My favorite songs of 2008.

My favorite songs of 2008

These are some of my favorite songs of the year. i will do my favorite records of 2008 next month...but I was thinking of the mixes I have made, the songs I have put on repeat, the songs that made me stop and cry or stop and make me smile. They didn't necessarily arrive in 2008 but they certainly resonated in 2008 so I am making a list. Maybe you can find them.

This year was complex and hard. Beauty and Pain filled the year. Death and Celebration. Joy and Sorrow.
My heart was filled with emotion.

Sia: Breathe Me
(Colour the Small One, 2005)
If I could bottle one song and say 2008 it would be this song. I would lay on the floor of the green house with my ear near the speaker and put it on repeat. I am sure that the roommates were sick of this song past April but it is so beautiful. The stings describe the heart where the lyrics described the aches of my soul. I also finished Six Feet Under this year....


Ryan Adams: Come Pick Me Up
(Heartbreaker, 2000)
I think there wouldn't be a day from about March-until I graduated that I wouldn't play this song. DAn would come into my room and laugh because it was playing again. It was in my car, ipod, iphone, cd player, computer. It is A-MAZING. I don't know why it was this year that I connected to the song but I did. and so should you.


The Avett Brothers: Living of Love
(Emotionalism, 2008)
One of the best shows of the year and what life should be lived....with love and the Avett Brothers.


Wilco: Impossible Germany
(Sky Blue Sky, 2007)
The guitar lines of Nels Cline make my heart swoon. We got to see him this year do some avant-jazz and it was a definite spiritual experience. This band is my favorite. This song is a top five favorite Wilco song. Amazing. Beautiful. Unique. Favorite line: Gorgeous and Alone. Face to face.
Are you listening?


Horse Feathers: Hardwood Pews
(Words are Dead; 2006)
I found this band randomly this year. Seriously it took me this long to find this Portland beauty. Americana/folk...best song on the record. His voice is magic.


Bon Iver: Skinny Love
(for Emma Forever Ago; 2008)
My friend Travis and I listened to this song 144 times and then I listened to it 300 more. It is the best song that came out this year. It's amazing. I always without fail play it twice because once is never enough. When I close my eyes I can think of screaming the lyrics with 200 other people one of my last nights in LA. It was a moment I hope I never forget.


Sigur Ros: Ara Batur
(Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust: 2008)
Can this song be anymore beautiful? I honestly don't think it can. It brings peace and stillness to my heart and tears to my eyes when the all boy choir comes in around minute five. I drove to the PCH with all my windows down knowing everything was about to change and I wasn't sad....I was at peace.


Radiohead: Videotape
(In Rainbows; 2007/8)
I got to see Radiohead this year and it was an interesting though fun experience. Many people know my mom died this year and this song makes me thing of here. Last Christmas I put it on a mixtape for her. I can't help but to hope that when I get to the pearly gates her life and her memory will be on my videotape.


Radical Face: Welcome Home
(Ghost; 2007)
My beautiful friend Erika (as well as many others) made mix CDs for my road trip back to Michigan. I heard this song and knew it was the perfect song to welcome me home to the changing leaves of the Michigan mitten. It is what somewhat pictures coming home to. With wind chimes, clothes on the clothes line, scars peeled away, and arms wide open.


Javelins: Out on the Sand
(Heavy Meadows; 2008)
I love this song and I am glad I came back to Detroit to remember how amazing the Detroit music scene is. Best band in the city and this song is so catchy....


Misty Lyn and the Big Beautiful: The Fall
(For the Dead; 2008)
During the saddest week of my life I went to a show in a tiny bar in Hamtramak. I drank some Pabst and I saw some bands play. I am in love with americana and I told the man with the band this. He asked me to wait a moment and came back with this cd. "My other band," he says. I brought it home and this song was on it. It caught by surprise. It is perfect and the line "Lord, will you hold my hand" is the perfect question to this year.

I hope you enjoy these tunes or others like it....

and my heart skips a beat.

I feel in love once.
It was a long time ago
where the problems really were so trivial
and none important
and today seem like non issues

and today a different love has emerged
a love that comes from some silly instruments
and a silly man who sings
or hums
or strums
or a lady that does something so similar

and i sit
and am in awe
and my stress weens
and my heart calms
and my eyes close
and i just listen

i rarely argue
i rarely fuss
and I rarely complain

can you really complain when something
so beautiful captures your imagination
puts a smile on your face
and you realize that you are not the only one on the planet
and you are not alone.

the piles get higher

I had piles and piles of things all around my room
and I don't collect things or horde
it was an avoidance to deal with my life
so by cleaning the mess in my immediate surroundings help the mess that happens to be my life?

I am one broken lady
that sits at the bottom of the bit
I am broken
but something that is different than the rest of these times
is that i don't feel alone.

it's that i almost catch myself
when i want to say that i might be
but I am not
and I know that is the truth.

What the truth holds is something of an unknown
and I feel so broken
and the path is not in a place where it is easily found.

and so life continues....
and I hope I don't bury myself

because those clothes
mimic the fears
i dress myself everyday in.

i am a feather in the wind

I rarely post about my spirituality in a way that is so transparent. Usually you need to read between the lines a bit. I don't ever want someone to think they have to be force fed spiritual beliefs or language so I will make this brief or the most me I can think of.

Tonight I feel like my right eye has been revealed some new truth which often time is just recycled old truth.
I am a good woman.
I am smart and gifted and talented and I have something to say.

I need to be true to myself
and to others
and not hide.

I can say that grief
the kind that sneaks up on you in the middle of happy
can make a tear come to your eye
because you can't share it with them
is also the same grief that strips the last of your
inhibitions

I am strengthened by prayer
and by hope
hope that I can't explain in words
just feelings

I am going to make some moves this week
like vote for change
and apply for jobs
and write
because that makes me oddly so happy
and see beautiful friends
who have also taken bold chances
and risk love for Love.
and maybe i will do the same

Life seems to be full of possibilities
and God seems to be bigger than i
have imagined or often times lead to believe.

I am amazed by hope and challenged by love.