In the Beginning pt.1

Do I Wanna Know?
Arctic Monkeys -AM

This song has been played almost to death, in part because gets airplay on pop, rock AND indie stations. While it's nice to see a masterful song getting it's just desserts, it makes me sad to see that most of this track's exposure has been in single form, cut off from the rest of the album (which, if you've heard it, is one of the more cohesive ventures in recent history). But even in light of this ubiquity, "Do I Wanna Know" is brilliant. Decriers have branded it as a Black Key's ripoff, an easy mistake to make when you are a rock-and-roll surface dweller who thinks that the Black Key's invented the concept of the isolated guitar riff (they didn't). If "Do I Wanna Know" is anything, it's an loving homage to the Tommy Iommi-era of Black Sabbath; a sludgy, sexy, footstomping jam based around a single riff. The Monkeys are admitted fans and they often break into War Pigs during the live performances of Arabella. Combine that minimalistic English metal with Alex Turner's cabaret-smooth vocals and you have yourself a album opener that will last the ages. And that bass drum at the beginning...

Everything In It's Right Place -
Radiohead - Kid A

Thom Yorke and company probably took a freshman psych class at the University of Exeter. They know the secret of sequence learning; the easiest parts to remember in a set of data are the beginning and the end. Any one of their albums could qualify for this list on musical merit alone, but I chose the opener from Kid A because of it's broad impact on the music scene at the time of its release Radiohead, up to that point, had perfected brit-rock. Pablo Honey wasn't excellent but it set a great tone and yielded a few hits. With The Bends, they ironed out all the kinks and turned out a masterpiece of melancholy, guitar driven complaint rock that provided a template for Coldplay's debut, the much less groundbreaking yet much more far-reaching Parachutes. OK Computer is an undisputed modern classic and a fantastic embodiment of the collective, post-industrial revolution British guilt that has been a reoccurring key component of British art (especially horror movies, oddly enough). Kid A is where things change; it is the extremely divisive point in Radiohead history at which Thom fully embraced his electronic ambitions, to the chagrin of "rock purists" and the delight of those who saw Aphex Twin, not Blur or Oasis, as the new prophet of British music. Like every song on this list, it sets the tone for the rest of the album within seconds. The deep, resonant glissando of the opening synth is a watershed moment for music, and the fact that Radiohead pulled it off without a hitch is a testament to their constant ability to identify and impact the musical zeitgeist.

Deal or No Deal or Kim Deal?

I  am in bed right now staring out my window and trying to fall asleep because I have to go to work at 5:30 tomorrow morning. I have a song stuck in my head. Well, actually it's just the bass line of a song. And it's a bassline that only has, like, four notes over and over and over. Imagine that your little brother/sister/niece/child is sitting at a piano, and they only know the first two notes to Fur Elise, and then imagine that you are trying to focus on ANYTHING else with that happening, really loud, right in your ear.

It doesn't help that I don't even want to go to bed. Because several of my friends are at The Radler right now, probably eating this really good cheese & crackers app that they have and drinking the bar's eponymous beverage, a mixture of grapefruit soda and hefeweizen. And my girlfriend is on a farm probably eating smores or reading Wendell Berry by a roaring fire. And I am laying on a cold mattress that is about a six-feet-even when I am six-foot-five, and I have to get up at five thirty and trudge across a cold urban expanse to stock                                                                             shelves at a glorified 7-11.

Kim Deal is probably my favorite bassist evr. She does this thing where she writes a bass riff based on two or three notes in a verrry simple progression and then plays the rift REALLY loud, loud enough to make the strings my that clattering sound against the neck of the guitar. Then Pixies put her at the forefront of their music and you suddenly have this catalogue of songs that are immediately identifiable by the bass riff, even though the riffs are basic enough to be played expertly by a bass novice. Most of her riffs are just sequential quarter notes, too. Not a lot of syncopation, scales, or "groovin," going on.

Because there are other songs that are very easily recognized by their bass riffs. She's Not There, by the Zombies. Soul to Squeeze by RHCP. Ramble On, by Led Zeppelin. Far From Me by ol' Nicky Cave. All excellent bass lines that are very recognizable outside of the context of their songs.

BUT KIM IS DIFFERENT.

