songs I'm diggin'...

I have been listening to lots of music lately and there are certain songs I have been coming back to again and again because they are, for whatever reason, just resonating with me these days:

1. "Blown Wide Open" (Big Wreck): Ian Thornley may have made a career out of ripping off Zeppelin, but God bless him for it! This has always been one of my favourite songs because it is a track with a lot of space and atmosphere that also hammers you over the head with it's majestic power and the epic build to a cathartic release at the end. A really good one through headphones...

2. "World Wide Suicide" (Pearl Jam): this may be one of the best political/anti-war songs of the last decade, helped by the impassioned bellow of the often imitated, but never duplicated Eddie Vedder. Vedder's seething indictment of the Bush administration ("tell you to pray while the devil's on their shoulders" and "writing checks that others pay") sits on a bed of raging guitars courtesy of the dynamic duo of Gossard and McCready.

3. "Taxi Ride" (Tori Amos): the entire Scarlet's Walk album has gotten a lot of play over the last year or so, especially at night as I am falling asleep. I just find this song catchy and haven't the faintest idea what it's about, nor have I tried to figure it out--I just love the sound of it.

4. "Lesson Learned" (Ray LaMontagne): this guy is a new discovery for me, courtesy of Jimmy the K, and I have spent a lot of time listening to his album Till the Sun Turns Black and "Lesson Learned" in particular. I find the song so melancholy and his voice resonates with emotion, on the verge of cracking near the beginning of the song. Definitely worth checking out if you like acoustic/singer-songwriter stuff.

5. "Black Eye" (Jeff Tweedy): The original is by Tweedy's first "big" band, Uncle Tupelo, but I have really been into the version on Tweedy's Sunken Treasure album. It's another melancholy tearjerker that always gets me.

6. "Strange Condition" (Pete Yorn): Absolutely epic when it hits the final chorus and the harmonies kick in. I love the fact that this song starts in the key of A and then inexplicably drops down to G and it just SO COOL. I have been playing it constantly since last summer: on my visit to BC, my trip back, Europe, and still a few times per week even now. His entire album, musicforthemorningafter, is really awesome.

7. "No Sleep" (Sam Roberts): Caitlin and I both really enjoy Sam Roberts and this one gets me particularly jazzed. I love the chorus harmonies and the sweet keyboard lick that kicks in during the verses. I find myself diggin' the one-two iPod punch of this song along with "Taj Mahal" from the same album--smokin' hot!

8. "The Great Escape" (Patrick Watson): This song is GORGEOUS. Watson won the second annual Polaris Prize this year for his album Close to Paradise and, though I am not a believer in cultural prizes, I can see why this album has garnered the attention it has. I don't have enough good to say about this piano-driven lullabye...