shine

I have wandered far and wide
All the way from Paris to Mexico
'Til I was gone and didn't know

In the end the thing that keeps me walking
Is your shine, your shine in the morning, your shine in the distance,
Your shine inside the laughter and the ghosts

They have spoken of the river forever bending inside the fever
Of the saints that walk all night with no domain

In the end the thing that keeps them walking is your shine
Your shine when they wear no coat, your shine when the feelings low
Your shine when it's too late to turn around

I have frozen up my dreams, thinking I was all alone
Fighting every minute for each turning stone
I have reached the rocket speed
I have touched the ground that feeds
Scaling fences, looking for the healing sun

In the end the thing that keeps me walking is your shine
Your shine in transmissions, your shine in decisions,
Your shine when I labor to the new day,
It's your shine, your shine, your shine, shine, shine on

Daniel Lanois
Shine, 2003

lay my head down...

Keren Ann's new self-titled album officially gets released today...

Can't but Lay My Head Down!

Click here to listen her latest single

yann tiersen on tour 2006

another great white...

the blower's daughter (live)

and so it is
just like you said it would be
life goes easy on me
most of the time
and so it is
the shorter story
no love no glory
no hero in her skies
i can't take my eyes off you
and so it is
just like you said it should be
we'll both forget the breeze
most of the time
and so it is
the colder water
the blower's daughter
the pupil in denial
i can't take my eyes off you
did i say that i loathe you?
did i say that i want to
leave it all behind?
i can't take my mind off you
my mind
'til i find somebody new

Damien Rice, 2003

Great thanks to Janice for bringing me this beautiful 7-inch white vinyl, all the way from England.

que n'ai-je?

Je pourrais bien brûler les preuves
Trier les pages de mon passé
Prendre un bassin ou même un fleuve
Pour abandonner le peu que j'ai
Je pourrais bien brûler les pistes
Changer cent mille fois de visage
Rayer mon nom de toutes les listes
Et m'effacer du paysage

Où vais-je?
A présent que n'ai-je?
Ma mémoire s'enivre
Tu cherches tellement à me suivre
A travers le vent

Je pourrais bien changer de sigle
Et chaque nuit dans les abbesses
Me rendre floue ou invisible
Etre inconnue à cette adresse
Je pourrais même me compromettre
A ne me souvenir de rien
Et ne plus jamais reconnaître
Ta voix que je connais si bien

Où vais-je?
A présent que n'ai-je?
Ma mémoire s'enivre
Tu cherches tellement à me sulvre
A travers le vent

Keren Ann
Nolita, 2004

9 crimes

leave me out with the waste this is not what i do
it's the wrong kind of place to be thinking of you
it's the wrong time for somebody new
it's a small crime and i got no excuse
and is that alright yeah?
i give my gun away when it's loaded
is that alright yeah?
if you don't shoot it how am i supposed to hold it?
is that alright yeah?
i give my gun away when it's loaded
is that alright yeah, with you?
leave me out with the waste this is not what i do
it's the wrong kind of place to be cheating on you
it's the wrong time she's pulling me through
it's a small crime and i got no excuse
and is that alright yeah?
if i give my gun away when it's loaded
is that alright yeah?
if you don't shoot it how am i supposed to hold it?
is that alright yeah?
i give my gun away when it's loaded
is that alright?
is that alright with you?
is that alright yeah?
if i give my gun away when it's loaded
is that alright yeah?
if you don't shoot it how am i supposed to hold it?
is that alright yeah?
i give my gun away when it's loaded
is that alright
is that alright with you
and is that alright yeah?
is that alright
is that alright
is that alright with you?
no?

Damien Rice
"9", 2006

touch upon touch

Probably the last Cocteau track ever to be released (unless someone finds a long forgotten track lying on a shelf somewhere) Touch Upon Touch is mostly a soft and lovely ballad, but it has a few unexpected twists in it as well.

As so often Liz is the star of the show, her beautiful melodies dominating the first parts. Light percussion, and a few sparse guitar chords is all she gets for company. Vocal overdubs make for a stunningly gorgeous chorus, and for a long time it seems unlikely the song's serenity will be disturbed. And it would have been a great track even if the band would have left it at that.

But they didn't. As if the band were aware this was to be one of their final tracks they decided to dig deep once more. Suddenly there's an interlude with a heavy guitar. In fact it even appears to be played with a bit of distortion. Shades of Garlands! Liz reacts by switching into overdrive, and a prominent bass puts Simon into the limelight as well.

The louder episode is soon followed by a return to tranquility, although there are still a few more lovely guitar wails woven in. But everything ends in peace and harmony eventually, and with it so did their career as a threesome.