Even if the only Kim you're familiar with is the one who brought her crying brat to a fashion show yesterday, you've probably heard Pixies via this movie. And that song is a great example of Kim's brilliance, to be sure, but it's also a song that has been burned into our collective consciousness through a clever bit of conditioning by David Fincher (gritty, visually arresting film -> legendary plot reveal -> flood of catharsis for the protagonist and the viewer -> iconic closing statement/visual image....cue music). For a song devoid of pop culture addendums, listen to anything off of the album Doolittle, especially Debaser  or This Monkey's Gone To Heaven. Also, have you seen this commercial?  This song features Kim's magnum opus about a magnum phallus, Gigantic. Sounds even cooler on a stand-up bass.

Kurt Cobain was a big Pixies fan, and Kurt Novoselic of Nirvana did some cool things with Kim's bass methodology (he also wrote some pretty groovy, complicated riffs that were very uniquely Nirvana). Hey, listen to this Kim Deal Inspired Bass Riff Playlist and let it lull you to sleep.

Ranging from "Obviously Inspired" to "Loosely Inspired," descending order:

I Bleed - Pixies
Sliver - Nirvana
Only in Dreams - Weezer
Evil - Interpol
Apartment Story - The National
Cannonball - The Breeders (Kim Deal's band after Pixies)
Fun - Speedy Ortiz
Are You Okay - Dum Dum Girls
Afraid of Heights - Wavves
Coast to Coast - Waxahatchee
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes -  Modest Mouse
Here Comes Your Man - Pixies

Spotify link, out of order.

Lecrae, CCM's Dark Horse

Dark Horse: "a usually little known contender (as a racehorse) that makes an unexpectedly good showing." - Webster's New International Dictionary

Lecrae's rise to fame is impressive for a few reasons. First of all, he has succeeded in transcending the CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) audience and has broken into the mainstream music culture, something that only seems to happen once or twice a decade. When it does happen, it's usually for one of two reasons: 
1. Mainstream music and Christian music are evolving simultaneously (see Stryper and Petra during the Hair Metal era, MXPX and Relient K during the resurgence of "punk" in the late nineties, and Underoath and Emery in the screamo movement).
2. An artist is talented/famous enough to break onto both scenes (early Jars of Clay, Carrie Underwood)
Lecrae falls into the latter category, and that is the second reason that he is an interesting character. Not only has he fought his way into mainstream music on his own merit, but he has fought his way into the rap game, the most highly publicized and competitive pissing contest in music. This is no small feat. Lecrae has made numerous BET and MTV appearances. His biggest childhood influence is Tupac. He constantly makes the distinction that he is a "artist who is a Christian, rather than a Christian artist," a distinction that has been made more subtly by artistic titans like Terrence Malik and Sufjan Stevens; their faith is the backbone of their art, but not the sole content. He toured with Wu-Tang, for Pete's sake. 

While not a big fan of his music, I had high hopes for this guy. His album "Gravity" was released to wide acclaim in the rap community and it looked as though he had established enough cred to bring his message to the masses/exist as a Christian artist who doesn't suck. 

BUT THEN HE SUED KATY PERRY. 

Duude. Come on. 

Artists get ticked about similar sounding beats/chords/words all the time. Sometimes these disputes are petty and somewhat nebulous, while other times they're totally understandable.
So I'm not necessarily mad about that part of the suit (other than the fact that the backbeat/tone/structure of the Dark Horse verse sounds MUCH more like the 1983 Art of Noise song "Moments in Love", which I'll post at the bottom). 

What I'm really miffed about is Lecrae and Flame's rational that "Dark Horse" would retroactively damage the reputation of "Joyful Noise" because of it's various illuminati, satanic, witchcraft, and occult references. This irks me for three main reasons. First, the only people who are going to care about that stuff are paranoid religious people who would side with Lecrae anyway. Second, as soon as you drop the word illuminati you lose credibility with every rational thinker on the planet. Third, Katy Perry is silly; not bad music/Nickelback-esque silly, but playful and funny. Look at her music videos. She is a ridiculous person. The phenomenal video for "ET" is about weird alien sex, "Last Friday Night" is hilarious for a plethora of reasons, etc. Conservative Christians have a lot of ground to stand on when they accuse Perry of being overly sexual, but anyone who accuses her of being a satanist needs to search for some more compelling evidence than run-of-the-mill Egyptian iconography. Pop singers have been comparing themselves to Cleopatra for years, guys... because she's a dark-skinned, exotic, powerful, beautiful, sex-positive woman. 100 years from now, people will be name dropping Beyonce the same way. 

