Your music shite, it keeps me up all night.

Fiona Apple 'Blues on Christmas' -- I tend to have the same reaction to Fiona that I do to Jeff, and Gary & Co, and Thom & Co, and Guy & Co. "It's X, it cannae be bad!"

Ryan Adams 'Cannonball Days' – Another song off of the Limited Release 2nd Disc from the Gold LP. I've been listening to this LP a lot recently as it's become rather obvious of late that Ryan's not the artist he used to be. Ryan's always been prolific, but the last few albums are just, well, not good. Ryan's always been a bit depressed and manic, but he's lost that jaded optimism that he used to have. He's replace quality with quantity, and I miss his stories. I miss the orange shirts and ass shaking, too.

Eels 'Everything's Gonna be Cool this Christmas -- The next time you say to yourself, "Self, I wonder what kind of person hackthis is?" you can answer, "hackthis the kind of person who just leaves Christmas music on rotation all year, because that shit is gonna come around again 300-odd days from now. Plus, who doesn't love Christmas music in June?"

Damien Rice 'Woman Like a Man' (live) -- I'm not a fan of Damien Rice, really, but he does have some fabulous singles, like 'Delicate' and 'Volcano'. This song isn't like them at all. This is hard, and hot, and fast, and if there are other people around, you might want to turn it down because it's seriously vulgar. In short, this is the version of Damien Rice I can really get behind.

Snow Patrol 'When I Get Home for Christmas' -- It's Gary. Do I need to say anything else? Yeah, didn't think so.


Bonus track:

Aretha Franklin 'Eval Gal Blues' -- literaryll posted this for my birthday and when I saw the title and the artist, I said, "Ooooooh". No, really, I did say "Oooooh" and with good reason. This is my song. It could be my theme. It could be yours too. Damn it feels good to be a gangster Slytherin.


ETA: Because somebody was in a snit about the Ryan Adams song being a .wma file, I've gone and DL'd a temp rip program, which expires in like a day or two, but I thought I would share the whole Gold Disc 2, since I'd done all the work anyway: 1. Rosalie Come and Go 2. The Fools We Are as Men 3. The Bar is a Beautiful Place 4. Cannonball Days. Please if you like it, go and buy the whole thing!

Now really.

I like to think of myself as the sort of person who has little to no expectations of other people, because I've been around the block a few times, and I know that people can be extremely rude, and tacky, and thoughtless and ignorant. Racism, sexism, sheer bloody-mindedness and dead cruel behaviour seem de rigeur these days. It's so tremendously sad that sometimes I despair. And yet, despite it all, I maintain this tiny bit of hope that as individuals we can be better than our whole. And then someone proves me wrong.

Kids, if you're fucked up, that's your business, but don't put your shit on someone else -- because if there really is a reckoning, or reincarnation, or some sort of judgement at the end of this life, you are really jacking yourselves over.