"DEAR CATASTROPHE WAITRESS" BELLE & SEBASTIAN (2003)

For the month of November, I’ll be selecting songs in conjunction with the music Twitter challenge: #WelcomeToTheOccupation.

Belle & Sebastian has made a career out of crafting volumes and volumes of character-based stories with a folk, 60’s-inspired flair. So leave it to Belle & Sebastian to write an eccentric letter to an eccentric character. The album of the same name had more well-known B&S staples like “Piazza, New York Catcher” and “If She Wants Me”. But “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” rises above them all.

“Dear Catastrophe Waitress” just does its own thing. Characteristic of the album as a whole, the song feels more polished and produced than previous B&S recordings. This title track is like a jovial slice of old Hollywood, incorporating musical embellishments such as horns and synth strings. While the unusual time signature and melody are what we expect from the band, the instrumental choices weren’t their standard fare.

“You'll soon be leaving this town to the clowns who worship no one but themselves.”

"TO BUILD A HOME" THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA (2007)

This month, I’m jumping into the #APlaceInTheSong challenge from @JukeboxJohnny2. Great songs have that special ability to describe places in a way that makes us feel like we’re right there. Each day, I’ll pick a track that I think accomplishes that feat.

Music discovery is often happenstance. At times, we can find music when we’re proactively searching for it. But most of the time, it’s about being in the right place at the right time with the right people when a song comes on and our minds are blown. A lot of the music I’ve discovered is thanks to the recommendations of friends and coworkers. One coworker, in particular, introduced me to The Cinematic Orchestra and “To Build a Home”. He called it the most beautiful song in history. And I don’t think that enormous claim is very far from the truth.

The track never charted in the U.S. or in the U.K. But it has become larger than life in many ways. Ironically, it has played a background role, serving as the soundtrack in countless television soundtracks, most notably in a gut-wrenching scene from This Is Us. It was also featured in a figure skating performance at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The irony is that it has been thrusted into the foreground, becoming intertwined with these TV show scenes and Olympic performances. It’s one of those songs that has the power to bring everything else around it to a standstill. Most beautiful song in history? I can get agree to that.

“This is a place where I don't feel alone. This is a place where I feel at home.”

"TO BUILD A HOME" THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA (2007)

This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs

TV Series: This Is Us

Music discovery is often happenstance. At times, we can find music when we’re proactively searching for it. But most of the time, it’s about being in the right place at the right time with the right people when a song comes on and our minds are blown. A lot of the music I’ve discovered is thanks to the recommendations of friends and coworkers. One coworker, in particular, introduced me to The Cinematic Orchestra and “To Build a Home”. He called it the most beautiful song in history. And I don’t think that enormous claim is very far from the truth.

The track never charted in the U.S. or in the U.K. But it has become larger than life in many ways. Ironically, it has played a background role, serving as the soundtrack in countless television soundtracks, most notably in a gut-wrenching scene from This Is Us. It was also featured in a figure skating performance at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The irony is that it has been thrusted into the foreground, becoming intertwined with these TV show scenes and Olympic performances. It’s one of those songs that has the power to bring everything else around it to a standstill. Most beautiful song in history? I can get agree to that.

“OUT IN THE GARDEN WHERE WE PLANTED THE SEEDS THERE IS A TREE AS OLD AS ME. BRANCHES WERE SEWN BY THE COLOR OF GREEN GROUND HAD AROSE AND PASSED ITS KNEES.”

"OPEN BOOK" JOSE GONZALEZ (2015)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

In the hectic pace of daily life, the music of Jose Gonzalez has been a source of respite for me. Whether it’s putting on one his albums or going to a show, his music is best appreciated in silence and wonder. A reminder to slow down, process everything that’s around me, and everything that has led up to this moment. Vestiges & Claws is an album full of reflective, coming-of-age songs. The track “Open Book” is placed delicately in the final track position like a punctuation mark.

Across his body of work, the intricate guitar musings of Jose Gonzalez remains one of his strong suits. The finger picking is a marvel to behold – something designed for the listener to get lost in. “Open Book” is simultaneously an open book and a mysterious sign. After listening to it, I wonder for a moment if I’m a bit older and wiser than before. And, in many ways, this is something to expect when listening to just about any other song of his.

“I feel just like an open book, Exposing myself in this neighborhood. Talking to people as if I'd knew them well. Thinking that everyone has come through different kinds of hell.”

