Songs Sixty-Nine to Seventy-Three

Still in catch-up mode. Went straight from tooth pulling to a conference to pulling something in my back to encouraging some folks to pursue other opportunities to trying to determine if a package of Backyardigans fruit snacks qualified as food-to-take-with-medicine-as-directed. Ah, the glamorous life of the working mom. But, it's a lovely day, I got a cute floral cardigan on sale at Old Navy, and the laundry's a-spinning, so it's time to play rush review on the blog to burn off my remaining unblabbed about songs before I go find more tunes and delve into my Daniel Boulud for dinner ideas.

Song Sixty-Nine: Ben Folds, "In Between Days." Yep, it's the Cure song. Ah, the Cure--so perfect. A neat take on the song that captures its essence but runs in a new direction, a very piano-y direction (natch). Mr. Folds's voice works well with the song, and the arrangement adds a tumbly, rushed feeling that is different from the paranoid, rushed of the original. Worth 99 cents for sure.

Song Seventy: The Derailers, "Then She Kissed Me." I knew nothing about the Derailers other than that Rory once went to a Derailers concert with Jess on the Gilmore Girls, enough to prejudice me against them. Plus, honestly, I always confuse them with the Reivers, whom I once saw and liked. This is a bit too retro-close, so it doesn't seem worth the bother. Very much Everly Brothers in two-toned puppies kind-of feel. There's a Dwight Yoakum feel here, and while I like Mr. Yoakum for many reasons, I didn't like this song much.

Song Seventy-One: Rosie Thomas, "Crazy." I can't remember why I downloaded this song. For a while I was thinking it was a cover of an N*Sync song (the one with the video where they're all in a padded room). My kids like it and say it sounds like it's from Shrek 2. Maybe it is; I only remember that opening Counting Crows song that we always dance to. Anyway, I like this song, also; her voice has a nice warm, calming timbre that plays against the "sinking into isolation and insanity" theme of the song--as does the instrumentation. Short and sweet.

Song Seventy-Two: Tricky, "Dear God." Okay, this is definitely a cover of the XTC tune. It is ur-Tricky--hushed, threatening, ominous. When I played it, my daughter told me to turn it off because it was scary. There's a nice but expected counterpoint of Tricky's processed voice with a little girl-y voice (definitely someone Euro). Playing up the dark side of the song kind of diminishes the power of the original, which puts such a nice sheen on it that you don't hear the darkness at first.

Song Seventy-Three: Jean Yves-Thibaudet, Music from Pride and Prejudice. Well, I downloaded the whole album, so I thought I'd blog it. I absolutely love this soundtrack and the movie, too; I'm such an Anglophile Austen romance-sucker--windswept, surging, sparse, thoughtful, enveloping. This is perfect "listening to my iPod reading and studying" music, and I recommend it to all with a heart and soul. There's a great moment in the director's commentary when Joe Wright talks about how we tend to undervalue the wish-fulfillment aspect of movies. Embrace that wish, dear reader, the heath awaits!

292 to go.