Zach on music: Playlist for Kimya

Back in April, Kimya and I made playlists for eachother, for two reasons.

1) We would be leaving eachother soon
2) We're Adorable

Looking back now, here's my analysis of the playlist I made for Kimya.

Track 1: "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King
I feel my heart start trembling, whenever you're around...
Love this song, I think it's a great start off track. Strong piano intro, and vocal riffs on the outro, it really fits in well. It's here not only because it's how I feel about Kimya, but because there was an ongoing joke in mine and Kimya's suite about my love for Carole King, because she's an amazing songwriter. Listen to Tapestry, the whole album. Right now.

Track 2: "Oh Darlin'" by The Beatles
Track 16: "D'yer Maker" by Led Zeppelin
"Please Believe Me... I'll never do you no harm"
Ignoring the double negative of the above quote, this is the Beatles song I chose, because I think it takes the love themes of the early Beatles and combines it with talent of the late Beatles. This song, along with D'Yer Maker, are actually about loving a girl, AFTER she has left you, which kind of throws a wrench into the whole playlist, but I think it's the message, not the story, that really matters here. Besides the most important parts of D'Yer Maker are the sweet Jamaican sound and the "I love you girl... BABY I LOVE YOU".

Track 3: "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson
Hear Her Voice/Shake My Window/Sweet Seducing Sighs
Isn't that weird that I put him on my playlist TWICE, and then he died? Not really. Seriously though, no real reasoning for Human Nature, other than beautiful song, beautiful girl.

Track 4: "Your Smiling Face" by James Taylor
Whenever I see your smiling face, I have to smile myself because I love you
There's something of a story behind this one. I'm notorious for breaking out into song at any time for any reason, because I'm an adult and a heterosexual and that's the type of thing we do. One time a broke out into this sweet little ditty singing it to Kimya, but wound up sounding more like "Whenever I see your smiling face, I something something something something something". So I put the version with the real words on the playlist to redeem myself.

Track 5: "Watching the Wheels" by John Lennon
I honestly don't remember why I included this song. I mean its good, but there's no real reason. I can only assume its a bit of my own relaxed attitude of life, a little bit of me for my playlist.

Track 6: "Touch Me" by The Doors
Track 17: "I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder
"I'm gonna love you, 'til the stars fall from the sky, for you and I"
Two songs with meanings that are self evident, and far more confident than I could ever hope to be myself, so they really help my case in ways I can't. They also are interesting because Touch Me has an edge that the rest of first half of the playlist doesn't have, while Stevie Wonder is by far the most cheerful

Track 7: "She's An Angel" by They Might Be Giants
How should I react? These things happen to other people/They don't happen at all
There's obviously the title to consider here, after all Kimya's an angel. Then there's the line above which really sums up my own overwhelming lack of belief that any of this relationship was real, because its all far too good. It's also the only live track I put on the whole playlist. What does that mean? I don't know.

Track 8: "Spartacus Love Theme" by Bill Evans

Had to throw in a beautiful jazz track onto the mixtape, the obvious choice was the one with "love" in the name. It's kind of interesting looking back now that it didn't notice, but I put an instrumental and an a capella song in the middle, which is kind of cool I think.

Track 9: "Just What I needed" by The Cars
Track 12: "You Make My Dreams" by Hall and Oates
Cause when you're standing oh so near... I kinda lose my mind
My love of great 80s pop-ish rock-ish music shows strong with these two great songs which illustrate quite well how much better Kimya has made my life.

Track 10: "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel
Track 11: "I'll Be There" by Jackson 5
You're wonderful so far, and it's more than I hoped for
Both of these songs have been mentioned already, the second MJ song on the list and the a capella song that parallels Spartacus Love Theme. So why did I put them together here? Because they're both promises.

Track 13: "Time" by Tom Waits
Track 15: "Atmosphere" by Joy Division
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips/ As the dish outside the window fills with rain/ Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart/ And pay the fiddler off til I come back again
Okay, so the first half of this playlist is pretty sappy kissy muah muah muah, maybe not the songs themselves, but in common love theme. The second half is a little bit more dark. These songs aren't here for love reasons, but just because I happen to think they're both absolutely beautiful songs.

Track 14: "My Real Self" by The Boy Judas
I wanna hold you as my real self/not the one I give away
I've mentioned my good friends The Boy Judas before on this blog, and I threw this on here because it was not only an amazing song, but it's a song that Kimya isn't going to here anywhere else, so I thought it would be kind of special to throw a song by a band of my friends on here. And for those who read this and are also fans of The Boy Judas, I was tempted to put the quote "There is nothing more impressing, then pressing to your thigh", because it's so damn clever.

Track 18: "Museum of Idiots" by They Might Be Giants
Chop me up into pieces, if it pleases if it pleases/and when the chopping is through, every piece will say, I love you
Now here's a little bit of undying love with a cynical tone, which I think is a good representation of how oxymoronically I think I treat life. There's also some really beautiful orchestration on this song. TMBG, they do it again, gotta love those guys.

Track 19: "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel
What? You Want Me To Write All The Lyrics?
Yes, this song is a tad overplayed, and there's better Simon and Garfunkel songs, in fact, this isn't even really a love song, necessarily. But I recommend ending any and all playlists with this song. I don't think there's a song that better manages to be completely epic without being cheesy. It also has a pretty strong promise, even if it's not necessarily more than that to a friend. But I've used most of the playlist to explain that I'm in love with Kimya, there's no better way to end it than to show that I'm also going to be a best friend.