I'm still making up for lost weeks of sharing, so here's a special Monday edition of Three For Tuesday Music Day featuring not three but four songs I've particularly enjoyed in the recent past.

+/- - Steal The Blueprints
This song would win the award for song that sounds most like The Postal Service without actually being made by anybody ever associated with The Postal Service. Although maybe there's a Postal Service person around somewhere. That band has always confused me. Anyway, the band I call plus minus instead of +/- because otherwise it's a bit too Artist Formerly Known As Prince has this excellent song "Steal The Blueprints." It has fantastic energy with a pulsing drum backbeat that never ceases to make me want to get up and move. I never do, but that's not the song's fault.

The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
Nary a better anthemic indie pop rock song exists. I haven't listened to it for a while, but since I just mentioned the band, I'll break the rule of only sharing songs I've especially loved in the past week. Visit the downloads section of their website to get the song for free.

Giant Drag - God Only Knows
A couple of weeks ago I went on an insane journey gathering and listening to over 20 cover versions of The Beach Boys song "God Only Knows." I already had this tune in my collection, and maybe that's why next to the original it's one of my favorite versions. Its music has a whimsical tone and the vocals sound airy and earnest which also harken back to the original. I've heard other Giant Drag songs, but it's this cover by them that I like best.

Belasana - Bittersweet Eve
Picking up the New Year's Eve theme set by a song in my last post is this song by Belasana. As far as I can tell this is the only song available from this band which is too bad because if I liked any of their other songs half as much as this one, they would get an honorary chair in my electronic library. This song has a fairly high melancholic, whiny, angry man factor, but it's nicely tempered with soft, girly emotions and calming, nasally, manly vocals. I can't wait to spend every day until New Year's Eve 2007 playing this song. This and a thousand versions of "God Only Knows."

Remember Three For Tuesday Music Day? When I posted three different songs every Tuesday for everybody to enjoy? Yeah, I kind of got really busy and stopped doing that even when I still really wanted to continue it. I will start atoning for my musical sins now! And it's not even Tuesday!

I'll begin today with a double collection of songs available for free download by artists or their record labels. I've loved all of these songs to fairly significant obsessive degrees in the past month or so. Some or all of them may be unfamiliar names, but they are all very much worth hearing, not the least of which because I think it's very generous and cool of artists to make some of their songs available for free. They hook you in and then you're caught!

Right click and save all mp3 links.

Sam Bisbee - New Year's Eve
I love this song beyond all high reason. It reminds me of Josh Joplin's "I Am Not The Only Cowboy" because it has a similar verbal style that's more talking than singing over a layered, orchestrated background. That's high praise because I love that Josh Joplin song. Also like Josh Joplin, that style isn't typical of Sam Bisbee's other songs which have a more traditional (but not boring) singing and lyrical structure. There's something about this song, though, that really hits something raw, as if you're really hearing somebody's fever-hazed, off-the-cuff ramblings about an unexpectedly perfect night. Visit Sam's music page for a slew of other free downloads. I particularly recommend "Miracle Car," "You've Got Soul" (another with the odd spoken style), "Cubicle Love Song," and "Alright."

Electric President - Insomnia
I don't even know how to describe this song. It's weird. Weird but catchy and intoxicating as all get out. This band is two guys who made an album of strange songs in one of their basements using a ton of random sounding instruments and electronic noises. That implies the music is amateurish or unpolished, and in a way it is, but it mostly just radiates energy and layered complexity. Overall the song has a Brit Pop sound to me with some Postal Service in there too. After I heard this song and Googled to find out more about it, I was kind of mad to find that this song showed up in an episode of The OC because that almost taints it, like it's supposed to be edgy and hipster cool. It simply is edgy and hipster cool.

Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song
Maria Taylor is the voice of the band Azure Ray and part of the Saddle Creek record label collective perhaps most notable for Death Cab For Cutie and Rilo Kiley. This song is from Maria Taylor's solo album. I didn't actively avoid her album, but I didn't seek it out at all because while I like Azure Ray, I'm not particularly enamored of any of their songs and tend to think that they're overproduced musically and have lacking or diluted vocals. I heard "Song Beneath The Song" without knowing who it was, and when I sought out the source, I was happily surprised. Maria Taylor's solo effort completely eliminates my inexplicable problems with Azure Ray. This song is cute and sly with lilting vocals backed by Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes). I simply cannot hear it enough.

Robert Skoro - All The Angles
I just like this song. It's the most accessible, pop-ish song of this batch, which probably makes it sound less interesting than the rest, but that's not the case. Every time I hear this song, I find something new. Whether it's a new lyric meaning, a new break in his voice, or a new guitar note that strikes a perfect emotion, something always catches me. It's almost too blandly produced, but it's a great song.

The Ashtray Hearts - Still Shaking
If you like The Jayhawks or Wilco, give The Ashtray Hearts a try! I don't know much about this band, having only heard the songs for download at their site and the song I heard on the radio that made me seek them out in the first place ("Valentine"). I do know that I like their sincerity, their banjo, their sadness, and their carefully crafted music.

Owen - In The Morning, Before Work
I guess I'm just a sucker for any song that suddenly breaks in some pedal steel guitar. That and messed up, bittersweet lyrics. Or are they perfect, loving lyrics? I don't know, but there is definitely pedal steel.

Josh Ritter - Girl In The War (right click and save from his site)
Everything Josh Ritter sings sounds like it's about the most important thing in the world to him. He could probably sing the phone book and have it sound like a song about his million closest friends. I love how much passion he injects into his vocals which in turn reflect good music and lyrics. Here's a very good track from his new album The Animal Years. (Check out the other songs Josh Ritter has for download at his site.)

Neil Finn - She Will Have Her Way
Sometimes you just need a little Neil Finn, you know? I did this past week.

Hem - Carry Me Home (right click and save from their site)
It's very difficult to find words, music, or vocals more beautiful than in songs by this band. Everything comes together in the most marvelous way in this tune performed live last year for Minnesota Public Radio. (Check out the other songs Hem has for download in the music section of their site. Even the Christmas one. Don't let it being April stop you!)

Dawn Landes - Twilight
I could've chosen any song from Dawn's new album Fireproof because I listened to them all an embarrassing number of times in the past week. Dawn has a quirky style of singing, and her music is sometimes odd with funky, largely acoustic instrumentation, but it all works together to create an entirely charming package. This song may not be the strongest on the album (that title would probably have to go to the excellent "Dig Me A Hole"), but it's definitely very enjoyable and pretty representative of her sound. Buy Fireproof at cdbaby.com.

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Sometimes Always
This tune popped up in a random scrambling of songs on my computer, and I was reminded how much I like it. Having listened to the band Stars so much in the past few months it reminds me a bit of their music with the dreamy, jangly poppish indie music and the trading male and female vocals. That's about it for this song. I just felt happy listening to it.

Patty Griffin - Top of the World
Nobody infuses a song with emotion quite like Patty Griffin. Between her lyrics and the way she sings them in her slightly raspy voice, she compels you to feel something for a few minutes of song and usually for a lasting while. This song ably demonstrates that. (After I uploaded it I realized that this version from her Impossible Dream album has that title track sung by her parents glomped on at the end as a hidden track. A free bonus for you!)

[P.S. It looks like YouSendIt changed their system since my last update, so if a download doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll provide a new link.]

Acoustic tunes ruled my airwaves this past week for no particular reason.

Beth Orton - It's Not The Spotlight
I probably listened to more Beth Orton this week than any other artist, and this song was my favorite. It's a fairly new one to me though it's one of her oldest released songs, one off the single for "She Cries Her Name" from her first (US & UK) album Trailer Park (1996). Technically, it's this single version that's relatively new to me since this song was redone for the 2 CD collection Pass In Time. The sound quality of this copy is pretty poor, but you can still tell that it's a great song featuring just her voice and an acoustic guitar.

