Little less than three days ago, I thought you were the most brilliant thing ever. I thought you were the savior to humanity, that you would make me complete in ways I had not even fathomed were possible. Three days ago, my exaltations of your wonderfulness rang about the land - or to the four or so people I physically talked during those three days that would care/indulge me.
After a whirlwind courtship, I regret to say the bloom has fallen from the rose. The reason? You are obsessed with Conor Oberst. I know! I, too, am obsessed with Conor Oberst. I think he is brilliant. I love him. I listen to him constantly! Several of his songs are among the most played on my iPod. You seem to agree this was a good choice. Very well.
However. As much as I would normally agree that Conor Oberst goes with everything, I was hoping we could branch out a little bit. Or, if we constantly played Conor Oberst stuff, it wouldn't be the same Conor Oberst stuff - unless that is truly the cream of the crop. Which, no, is unfortunately not always the case.
Listen, I love Bowl of Oranges as much as the next person. But three times? In three different Genius playlists? Also, Eagle on a Pole? If we must have a Conor Oberst song on every Genius list you create, could we at least switch it up a bit? And could we dial back the Oberst love to only one song of his per playlist generated? That would also be swell, because my current Genius creation has five - count 'em, FIVE - songs by this man on it. Out of twenty-five! Even I, with my love for him, recognizes this as a bit excessive.
Once we handle the Oberst Overload, I think we should discuss how you seem to only pull the same artists and the same songs by those artists regardless of playlist generated. I understand that I listen to a lot of music that sounds the same. I understand that Conor Oberst can sound country, so if I pick a Ryan Adams country song or a Willie Nelson country song or a Johnny Cash country song, some Conor may show up. But what's the excuse for throwing in "Annie Waits" by Ben Folds? Or the same three She & Him tunes? Or the Shins?
I have a massive, massive amount of music to choose from, to go hog wild with and make a myriad of interesting and wonderful and exciting mixes. Mixes that will once again win my love and admiration. Mixes that include music I have forgotten I have! I'm not going to forget I have The Shins. Or Ben Folds. Or She & Him. Or Rilo Kiley. Really. I'm not. I listen to those guys on my own.
I'm sorry, Genius. I think we may have to break up. I'm leaving you for your more erratic cousin, Shuffle. Sure, I am often frustrated and skipping song after song I don't want to listen to in that moment. But at least it sometimes gives me The Clash, or Buffy Sainte Marie, or K.D. Lang. You do not. Maybe we'll see each other around.
This is a special edition of Friday Random Ten, inspired by a (short) conversation I had with a friend regarding Conor Oberst and how he is depressing. I, in fact, love Conor Oberst. So, here are my ten favorite Conor Oberst songs:
10) "I Don't Want To Die (In A Hospital)" - Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Conor Oberst
Rowdy and slightly raucous, I can bounce around to this one like no one's business. Ironically, this one isn't my favorite based on any sort of lyrics that made my spine tingle. This one is all about the fun. Which is strange, since it is, after all, a song about death and dying. Just to get us started, though, I laugh at these lines every time:
There are two subjects above all others where I enjoy Conor Oberst's musings, and those are religion and spirituality, and the very state of writing itself. This one is all about the latter:
Now I'm hunched over a typewriter
I guess you call that paintin' in a cave
And there's a word I can't remember
and a feeling I cannot escape
And now my ashtray's overflowing
I'm still staring at a clean white page
Oh and morning's at my window
she is sending me to bed again
7) "I Must Belong Somewhere" - Bright Eyes, Cassadaga
And, lyrics:
In truth, the forest hears each sound Each blade of grass as it lies down The world requires no audience no witnesses, no witnesses
6) "Waste of Paint" - Bright Eyes, Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
So now I park my car down by the cathedral,
where the floodlights point up at the steeples.
Choir practice was filling up with people.
I hear the sound escaping as an echo.
Sloping off the ceiling at an angle.
When the voices blend they sound like angels.
5) "From A Balance Beam": - Bright Eyes, Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
This one's a little more depressing:
It was in a foreign hotel's bathtub
I baptized myself in change
And one by one I drowned all of the people I had been
I emerged to find the parallels were fewer
I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror
And someone new was there
But, I was as helpless as a chess piece
when I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner
my enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation
I still felt imprisoned inside that holding cell
that is myself
4) "Moab" - Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Conor Oberst
I don't like comparisons between musical artists. I hate it when bands are described as "Bigger than the Beatles" (because, clearly, if we're still comparing them to the Beatles, they weren't/aren't); and I hate it when music critics call Conor Oberst the next Dylan. Because (a) Dylan isn't done being Dylan yet, and (b) there is only one Dylan. And then there are songs like this one that make me think, "Yeah, that's pretty Dylanesque". It's pretty much all in the vocal delivery. Anyway:
You can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in
And there's nothing that the road cannot heal
Nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
3) "First Day Of My Life" - Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Songs like this are what make me astounded when people talk about Bright Eyes being incredibly depressing. Because when I hear this song, I hear something full of love, and hope, and optimism. Nothing demonstrates that better than the second verse:
Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go
2) "Four Winds" - Bright Eyes, Cassadaga
Cassadaga is my absolute favorite Bright Eyes album, and I've been knocked out by this song since I first heard it. Some of the lyrics that did it for me:
Well I went back by rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"
1) "Bowl of Oranges" - Bright Eyes, Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
This is my favorite Bright Eyes song; it has been since the first time I heard it, and that's because I loved all of the lyrics. But if I had to pick my favorite of the song, it would be:
But if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall.
Then I think we would see the beauty.
Then we would stand staring in awe at our still lives posed like a bowl of oranges,
This song has some of my absolute favorite lyrics ever:
And I keep looking for that blindfold faith
Lighting candles to a cynical saint
Who wants the last laugh at the fly trapped in the windowsill tape
You can go right out of your mind trying to escape
From the panicked paradox of day to day
If you can’t understand something then it’s best to be afraid
As an apatheistic atheist, I don't have these sorts of pained moments of religious soul-searching. But I love the way religion moves people; I love the art and books and buildings that come out of it.
