"I Prefer Their Old Stuff"

I don’t know whether it’s the categories getting harder or I’m just getting a bit bored with the whole thing but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to come up with tunes for each day! For the last two days (angry,happy) I’ve picked tunes that tend to reflect the emotion as I must admit there aren’t really particular bands or tunes that I think “right, I’m pissed off, time to listen to some NIN” or “I’m feeling good, stick some ASIWYFA on!”, I don’t really think emotions influence what I listen to necessarily and likewise for today’s “sad” category.

However if I’m feeling down then I don’t want anything too urgent, harsh or abrasive. It’s a bit like if you’re suffering with a hangover you want to avoid music that will be like finger nails down a blackboard to your delicate senses, you need something soothing maybe something from the singer/songwriter end of the musical spectrum.

After a lot of thought I’m going to choose Sparklehorse, the late Mark Linkous made some pretty emotional and beautiful music during his relatively short life (he committed suicide in March 2010 aged 48), none more so than Sparklehorse’s third album from 2001 “It’s A Wonderful Life” and I’m going to pick the title track for today’s post. Not only is it gentle and beautiful, but also contrastingly both uplifting and downbeat, I can never be certain whether the title is ironic or truthful knowing some of Linkous’s personal issues.

Like Elliot Smith, Kurt Cobain and various others before him, his death ensures his recorded legacy is frozen in time avoiding being diminished by later inevitably weaker efforts. Nothing ensures your place in music history better than an early pointless demise! RIP Mark.