Blind Prophecy

2. I Will Follow You Into the Dark – Death Cab For Cutie – Plans
A quirky love song with a great melody. I like the interesting religious themes.
If heaven and hell decide / That they both are satisfied / Illuminate the no’s on their vacancy signs
If there’s no one beside you / When your soul embarks / Then I’ll follow you into the dark

3. I Don’t Care Much – Alan Cumming – Cabaret: The New Broadway Cast Recording (1998 Broadway Revival)
I recently rediscovered this album which was an absolute favorite in college. Cummings is so damn great in this song, I wallow in the despair and hopelessness.
Hearts grow hard / On a windy street / Lips grow cold / With the rent to meet / So if you kiss me / If we touch / Warning’s fair / I don’t care very much

4. Hope There’s Someone – Antony & The Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now
This song sorta compliments/balances “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” and “I Don’t Care Much” … still poignant and sad, but with a hope. It’s like a prayer to the universe for love. There’s no one else who sounds like Antony.
Hope there’s someone / Who’ll take care of me / When I die, Will I go

5. Tiny Dancer – Ben Folds – Ben Folds Live
A fantastic cover of the Elton John classic. In some ways, I prefer this version.
Hold me closer tiny dancer / Count the headlights on the highway / Lay me down in sheets of linen / you had a busy day today

6. First Day of My Life – Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
Can’t really explain this one, except that it’s another quirky love song.
Yours is the first face that I saw / I think I was blind before I met you / Now I don’t know where I am / I don’t know where I’ve been / But I know where I want to go

7. The Sea and the Rhythm – Iron & Wine – The Sea and the Rhythm
This song wins the award for best lyrics. The tune is simple and understated, but the images called up are so vivid and interesting.
Tonight, we’re the sea and / the rhythm there / the waves and the wind and night is black

8. The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get – Morrissey – Vauxhall and I
I admit this is totally creepy selection considering my personal drama of late and a certain person who decided it’s easier to ignore me forever that talk, but sometimes you just need Morrissey to say the dark things you won’t let yourself think.
I bear more grudges / Than lonely high court judges / When you sleep / I will creep / Into your thoughts / Like a bad debt / That you can’t pay

9. Black Swan – Thom Yorke – The Eraser
Another song holding a little too much personal resonance right now.
people get crushed like biscuit crumbs / and laid down in the bed you made / you have tried your best to please everyone / but it just isn’t happening / no, it just isn’t happening
and it’s fucked up, fucked up / and this is fucked up, fucked up / this your blind spot, blind spot / it should be obvious, but it’s not. / but it isn’t, but it isn’t

10. Kobal’s Last Gleaming - Bear McCreary – Battlestar Galactica, Season 1
I debated for a long time whether or not to purchase the BG soundtrack album. I’m glad I did.
Omnia illa et ante fiebant / amnia illa et rursus fient / Ita dicimus amnes
(All of the has happened before / And all of this will happen again / So say we all)

11. Maybe This Time – Natasha Richardson – Cabaret: The New Broadway Cast Recording (1998 Broadway Revival)
Richardson gives the definitive performance of this song… Liza may do a better “Cabaret,” but Richardson nailed it. I dare you not to sing along, even in the middle of a crowded street. I know I’ve burst out in song with the final swell while walking to the BART in the morning.
All the odds are in my favour / Something’s bound to begin / It’s got to happen, happen sometime / Maybe this time I’ll win

12. Windmills - Toad The Wet Sprocket – Latter Days
I have to admit that my love of this song has as much to do with it’s appearance during the closing credits of Latter Days as the qualities of the song itself. When I hear that song, I’m reminded of the final scene of the movie – a scene representing love, friendship, being a little lost but starting to see the big picture… personal associations run high.
I spend too much time seeking shelter / World without end couldn’t hold her / There’s something that you won’t show / Waiting where the light goes / Maybe any way the wind blows / It’s all worth waiting for / Any way the wind blows

13. Up to Me – Five Times August – Acoustic Sessions
If I have to explain the meaning of these lyrics in my life, you haven’t been paying attention.
So what’ve I got to prove? / What’ve I got to lose / When you’re not worth fighting for? / And why am I feeling down / While you’re out messing around? / You’re not worth begging for

14. Love to Me - Adam Guettel – The Light in the Piazza
A lovely song about seeing the deeper beauty in a person. Plus, I just saw this show on stage and fell more in love with the song.
The day we meet, / The way you lean against the wind, / And do not know that you are beautiful, / Or that anyone is watching you, / This is what I see.

15. The Traitor - Martha Wainwright – Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I’m not even going to attempt to describe Cohen’s meaning in this song, but I saw the movie at Sundance and fell in love with this version sung by the sister of our big gay crooner. So glad this album finally came out (really, go buy the whole thing).
The judges said you missed it by a fraction / rise up and brace your troops for the attack / Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action / Oh see the men of action falling back

16. Everything That I Am – Alex Rutherford, Josh Strickland & Merle Dandridge – Tarzan - The Broadway Musical (Sountrack from the Musical & Cast Recording)
Every Disney cartoon turned Broadway show needs a new epiphany song. I like this one (though not as much as “Endless Night” in Lion King)
Ooh I want to know where I belong / I want to know where I came from / I want to know the reason why I’m here / The way I am / Feeling the things I feel

17. Such Great Heights - The Postal Service – Give Up
You have to love this song. Fantastic beat, great melody, perfectly danceable and fun.
I am thinking it’s a sign that the freckles / In our eyes are mirror images and when / We kiss they’re perfectly aligned / And I have to speculate that God himself / Did make us into corresponding shapes like / Puzzle pieces from the clay

18. Here Comes The Flood – Peter Gabriel – Felicity
I think I first found this song in my album archives during the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina. I revived it this month in honor of the anniversary.
Lord, here comes the flood / We’ll say goodbye to flesh and blood / If again the seas are silent / in any still alive / It’ll be those who gave their island to survive / Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.

19. I Write Sins Not Tragedies – Panic! At the Disco – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
This song picks me up when I’m down and obliterates the black moods that some of my other song selections can bring on. I just enjoy it a lot. Although I think I liked it better when I thought the lyrics were “a sense of poisoned rationality.”
Oh, well imagine; as I’m pacing the pews in a church corridor, / and I can’t help but to hear, no I can’t help but to hear an exchanging of words. / “What a beautiful wedding!, What a beautiful wedding!” says a bridesmaid to her waiter. / “Ah yes, but what a shame, what a shame, the poor groom’s bride is a whore.”
I’d chime in with a “Haven’t you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?!” / No, it’s much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality. / I’d chime in “Haven’t you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?!” / No, it’s much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of hope.