take me back to skips music shop i beg

 hello, lovelies!

well, i've talked about some of my favourite movies and books, so i think it's only fitting that i complete the trifecta and talk about some of my favourite songs. or albums. i don't know, i'll decide in the car.

i listen to a lot of music as it is, but these few songs are ones that i listen to a lot, sometimes for hours on end because i'm crazy and want to have the lyrics burned into my bones. is that unhinged to say? ANYWAYS onto me talking nonsensically for a few minutes.

fake plastic trees by radiohead from their album "the bends".

don't get it twisted, i don't like thom yorke... but damn can he pen some good songs. unfortunately. i love this song; the melancholy lyrics and the vocals, imperfectly perfect, that portray a sense of yearning for something unattainable. there's a tiktok i love where a man is attempting to cover this song without showing any emotion, which in and of itself is an emotion, and it wrecks me every time i go back and watch it. like... are you kidding me? the lines "she looks like the real thing / she tastes like the real thing" knock me over every time i listen to it. to me, this song is about going through the motions of living, but you're not really there. you're just so beaten down and tired of the mundanity of your life that you've grown apathetic. at least, that's how i view the song. i don't know what the actual meaning of it is. the final lines of "if i could be who you wanted / if i could be who you wanted / all the time / all the time"? cut the cameras, there are tears in my eyes. kelly clarkson's cover of this song made me fall over the first time i listened to it. i do prefer the original version, but the way she belts her lungs out will always have the theater kid in me in awe. lizzy has beef with this song, specifically, for some reason. it's honestly hilarious; like, girl what did fake plastic trees do to you? she says she has no idea why or what the song did. i still really would like to learn this one on guitar.

stay by mumford and sons from their album "prizefighter".

this song... holy shit. for me, it was one of the standouts from the album, and i went back to relisten to it several times after my initial listen. the chorus, the descriptions, remind me of my home state, california. and the rest of the song paint a pretty obvious picture: the singer is asking a loved one who's battling depression to stay. to keep going, if not for the singer then for the beauty of the world they have yet to see. the red earth, the firelight, the cold stone. the rose hips, the sunrise, the seafoam. all of it is there, waiting for you to see it, to feel it, to breathe it in. the bond between the singer and the subject of the song is more than just friendship, to me. they've sworn that they'd be there for each other through it all, no matter the struggles they may face. earlier this year, my siblings and i spent a weekend at our grandmother's beach house, and that weekend reminded me of this song. especially when we were climbing the rocks that overlook the ocean, the sea spray in our eyes and the freshest of air in our lungs. it made me happy that i stayed, no matter how badly i didn't want to. i was the happiest i had been in a long time. 

pothole by modern baseball from their album "you're gonna miss it all".

to me, this song reminds me of a religious hymn that we would sing in school during friday morning chapel. i don't know why it does, but that's what i think of when i hear this song. i'm not really religious anymore, so i don't know why that's how i feel about this song. it reminds me of when phoebe bridgers said that moon song was about that "wanting-to-be-stepped-on feeling", and that she'd be happy to be treated poorly by the person the song is about because at least you were being treated by them at all. does that make sense? i have no idea, but that's okay. when they dropped the demo for this song back in 2024? oh i almost died on the spot. my body wasn't ready. i really would play this song first thing in the morning every day when i was in eighth grade. i never even tried to have a good day. oh to be thirteen again. the yearning that this song holds in it, that wanting for someone to need you, to want you, regardless of if it's real because you want to love and be loved in return. loving someone so much that you'd stay, no matter how much they say they don't want you or need you. like a dog that's been kicked by it's owner returns to them anyway. the whole final verse, technically a coda actually, really gets me: "i can be everything you need / if you make me / i can be every rock in your concrete / if you let me off easy / i can be easily deceived / if you want that / but you are the ember of my heart / whether you like that or not". and the way jake ewald's voice, imperfections and all, just make it all the more devastating? guys... 

i don't think i can emotionally talk about more songs right now because if i do i might jump into the creek by my house! i'm kidding. i'm mostly just out of ideas, and i've been writing this post for three days now (listen, sometimes talking about the things i like is hard), so i think it's time for me to call it. i do want to maybe do a part two of this in the future and talk about three more favourite songs, but that's a thought for another day. until next time!

xoxo