Lecrae. I am disappointed in you, son. You're a talented dude with the opportunity to reach millions of youth. Don't squander that opportunity with petty lawsuits.

Also, I bet that this was Katy's inspiration for that slinky "Dark Horse" beat

Spring is Violent

On April 4th, 1913, aspiring composer Igor Stravinsky premiered his third ballet at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Montaigne. The theatre had theretofore been known for showcasing cutting-edge contemporary performance art, having hosted names like Claude Debussy, Felix Weingartner, and Anna Pavlova. Stravinsky himself was not a newcomer to the venue; his lauded orchestral work (and accompanying ballet) - "The Firebird" - had been performed nearly a month before to wide acclaim. It was a full house on the night of the fourth.

It became clear that something was wrong almost immediately. From the opening bars of the first movement, the crowd began to murmur, and by the thirteenth and fourteenth movements - movements which chronicle an ancient ritual where a young woman dances herself to death - the crowd was rioting. Most of them were screaming and throwing things at the stage, and some were trampling others in an attempt to leave the theatre. The prevailing thought is that the music was so dissonant that it made people angry that they had wasted their time and money; another is that the more conscientious theatergoers were disgusted with the violence. A third theory, and the one that I hold, is that Stravinsky tapped into something elemental when he wrote Le Sacre Du Printemps - "The Rite of Spring."

The sacrificial dance that the prima ballerina performs is a historical account, hearkening back to the pagan rituals of ancient Russia. At another level, though, the "danse sacrale" is a metaphor for the literal changing of the seasons, winter to spring. In spring we see an abundance of eggs and chicks, paraphernalia which are obviously symbolic of new life. We see recently bloomed flowers. As Christians we associate spring with the Resurrection of Christ, adding an important layer to the motif. The weather begins to warm. But, like a young sibling meeting his new baby brother for the first time, we miss the majority of this birth process, only arriving for the clean, cute, appealing results. What about the mess? The smells? What about the snowdrifts melting to reveal dirt and bones and oil? What about the blood and noise and wrenching of flesh that it takes to deliver a newborn? On my block spring is heralded by the sound of gunshots, the deadly fruit that succeeds a winter of gang hibernation, bullets bursting from gun barrels like buds bursting from the tips of dogwood branches. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in a recently-thawed Memphis 55 years to-the-day after Stravinsky premiered his third work. Spring is violent folks.

Stravinsky knew this. He knew that humans have, deep down and often tightly controlled, a mean, messy streak. When that streak is starkly exposed, bad things happen. Virgins dance themselves to death in front of roaring fires and chanting pagans. Mobs throw bricks in concert halls, or else flee, trampling anyone in their path. Gangbangers pepper crowded streets with lead. But when that compressed orb of aggression is harnessed, that chaos is channeled into something deliberate, the results can be blisteringly, wildly joyful.
At the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Montaigne, on April 4th,
many were dancing in time with the music.


Le Sacre Du Printemps Playlist
Volume: Loud
(this is a jumble of different genres, but the songs are characterized by underlying motifs from the Rite of Spring like chaos, aggression, passion, dissonance, sexuality, etc.)

Tell Em - Sleighbells
Lost Boys and Girls Club - Dum Dum Girls
Dead Mans Bones - My Body's a Zombie for You
Nosetalgia - Pusha T ft. Kendrick Lamar (Explicit)
Elephant - Tame Impala
Bizness - tune-yardz
Intimate - Appaloosa
Gold Sounds - Pavement
Pure Morning - Placebo
You (ha ha ha) - Charlie XCX
Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens
National Anthem - Radiohead
Fun - Speedy Ortiz
Alcohol - Sisyphus
Debaser - Pixies
Ceremony - New Order
Abel - The National
Innocence is Kinky - Jenny Hval (VERY EXPLICIT)
Satellite Skin - Modest Mouse
Todays Lesson - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Riders on the Storm - The Doors
BTSU - Jai Paul
There's That Grin - Deerhoof
Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps - Part 2: Ritual Of The Ancients

The Sounds of Uptown

Hi Everyone!

