insomnia and music

It's 4:18 am and i am sitting with the laptop in the bed. I worked a 14 hour day today, i got home around 1 am, and now i am still awake. My child is going to come walking in here in a little bit, wanting to go to dunkin donuts, and i am going to be wiped out. I am listening to "The National" they make sweet beautiful music that i hope can sooth me to sleep. Their album "Boxer" was on my top 7 ( i couldn't find 10) list for 2007. Its a few months past, but I think I'll share my thoughts from last years music here:

This was originally written on Dec 18 2007, as a letter to a friend who is a fan of music and shares his love of music with me every December. It's become a sort of tradition.

I guess my the overwhelming theme for Musical Enjoyment of Choice for 2007 has been "story driven indie rock vulnerability"

These are in no particular order.

Bishop Allen and the Broken String
Okkervil river: The Stage Names

Radiohead: In Rainbows

LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
Band of Horses: Cease to Begin
Feist: The Reminder
The National: Boxer

Bishop Allen is great. It fills a need for flutes, trumpets, banjo, and songs about civil war ships. I just stumbled on this a couple weeks ago. Then tonight i here the 3rd song on the cd, on a sony camera commercial. It has a slight Sufjan Stevens vibe, for a couple songs...pretty, jangly, and sadly fun.

Okkervil River Has lots of piano, Great drums and I love the 2nd song. The drums are super, the bass drum has no "Dampening" and kind of bongs like a marching bass drum. Makes for very good foot stomping

Radiohead: Brilliant. This takes me through all kinds of emotional levels. I like this so much better than the last 2 Radiohead albums. The Reckoning takes me to a happy place.

LCD Soundsystem is awesome to ride my bike home to. I have Key points along the way home that i measure my pace by which song i am on. This is not "story driven indie rock vulnerability" but it's fast and drives me to ride fast.

Band Of Horses: I don't want to like this. I read an interview with Ben whatever his name is and I thought he was a giant twit. But this is so good. I can listen to it over and over again. This would be the Highlight of the "vulnerability" i was talking about. It's the Voice. I know its like the "single" but "Is there a ghost" is almost chilling. I am really into listening to music that makes me feel like crying. This song puts me there. The beginning guitars on "no ones gonna love you" lull me into that place too.

Feist: Is pure fun. Her voice is girly and nice, I bought it for kristin for her birthday and I put it on my ipod and kept it in the rotation for a while.

The National: It kind of feels interpol-ish to me in spots. Its that whole deep voice joy division thing. Low, Slow and depressing stylings make me happy. I'm a kid who grew up on the cure and depeche mode. What do you want from me?


**Now I like the New Arcade Fire Album, I bought it the day it was released, and after I read your list the other day, i dusted it off and listened to it again. The Pipe organ is a very nice touch, and the brutal honesty in the songs is compelling. It's good, but I am tainted by the stories he tells. He's kind of bitter, usually this make for good song writing, this time I'm not so down with it. I loved the first album from them. A friend of mine went to see them here and Win Butler was tearing up Bibles on stage. I just lost interest.