#edit: its not too personal but it certainly is not very coherent or interesting rip

[torunarigha]

Rules: list 10 songs that you can’t stop listening to, in no particular order, and tag 10 people

I was tagged by the lovely @todaviia​ to do this and encouraged to do explanations too, which I will definitely do because I love any excuse to thoughtfully analyze things I love!! Especially late at night when I should be sleeping...(also I’m 100% going to listen to all the songs you put and anyone who I tagged who does this, new music is fun but new music with stories behind it is even better!!)

1. American Tune - Simon and Garfunkel live at Central Park: ah the song that sums up being american, the lingering shame and sadness but also knowing you’re forever shaped and influenced by the mythology and ideology that makes this country what it is (i guess that’s not so unique but because its U.S.A. i guess it means something worse? idk man)... before i did my Austausch year in germany, my mom introduced this song ‘for when you miss this country’. i looked at her incredulously at the time but...i get it now. 

2. Urge for Going - Joni Mitchell: its funny, i got into this song right before covid and now the title is my eternal mood. joni is lovely, all of her songs i really never tire listening to (thanks mum!). the melody! the guitar! the lyrics!! ‘i get the urge for going but i never seem to go’ hits something deep...university blues i suppose.

3. You’d be so Nice to Come Home to - Nina Simone: i rediscovered this song when i listened to my jazz playlist from two years ago. I have a very clear memory of walking along a highway lined with trees on the way back home from the dentist and listening to this, enthralled. The jazz standard I associate with my mom singing it and I think this version is the only one I like better than her’s (no one can beat Nina)

4. It’s a Sin - Pet Shop Boys: I have too many melancholy ones on this list so I had to add a boppy 80s one. This summer I heard it blasting and it hasn’t left my head since. It’s best heard turned up with your eyes closed so you get the best effect from the synths (the ‘father forgive me’ always throws me and then I look at the title like ‘oh right! that’s christianity!)

5. Something in the Water - Daveed Diggs: ok full disclosure most of what i’ve been listening to lately is daveed...i have mixed feelings about clippin. songs (they’re all good songs, some i like more than others) but this is from his movie ‘blindspotting’ (which i NEED to see) and is such a good song about gentrification (specifically about oakland but i think it could be applied to many cities in the world right now lmao fuck capitalism). anyway please talk to me about daveed diggs. 

6. Parting Friends - traditional (but this is a pretty version): its a hymn from the 19th century but the harmonies are beautiful and really fun to sing with someone else, if you like choral singing. i think it meant a lot to me over the quarantine time just because i felt so separated from people, although the fear of losing friends is still here...

7. Transcend - Nyota Parker: I heard this on that video where all the proceeds went to racial justice organizations and totally loved it! Empowering and relaxing, that doesn’t happen in many songs. I think in a few years it will be one of those songs that takes me back to this time in a kind of 'oof’ way. 

8. O Love is Teasin’ - Rhiannon Giddens: Another recently discovered song although I’ve known her for a while (carolina chocolate drops, great if you love bluegrass! although i have a feeling there won’t be a lot of bluegrass fans on tumblr lol). this song is less bluegrass, more haunting traditional (maybe a bit celtic? idk) i know when i leave this state, i’ll listen to her when i miss it :’)

9. When I’m Gone - Phil Ochs: I need to listen to this song every day because it reminds me what’s important, ya know? Fight the power, care for each other, live in the moment...Anti-war and union songs are common place around the campfire with my family so that’s another reason I need this song right now tbh. i need more phil ochs, woody guthrie, pete seegar, judy collins...

10. Everything I Am Is Yours - The Villagers: this came on while I was walking to class yesterday and I was in just the right mood to hear it so I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. Maybe its because I’m just always a closet romantic hah...it is a sickly sweet song but 🥺all the same 

I tag: @manuelmueller @divckorigi @joshiikimmich @goretzkaaas @trentalexanders @dancefaeries @thomas-mvller @modricmio @robinsbckley @steviebergwijn and if anyone else took the time to read this then i tag you too!! because dang i feel appreciated!! please tell me about your music!

most of youse i’ve talked about music with which is why i tagged you (except meggie and joshiikimmich and i think i only talked about daveed diggs with emma lol), no pressure to do it of course!

im very tired. i hope this actually makes sense when you read it. why do i poor my heart out at 1am. i should not do this. goodnight.