"Y CONTROL" YEAH YEAH YEAHS (2003)

For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.

Day 25

Coming up on another band that I discovered late. Being late to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs party, however, doesn’t feel like regret. Because once you arrive, all you think about is just the fact that you’re there. And being there is good. “Maps” might be the only song that I previously knew from the band. But after gravitating toward the band’s new album this year, I started making my way backwards in their catalog. I’ve loved everything I’ve heard so far. While many of their peers seemed to have a less diverse sound – think The Strokes and Interpol – Yeah Yeah Yeahs take a more divergent approach to exploring a variety of instrumental styles, tempos and themes. “Y Control” is a song where Yeah Yeah Yeahs switch into high gear, and I absolutely love it.

Every member of the band is going at full throttle here. Karen O sings with the swagger of a frontwoman who’s been doing this for a while. But this is from their debut album. Brian Chase’s drums are on a rampage of rhythm. And Nick Zinner’s guitar has undergone baptism by fire through a myriad of effects, distortion and a series of riffs that cut to the bone. I have no regrets discovering this song as late as I did. But what the hell was I thinking not going to the Japanese Breakfast / Yeah Yeah Yeahs tour that just passed through? Clearly, I wasn’t thinking at all.

“Oh so while you're growing old under the gun, gun, gun. And I believed them all. Well I'm just one poor baby 'cause well I believed them all.”

"UPWARD OVER THE MOUNTAIN" IRON & WINE (2002)

For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.

Day 9

Production – or a lack of it – sometimes can be the defining statement of an album. Some of my favorite albums of well-known established artists are the ones that take a minimalist approach. Beck’s Sea Change. Sufjan Stevens’ Seven Swans. And, of course, Springsteen’s Nebraska. Iron & Wine’s debut album follows a similar path, recorded initially as a demo on a 4-track, and stayed that way all the way through the album release. If you ever need to be convinced that less is more, the song “Upward Over the Mountain” is all the proof you need.

The song is all Sam Beam. The melody and whispery vocals highly reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens. The rhythm acoustic guitar that seems like it was made for fireside singalongs. And the distinctive slide solo that appears midway through the song, injecting a bright, optimistic disposition over the song. “Upward Over the Mountain” is two parts assurance, one part wallow, somehow capturing just the right balance.

“So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten. Sons are like birds flying always over the mountain.”

"QUEEN OF PEACE" FLORENCE + THE MACHINE (2015)

For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.

Day 6

I saw Florence perform at MSG a few weeks ago. She was unbelievable. A powerful force and presence, yet so approachable and relatable with her audience. The setlist was stacked with tracks from the new album Dance Fever, a record that admittedly is taking me some time to appreciate. But I’m getting there. I was hoping for more of the fan favs to appear on the setlist, including this one. “Queen of Peace” is still one of my favorite songs from Florence.

Ferocity. Emotion. Grandeur. These are some of the qualities that I love most about Florence. And they all come together on “Queen of Peace”, one of the key bangers from How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. The track is perhaps most known for its tempo gear switches—from its regal and triumphant string arrangement prelude to the bold fierceness of the opening verse. Then up another notch to the emotional rampage of the chorus. It’s one of the most powerful songs recorded from one of the most powerful artists of the last decade.

“Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill, I will conquer. Blood is running deep. Some things never sleep.”

"HOLOCENE" BON IVER (2011)

For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.

Day 2

Some of the best songs we have aren’t the ones we immerse ourselves in. They’re the ones we get immersed by. “Holocene” has always been that way for me. I feel overtaken by it every time I hear it. Does that even make any sense at all? I don’t know. I wish I could explain it better. But I feel like I’m simply no longer in control when I listen to those disparate acoustic guitar strums, ethereal falsetto murmur and swirling synth lines washing over me.

The lyrics and musicality are joined at the hip in “Holocene”. The union of these two elements is so strong that Justin Vernon’s stunning vocals feels like another atmospheric instrumental element being played on the track, not sung. Like much of Bon Iver’s catalog, it’s the kind of song that contains a greater power and exudes a deeper resonance when you play it in the middle of the night. “Holocene” just seems to feel at home when there are no other sounds to distract it, or us.

“Hulled far from the highway aisle. Jagged vacance, thick with ice. I could see for miles, miles, miles.”

"SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER" SUFJAN STEVENS (2015)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 24

Carrie & Lowell was a return to form for Sufjan. Not that the last couple of albums that preceded it were bad. But it seemed the artist was free from the need to experiment electronically and ready to return to a minimalist, folk-driven sound, perhaps most reminiscent of the stark simplicity of Seven Swans. By stripping away the instrumentation, all attention went to the lyrics throughout this deeply personal album about his recently deceased mother and step-father. “Should Have Known Better” feels like a late night of insomnia flipping through old photo albums that are equally treasured and torturous.

“I should have known better. To see what I could see. My black shroud holding down my feelings. A pillar for my enemies.”

"YOU WOULD HAVE TO LOSE YOUR MIND" THE BARR BROTHERS (2017)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 21

The night I saw The Barr Brothers at Williamsburg Music Hall in 2017, I felt like my entire being was floating up into the night sky. There’s a buoyancy in the band’s songs that I find no use in resisting. I just let the songs take me wherever they will. The Queens of the Breakers album uses every element in its arsenal to achieve this outcome. The reverb-soaked vocals. The calculating bass lines. The hypnotic harp work. And the words, they do wonders for your soul if you have a few minutes to spare.

“Loosen up and lose your mind. You never know what you could find on the other side. A hundred thousand butterflies floating in the orange skies above my head.”

"SEASONS (WAITING ON YOU)" FUTURE ISLANDS (2014)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 18

How many bands sing and play with all their soul? How many bands put everything they have into the music because it’s all they got and it’s all they live for? Probably not many. Future Islands is one of them. They’re proof that synthesizers still have soul. Proof that you don’t have to act like or look like a rock band to make some noise in this industry. And if you absolutely love what you do, you can make people love it, too. “Seasons” is strangely contagious and utterly ambitious. Hands down, one of the best songs from the last 10 years – and it all starts with the lyrics.

“Seasons change, and I tried hard just to soften you. The seasons change, but I've grown tired of tryin' to change for you.”

"PIAZZA, NEW YORK CATCHER" BELLE & SEBASTIAN (2003)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 15

There’s an absurd charm to these lyrics. A song about a Major League all-star written like the lyricist doesn’t understand the first thing about baseball, or sports in general. This perspective portrayed Mike Piazza as a tragic, everyday man, likened to all the eccentric folk characters that Belle & Sebastian have created over the years. You want to laugh at it and with it simultaneously. And how many songs can you say that about?

“How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take? How many nights of limping round on pagan holidays?”

"ANYTHING" SHARON VAN ETTEN (2022)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 5

There are few voices today that are as raw and haunting as Sharon Van Etten’s. And, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong has fast become my favorite album of 2022. It’s been a while since an entire album has grabbed me the way this one does. I get lost in these songs. I lose it with these songs. “Anything”, for me, brings with it a sense of catharsis. I didn’t expect this song – or the album, for that matter, to have that kind of an effect on me. There’s so much mediocrity in music these days and not enough originality. But I found something unexpected once again in the vocals and songwriting of Sharon Van Etten.

“Up the whole night, undefined. Can't stop thinking about peace and war. Up the whole night, right before the sun takes everything. It could've been anything. I didn't feel anything.”

"THE BODY IS A BLADE" JAPANESE BREAKFAST (2017)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 2

The songs of Soft Sounds From Another Planet are like a bridge from despair to joy. It’s the necessary mourning of death and loss that make joy and hope even possible one day. I love these songs. “Diving Woman”, “Till Death”, “Boyish”, “Road Head” and this one. As Japanese Breakfast suddenly became a hot band nearly overnight last year, I was lucky to catch them live at Brooklyn Steel where they played “The Body Is A Blade”. They say your pain is more meaningful if it becomes the experience that enables you to be there for someone who goes through something similarly painful. I think that’s what Michelle Zauner was doing when she wrote these lyrics.

“Try your best to slowly withdraw. Your body is a blade that moves while your brain is writhing. Knuckled under pain, you mourn but your blood is flowing.”

"MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS" THE NATIONAL (2007)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #31DaySongLyricChallenge

Day 31

It is painfully hard for me to choose just one song from The National to highlight. One song that contains lyrics I revere. Because even among the songs from The National’s canon that I’m not as attached to musically, every single one seems to ring clearly with the everyday man poetry of Matt Berninger. “Mistaken For Strangers” features some of the finest string of words assembled together in the 21st century. “Showered and blue blazered.” “Fill yourself with quarters.” “Another un-innocent, elegant fall Into the un-magnificent lives of adults.” And this gem right here…

“Make up something to believe in your heart of hearts. So you have something to wear on your sleeve of sleeves. So you swear, you just saw a feathery woman carry a blindfolded man through the trees.”

