this week:

Yeasayer - Madder Red

OMG IS THAT KRISTEN BELL??! RANDOM.COM.

Anyway H said he has a love-hate relationship with this song cos it sounds chinois but too catchy to hate in full.

Arcade Fire - Wake Up

Arcade Fire sampling a chinese funeral song hahaha no lah I anyhow say

Regina Spektor - Samson

You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the stars came fallin’ on our heads
But they’re just old light, they’re just old light
Your hair was long when we first met

The official video for the song uses the louder, more polished version which I hate. Much like the official version of Rachel Yamagata’s Worn Me Down which made the song quicker and more ‘radio-friendly’ or whatever. So a RS fan then cut the video and put in the original version. I love the quiet despondence, it’s just more powerful done slowly instead of rushing the song and making it sound like she’s on E. K exaggeration.

And Samson and Delilah *did* have a sad relationship since Del betrayed Sam’s trust. :’(

U2 - With or Without You

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

With or without you
With or without you

Antony and the Johnsons - Fistful of Love

Blipped this song before but there’s only so much you can gush about a song via a blip. I know Antony Hegarty(’s voice) is really an acquired taste, but this song made me tear on first listen, except that when I heard it I thought it was about those one-sided love affairs. Then I listened to it again and realized OMIGAWD, IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN THAT, it’s about someone in an abusive relationship and deluding themselves that the person is doing it cos he loved them! Then I felt sadder and I guess may or may not have teared a little more. Ha ha.

In the studio version, the spoken bit in the beginning is done by Lou Reed, but I am partial to this live arrangement with strings even though the lady (Julia Kent?) doing the Lou Reed bit is doing it (intentionally?) vacantly and detachedly. I don’t know how Antony can appear so joyful to be singing about something so sad; when he goes “We live together in a photograph of time…” I am not even kidding, my heart starts to feel a little heavier. And that’s just the beginning of the song. :(

We live together in a photograph of time
I look into your eyes and the seas open up to me
I tell you I love you, and I always will
And I know that you can’t tell me
So I’m left to pick up the hints,
the little symbols of your devotion

I feel your fists, and I know it’s out of love
And I feel the whip, and I know it’s out of love
I feel your burning eyes burning holes
Straight through my heart, it’s out of love

I accept and I collect upon my body
The memories of your devotion

SOBZ. Ok so that’s just one interpretation. I’ve read a others, and while the readings may differ, THEY ARE ALL HEARTBREAKING NEVERTHELESS. *wails*

Feist - Let it Die

Let it die and get out of my mind 
We don’t see eye to eye or hear ear to ear 
Don’t you wish that we could forget that kiss 
And see this for what it is, that we’re not in love? 

The saddest part of a broken heart 
Isn’t the ending so much as the start

First time I heard this song, I was like OMGOMGOMG FEEEIIISSST YOU ARE SO RIIIIGHHHHHHTTTTT the saddest part of a broken heart ISN’T the ending, it’s the start too! AAARGH! Actually very macam paham of me, cos I’ve never really gone through such heartbreak. HAHAHA. Except maybe when Take That split up.