15 - The Truth Has a Habbit of Falling Out of Your Mouth

Melancholy.  Powerful.  Passionate.  That is today's song.

I was introduced to this song by way of a mentor when he shared the movie it is from with me.  The film fits every one of those descriptions equally.  It's also an Irish movie...so that didn't hurt my opinions of it.  Now, the entire soundtrack is full of amazing songs.  Anyone of them could have easily made it on this list.  Some still may.  But this song is just so gripping.

Song 15/Day15

"Leave," from Glen Hansard on the Academy Award Winning* motion picture soundtrack, Once.

* the Oscar was for the song, Falling Slowly

One of the things I love about this song is how raw Hansard sings it.  The words are brutally honest and blunt.  He doesn't pull any punches.  It is full of heartache and struggle.  But he sings with such strength and heart.

Music is a powerful thing.  There is something cathartic about being able to vent frustrations out in a song like this.  Not that they have to deal with heart break, but to put your voice (even if not on key, and whilst driving) into momentum of this song...is cleansing.

Today I'm sitting with an incredible view of the edge of a wood.  The leaves are rustling in the chill wind.  Many are beginning to turn.  Lots of yellow.  The windows are open and I'm half tempted to go for a hike, or exploratory stroll through the trees.  This song, among others, would be a fantastic background track for such a hike.  But on such walks I usually leave the iPod at home and just enjoy the nature sounds, or company of whoever is with me.

Some of my favorite lyrics are in the first verse into the chours:

And you won't disappoint me
I can do that myself
But I'm glad that you've come
Now if you don't mind

Leave, leave,
And free yourself at the same time
Leave, leave,
I don't understand, you've already gone

Such pain and sadness.  It's moving stuff.


So enjoy today's song and the rest of the album!

"Leave" by Glen Hansard.


-Jesse

14 - You Must Pay for Your Crimes Against the Earth

Last day for this part...The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

Okay, so.  Today's song is another one of those, "heard it in a movie trailer," songs.  This particular song is quite epic.  And after looking up the lyrics and knowing the plot, having read the book the movie was based on, it fit like a glass slipper on a chore laboring beauty.  The band, was one I was vaguely aware of...but never explored.  Like Elbow...once I started sampling...I got everything.  Then I kept hearing their stuff in movies and trailers.  I'm speaking about the epic British band...Muse.  The movie trailer, was Watchmen.

Song 14/Day14

"Take a Bow," as covered by Muse from the album, Black Holes and Revelations.

This song takes me to a different type of Autumn.  A darker one where evil must be triumphed over.  It's in my head of course.  I think it's mainly because they use the word 'hex' in the song...and that makes me think of two things.  Pennsylvania Dutch Barns and Halloween.  Oddly...both make me think of Fall.  So all thoughts lead to Fall.

The intro to the song just paints the images of swirling leaves and grey skies.  The evil leader of the enemy forces surveying his troops.  Haughty and cocksure.  Then, the people riot.  They revolt.  They fight back to take back their land and lives.  It's chaos and confusion.  In the end...the enemy leader is on trial...with a certain outcome.

Like I said, it's a darker Autumn.

I really like the lyric

And our freedom's consuming itself
What we become is contrary to what we want
Take a bow

Muse does a lot of massive epic storytelling with their albums.  It's not for everyone, but I think it's worth the exploration. 

Really short post today.  Sorry folks.  Sleep has been elusive and sickness threatens.  So it's off to bed before today actually starts.

"Take a Bow" from Muse...seriously, check 'em out if you don't know what you're missing.

-Jesse

13 - All the Same 'ole Cliches

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

It was November 1998 when I heard this song.  Once again, Evangel days.  I could be found hanging out with my good friends of Sc1N.  Erik, Josh, Brendan, Nate, and Stu.  Good guys.  I had listened to some of this band's music in high school, but had given it up for what would be a long and dis-interesting story for this post.  Suffice it to say, I was well acquainted with the band when I heard this tune.  But this track had a slightly different feel to it.  Possibly because it was a cover.  And to this day, I don't recall ever listening to the original straight through.

I remember going to Best Buy and picking up this intense two-disc set.  Yes, there was no downloading with this song.  Well, not for me.  Much to the band's chagrin there has been lots of downloading...back in those days...thanks to places like Napster.

Song 13/Day13

"Turn the Page," as covered by Metallica from their album, Garage Inc.

Like a lot of the songs in this series, it too has a slow mournful beginning with a steady intense build up the breaking of the song.  Say what you will about Metallica, until St. Anger, they knew how to put an album together.  Garage Inc. has several songs like this cover of Bob Seger's classic, and Lynyrd Skynyrd's, Tuesday's Gone.

