Setting the mood (musically)
October 23rd, 2005 by Bill
There’s a lot of music in my place. Between CDs, my computer and my iPod, I could probably program my own station without having to resort to having songs “in rotation.”
But here’s the thing about music – quite apart from how good or bad it is (largely a subjective assessment), it goes a long way to determining your mood. You feel grim and glum about the world - or do you? Maybe you’re just listening to the Smiths too much.
Lately (and somewhat inexplicably), I’ve been going nuts listening to Emmylou Harris. This caught me a bit by surprise. Emmylou Harris? I’d always associated her with country music, folk festivals and rather earnest people with left-of-centre politics.
And she is, sort of. There’s still a country feel to her music, she still shows up at folk festivals (I believe) and politically … well, what politics I have are sort of along that line anyway, so it’s not a big deal for me.
What I’m getting to: Beginning with her disc Wrecking Ball (from back around 1995, produced by Daniel Lanois) and through her next two discs, Red Dirt Girl and Stumble Into Grace, she’s been more folk-indie-alternative-world music. And it’s gorgeously spare and seductive. (I’m not alone in loving Emmylou’s music - here’s a guy who wants to marry her. I’ll say this, apart from good music, she has one of the prettiest faces in music … or anything, for that matter.)
And the real point to all this is, these are very, very good discs. But at the same time, there is that folk element, which has always appealed to me because the lyrics tend to be so strong in folk music – very much storytelling and often (well, most of the time) sentimental, romantic and, yes, tragic.
The problem is this … after you’ve been listening for a while, you feel listless, melancholy and just … well, blue.
“You’ve gotta buy groceries, pal. You’ve nothing left in the house to eat!”
“Tomorrow, tomorrow. I’ll do it tomorrow.”
“Why not now?”
“Oh, I just feel so … blue.”
When choosing what music to listen to, you often are also choosing what sort of mood you’re going to be in. For example, much as I love David Gray’s Life In Slow Motion, it’s not surprising that, when I do, I often find myself on a train trestle considering the merits of jumping. (That’s a guy who really needs to cheer up.)
On the other hand, when I listen to Toots and the Maytals, I feel gleeful and bouncy (though I get strange urges to light up a joint). Listening to Madeleine Peyroux, I feel kind of jazzy, sometimes blue, sometimes not. And I just love the way I feel when I listen to that retro, early sixties big band sound of the Ultra Lounge discs. It’s just joyfully silly.
So, as a cautionary note, choose what you listen to carefully! A lot of contemporary music (especially of the alternative variety) is just plain grouchy. You’ll be a grouch too if that’s all you listen to!
(Side note: I’ve been trying my damnedest to get into Twin Cinemas, the most recent disc from The New Pornographers. A lot of people I know love it, and I can certainly “hear” that it’s good … but it just ain’t doin’ it for me. Not sure why.)
Tag: Music, Moods, Emmylou Harris, Ultra Lounge