I've been the busiest and my finger has been broken, so I'm sorry for the lack of posts. The finger is getting better, but the busyness - business? -  continues, which means I only have the time and energy for he briefest of posts. So... here is what I've been listening to in the last month or so. It's getting colder and, therefore, the music of choice is starting to shift - intentionally - from bright, happy electronica to more melancholy sounds. This playlist reflects the shift.

(I promise that I've got a full length blog entry in the works and you, dear readers, will be the first  and only people to know about it.)


Chicago, month 1.

The Wire - Haim
Cannons - Youth Lagoon
A Little Respect - Erasure
Youth is Wasted on the Young - Young Galaxy
Age of Consent - New Order (I am never not listening to this song)
Whats the Frequency, Kenneth? - REM
Night Sky - CHVRCHES

Instant Crush- Daft Punk

Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys
Nosetalgia - Pusha T ft. Kendrick Lamar
Sea of Love - The National
We Are the People - Empire of the Sun
Instant Crush- Daft Punk
Spit on A Stranger - Pavement
Ya Hey (Vampire Weekend Cover) - Phosphorescent
Red Hill Mining Town - U2
There is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths

The Mother Word

Hi everyone. For the six of you that read my blog, I'm sorry that I've been silent for so long! Broke my finger and started a new job n' stuff. Hoping to get back to it on the reg in the next few weeks, but in the meantime here's a lightning-fast post for ya. So, without further ado, here are

The Four Best Uses of the F Word in Music 
(according to me)
(selected based on band significance and context of word in the song)


Range Life
by Pavement
volume to play it at: medium

Pavement - along with bands like Pixies, R.E.M., The Smiths, and Neutral Milk Hotel - were power players in the early history of indie music. Range Life is an excellent song from their excellent second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and it chronicles the life of an aging musician lamenting his existence and looking for a quieter one; a home on the range, where he would settle down if he could. In the last verse, lead singer Stephen Malkmus quips:

"out on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins/nature kids, they don't have no function/ I don't understand what they mean/and I could really give a fuck."

Besides sounding very appropriately bitter and sad within the context of the song, this f-word is important because it sparked a major feud between Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Malkmus. Corgan took it as an insult and broke off their tour with Pavement, while Malkmus insisted that it was the voice of the song's character, rather than his own. They still have beef.


Oxford Comma
by Vampire Weekend
volume to play it at: medium loud

An Oxford comma is a comma that may or may not be placed between two items at the end of a list. For instance:

Oxford comma included: "Bread, milk, and eggs."
Oxford comma excluded: "Bread, milk and eggs."

Ezra Koenig hears about this Facebook group called "Students for the Preservation of the Oxford Comma." He then wonders/proceeds to write a song about why one would give a fuck about an Oxford Comma. He gives a shout out to Lil' Jon. Ezra Koenig and Lil' Jon become friends.

I don't even need to add anything to this story.


Monster (explicit)
by Kanye West
volume to play it at: MAXIMUM

Ok, so there are a lot of f-words in this song. I'm specifically talking about the one and the end of Nicki Minaj's verse. So Nicki gets on the track and starts talking about how her and M.I.A. are bad bitches and how they're better then all of the competition. Standard rap braggadacio, right? Except this is really, really good. Scary good. This was before Nicki was well known and even before she had released an album, a fact that she notes bout halfway through her verse. Her multiple personas are all in play, she uses some wicked clever puns to put her haters in their place ("I'm on a diet but my pocket's eatin cheesecake"), and she makes it very clear that she's here to stay. Nowhere else are her rapping chops on display as they are here; by the time she gets to the end of the song, lets out a primal scream and yells "I'M A MUTHAFUCKIN MONSTER," you feel like one too. Like you wanna jump out of your chair and break something. Bonus for Bon Iver fans: he sings the intro and the outro (and then went on to do extensive collaboration with Ye on Yeezus.