While I can't give them the recognition for the lyrics, I do love the delivery of them.  There isn't a voice in metal/hard rock that growls as good as James Hetfield.  Even when I first heard it I knew it was a cover (that was the point of this album,) but it felt like a personal song for him.  As it's about life on the road for touring musicians...it's easy to translate that empathy/sympathy between just about any act.  Well, maybe not Disney Pop acts.

This song works great for the Fall because of the "road" feel of it.  I can visualize a band traveling during the verses and bridge.  The slow times at a lonely hotel in the middle of nowhere.  Bad weather.  Maybe one of the band is leaning over some spiral notebook jotting down lyrics in the tour bus.  The choruses, with the change in music, fits well with images of them performing, giving everything they've got into their music.  Wanting to make a connection with their fans.

That's what I see.

And as stated in previous posts, Autumn really stirs up my wanderlust.  It's difficult to hold it back sometimes, this year in particular, but it's always there.  Waiting for some great tunes, and a road to strike out on.  I really dig these lyrics (the whole 2nd verse):

You walk into a restaurant, strung out from the road
And you feel the eyes upon you, as you're shaking off the cold
You pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode
And most times you can't hear 'em talk, other times you can
All the same 'ole cliches: is it woman? Is it man?
And you always seem outnumbered, you dare not make a stand, make your stand.

Also, the whole concept of 'turning a page' for whatever reason, conjures up images and feelings of Fall.  It's my favorite time of year to read.  Reading and Road Trips.  Maybe that's a blog series for next year...

But curling up with a good book as the weather starts to cool, the night comes on quicker...imagination gets to run a little freer.  At least mine does...and it's rarely on the leash anyway.  While many people think of Spring as the beginning of new life and all that pastel nonsense, for me it's Autumn.  Yes, the leaves and grass die.  But they are the incubators of the new to come.  If Spring is birth, Autumn is conception.


So, if you're planning any long road trips (maybe we can still catch New England before the leaves are done?) take a listen to Turn the Page.

Here's the link to "Turn the Page" from Metallica.

enjoy!
-Jesse

12 - The Shadows On My Wall Don't Sleep

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

New music is often a challenge for me to come by.  I'm not complaining.  I won't listen to the radio, Pandora rarely gets pulled up anymore.  And I don't enjoy browsing music stores for samples (do they even do that anymore?)  Occasionally I'll see something on iTunes that catches my attention at the store's home page. 

So it's exciting for me to hear a bit of music I really want to know more of in a trailer for a movie or scene in a TV show.  Today's song is an example...well...sort of.  Back in the Spring I saw a trailer for an upcoming movie titled, The Words, starring Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana.  There was a bit of music at the end (that I will probably feature later in this series) that really got my attention.  After seeing the movie, the music choice was great when comparing the lyrics to the plot of the movie.

After seeing the preview I instantly searched for what the song was, and went to iTunes.  The only thing available at the time was an EP.  So I got it.  The full album came out not to long ago, and it's great.  The full album included today's featured song.

Song 12/Day12

"Nothing Left to Say / Rocks," by Imagine Dragons from their debut album, Night Visions.

Overall the album is quite upbeat, even the lyrically "heavier" tracks there is a sense of weight and foreboding, with out desperation or fear.  Nothing Left to Say seems to be one of the heaviest of the album, but it balances it out with the incredibly hopeful and upbeat Rocks addition at the end.  The song seems to be mainly about someone giving up, (no real solid concept of what he is giving up on) and that there is surprisingly, nothing left to say about the issue.

There's nothing left to say now...
I'm giving up, giving up, hey hey, giving up now...

There is some great imagery with the lyrics, like those of the title of this post.  Then after the main song ends and fades out, there is a pause before the upbeat follow up comes in.  It starts off with the light and hopeful question:

Where do we go from here?

And then moves on to a swinging drum beat and and another question:

Why can't I see, what's right in front of me?

Now, the first part of the song is what really feels Autumnal to me.  The opening synth reminds me of the theme from The Neverending Story.  That was a movie I remember seeing in the Fall.  Possibly the first movie I ever watched, "on tape."  It was quite a memorable experience.  I remember being really freaked out by it as I was quite young, and it started to rain about the same time it was raining in the movie.  And the Nothing had me shaking for many nights after.  I don't know if I understood the concept of oblivion or whatever it represented...but trying to think about "nothing" as a state of existence or non-existence as a kid about 5...mind melting.

I loved it.

So, this song brings back all of that and more.  There is, to me, a sense of challenge in vocalist Dan Reynolds' voice.  As if he's saying, "there's nothing left to say now...but maybe you'll think of something I haven't."