Melissa Ferrick - Drive
Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be allowed to listen to this song because it sounds like it should come with an NC-17 rating for sexual content. Never mind that I am over 17 because this song makes me feel like I snuck into the TV room past my bedtime and am watching a late night movie on Cinemax with the volume turned really low. And that's just when listening to this recorded version. It's even worse (better?) live. Seeing her perform it is like watching that Cinemax movie in person, as if it wasn't a movie. It's like an intrusion, seeing and hearing something you're not supposed to see or hear but watching and listening to it anyway. (I only listened to it once this week but it still makes the list.)

Rogue Wave - Salesman At the Day of the Parade
Rogue Wave is a really good band. Whenever I listen to one of their songs I almost always think, "Wow, I should listen to Rogue Wave more often. And also, why in the world didn't I go see them when they played nearby earlier this year?!" My favorite song on their latest album Descended Like Vultures fluctuates, with one song holding the top spot for weeks at a time before another stealthy slips in an overtakes that favorite song spot (usually to or from "Publish My Love," a perennial favorite). This one captured me in the past few days, maybe because it's one of their quietest, softest songs, lacking desperate vocals and loud electric guitars that jangle in most of their songs. Here the lead singer's odd voice that kind of always sounds like it's full of echoes is particularly perfect against an acoustic backdrop and while repeatedly crooning "I'm so sorry for what I've done."

It's Tuesday, so it's time for me to talk about 3 songs that got loving, repeated spins this past week.

Tom McRae - Street Light (live at Union Chapel)
I prefer this song live over the recorded version on the album Just Like Blood. It sounds more forlorn, more emotional, and more spare live. This song, described in the intro here as "as close as I get to writing a long song" and "a sort of love song for a city" may seem to be one better served with more production because it's upbeat (for him), but no, not so much. There's a desperation in his voice here that was somehow lost in the studio, and simple guitar and deep string music matches that well. That's Tom McRae's music in a nutshell: desperate, longing vocals set to calm, lovely music.

Josh Ritter - Thin Blue Flame (right click and save, from his site here)
This week I developed a small obsession with this song. When I first heard it I liked it so much I didn't even notice that it's over 9 minutes long. I can't explain it well, but it's like a 3 minute song that's so captivating in music and lyric that it feels like an eternity. This song captivated me enough that it felt like a 3 minute eternal song. Also, it includes the words "seraphim," "amputees," "cicadas," "Laurel and Hardy," and "gloaming," and it's probably impossible by definition to dislike a song that uses those words all in a context that makes sense. And I don't mean in a speed demon "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" or "We Didn't Start The Fire" sort of verbiage way.

Embrace - Target
It's always a good time for a little dose of fine Brit-Pop. This band is apparently pretty well-known in the UK, with their album released last week hitting #1 and them being chosen to record England's next World Cup song, but I don't think many people here in the US have heard of them. I know I hadn't until this week. If only their new album was available here because then I'd probably know more than just a handful of tunes and I'd be able to say something more than "Yes, they sound a bit like Coldplay, but at least with this band that has some meaning since it was Chris Martin who wrote and gave them the song 'Gravity' on their last album that propeled them into popularity."

Nick Heyward - Whistle Down The Wind
There's something about this 80s song that I totally love. Thank you, Sixteen Candles for introducing it to me. No thanks to you, VH1, whose site I linked to even though you won't let me play the full length video to this song because I do not have Windows 2000 or XP. Just like Apple, and their mean, mean, mean Quicktime and iTunes, you have no love for the OS that arrived between the two. I'm less mad at you than Apple, however, because they should definitely know better than to alienate a lesser-used computer type like, say, a Mac. What was I talking about? Oh right. This song is a delight and I can see why Jake danced with Caroline to it even though she was a totally bad girlfriend who totally got his house trashed.

Ben Folds - The Luckiest
This song makes me cry. Or, it would if I was a crier instead of somebody with no heart who knows what would make her cry if she had one. Or something.

