Songs to Swoon By

For me, a life without swoon songs would be life without color. Swoon songs never fail to astound me with their moody beats and inspired lyrics—all delivered in two to six minutes. Listening to them, I feel I can escape reality. In high school, The Grateful Dead’s summer shows and my Smith albums did it for me, illustrating the vast range of my taste in encompassing music’s wide spectrum. In college, The Beautiful South and Steely Dan clamored for my attention.

In the years following, I died and went to UK heaven, since every band I loved was spawned there. There was Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl, whose voice—like a magical cry—and poignant writing made her music my poetry. She took sampling to another level for Deep Dish and Massive Attack, who used Tracey on such hits as “Future of the Future, “Better Things,” and “Protection.”

Morcheeba possessed the sultry lead singer, Skye Edwards—in front of whom I embarrassed myself, while viewing their second show here in San Francisco from the front row. I screamed, “There’s too much bass!” to the onstage singer—then backpedaled when she took my plea to mean I disliked their music. I tried to explain myself to the booing crowd at the historic Fillmore venue, screaming, “No, it’s just so that I can hear your beautiful voice,” but my words fell flat and concertgoers looked at me as if I were mad. (I guess I was, because when I went to the back of the venue, the sound was much better.)

Later, when I’d moved to Bangkok and became a homesick expatriate, I used the brilliant songwriting of Beth Orton to soothe my woes. Björk always made me jump around in a frenzy, in an empathetic response to her skittish Icelandic tunes, while Kruder & Dorfmeister brought the late nights of my party days back to the forefront of my memory.

Since I wanted men back my life, I welcomed Thom Yorke and Radiohead into my music collection, and later absorbed the poignant writing of my favorite, Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, rounding out the new millennium.

Once I returned stateside, I took a break from my music and swoon song obsession until file-sharing, MP3s, and iTunes fell into my waiting lap. It’s taken over 7,000 songs, hundreds of 99¢ purchases, and a stolen iPod to finally keep me at home. Lucky for me, artists like Cat Power (my favorite song is “I Don’t Blame You”), Elliott Smith (rest in peace), Ryan Adams, and Rufus Wainwright make me happy that I came back across the Pacific Ocean to the U.S. At the same time, my musical focus came back from across the other pond, returning to American artists who bring it as brilliantly as any other musicians in the world.

Photo courtesy of Radiohead.com