Often imitated and rarely realized, the perfect love song brandishes pitch-perfect sincerity in a way that converts even the most cynical of soulless bastards (yours truly). The clouds part to this convincing soundtrack, some omniscient figure tugs at the heartstrings, and the emotionless Phillistines are simply overcome. Too much? Unabashedly so.
The Beatles’ “In My Life” tops the list, along with honorable mentions like Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” Elliott Smith’s “Say Yes” or “Angeles,” Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je T’aime Moi Non Plus,” the Magnetic Field’s “The Book of Love,” Aretha Franklin’s “Baby I Love You,” Bright Eyes’ “First Day of My Life,” Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros “Home,” or Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness.”
As seen in the Blue Valentine trailer and introduced to me by a dear friend, Penny & The Quarters’ “You and Me” is up there with the rest of the beautiful lot. Eat your heart out, Bruno Mars.
Iceland, for all its bankruptcy, knows how to tug at the heartstrings of flannel-swaddled, awkward 20-somethings. Last night, armed with a backdrop animation of shadowy woodland creatures and butterflies, Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi wholly dominated the crowd with his signature strange.
The best thing about Jonsi is that he doesn’t do weird for the sake of weird (Of Montreal cough). You see him—writhing back and forth on stage, hunched over in a rainbow-feathered headdress and covered in bedraggled fringe tassels—and you nod thinking, “That seems right.” The man just feels so much. He’s just wounded enough to be artistic, yet somehow manages to transcend the maudlin.
So, four choice jams below from his solo album—one of the best in 2010. Rock out with your feather headdress out.
For no particular reason at all, today marks the day of interweb resuscitation. So here’s to keeping a better log of the art and music that resonates, for better or worse.
And goddamn you Canadian bands, you do it to me every time. This trio can be hit or miss, but with the addition of the Arcade Fire’s drummer on this track, the melancholy manages to be airy enough to levitate.
