I've been very nostalgic this past week, something I'm normally not. But things have been a bit tight lately and it's the music of my youth, not the modern music I'm normally so passionate about, that has been comforting me.

For some reason after I got off my trampoline tonight I felt so much better.  It's hard not to feel happy bouncing up and down and flying through the air while listening to easy retro pop the likes of Wham.
I like their fluffier stuff tracks ("Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" and "Everything She Wants," but "A Different Corner" and "Nothing Looks The Same in The Light" are the true beauties, the songs that remind me that Wham! (okay, really more George Michael) were pretty great!

A nice perky plus on "If You Were There: The Best of Wham" is a six minute (and counting!) remix of "Everything She Wants"...very disco-y and much more hard-core (in terms of exercising!) than the original.

Also beautiful: the jazzy and soulful "Like A Beauty" and a lot of "Music From the Edge of Heaven."

Wise Up

Aimee Mann has a song I really like called "Wise Up." It's simple, but like most things that are simple, the truth still hits you hard. "It's not going to stop," she sings, " 'til you wise up."

Beautiful piano and quiet strings swirl in the background (on the Magnolia soundtrack.) Mann keeps up the refrain and yet it never sounds tired. She's so right: it's not going to stop 'til you wise up.

Why do the same things that always end up hurting you, why love someone who doesn't feel the same way? It's not going to stop until you wise up!

Here are the rest of the lyrics and a live performance of the song:


watch here

In My Rush To Leave The Past Behind

another heartbreaking and beautiful song:

lyrics and video here

Sweet and sad...that's why I like Guster. A few years back, "One Man Wrecking Machine" appeared on a Paste magazine cd sampler and I found my eyes filling up with tears. The song is about past regrets and wanting a second change and sounds so so beautiful.

But the truth is...you can beat yourself up over and over again but you can't go back. And, really, why would you want to? Nothing is ever actually as we remember it. I think our minds are constantly re-creating the past each time we remember something...memories just can't be trusted.

...reading an old issue of Uncut music magazine I discovered an amazing little song called "It Was Meant To Be A Love Song." The song is not available through Amazon's MP3 store, but can be purchased off of iTunes or ordered through Amazon by buying the entire album (as an import) here.

iTunes sells two different versions of digital albums with various upbeat (and pretty cool-sounding) mixes! An underlying pathos combines with an undeniable catchiness to make "It Was Meant To Be A Love Song" quite haunting!

And the title and tone remind me of how painful it can be when good intentions go horribly wrong...