"BRIGHTER!" CASS MCCOMBS (2013)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #31DaySongLyricChallenge

Day 27

The clean guitar picking, McComb’s hush-hush falsetto and Americana roots swirling around on “Brighter!” remind me of late night star gazing. The simplest of songs are often the best ones we have. I just love the stark, ethereal quality to “Brighter!”. There’s a lightness and buoyancy to the music and lyrics that seem to transcend time and space. “Brighter!” The lyrics seem more like a stream of consciousness than a coherent narrative – and that’s the charm of it.

“I stopped in for a little while and threw in the evidence. I wandered off a little while resequencing events.”

"HOLOCENE" BON IVER (2011)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #31DaySongLyricChallenge

Day 24

The lyrics and musicality are joined at the hip in “Holocene”. The union of these two elements is so strong that Justin Vernon’s falsetto murmur feels like another atmospheric instrumental element being played on the track, not sung. Like much of Bon Iver’s catalog, it’s the kind of song that contains a greater power and exudes a deeper resonance when you play it in the middle of the night. “Holocene” just seems to feel at home when there are no other sounds to distract it or us.

“Hulled far from the highway aisle. Jagged vacance, thick with ice. I could see for miles, miles, miles.”

"FEEL YOU" MY MORNING JACKET (2020)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #31DaySongLyricChallenge

Day 20

I ignored the early recommendations from other music fans that I should check out My Morning Jacket. A grave mistake given how deep their catalog is and how spectacular Jim James’ songwriting abilities are. I was turned off by the band name. But once I dove in, I was all in. One of my favorite songs from the band came from the original Waterfall recordings in 2015. The song was rediscovered during the pandemic and released as part of Waterfall II. The guitar work is certainly a highlight, but the lyrics are the heart of the song. The words in “Feel You” almost doesn’t quite make sense because often love doesn’t quite make sense either.

“Are we under covers raining blood? REM covers, reign in blood. And all I want to do is feel you.”

"TENUOUSNESS" ANDREW BIRD (2008)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #31DaySongLyricChallenge

Day 10

The whistling. The string instruments. The wit. There are many aspects to Andrew Bird’s music that draw me to the music, including his way with words. They can be complex and hard to decipher at times. Many of his songs include long, complicated words, like a modern-day “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. I rarely can repeat the words back, but my ears are glued every single time. “Tenuousness” is one of those classics where Bird started to really play with the sounds and flow of words, not just their meanings.

“From proto-Sanskrit Minoans to Porto-centric Lisboans. Greek Cypriots and harbor sorts who hang around in ports a lot, uh huh.”

"MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS" THE NATIONAL (2007)

Each day in December, I’ll be reflecting back on a song from the 2000’s. The decade saw the return of post-punk and the popularization of folk music, all while some of music’s biggest acts gained their indie footing. Thankfully, it’s a period that I can look back at fondly without cringing. #31DaysOf2000sSongs

One of my all-time favorite bands is The National, a band that has seemed to always sync up mysteriously well with my own life. Boxer came out the year my wife and I got married – and High Violet was released weeks before our first child was born. The music always seemed to usher me into new seasons – with Matt Berninger’s gifted approach to lyrics that sound more like conversations with eccentric friends. I’ve seen the band perform live a few times. While “Mr. November” and “Abel” have been some of the more anticipated bangers on tour, for me it was always about the quiet stoic power of “Mistaken for Strangers”.

Berninger delivers the lyrics nearly in monotone, as if in a trance. “Showered and blue-blazered, fill yourself with quarters,” he announces in his trademark bass delivery. “Mistaken for Strangers” is the quintessential National song in many ways. Frenetic, yet calculated. Seemingly on the verge of losing control, but hanging on still. Bryan Devendorf’s drum rolls seem to be having seizures in between verses, while the Dessner brothers contribute these guitar parts that an industrial feel to them like fellow Boxer tracks “Brainy” and “Guest Room”. “Mistaken for Strangers” is a song that celebrates the everyday man poeticism of Matt Berninger.

“Make up something to believe in your heart of hearts. So you have something to wear on your sleeve of sleeves. So you swear, you just saw a feathery woman carry a blindfolded man through the trees.”