There is also a sense of his place and that he doesn't have it all together.  He's not deluded that he's young and got all the answers.  It's refreshing and a bit humbling.  I also really like the line:

I'm drowning in the waters of my soul

It's a great song to blast in your car while you can still have your windows down, even if it brings on a slight chill.

Enjoy Imagine Dragons (and that name is just awesome) and their album Night Visions, featuring "Nothing Left to Say/Rocks."

-Jesse

11 - They Won't Dare Bring Our Names Up Again

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

This is another song from Chuck.  Well, it was from the artist first, but I heard it on Chuck.  It's played over a brutally heart breaking scene.  Surprisingly, I don't only associate this song with that scene.  Probably because it was just a bit of the song.  Saw the episode for the first time over Memorial Day weekend this year.  From Chuck - Season Five.

This tune, like many on this list, have mellow beginnings an build to something bigger and more driving.

Song 11/Day11

Today's Song:  "She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers on the album, Breaks in the Armor.
The only thing I don't like about this song, is the spelling of the title, and therefor miss use of the idiom.  I'm sure it was intentional.  But it bugs me.  However, the change in the spelling of Toe to Tow, works powerfully with the scene in Chuck that the song is used in.

Why I picked it?  This song takes me to the coast of New England in the Fall.  Now, I've never really been there, but I've seen enough pictures/movies/shows etc that I get an idea.  When listening to this song I feel the drumming of the steel grey/blue waves on the beach.  The white sand and dying tall grasses at the crest of the hill leading down to the shore.  There is a playful sarcasm carried through it.

I imagine a group of friends at a beach house, exploring the shoreline by day, having fun and laughing.  While night falls they light up a bonfire on the beach and have hot dogs and S'mores and all that campfirey goodness.

I guess that's what this song makes me want to do.  Anyone up for it?

The lyrics feel a bit ambiguous to me.  They seem to have significance to the singer, but it kinda feels like he's giving directions and using landmarks that out-of-towners wouldn't know.  But I still like it.  Especially these:

see it so clear in her eyes
she won't be bringing it up again
so she rises and goes
so they'd never know
that she even came here at all

Enjoy the tune.  I've not gotten around to exploring more from the artist...but would like to someday.  Perhaps when I go on that trip to New England shores in the Fall.

"She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers.  Toe or Tow the line.  There is a difference!

-Jesse

10 - A Bass Vibrating and a Fiddle Crying

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

This song I came upon while living at Evangel University.  It was my first summer not coming back to PA.  I was on my own for the first time.  The year was 2000.  Gladiator had just come out in theaters.  I was house sitting for the summer while also working at EU's very on TV Station, ECTV.

But the route to this song started the previous year.  On a random night in October some friends and I went to see the latest Tim Burton movie, "Sleepy Hollow."  There was a trailer on that for another movie that was out called, "The Messenger."  It was the story of Joan of Arc.

I of course went to the theater (I think by myself) the very next night to see it.  I was blown away by that movie.  To fully explain that would take another blog.  Needless to say it stuck with me.  So did the lead actress, Milla Jovovich.

So, I was very much surprised when (the following summer) I learned the Ukrainian model, turned actress, turned musician had released an album.  I liked many of the songs but the one that stuck with me the most.

Song 10/Day10

Today's Song:  "In A Glade," from Milla Jovovich's album, The Divine Comedy.

The coolest thing about this song...is that it is sung in Ukrainian.  It is a traditional song from the Ukraine.  While I don't know the origin or history of the song, Milla captures such a haunting beauty in her voice and pacing of the song.   The title of this post is a translation of some of the lyrics, which I never looked up until today, over 12 years later.

This song pulls me strongly into the Fall.  I'm not sure if that's a harpsichord or what playing but the notes just feel like the stems of leaves popping off the trees while the harp fills my mind with images of the red, orange, yellow stars floating down to the dark, damp, brown soil.

And it is almost oppressive, the beauty of this forest of falling leaves.  All that can be seen is the somber hues of Autumn and the dark bark of the trees.  The boughs and branches are too tightly woven over head and still too full of leaves, all the while they are falling and filling the air dancing among the dark wood, until they land and carpet the soil, hiding the patches of green grass.

Her voice beckoning the listener deeper and deeper into the woods until they come across the titular glade.  Here, I see a scene described in my all time favorite book, The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander.  The lead character Taran, a teenage boy, in ancient Prydain (Briton) has a dream.  This dream shows him element representing his primary companions resting on a wet rock.  One item is a harp, that stands for the character of Fflewdder Fflam, a bard.  The harp ties into the music of the song...and we've come full circle.

I love the melancholy overtones.  But there is a flicker of hope tied into her voice.  So enjoy something from another culture, and let it take you somewhere otherworldly.

