Music Box

Have you ever heard a song so beautiful ,  you just know it will  forever be a part of your life's playlist ? It will never be enough that it grips your soul  for exactly 3:57 minutes. So you play it on loop, an attempt to engrave that fleeting art to your existence. Heh.... I 'm being overly dramatic, but you get my point.  Simply put though, hearing the sound waves is enough to make you go "oh my God this song" while clutching your heart , wiping your barely-there tears, and rejoicing for this one thing that humankind actually succeeded at, "playback"!  I'm getting side-tracked here . On to the point . This is an amateur attempt to review songs I love so much I could picture myself growing old with them. They are  secrets hidden in my music box, but I'm sharing them nonetheless because its a tragedy not to.  I am not a fan of, top-tens Thought Catalog is known for so consider this song randomly listed for the sole purpose of being favorites. Also interpretations are solely mine. I do not have the privilege of sharing fries with these artistes nor are we textmates, but they are master riddlers and they make me think.  So here we go...

Still - Elena Tonra (Daughter)

It's spiraling down
Biting words like a wolf howling
Hate is spitting out each others mouths
But we're still sleeping like we're lovers

Combine a hauntingly powerful melody and a dark poignant prose of  an undeniably true existential dilemma of being "stuck" with someone, in something, or somewhere that simply makes you unhappy. So of course this will be on loop.

In the Shallows - Elena Tonra (can we be besties?)
Dry your smoke-stung eyes,
so you can see the light.
staring at the sky
watching stars collide

I swear this woman is a walking heartbreak. She does not tug at your heartstrings, she rips , knots and rips them some more. Feminists may get an aneurysm from what the lyrics may be implying, 'I'll die if you leave", but it's a reality for some. It's an ugly truth that some of us get lost to our feelings , woman empowerment be damned. There is no grand orchestra ala Florence and the Machine  to speak the depth of the person's lament, instead there is a deceivingly light acoustics that await you and then... "le creys"





Featherstone by the Paper Kites
Past all the signs of the slow decline
Live like your love wasn't meant for mine
Now you've gone, now you've gone to a different life

This song is as good as any coming-of-age movie. A default tune during road trips, it speaks of nostalgia and hope, of growing apart and growing up. Why the title? I have no idea






Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine
I took the stars from our eyes, and then I made a map
And knew that somehow I could find my way back
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too
So I stayed in the darkness with you

Seriously, Florence Welch and Elena Tonra are founding members of the highly elite Happy-Songs-Are-For-The-Weak club.  The grandiosity of this song, so artfully made, convinces you that some things though unhealthy, insensible ( I took the stars from your eyes then made a map), consuming, can also be beautiful.

Awhile is Now

And so she tells herself..

"Chin up little girl. Show the world your tear-streaked face and smiling eyes. Let her hear your words and the sobs in between. Tell your story from the beginning to the climax down to the perennially desired denouement. Stand proud in your ripped clothes and mended soul because you have survived, and it is glorious. Your scars are your cartouche, intricate and permanent.

Look into a mirror, into a still lake,  or into a murky puddle, it doesn't matter because the truth is , you are beautiful. 

Put on your white dress and dance to your heart's content or don your black frock and finally say goodbye . Learn , make blunders , understand , and learn. Repeat  until your final breath. This is the vicious cycle called life.

On days your entire being says "I am tired", sit on a hammock and sip some tea. Feel your cheeks lift and your soul grow . You hear Veronica Shoffstall's written soliloquy loud and clear now ;

 "And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open with the grace of a woman not the grief of a child."

Inspiration : Veronica Shofstall's  After Awhile