Muxtape 3

I meant to post this mix weeks ago, but I’ve been having so much fun reading and playing outside that I just couldn’t be bothered. My apologies, but I hope you’ll understand.

As before, click here to listen (remember to open a new browser or tab), then come back to read all about it. The mix will be available to listen to until I post a new one. But if you like it, leave a comment before Wednesday at noon and I’ll send a CD to one person drawn randomly from the comments.

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Barry Louis Polisar – All I Want Is You
This is my favorite song off the Juno soundtrack, and every time I play it loud for us to dance to, Thomas runs downstairs to get his guitar. He plays it while doing a little skip-to-my-lou around the living room.

Spoon – Don’t You Evah
I heard a remix version of this, but decided I liked the original better. It sounds vaguely familiar to me, and I wonder if it’s one of those songs that used to get way overplayed?

Cloud Cult – Take Your Medicine
I will make you a fan of Cloud Cult if it’s the last thing I do. This song came on while I was running awhile ago, so I was in perfect focus mode to hear the lyrics clearly. It’s a song of redemption, about overcoming things that previously controlled, about bringing the dark, hidden things into the light. I kept hitting the repeat button that day, and listened to it for my entire run. You can read the lyrics here.

Mike Doughty – 27 Jennifers
I love this song for obvious reasons. I’m sure there were no websites available in 1971 to tell my mother that Jennifer was the most popular name on the planet. But I’ve never disliked my name, so at least I have that going for me. My maiden name is Anderson, and when I was in high school there was another Jennifer Anderson in my graduating class that always skipped school and was caught smoking outside Door 9. I was always getting sent to the principal’s office, and when I walked in she would sigh and wave me out, then pick up her phone to find the other Jennifer Anderson.

Mars Hill – What Wondrous Love is This
My church released a new studio CD over the winter – a collection of hymns – and this is one of my favorites. I like to play it loud because of the base and the driving rhythm to it. Also? Thomas head bangs to it and sings along at the “sinking down, sinking down” part. Awesome!

Tift Merritt – Broken
This song was featured on a recent Paste Magazine music sampler, and now you know I’m a closet country music lover. Though I should clarify I’m a country slash rock music lover – not the old school country. Also? It’s been reported that I attended an Alabama concert at the Tacoma Dome in the early 90’s, but I don’t remember much from the night apart from Somebody’s permed hair and red cowboy boots. Anyhow, I’m drawn to these lyrics: “Now you’re broken, and you don’t understand what is broken falls into place once again…I think I will break, but I mend.” (more lyrics here).

Patti Griffin – Carry Me
I put this on here only because it came up in my running mix a few weeks ago and made me run faster just when I was ready to ease up. If you think Patti Griffin is too mellow and folksy for you, check out her Flaming Red album. It rocks so hard I play it long and loud, and I think Bryan almost suggested I just go ahead and french kiss her.

Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown – No Air
If my appreciation of country music threw you for a loop, wait until you hear this song – you will totally lose sleep trying to figure me out. My friend heard this song come up on the mix at a our House of BBQ a couple weeks ago, and he very tactfully expressed his surprise that I liked this song. But when I launched into my very dramatic hairbrush lip sync I think he completely understood the draw. Jordin Sparks was last year’s American Idol winner, and when she sang this duet on the most recent season I was all, Who is Chris Brown? I would encourage you to not ask this question in a room full of teenage girls.

Snow Patrol – Shut Your Eyes
Bryan has always talked about his love for Snow Patrol, but I had never heard them. Then one day this song came on the radio and I was all, I love this song, do you know who it is? Proving once again that I don’t listen to a thing my husband says unless confirmed by at least one outside source.

Frou Frou – Let Go
I wrote about my love for this song about a year and a half ago in this post, but as this mix was coming together, I realized I wanted it to be placed among my favorites.

Nikka Costa – So Have I For You
I first heard her on KCRW.com, and loved her funk and soul. My favorite Aretha Franklin song is Rock Steady, and many of Costa’s song take on that kind of funky vibe. This, however, is one of her slower songs, but I chose it for the lyric, “you can choose the rain, but I choose the sun…” Sometimes it’s just one line in one song that make me rethink the mood I’m choosing to be in at the moment, even if the rest of the song has nothing to do with you (obviously a horrible sentence, written much too late at night).

Cloud Cult – Thanks
Again with The Meaning of 8, right? JUST GO BUY THE ALBUM, for cryin’ out loud. This song builds itself to a full-on worship song that makes me sprint with my eyes closed (don’t ask how I do this, I’m not quite sure). You just can’t be in a pissy mood after listening to it. Here’s the bulk of it:

And I give thanks to my youthful days
Of grass-stained knees and trick-or-treat face
I pray I’ll find as innocent a place
When I am 88

And I give thanks to my present day
It just got here so please don’t go away
I finally see it’s what I choose to make
I choose to make it into gold