[Ed. - Liz is a sweet american with an Irish MFA. She writes fiction while trying to write poetry. And I thank her for the story, here. It's not about me! :) ]
Oh wow. I'm getting to guestblog and write here and it's very exciting if not a bit nerve wracking -- what if y'all don't like my songs? But as I've done my best to pick really good songs, I am just sure that will not happen.
I currently live in Galway. Being as I live here, I thought I'd promote Irish artists. Everyone knows about Damien Rice and Snow Patrol and The Frames, and Sean already posted a Bell X1 song a few weeks back (you can hear more samples at their website. I recommend you do just that). And all are definitely worth knowing -- if you don't already, find them and listen! But for my purposes, I'll start with a band centered right here in Galway itself:
Last November I went up to Belfast to spend the weekend with a good friend. We'll call him S. His room was tiny: there was barely room on the floor that night for my little sleeping bag and me. We stayed up late talking, whispering, listening to songs. After My Bloody Valentine's Loveless he gets up to put on this album.
You ever heard of Cane141? he asks me. No, I tell him. They're from Galway. I'd've thought you would've. His stereo has a remote control, so once he's put the cd in he hops over me and back into bed. It is so cold this night and his window won't close all the way. He is a boy, he is only sleeping in his boxers, and I see his tummy and shoulders before he slides under the duvet. This is an old album, but I don't have any of their new stuff. And he plays the first track, which is nice, but then skips ahead. This is their best song.
First there is the sound of a train, and then acoustic guitar. I am a sucker for acoustic guitar. Then a -- flute? I do not know. But the song moves ahead, and I can't keep with it because I'm so cold, wrapped in the sleeping bag, listening to this heartbreaking, mournful, hopeful, somethingIcannotname instrument singing high, low, high and their voices subdued and all I want to do is climb into his bed, wrap under his duvet, whisper to his face instead of the bottom of his bed, and my whole body stops for this instant to hear the singer say "freeze-frame on my new day parade" and I swear I can't breathe. But of course I can, and I come back from my own little drama to hear the song fade away. Again? I ask. S and I, we are the same in this respect, we like to listen to songs on repeat. We do not get tired of them after their initial three or four minutes.
So he skips backward, and the train again, and we lie together in the room only not together, listening to this song, wanting something neither of us has. And that is what this song sounds like: something you want but do not have. A sort of nostalgia. Or longing. Or bittersweet memory. [buy]
Paddy Casey - "Fear". Quite very different from the first song, but I really like it. Some have compared Casey to a young Bob Dylan, but being as I don't hardly ever listen to Bob Dylan I can't say the same. Casey's second album, Living, came out in Ireland back in the Autumn and the radio was flooded with his single "Saints and Sinners". I don't mind the song, but I didn't think it was all that great either, so I never bothered really finding out more about him. Then a month ago a friend bought both his albums, and she lent them to me. "Fear" is first on his debut album Amen So Be It.
I. Love. It. It's not a masterpiece, but it's good. An honest, folksy-with-electric-instruments song about a father's love for his child. It reaches an emotional core, and I don't quite like any of his other songs near as much as I do this one. You can hear samples of all of them, and see videos for some of his singles, at his official website. [buy]
Snow Patrol - "An Olive Grove Facing the Sea". Now I know I said everyone knows Snow Patrol, what with their single "Run" getting all high up in the charts and whatnot. But how many of you have actually heard their earlier stuff, huh? The latest album is the best, and it shows real maturation of songwriting and musicianship. But there are still gems if you listen earlier, the biggest one being "An Olive Grove...", from When It's All Over We Still Have To Clean Up: a plaintive song, the kind you listen to while staring out the window of a bus as it travels far away from the one you want to be with and it lightly rains outside, clouds blurring the mountains in the distance. Gary Lightbody does that whole oh-my-god-I'm-heartbroken-and-always-messing-up-relationships thing really well. Maybe it gets tiring after awhile, but thank goodness he does it cos we need these songs sometimes. [buy]