I Want to Be Well
by Sufjan Stevens
volume to play it at: loud

Sufjan Steven's grand electronic album Age of Adz has been hailed by some potentially correct people as his magnum opus, and hailed by some idiots as a flop. In either case, it is undoubtably a challenging and poignant concept album that chronicles Sufjan's journey through physical issues:

"The Age of Adz, is, in some ways, a result of that process of working through health issues and getting much more in touch with my physical self." - Sufy Jay

I THINK that this "getting much more in touch" is a nod to an acceptance of some homosexual attraction. If I ever do an Age of Adz analysis, I'll delve into that theory at length. However, whether Suf is getting through sickness or admitting something to himself, "I Want to Be Well" is the breaking point of the album; its when the singer stops speaking in allegory, when he stops alluding and storytelling, and finally speaks openly and honestly. Halfway through the song, Sufjan lets loose with an anguished cry of "I'm not fucking around" which he repeats until the end of the song. He's no longer joking. If there is one thing he wants to communicate to his listeners it's that he wants to be well.

If you know anything about Sufjan's fan base, you know that a goodly percentage of his listeners are Christian kids who like him because he pairs spiritual ideas and subject matter with genuinely creative, extremely enjoyable music, something that very rarely happens in the world of art (see also Terrence Malick). Pardon my French in advance: Shit hit the fan when this particular demographic heard "I Want To Be Well" for the first time. Cries of "I can't believe he gave in to secularism" and "I guess I can't listen to him any more" and even "he must not be a Christian" resounded through the infosphere and sparked many a heated facebook/Christian college dorm room debate. I think that it's pretty obvious where I fall on the issue; I would venture to say that, in the broad context of Sufjan's discography as well as in the microcosm of Age of Adz itself, this f-bomb might be the most moving, significant use of the word in music history. When you never pull it out and then suddenly use it to say "I'm not fucking around" in the middle of an intensely personal album, the emphasis is clear, and the use goes far beyond any kind of "selling out" or "cheapening of language." All good naysayers...shut up.

Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

(bonus if you catch the title reference. Hint: it relates to this blog post)

Break-up music is not the best thing to listen to right after a break-up.

However, having a couple of songs about break-ups in your back pocket is a good way to revisit old, painful emotions in a way that is far less heartbreaking and much more reflective. You might connect with a specific situation or lyric in a break-up song because you went through a similar situation; you might even hear something really melodramatic and realize how silly you were "back then," and subsequently experience some closure and catharsis. Or maybe you're mad at your ex and you need music that empowers you. No matter how it affects you personally, break-up music is great because it gives you a glimpse into the life of the artist and allows you to connect with the music in a way that other songs can't. For example, which incredibly popular song strikes more of a chord with you?

"I throw my hands up in the air sometimes
Singing aaaayy ooo
Gotta let go.
I wanna celebrate and live my life."

"And when we meet, which I'm sure we will,
all that was there will be there still.
I'll let it pass and hold my tongue
and you will think that i've moved on."

...you're right. Dynamite.

So if you're getting tired of listening to Adele's 21 (hey Adele, we get it) on repeat but you need a little break-up music, skip the Taylor Swift and look no further than this list:

break-ups.

Calling and Not Calling My Ex - Okkervil River

Folk music is all the rage right now, thanks to good old mmfrd n sns, guys who have the same first and last name, and monsters and men or whatever. Unfortunately, the things that make folk music fantastic -  namely story and emotion -  have been unceremoniously siphoned out and replaced with epileptic banjos and egregious harmonies. Mumford and Sons are the kings of saying things that don't mean anything and disguising them as deep folk ruminations, but even more acceptable bands like The Civil Wars border on asininity in their weaker moments. Okkervil River, on the other hand, has stayed true to the rich culture of storytelling that Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash started (and Sufjan has kept alive). "Calling and Not Calling My Ex" is an upbeat, yet wistful song about a guy who's ex-girlfriend becomes famous. He starts seeing her everywhere and begins to regret what happened between them, but the beauty of the song is that he truly misses her; he's doesn't just want her for her success.

More From This Band: Our Life is not a Movie or a Maybe, Unless It's Kicks, The John Allyn Smith Sails

Heart in Your Heartbreak - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

My best friend sent me a text about what this song makes him think of and he nailed it.
"Sitting in the back of my older brother's Toyota, holding hands through hoodies, crying on each others shoulders on the way back from the skatepark behind the mall. Yellow strobing streetlights. Sitting in the old treehouse smoking our first cigarette together, barely hearing mom and dad fighting from the kitchen over the sound of a Smiths record. Her kissing me on the cheek and whispering "let's run somewhere."