The Few - Blue Eyes
This song is from Trampoline Records Greatest Hits Vol. II, a CD I bought because selections from it played on airplane headset radio on an international flight, I think between the US and Australia. This was not one of the songs I heard (I don't think), but it is one of the songs I like most on the album and hence one that got copied from the CD to my computer because that's what I tend to do with compilation albums. The song's loud and fast and I really like it. However, I was a bad consumer and did not get more music by The Few despite that being the general point of the compilation album, so I know nothing about this band or their music and can't say anything aside from the fact that this song rocks. (But now I see after looking online that the band is kind of fizzling after one album. It's my fault! Had I only paid them attention! What? It's not all about me? Bummer.)

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists
There's not much mystery with this tune. I saw Jenny Lewis in concert last week, so I listened to her music a lot. This is the CD's current single and the one I inexplicably enjoyed most over the week, so it gets the nod here even though "Born Secular" and "Handle With Care" (Traveling Wilburys cover) are my favorites on the album. Jenny Lewis, if you didn't know, is lead singer of Rilo Kiley. She released a solo album paired with the Watson Twins (trained Gospel singers who have awesome harmonies) that's a bit more country than the more rockish stuff of Rilo Kiley. It's not too country, though, or I wouldn't like it. *g*

The Open - Just Want To Live
I have infinitemonkeys to thank for this one. A few days ago I thought, "I should listen to The Open right now!" So I did, for like the next two days. "Elevation" had been my favorite song on this album (Silent Hours) since I first heard it a few months ago, but this week I especially liked this song and maybe now it's my favorite. Too bad this album, and all The Open's albums I found out this week, are only released in the UK/Europe. That makes sense in a way since this style of music is, I think, more popular over there than it over here, but still. It's really quite enjoyable music. It kind of reminds me of the bands Doves and Haven with the breathy, kind of anthemic vocals and the lush guitars and almost string-like music.

Snow Patrol - Run
marakara mentioned this song last week, and it got me to pull out Final Straw. It had been entirely too long since I listened to Snow Patrol. I love their stuff, and this is still my favorite song of theirs (although "An Olive Grove Facing The Sea" sometimes rallies for that #1 spot).

Today's magic word: discovery.

This week I had too many songs to choose from, and it was hard narrowing it down to three. Instead of choosing any old reliables or songs I go back to every now and then, I went with one renewed discovery, one discovery I should've made last summer, and one brand new discovery.

REM -Time After Time (annelise)
No, this isn't the Time After Time you know by Cyndi Lauper. It's the REM version where Michael Stipe is singing about who knows what. I listened to Reckoning a lot in the past week, and this song was my favorite re-discovery on it. It's REM, you'll either like it or you won't.

Trespassers William - I Don't Mind
I'd describe this song as Aimee Mann sounding vocals in a sort of Mazzy Star style against chillout music. I had no idea it was a sort of love song until I looked up the lyrics out of curiosity since I couldn't really understand any of them with absolute certainty. Trespassers William performs the first song on Sweet Nothings, a delightful EP you can download for free. I liked the TW song and was curious to hear more music by them, so I tracked down this album. It's all very dreamy and great for background relaxing, writing, or thinking noise.

Erin McKeown - To The Stars
It took me forever to figure out whose vocals this song (and pretty much every song on this album) reminded me of: Butterfly Boucher. Maybe nobody else will hear that, but that's it for me. I saw Erin McKeown play last summer the week this album was released. Her entire set was fine, and she was a spirited little sprite, but I wasn't wowed or moved to buy her new album. Fast forward to this week when I finally heard We Will Become Like Birds. Listening to EM, I feel like I should like her music, and I do, but there's not a special spark there for me to make me love it. Maybe that will happen at some point, but who knows. I do know that I like every song on her album, of which this is fairly representative.

All these songs got repeat spins this week. The song would end, I'd queue back to the beginning. Rinse and repeat. Then, it would happen again when the song came back up in the album or playlist. They have no relation other than that. And that they're all sung by women, with one short guest appearance from Michael Stipe.