If the band would have proceeded to produce yet another album, would it have sounded like this? If so, what a treat it might have been. We'll never know of course. Still, Touch Upon Touch is a composition well worth filling the final page of the amazing Cocteau Twins book of songs.

Cocteau Twins
1997

la traversée

Yann Tiersen, 2005
with Elizabeth Fraser chanting "Mary"

i'm staring out the world

I'm staring out the world
I'm staring out the streets
I'm staring out the world
Hoping she will teach
Hoping she will tell
All about herself
I'm staring out the world

Indifferent she looks back
There isn't much to see
A wound about to heal
And about to bleed
I still have blood enough to stand
Blood enough to keep
Staring out the world

A bullet dancing in my brain
Could end it any day now
Oh I'll break in that scene
I'll lift it on my own

Without a stop in raining
Without a shift in daylight
It could be any day now
Another witness gone

Stina Nordenstam
The World Is Saved, 2001

i want you (at the back of the white vinyl)

This is one of my all-time favourites, from my best-kept album, Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ Blood and Chocolate (1986).

I remember hearing this song when I was reading at secondary school, exactly twenty years ago from now. Didn’t understand the lyrics entirely but wondering still if it was what adults’ love was about. And asked myself what it took to write and sing a song like this...

Elvis sang with an astounding hoarse, threatening to keep you breathless for six and a half minutes.

That obviously proved too much for a teenager. Still, I’ve been playing this over and over in the last twenty years.

Enough said. When the vinyl spins, everything else is a waste of breath...

I Want You

Oh my baby baby I love you more than I can tell
I don't think I can live without you
And I know that I never will
Oh my baby baby I want you so it scares me to death
I can't say anymore than "I love you"
Everything else is a waste of breath

I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
Your fingernails go dragging down the wall
Be careful darling you might fall
I want you
I woke up and one of us was crying
I want you
You said "Young man I do believe you're dying"
I want you
If you need a second opinion as you seem to do these days
I want you
You can look in my eyes and you can count the ways
I want you
Did you mean to tell me but seem to forget
I want you
Since when were you so generous and inarticulate
I want you
It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It's the way your shoulders shake and what they're shaking for
I want you
it's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing
I want you
He tossed some tattered compliment your way
I want you
And you were fool enough to love it when he said
"I want you"
I want you
The truth can't hurt you it's just like the dark
It scares you witless
But in time you see things clear and stark
I want you
Go on and hurt me then we'll let it drop
I want you
I'm afraid I won't know where to stop
I want you
I'm not ashamed to say I cried for you
I want you
I want to know the things you did that we do too
I want you
I want to hear he pleases you more than I do
I want you
I might as well be useless for all it means to you
I want you
Did you call his name out as he held you down
I want you
Oh no my darling not with that clown
I want you
I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
No-one who wants you could want you more
I want you
I want you
I want you
Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up
I want you
I'm going to say it once again 'til I instill it
I know I'm going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you
I want you

Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Blood and Chocolate, 1986

in a manner of speaking

In a manner of speaking
I just want to say
That I could never forget the way
You told me everything
By saying nothing

In a manner of speaking
I don't understand
How love in silence becomes reprimand
But the way that I feel about you
Is beyond words

O give me the words
Give me the words
That tell me nothing
O give me the words
Give me the words
That tell me everything

In a manner of speaking
Semantics won't do
In this life that we live we only make do
And the way that we feel
Might have to be sacrified

So in a manner of speaking
I just want to say
That just like you I should find a way
To tell you everything
By saying nothing.

O give me the words
Give me the words
That tell me nothing
O give me the words
Give me the words
Give me the words

Tuxedomoon
Holy Wars, 1985

half-gifts

It's an old game, my love
When you can't have me, you want me
Because you know that you're not risking anything

Intimacy is when we're in the same place at the same time
Dealing honestly with how we feel, and who we really are

That's what grown-ups do
That is mature thinking

Well I'm still a junkie for it
It takes me out of my aloneness
But this relationship cannot sustain itself

Intimacy is when we're in the same place at the same time
Dealing honestly with how we feel, and who we really are

That's what grown-ups do
That is mature thinking

I just have to know how to be in the process
Of creating things in a better way
And it hurts but it's a lie that I can't handle it
I still have a world of me-ness to fulfill
I still have a life, and it's a rich one even with mourning
Even with grief and sadness

I still care about this planet
I am still connected to nature and to my dreams for myself

I have my friends, my family
I have myself
I still have me

Cocteau Twins
"Milk And Kisses", 1996

the white vinyl is spinning...