Teenage love, man.

More From This Band: Stay Alive, Anne with an E, A Teenager in Love

Love Will Tear Us Apart -  Joy Division

Not so much a break-up song as a song about a love that is fading away. Absolutely tragic. It so perfectly describes that moment in a relationship when routine and complacent comfort start to replace passion, and Ian Curtis doesn't know how to remedy the relationship as he watches it slip away:

When routine bites hard, 
And ambitions are low. 
And resentment rides high, 
But emotions won't grow. 
And we're changing our ways, 
Taking different roads. 

Love, love will tear us apart again.

"Skinny Love" is pretty similar thematically. All of you who thought it was a happy song...sorry. Check out "Far From Me" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for similar themes as well. Also, you can hear a little shout out to this song in Sufjan's brilliant commentary on the bastardization of Christmas/our own culpability in it/the fact that Christmas transcends anything we could ever do to it, "Christmas Unicorn." 

Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac

Rumors, frequently (and appropriately) touted as one of the all time greatest albums, is the grandfather of Adele's 21 in the sense that it is the quintessential break-up album (possibly only rivaled by Spiritualized Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space). Right before it was written, these things happened:

Vocalist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie divorced after eight years of marriage.
Vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsay Buckingham (who were dating) started fighting.
Drummer Mick Fleetwood learns that his wife had an affair with his best friend.

So...every single person in the band was having serious relationship issues. As good songwriters tend to do, Fleetwood Mac composed an album chock full of songs inspired by real emotions. Here's the track list and subsequent themes.

Second Hand News - breaking up
Dreams - breaking up
Never Going Back Again - breaking up
Don't Stop - being hopeful about the future following a break-up
Go Your Own Way - breaking up
Songbird - loving yourself in the midst of a relationship
The Chain - breaking up with someone who is cheating on you
You Make Loving Fun - the honeymoon stage of a relationship
Oh Daddy - staying in a relationship that you don't really want to be in
Gold Dust Woman - cocaine (both very literally and as a metaphor for a lover)

So, break-ups and cocaine.

Call your Girlfriend - Robyn

Have you ever been told by your significant other that he or she has met someone else?
Have you ever told that to someone?

Three White Horses - Andrew Bird

The most beautiful song on this list. Andrew Bird very simply calls attention to the human need for companionship by describing life as a walk toward death, and the loneliness that the journey brings when walked alone. One of his most vocally powerful songs, rich with symbolism.. just beautiful. At the end of this album - Hands of Glory, if you're interested - there is a song called "Beyond the Valley of the Three White Horses" that serves as an outro to this song.

I Know It's Over - The Smiths

Morrissey, in typical Smiths fashion, is pretty mopey on this song. But the situation warrants it; the "woman" he loves is marrying another man and he has nowhere to turn except to his mother. Musically, this is definitive Smiths. Jangly, airy guitars. Crooning vocals. Splashy drums. Played in a major key that still manages to sound sad because of the angst in the lead singers voice, especially toward the end when he almost breaks into tears singing "Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head." A beautiful song that has the power to transport you to a very specific time. For me, it's taking a walk on a sunny winter day in February, or a spending a humid July 4th drinking tea on the back porch.

Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - U2

Achtung Baby is the U2 album for people that don't like U2, and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" is arguably the greatest break-up song ever. There's no anger. There's no spite. There is only the songer asking "when I'm gone, who is going to understand and love you the way that I did?" It's a sincere question...there's no jerky subtext of "well, good luck finding another me, bitch."It's a man praising the complicated, wild, and free creature that he loves and who once loved him, and hoping that someone will connect with her soul the way that he did. The only song on this list that makes me tear up, yet the only song that makes me feel truly happy after I hear it.

U2 doesn't play this song live because they've never been able to "capture it again."


Honorable Mentions:

Blood On the Leaves - Kanye West (Wait for the horns to drop... this song is pure anguish.)
Impossible Soul - Sufjan Stevens (much more than just a break-up song.)
Broken Heart - Spiritualized (tragic)
Breakup Songs - Deerhoof