Kate Rusby - Drowned Lovers
This song was the one on Hourglass that I kept listening to ad nauseum, which is weird because it hasn't ever been my favorite song on this album. Yet, it struck me this week with its folk tale lyrics that seem like they'd be impossible to remember well enough to sing this song live. I bet I'll never get to find out. ::sheds a lone sad tear::

Dawn Landes - Without You
This song popped up in an mp3 playlist that I hadn't listened to for a while, and I was reminded how much I love it. It wasn't my initial favorite on Dawn's Music, but one day it was like a switch had been flipped and I couldn't live without it.

10,000 Maniacs - A Campfire Song
One night I out of the blue thought, "I have to hear In My Tribe right now!!" Then I went to bed without listening to any music. In the morning, my brain was still screaming about this album (which yes, I know, makes me sound a wee bit nutty, but come on, I don't really have voices screaming in my head, and if I did I doubt they'd be crying out about this album), so I got it out. It's has to be one of the albums I've listened to most in my life, and it's definitely one I have on vinyl, cassette, and CD, but it had been at least a year or two since I fully listened to it. I still love it, and I still know all the words like my next breath, but it had a nostalgia shine to it that I don't remember it having before. Hi, I have voices in my head and I'm getting old.

I saw three shows last week, so not surprisingly it's songs from three of the artists I saw that I'm sharing today. The first I listened to a lot before I heard it at the show while the last two I listened to more after I heard them live.

Sarah Harmer - Around This Corner
I've had this CD for ages (Thank you, emmbright!), but this past week I probably played this song more times than all other times put together. I enjoy everything about it, from the lyrics to the clarinet.

Stars - Heart
Yes. Listen to this song.

Dawn Landes - Honey Bee
While not one of my favorite songs that Dawn sings, I like its sweet simplicity and it makes me smile. It's very quiet and sparse so it's kind of a mood song, one I don't listen to all that often, but sometimes it's just right.

Sun Kil Moon - Neverending Math Equation
I haven't even listened to this song since earlier this month, but I had a dream last week involving math. Yes, I'd say that is unusual, thank you very much. *g* I usually don't remember my dreams at all, but this one stuck with me in bits and pieces. I was in school (high school or college, I don't know) taking a math class taught by my actual high school geometry teacher (who hadn't aged at all, her hair even in the same perfectly styled puffball helmet of hair she had every day), though I don't think the class was geometry. I kept trying to take a math test or finish some math homework, over and over, every day, changing locations in and out of school. Everywhere I went I was trying to solve math equations. Different things kept thwarting me, things like a broken calculator (which actually happened to me during a college exam - no fun), a flash flood, and something involving a chaotic kitchen. The day after I had this dream I thought of this tune because if I'd titled the dreamy story, this would've been perfect. Good song, by the way. Probably my favorite on Tiny Cities (Sun Kil Moon's album entirely of Modest Mouse cover songs).

Hem - Reservoir
My love for this new Hem song is kind of sick. It's a lovely, lovely tune. You can find the entire concert this song is from at archive.org.

Stars - Calendar Girl
This band has totally pulled me into their spell. I think this is the third Stars entry in the short history of Three For Tuesday Music Day. I love their latest album Set Yourself On Fire, and this song was a particular favorite this week. In just a little pop song it somehow manages to tell a story that's complete yet entirely blurry at the edges, opening itself to other stories we don't hear. "I dreamed I was dying as I so often do, and when I awoke I was sure it was true. I ran to the window, threw my head to the sky, and said, whoever is up there, please don't let me die."

It's been a Hem sort of week for me. Two songs by them that struck particular chords with me this week were Pacific Street and Stupid Mouth Shut. I only heard Stupid Mouth Shut once this week, and it's not even that listening that gets this song into the top three. Rather, a lyric line specifically reminds me of something that I couldn't possibly coherently explain. It makes me smile. In general, I have to say that this is my favorite song about benevolent stalking.