Check out "In A Glade" from Milla Jovovich's album The Divine Comedy.

-Jesse

09 - Strangers Once United Against the Land

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

Like The Head and the Heart, today's artist was discovered by seeing an album on the shelf at Target.  A few years ago, early 2008, I was spending the weekend with some friends in St. Louis, MO.  They guys had gone out to the local Target for birthday cards or something.  While wandering the store I caught sight of CD cover hosting a girl with bright red hair wearing a bright yellow dress. 

I did the same thing as with Head and the Heart.  I sampled the album on line.  And the first song that really stood out to me was...

Today's Song:  "Rangers," by A Fine Frenzy's debut, One Cell in the Sea.

This song enchanted me.  Allison Sudol's voice is just ethereal.  And she is A Fine Frenzy.  That's not an opinion, but she is the artist.  This song is laced with allusions to fantasy stories.  And fantasy stories always feel the most real to me in Autumn.

I can't really share images that this song conjures up for me, because one of the first times I heard it was watching the music video.  That unfortunately has the effect of becoming my default imagery for songs.  I do love having this song play when I drive around through the hills and woods here in PA.

The song feels exploratory.  I get the feeling of a couple, or several companions who are on an adventure.  There are many people or ideas trying to tempt them off their innocent, or even childlike path.  Trying to bring them to 'real world.'

I think imagination is one of the greatest victims of the modern world.  We can realize things on TV shows and movies in ways we never have before...but a lot of it is remakes, reboots, rehash, and really bad.  Every body wants to try their hand at some well known character or story and most things that are new or unknown, get left by the wayside because there is an uncertainty to them.

I say, bring on the uncertain.

Take me on an adventure I've never been on.  Lead me down a path I don't know.  This song does that for me (even if my visuals have been compromised by the video.)  There is still a sense of mystery and wonder in it.  There is fine line between living in the real world and simply existing in it.  I don't want to live in a world where wonder, adventure, and mystery have no place.  I don't like saying things need to be "balanced," but we can live with dreams and wonder right alongside of reality.

Get outside the walls of your city.  Step outside the gates of your yard.  Dive into a book.  Explore the world literally or in literature.  And keep exploring.  Don't let the hunters catch you.  Don't want to be found.  Soak up life and live.

Some of my favorite lines from this song are from the second verse:

Further in and on we go
Sightless creatures tugging at our clothes
Cutting through the twilight, sword in hand
Strangers once united against the land

Check out Rangers by A Fine Frenzy, and get lost in your imagination.

-Jesse

08 - The Less I Give the More I Get Back

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.
Today's song was one of those happy things I stumbled on because a friend posted a link on the facebook.  (Props to Nina Ferry!)  It was some time in February or March of 2012 when I saw her post/comment about this band called The Civil Wars.  I thought, "What a strange name for a band."  But I listened to the song (can't remember which, possibly the one I'm featuring today,) and just loved it.  It was another one of those that I sampled the album and downloaded the whole thing on the spot.

Song 08/Day 08

Today's Song:  "Poison & Wine," from The Civil Wars debut, Barton Hollow.

While the song entered my life in the damp, wet, and chilly months of late winter, it had me longing for Autumn.  Once again the instruments remind me of falling leaves and rain.  There is this steady, intermittent beat that feels like wiper-blades smacking hard across a windshield.

There is a mournful heart to this song.  Just the lyrics themselves bare the souls of the voices.

him:  You only know what I want you to
her:  I know everything you don't want me to

There is  a dichotomy to love that this song addresses so brutally and beautifully. 

him:  I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back
her:  the less I give, the more I get back

The feeling I get when I listen to this song is that of a love that needs to be fought for.  That there is this deep connection between the singers (their "voice" not the actual musicians,) that keep getting block by their own actions.  They want so badly to love each other that they are practically screaming it at each other so loudly that they can't hear the other person.

One of my favorite lines is:

I don't have a choice, but I'd still choose you

 There is something so beautifully committed about that line.  I know it's not about God, but I can't help but feel that's how God feels about us.  That while there is a choice, there is no questioning that his choice will always be for us.

There might be the ability to choose, but the choice will always be made the same way.

I hope to love in that way.  Not just in a relationship, but in life...period.

The final lyrics that really follow me are the words of the chorus,

I don't love you, but I always will

I know it's an enigma, confusing thought...but I love it.  Maybe it's the I don't love you (right now,) but I'm always going to choose you.  I don't know.  That's another reason I love this song.  It's not a clean get away.  It's messy and thick.  Just like life.

And life is worth living.

Enjoy!

So journey down to Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars on iTunes and check out Poison & Wine

-Jesse