It's Been An Elliott Smith Kind Of Week

A very uneventful week indeed, as I couldn't do much else but lay in bed, listen to music, and haphazardly take pictures around my house. The list for this week is pretty somber and slow, which describes the last couple of days perfectly. Now I'm looking forward to an exciting weekend which includes a trip to San Antonio, a cheesy Christmas sweater party, old friends, family, and some more intensive Christmas shopping.

Sad songs will forever be my favorite because they are just so honest. After listening to this track over and over and over again I've realized that the lyrics describe a girl who is afraid to commit, while her boyfriend relentlessly tries to change her mind. "Anyone's Ghost" comes from the National's fifth studio album, High Violet. If you haven't listened to it's entirety yet,then I highly recommend you do so!

I know, I KNOW. I am pretty obsessed with the Knife, so it's no wonder why Fever Ray, Karin Dreijer Andersson's solo act (one half of the Knife), is on this list. I guess I just can't get over how odd and pleasing her sound is all at the same time.

Beach House are undoubtedly one of my new favorite bands. Victoria Legrand's vocals sound just like warm honey and I adore how this particular track drones and creeps on for entirely too long-sometimes what I criticize about a song is the aspect that I love most. Weird, I know!

If it weren't for the wasted years that the Stone Roses annoyingly had to spend in a legal battle with recording companies, then I imagine they would have been as famous as Oasis (whom they influenced). The band sprung up in the late 80's/early 90's right in the middle of the Madchester music scene (in Manchester, England of course), which mixed alt rock, dance music, and psychedelic rock. "I Wanna Be Adored" clearly is the cry of a generation.

I really had never listened to Neko Case until a few months ago and now she's constantly on repeat. I grew up listening to country, amongst other genres, in my little border town and her music simply reminds me of those roots. Plus, I'm a huge fan of modern country music with substance that doesn't sound like it's trying to cross over into the realm of mainstream pop.  

I pretty much got from point A to point B all while listening to the Crystal Castles album last weekend, it had been a while. The album reminds me of a dear friend who has been living in California for the past year, but I recently got word that he is moving back soon! After perpetually listening to it I remembered how much I enjoy "Vanished", which strangely enough sounds unlike the other tracks on the album.

The first track from their very first album, Turn On the Bright Lights-also their best album to date. Every time I need to calm my worries I put this album on and it always does the trick, especially this soothing song. And I actually did this several times through out my dreaded cold this week. As I have a deep love for post-punk I also feel the same for pretty much all post-punk revival bands. Yeah, my musical taste is easy to figure out. 

"Little Girl" comes from the Dark Night of The Soul album, which I've already ranted about in a previous post. It is sung by Julian Casablancas and unmistakingly sounds like what we love most about the Strokes complete with all the distortion. This track is perhaps the most upbeat on the record.

I first discovered this Elliott Smith song when watching Wes Anderson's brilliant film The Royal Tenenbaums years ago. The scene in which this song reigns (as if it's its own character) is when Richie attempts suicide in the bathroom. As soon as I heard the first chord I was from thereon a self-proclaimed Elliott Smith junkie and immediately bought up all of the albums my little town could offer.