ‘playlist for being in love’, and these next songs have always been some comfort, when you know this is just a one sided thing, when you realize nothing gonna change your world. A list of 10 which work even more because of their lyrics than because of their music.
1. Deathly – Aimee Mann: For the longest time, I could not believe these lyrics:
‘Now that I’ve met you/would you object to/never seeing each other again/cause I can’t afford to/climb aboard you/no one’s got that much ego to spend’, and putting the song in repeat with Aimee’s sweet and delicate voice had never changed them. Some story, a mirror of mine.
2. Gone for good – The Shins: Sometimes it is so hard to face reality when you don’t want to. The music is so damn upbeat and the lyrics so brutally honest:
‘It took me all of a year/To put that poisoned pill to your ear/But now I stand on honest ground/You want to fight for this love/But honey, you cannot wrestle a dove/So baby, it’s clear’
3. The Shining – Badly Drawn Boy: It’s just painful like this cello at the beginning of the song, but now you just remember, with a song which seems a long long sight.
‘Remembering when I saw your face/Shining my way, pure timing/Now I’ve fallen in deep, slow silent sleep/it’s killing me, I’m dying’
4. It’s A Motherfucker – The Eels: Remembering is not always a good idea, it cultivates this painful feeling, and you becomes to get attached to it because what else is left?
“It’s a motherfucker/Being here without you/Thinking ’bout the good times/Thinking ’bout the bad/And I won’t ever be the same’
5. Strangers – The Kinks: There is always hope as long as there are the Kinks, hope and sincerity, but it is so bitter-sweet.
‘So I will follow you wherever you go/If your offered hand is still open to me/Strangers on this road we are on/We are not two we are one’
6. Fresh feeling – The Eels: You want to tell everything you feel and these aching strings are there to help you.
‘You don’t have a clue/what it is like/to be next to you/I’m here to tell you/that it is good/that it is true’
7. Waltz #1- Elliott Smith: Despair makes you turn in circles, in a spiral of anger till you launch some terrible words.
‘Now I never leave my zone we’re both alone I’m going home/I wish I’d never seen your face’
8. Lost cause – Beck: Now it’s almost nostalgia and sad realization with this crystalline guitar,… when someone does not even to try.
‘Baby you’re a lost cause/I’m tired of fighting/I’m tired of fighting/Fighting for a lost cause’
9. Paper Bag – Fiona Apple: Life is full of illusions, but facing them is always better than falling for them.
‘I thought he was a man but he was just a little boy/ Hunger hurts and I want him so bad, oh, it kills/’Cause I know I’m a mess he don’t wanna clean up/I got to fold ’cause these hands are too shaky to hold/Hunger hurts but starvin’ works when it costs/Too much to love’
10. Dancing on the Highway – Elliott Smith
‘Here if you want me, listening so close from far away/I memorized what you told me, like a foreigner on holiday smiling at confusion’
‘I’m here if you want me, my love, dancing on the highway/Your sun still in my sky/Oh, my?/Oh, my?’
What else is left to say? It’s pretty clear and however, some feelings never want to die.