Finally, here's REM's South Central Rain. Hem covers it on their latest album, so it still fits the Hem theme.

Turns out that I really enjoyed cover songs this week.

Hem - Radiation Vibe
Here's a tune from No Word From Tom, Hem's new album in stores today. (Go buy it!) It's a Fountains of Wayne cover from their self-titled album. For Fountains of Wayne, it's a jaunty little pop song in their typical style. For Hem, it's about as rocking as they ever get. This isn't my favorite track on Hem's album, but it's the one I've enjoyed most this past week. Ironically, it's also the one song on the album with certain parts that totally bug me because there's one thing about the production that sounds really awkward. I won't point out the specific thing I'm referring to, though, because apparently once I mention it, it's hard not to notice it every single time. Sort of like how in a movie or TV show once you notice somebody's hair or clothing has changed from one shot to the next and then back again you see that every time even though you don't want or care to see it and it's not even important. Just important enough to be distracting. Anyway, Hem is great, if you've never heard me mention that before.

Sufjan Stevens - She Is
It's been a Sufjan Stevens filled week, and here's a track to represent that. If I was being true to the week I'd share "The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" because I repeated that tune the most, but I've already shared that incredible song. So, here's the first runner up, a track on the new tribute album Dream Brother: The Songs Of Tim & Jeff Buckley. I don't know the original by Tim Buckley, so I can't compare the two, but I think that here the soft breathy voice, guitar, and flute (I think) make for a lovely little song.

Nada Surf - If You Leave
This one is the fault of barkley. Nada Surf is one of those bands that I always like when I hear them, but I've never sought out any of their albums. Why? I'm lazy, sucky, busy, or overwhelmed with other pressing musical needs. Or some combination thereof. This song reminds me (and probably many other people) of The Breakfast Club where OMD's version of this song is the capper. Nada Surf's version doesn't radically depart from the OMD sound, but it does have its own flair and flavor. I'll probably forget this song by next week, but I've enjoyed it and surely will again when I someday, randomly play it again.

I listened to music as consistently as ever this past week, but there weren't any songs that particularly enthralled or intrigued me. Not a one. Strange, that.

However, I did have a musical craving for Idlewild. Every few weeks or months since I first heard the band in 2003 (late 2002, maybe?) I feel like I simply MUST hear some Idlewild. They're one of very few artists with all their music on my computer as mp3s, where I copied tracks from my CDs so I'd have them more easily available at any given moment. Okay, I confess that it's not ALL their music because while their first two albums have some songs I really like, they also have some that harken back more to their crazy punk roots than their more current rock and weird, almost Americana sound lately, so I only copied the songs I like best. Their last two albums are entirely on my machine, though. While the sounds of the albums vary, the lyrics are always good and the throughline that probably keeps me coming back to this band. That and their loud sound which is unlike almost every other band that I could call a consistent, all-on-my-hard-drive favorite.

Here are three Idlewild songs that I particularly liked hearing again this week. The first is from their 2001 album 100 Broken Windows, and the second is from their 2005 album Warnings/Promises. I always liked the former, but I don't think it was until this past week that I got into purposely backing up to hear it again. And then again. The latter song was the first US single from the album, and while not my intitial favorite on the album (that would be "Welcome Home"), now more often than not I'd consider it my favorite.

Idlewild - Let Me Sleep (Next To The Mirror)

Idlewild - Love Steals Us From Loneliness

Finally, here's a decidedly more rousing track from The Remote Part (2003 US, 2002 UK). This is the album that made me seek out their other albums, although not on the strength of this song so much as the less pounding "American English," "Tell Me Ten Words," and "In Remote Part - Scottish Fiction."

Idlewild - You Held The World In Your Arms

It's time for another installment of my weekly music series where I try to force people to listen to the tunes that I enjoyed most in the past week. Hooray!

The music file sizes aren't as huge as last week, but I more than make up for that with lots of verbiage. Fascinating verbiage.

