grow a pear

"If I am honest,
I'm just not hooked on your phonics"

- Ke$Ha

And the many other wise words contained in this song.

be mine

"There's a moment to seize every time that we meet,
but you always keep passing me by
'cause you never were and you never will be mine"

- Robyn

Okay I confess these aren't the most powerful lyrics I've ever heard, but the song is so damn catchy. Plus I think we have all felt that basic unrequited love pain. Lindsey first introduced me to the Ellie Goulding acoustic cover, which is amazing, and now that I've heard both versions I feel like they're the yin and the yang of sad love songs- sometimes you need to wallow, sometimes you need to get your dance on.

breakeven

"While I'm wide awake, she has no trouble sleeping
'cause when the heart breaks, it don't break even"

- The Script

Where do I begin to explain my love of this song? Maybe it's the fact that it feels like a slightly more grown up Backstreet Boys jam. Maybe it's the clever play on gambling terminology. But most likely, it's the belt-ability in a car in the rain with good people. I will be forever grateful to Josie Biteng's February Fun mix (a couple Februarys ago) for this one.

The lyrics of this song are very interesting to me. I feel like everyone can relate to this: in love, even in friendship, things always seem uneven. One person is more invested and more likely to get hurt. I don't know why we can't escape this, but it makes for good music.

timshel

"Death is at your doorstep
and it will steal your innocence,
but it will not steal your substance.
And you are not alone in this..."

- Mumford & Sons

Lyric submitted by AJ Friederich, with an amen from me.



Btdubs I hate cheesy youtube slideshows, especially when they get the band's name wrong. But I am too lazy and inept to make my own, so I really have no right to complain.

loss, strain and butterflies

"I can't sleep sometimes, but I've been told
it's a lonely condition called growing old"

- Tabitha's Secret / an archaic form of Matchbox Twenty?

I'd like to thank myspace music for showing me this one back when myspace still mattered.

white daisy passing

"All those evenings on the back deck of our first apartment,
they meant everything, but the wind just carried them off.
And you can't go back now, just a passing moment gone."

- Rocky Votolato

I just think this song is nice and kind of hypnotic. Thank you to Michelle my bell for this one.

did you get my message?

"Do you ever wonder what happens to the words that we send?
Do they bend, do they break, from the flight that they take
and come back together again with a whole new meaning..."

- Jason Mraz

rockin' the suburbs

"I'm pissed off but I'm too polite
with people breaking the McDonald's line..."

- Ben Folds

That line's for Miguel. Just felt like a fun summer jam today. I'd like to thank my stepmom, who is much cooler than me, for introducing this to me sometime around age 12. I love all of Ben's rants on this one; hope you enjoy.

cemetery

"And I'll face the one who made
my disgusting heart from a lump of clay.
Should he ask what got me through,
if he asks me it was you"

- Say Anything

rejazz

"Thought I'd cry for you forever,
but I couldn't. So I didn't."

- Regina Spektor

Sorry to go double-Regina on you, but this song is for my planter girls. Someone very dear to my heart is coming home today.

folding chair

"I've got a perfect body
but sometimes I forget
I've got a perfect body
'cause my eyelashes catch my sweat"

- Regina Spektor

Oh, Regina. So quirky. But I love this one, especially when I think about all the crazy crap that is going on inside our bodies all the time that we take for granted. Our eyelashes are keeping the sweat out of our eyes and our skin is protecting our insides and some mitochondria are making energy...or something along those lines. Nice to think about.

fix you

"Lights will guide you home
and ignite your bones
and I will try to fix you"

- Coldplay

I can't make this song have meaning for you, but for me it is incredible. Especially today.
Sometimes I feel beyond repair. And then days like today, I remember...everything. I remember grace. And healing. And fresh starts. "And I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life."

middle of nowhere

"Maybe there's a better me
waiting for a better you"

- Hot Hot Heat

sympathy

"What I chase won't set me free."

- The Goo Goo Dolls

This is another one I like to remind myself of. Wise words from the man with the straightened, highlighted hair.

feel it in my bones

"I take my heart out of my chest, I just don't need it anymore."

- Tiesto feat. Tegan and Sara (but really I think it should be the other way around)

I'm feeling Tiesto-y today!!

home

"Laugh until we think we'll die
barefoot on a summer night
never could be sweeter than with you"

- Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

So when my friend Lindsey first showed me this song, I thought it was too hipster to function. But after a few sunny car rides singing the contagious chorus over and over with good friends, I can't help but love it.

nothing better

Nerdy writer that I am, I have been keeping books of quotations since I started college. But I've noticed as I look back on them that 95% of the words I find inspiring are not from renowned authors or philosophers, but from popular songwriters. And this morning, mid-hair straightening, it dawned on me as if by divine mandate that I should share these lyrics on a blog.
So here it is: a virtual lyric book of other people's words, from me to you. I'm excited about this project and hope to post (almost) daily. Sometimes I'll offer you my thoughts, other times I'll just post a simple lyric. Please don't expect me to post only cool indie bands, lord knows iamnotcoolenough. But I will offer you quotes that I find beautiful or sad or funny ranging from Joni Mitchell to Ke$Ha. Enjoy.

For day 1, a classic:

"Your heart won't heal right if you keep tearing out the sutures"

- The Postal Service

I don't know how many times I have to remind myself of this. It brings to mind something a wise friend once told me: "Nostalgia is an ugly fat whore who doesn't leave your room long after you've paid her."
While it can be nice to spend our thoughts on past happiness, it blinds us to the present. We can't dwell on what used to be or what might have been; we have to live with what is.