Somehow I have the feeling that Julie Delpy sings Mr. Unhappy (mp3 over at the suburbs are killing us) to me. Okay, she doesn't know me but if I was her boyfriend she'd surely leave me and write this song about the relation afterwards. By the way a question to my native English readers: is there an age limit for being a boyfriend?

Probably I am not the biggest fan of Keith Jarrett in the world though I have sixty something of his records. And I guess I am neither the greatest living lover of Joni Mitchell's music though I have all her albums except the last one which was a sad orchestrated affair of strings recycling old songs. There are always people who are crazier for artists than me.

But I must be the ultimate fan of both of them at the same time. They are my two favourite musicians ever. What a surprise to read in the Joni Mitchell chapter of Konrad Heidkamp's book Sophisticated Ladies that Keith Jarrett apparently played one of her songs. All I Want from Blue. On The Mourning of a Star, the only early (from 1971 like Blue) Jarrett album I haven't got I think. All I Want without the gorgeous lyrics ("I am on a lonely road and I am traveling...") in the hands of the greatest solo pianist of the world. How did he do it? I am extremely curious. I had to order the cd a minute ago.

Radian's Rapid Eye Movement over at one faint deluded smile. Laptop meets post-rock meets shoegazing. I can even imagine to dance to this weird shit.

This morning before going to work I listemed to a couple of songs by the Canadian singer Leslie Feist and I decided to go for her new album Let It Die instead of the albums I mentioned in my last post. Especially One Evening won me over. This song sounds like I would have liked Sade to sound in the eighties. Relaxed and jazzy but very expressive. It's weird and probably pathetic but I am in need of new female voices, fresh young blood if you want. The studio version of this song is light and deep at the same time. A cliché but isn't life about clichés? The other songs I heard of hers I didn't like too much as they were too contrived but this one is a miracle.

Is 'Man Needs a Maid' ridiculous?

I love those threads on ILM on individual songs. This song on Harvest appears to have two serious flaws. First the seemingly macho lyrics. Then the over-orchestration by Nitzsche. Jay Kid explains nicely that the song is about someone who has lost love and finds it again. Jody says that

which is ingenious as a remedy to get over a past love. The string arrangement is so over the top that it is good again. On this page there is a live version of the song played at the Royal Festival Hall, London from 1971 in case you want to listen to it (again).

Imagine you are going to be executed in one hour time. What would be the one last song you would like to listen to before the end? I know it's a perverse question. My song would be Shapeshifting from the new Bark Psychosis abum, I guess. At least right now. There is everything in that song I'd need for the journey to the other side. A dream of a female voice, a droning melody, some beautiful and some everyday noise. It's all there.

The better and even more perverse question. Which is the song which will make you want to kill yourself after having listened to it? The song which is better than life. I haven't heard it yet. And I don't want to really. Because it will probably be so loud that you'll prefer to kill yourself before the end of the song.

The Mystical Beast has Opal's Fell from the Sun online. Get it fast before it's gone. I imagine the effect the slighty noisy guitar sound has on me similar to the one from eating magic mushrooms. There is a warm dizziness in the guitar solo I absolutely adore. Kendra Smith's singing is rather monotonous, a little in the tradition of the unemotional sprechgesang of Nico but it works. I think I wrote about Opal and this track before but I can't be arsed to look for the post.

P.S. Here it is.

The second track on Eno's 1st album is another three minute affair. Though not suited as a single this time. I guess it is allowed to call this piece an oddity. In the first minute Eno turns into his stilted opera singer like sprechgesang. Not my cup of tea at all. Unbearable and a real turn-off.

But then in the second minute Eno suddenly decides to stop pronouncing his absurdities and we can hear something like a dialogue between electronic rubber ducks. This is a release after Eno's gravely intoned weird lyrics. I could listen to the duck discussion for hours.

After 40 seconds or so it is over though and there is a strong rhythmic sound arriving which reminds me of a jew's harp as it seems to come from inside the mouth. This gets louder and louder and a percussion orchestra joins in turning the last minute into an African drumming jam session with some slight echoes of sitar. Very nice and totally unexpected after the totally false start of this ditty.

It all finishes with some kind of sine tone which then melds into the next track without transition.

The first song on Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets which I mentioned yesterday. This record could have been Roxy Music's third album. If Eno had been the boss, I mean. Mackay, Thompson & Manzanera are all there. Only Bryan Ferry, Roxy's leader & its voice is missing.

On Needles in the Camel's Eye we can hear Eno singing for the first time on a record, I guess. And he has a splendid voice, an intense voice you'll never forget after having listened to it for the first time. It is piercing like a sun ray. There is a certain irresistibility to it. Almost like the voices of the sirens which drove Odysseus crazy.

In this first song on his first album Eno shows what a strong pop sensibility he already has. The tune is absolutely infectious, bright and reckless. Perfect to wake up to. A melody which then won't leave your inner ear all day long.

The song is grounded by the two electric guitars played by Phil Manzanera and Chris Spedding. They are the noise bed from which Eno's high-pitch voice can rise to the sky. Those two abrasive guitars sound very much like Lou Reed's and Sterling Morrison's a couple of years before and like those by the brothers Reid more than ten years later.

From listening I don't get the lyrics but they are not important anyways as Eno always writes them after the tune. So that they sound good to the music. Meaning is not intended. At least not on a conscious level. The last line which uses the title is interesting though:

This is a funny twist on the bible's story of the camel which rather goes through the eye of a needle than a rich to heaven. That is a rare and mysterious path for a camel. Needles in a camel's eye on the other hand are not unimaginable at all. If all mysteries are those needles then there are no mysteries at all. This is not necessarily nonsense though it could be.

"I was down in Dixie Land, played a silver fiddle. Played it loud and then the man broke it down the middle. "

[Neil Young - See the Sky About to Rain (mp3)]

At the end the pedal steel guitar, Neil's humming and mouth harp play are the sweetest good-bye of any song ever. My heart is broken by the sadness and welded together by the consolation at the same time. A part of life has ended and a new one has begun. The rain can wash away the past now.