Andrew Bird - Tables and Chairs
A nice little song about post-Apocalyptic life and how it will be awesome. I love this song almost entirely for these lyrics and the way they're sung: "We're gonna live on our wits, throw away survival kits, trade butterfly nets for Adderal, and that's not all. Whoa-oh, there will be snacks, there will. There will be snacks, there will. There will be snacks."

REM with Natalie Merchant - Photograph
This song appears on Natalie Merchant's Retrospective CD of greatest hits & rarities released last year, but it first appeared on a benefit album called Born To Choose in 1993. I went to Tower Records in 1993, probably on the day the album was released, and bought it almost entirely because I wanted this song. My Natalie Merchant and REM fever were both at high points then, with 10,000 Maniacs near break-up and REM on the upturn with Automatic For The People. I shudder to think how many times I listened to this song well into 1994. You know, I think I even have a promotional poster for this album hidden away in my closet. I still love this song's sugar-pop sound now and the way the lyrics kind of contradict that. One of the things Natalie wrote in the Retrospective liner notes for this song: "I remember there was a funny debate over the use of the word 'nevermore.' Michael thought it a bit archaic for pop lyrics. He was right, of course, but I was too stubborn to change it." I always thought they sang "forever more" and not "for nevermore." Online lyric searches agree with me, but maybe I've been wrong for the past 13 years. If so, it will take a lot of relistening to retrain my brain.

Indigo Girls - It Won't Take Long
I guess it was old school week at Casa de Lilydale because here's another old song (from 1995) reissued on a 2005 compilation by the artist. Never having bought Indigo Girls Rarities for some unknown reason, I put it on my Christmas list, received it, and finally listened to it this week. This song was the one that perked my ears up the most because I absolutely knew it, music and lyrics alike. I could sing along to it but couldn't quite place it. Finally I realized it was on a compilation CD I found in a tiny used CD store in Austin, TX. I went CD shopping constantly in 1995 and found a promotional copy of the Spirit of 73 CD through my detailed perusal of every CD at the store, and I bought the CD in large if not entire part because I wanted to hear this song. Now, people can easily go to any store and get this song on the Rarities disc. And in years before they could've probably easily found it to download somewhere on the Internet or at the very least from someone on a message board. But when I found it in that great little CD store that always had cool stuff because it was in a really awkward faraway place (as much as faraway means in a town the size of Austin), it was a treat to find. I love the Internet, and I love the way it has made music easy to find and share, but I do miss finding little treasures like this song that you could only get from really paying attention and looking for it. So, um, anyway, I like this song and hit the back button to hear it repeatedly a number of times this week. (That Spirit of 73 compilation, by the way, is one of my favorite CD compilations of all time. It's a bunch of 70s cover song by female artists/bands, released to raise charity $$ around the time of Roe v. Wade's 25th anniversary. Before almost every track there's an absurd little spoken 70s-like phrase, like a deep voice urging you to sit back and listen to some funky tunes. Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if now I haul out that CD and a tune from it turns up on next week's list.)

It's music time! Oy, I chose songs with big files this week. Next week I'll have to mostly listen to shorter songs. *g*

Imogen Heap - Can't Take It In
I haven't seen The Chronicles of Narnia, but I still really like this dreamy song on its soundtrack. "It couldn't be any more beautiful...I can't take it in."

Stars - Elevator Love Letter
While it was the Stars' latest album Set Yourself On Fire that I listened to ad nauseum this week, it was this song off their previous album Heart that I loved listening to the most. It starts with a female voice from the perspective of an overworked, underloved woman and switches to male vocals from the perspective of the man who draws the woman in for one night when one night isn't enough. Although I think the song's ambiguous since it's written in a future tense (that probably has a proper grammatical name) and maybe he only just wants to take her home on a Saturday night, quietly longing for her but not being able to approach her. Whatever the meaning, the song reminds me a bit of Rilo Kiley, which is of course a good thing.

