Ok, my first post here. Hello all, thanks for letting me play. I was excited by this theme, not least because lyrics are essential to me (until I fell in love with Animal Collective, that is). I knew some tracks I immediately wanted to include but I realised as I went on that I was going for a whole narrative, rather than individual lines or rhyme schemes. Also that just concentrating on lyrics meant the whole CD feels a bit like an assault, even though I tried to mix some of the sad ones with more jollier ones.

Words rule…

 

1.      We Don’t Own It / Joan as Police Woman -  I could just listen to her words all day.

2.      In Spite of Ourselves / John Prine and Iris DeMent – I inherited a passion for John Prine from Dan Rhodes – what could be better than the line  ’caught him once sniffing my panties’, but this is strangely sweet. I like strange sweet. Plus I love how you can hear them trying not to laugh as they sing.

3.      I Don’t Want to Get over You / The Magnetic Fields – now these are rhymes I like.

4.      Venice / The Books – this makes me laugh and laugh, that pompous announcer as the ultimate unreliable narrator – he’s going to get back to the studio and swear at the maestro. Eat your heart out Frida.

5.      Divorce Song / Liz Phair – couldn’t stop listening to Guyville when it came out, and I love the internal/external female voice here. Feels painfully honest.

6.      Slow Show / The National – perfect love/longing lyrics.

7.      Nobody Knows You when You’re Down /  Nina Simone – poor bankers.

8.      Compilation Cassette / Darren Hayman and The Secondary Modern – anything from Pram Town could have gone here, but this is so touching, I particularly like how you know he won’t have a first class ticket, and that he knows she doesn’t really like his cassette.

9.      Brompton Oratory / Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – as a convent school girl, this does it for me everytime.

10.  The Ballad of Lucy Jordan / Marianne Faithfull – makes me want to write a film with this as a soundtrack.

11.  Look at Miss Ohio / Gillian Welch – my ultimate sing-a-long at the moment – and always makes me immediately want to write because of that ‘wants to do right, but not right now’ – so much story potential

12  Where Do You Go To (My lovely) / Peter Starstedt – the original inspiration for Something Beginning With so had to go in here. Have never listened it to anyone without everyone doing that ‘hahahah’ racehorse bit.

13   Oxygen / Willy Mason – always makes me feel positive and hopeful

14   Here Comes That Man Again / Kirsty MacColl – toss up between the stalker one and this, but I like the word jokes here

15   Money Made You Mean / Indigo Girls – another credit crunch one that seems to increase in meaning

16   My Sister / Tindersticks – I put this at the end because it’s so depressing although it makes me laugh a lot every time.