Monday Mixtape, Vol. 7

The most universal subject in music: love. Musicians have found millions of ways to sing about it, be it through heartbreak, infatuation, dating, lust, longing, marriage, the list goes on. I get it though, it's easier to talk straight from the heart. When done wholeheartedly, it rings true and leads the mind to make decisions both right and wrong, but ultimately ending (in what most of us hope) in something forever. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This is a mixtape of all sorts of these emotions, and the lyrical powers that communication provides us to get love off our chest.

Lord Huron "Love Like Ghosts:"
Yes I know that love is like ghosts
A few have seen it but everybody talks
Spirits follow where I go
They sing all day and they haunt me in the night...
What ain't living can never really die
You don't want me baby please don't lie
but if you're leaving I gotta know why

Brett Dennen's "I Ain't Gonna Lose You:"
You can put a stick in my spokes
I can be the butt of your jokes
I can be the laughing stock
I can be the hoax
But I ain't gonna lose you...
They can come and tear my house down
They can run me out of town
They can tie me up call me a clown
But I ain't gonna lose you
I can't stand the thought of another man
No, I ain't gonna lose you

Angus Stone's "Wooden Chair:"
In another place
In another time
In another face
In another line
In another heart
In another world
In another girl
We were feeling fine
We were in love

Gemma Hayes' "Joy:"
I can take on anything
I can take it all
I can take on anything
as long as I can see you

Bombay Bicycle Club's "Eyes Off You:"
And I bathed in the light you gave
But it's dark in another way
Yes, you gave me the light today
But it's dark in another way...
I can't take my eyes off you.

John Mayer's "In Your Atmosphere:"
Wherever I go
Whatever I do
I wonder where I am in my relationship to you
Wherever you go
Wherever you are
I watch your life play out in pictures from afar
Wherever I go
Whatever I do
I wonder where I am in my relationship to you
Wherever you go
Wherever you are
I watch that pretty life play out in pictures from afar

Father John Misty's "I Went To The Store One Day:"
For love to find us of all people
I never thought it'd be so simple
 

B.B. King, 1925 - 2015

I have an interest in obituaries of all kinds (like my dad says, "Obits are the Irish sport pages"), but when it comes to the deaths of musicians, a retrospect or glimpse into their lives provides so much creative energy for me because their genuine love for art is so inspiring. I had the good fortune to see B.B. (his nickname that stood for "Blues Boy") King live once in my life as he played a show with Buddy Guy about a decade ago. King sauntered up to his chair, took a seat, grabbed the love of his life (his affectionately named guitar, Lucille), and the blues poured out. I felt the notes, the rhythm, and the power of King's vibratos, slides and trills.

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5 Faves - The Underachievers

I love to hear when artists' influences broach the wide realm of music. The Underachievers have a near and dear place to my heart because they told Complex Magazine, "We love Local Natives ridiculously," and Issa said that his favorite band of all time is Fleet Foxes and favorite artist is John Mayer!! So cool to hear that since each of those bands have been so instrumental in my love of music. 

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Top 25 Albums of 2012

2012 starts and ends with Frank Ocean. Channel Orange is an album that I will play until the day I die. It’s beauty - naked and fragile at times yet full bodied and confident in others - is unlike any other album to compare to in the past decade. Ocean’s falsetto on “Thinkin Bout You” wails in sincerity. His epic “Pyramids” runs a wild gamut of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and electronic elements. I always find it an amazing accomplishment to have a song that’s over 6 minutes (this being 9:53) that I can listen to constantly. 

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Top 100 Songs of 2012

1. Jack White – Weep Themselves To Sleep

2. Tennis – My Better Self

3. Geographer – Kites

4. Delta Spirit – Tear It Up

5. Frank Ocean – Lost

6. Peace – 1998 (Delicious)

7. Kendrick Lamar – m.A.A.d city

8. Santigold – Disparate Youth

9. Jack White – Sixteen Saltines

10. Schoolboy Q – There He Go

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Top 15 Albums of 2009

1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Passion Pit - Manners
3. The xx - xx
4. Grizzly Bears - Veckatimest
5. Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
6. Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose
7. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
8. STRFKR - Jupiter
9. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
10. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
11. The Antlers - Hospice
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
13. Discovery - LP
14. Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major
15. John Mayer - Battle Studies

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Top 15 Albums of 2008

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
3. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5. John Mayer - Where the Light Is (Live)
6. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
7. Justice - Cross
8. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
9. Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound
10. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
11. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death to All His Friends
12. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
13. Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
14. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
15. Deerhunter - Microcastle

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