Sigor Ros - Saeglopur
Despite not being able to understand the Icelandic lyrics, this song is amazing. Sigor Ros creates some of the most complicated yet effortlessly listenable music using a variety of instruments layered together, giving and taking away from each other. I can't even describe it. It's just that good. Not every song, however, is as expansively breathtaking as this one.

It's been a love song sort of week at Casa De Lilydale.

Copeland - Don't Slow Down (Right click and save)
I don't know anything about this band other than that they released this awesome song last year. It borders on the lame with a sound somewhat reminiscent of 80s cheese pop, but that's also what helps make it awesome. That and the more modern drumming and the held, almost reverbing guitar notes. And of course the hard falling love song lyrics which make me smile even as they kind of make me want to cry. It is by far the song I listened to most in the past week.

Coldplay - Til Kingdom Come (Right click and save)
I do know about this band, and I suspect everybody else does too. This song is on their latest, X&Y, and is actually the only song I've heard off it save a song or two in stores while holiday shopping. This is a very lovely, simple song that's driven by acoustic guitar to the near exclusion of everything else, except for the chorus that's like a plea. Anything more to the song and the soft message of devotion would probably be lost. It could be read as a spiritual song rather than a more direct love song, but I like hearing it about a person.

New Invisible Joy - Hold (Right click and save)
After hearing a live version of this song on a compilation album I got a few weeks ago I got this album version at the band's website. I haven't listened to this song a lot this week, but it has made its way into the rotation well enough. It's a good song to share because they're a local band from Pittsburgh, and I doubt anybody's heard of them (which is different from a lot of the bands I probably talk about, how? *g*). For some reason the vocals remind me of a new wave sound, which will probably seem impossible to anybody who listens to this song, but there you go. Click here for their website and all the songs on their album.

I hereby declare that every Tuesday will be Three For Tuesday Music Day. I'll post three songs I've particularly loved over the past week whether they're new songs, old songs, great songs, lame songs, or weird songs. Everybody should get a little good new music every week, or at least a reminder of old enjoyable music, so I'll start this tradition in 2006 to do my part. If it also furthers the excellence of numbered lists, so be it. *g*

Here are 3 songs that I've loved so far in 2006.

1. Okkervil River - Song Of Our So-Called Friend
When I first heard this song it literally stopped me in motion. It wasn't right away but after about a minute. I'd given it that much of a chance after the kind of jarring spoken-style beginning because of "Black," another Okkervil River song that got me interested in the band in the first place. There's just such perfect longing in the lyrics, and they're paradoxically yet rightly balanced by the almost whimsical music. Horns take over in the latter third of the song like your spirits are being raised but then the song ends with slow, quiet organ (?) and you're kind of back to where you started, at a fairly bittersweet place.

2. Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!
I still love "Casimir Pulaski Day" best on Sufjan Stevens's Illinois album, but this song is a strong contender for that #1 spot. (The ending will probably always keep it away - that sort of electronic noise ending bugs me, much like it does on an otherwise fab REM song I annoyingly can't remember - "So Fast, So Numb," maybe?) He writes such amazing, wrenching stories into his songs that would be interesting on their own, but when paired with his complicated, lush music it's just spellbinding. I don't think I've ever been able to listen to this song without stopping whatever I'm doing for at least part of the song and just shake my head in sadness and awe. I can't believe I didn't bag whatever I already had planned the night he played in town last year.

3. Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Right click and save)
This song is a carryover from last year that I'm still drawn to now. Here's what I said in December: "It's got strings, harmonica, horns, guitar, drums, and male and female vocals to tie the whole lilted, jilted story together. Heaven forbid I have actual, personal reason in the future to listen to a break-up song because given how much I've listened to that song just in the past 24 hours, I'd probably have to have an earphone IV implanted with this song on continuous loop. And then I'd probably need a real IV to replenish all the fluids I've lost from crying. Great song, great song."

Well, all 3 of my downloadable songs are pretty downbeat little numbers - lyrically, not necessarily musically. They're all about lost loves and friends. I choose not to analyze what this means for my state of mind at the start of a new year. At least they're all really, really pretty songs.