2010: My year in song...

Everyone always busts loose with a list of one kind or another this time of year. I happen to enjoy mountains and music more than anything else and so it makes since to blog about one or the other. Most of you know about my mountain escapades and I'll probably knock another one out this week sometime so today I blog about music.

When I listen to music I am instantly transported to whenever/wherever the song appeared relevant to me. Listen to Bread~ I'm in my sister Mary's room gleaning her castaways before a garage sale. "I Got You" by the Split Enz and Cassie and I are making Mac and Cheese in the kitchen. Pink Floyd's "On the Turning Away" and I'm at a funeral for a friend. I miss him still. Kieran and I have "Lovesong" by the Cure. What did you expect? We were married in the eighties. I have songs for the birthdays of all three of our children. Shannon's is a Simple Minds tune. Kevin's: Tears for Fears. Ali received a retro tune by Stevie Wonder because of Divine Providence. Music does that to me. I am a fairly emotional person. Yes, fairly is used loosely here.

This year...this year has been special. We had the 2009 fire to start us out. It could have been rough but this year just kept getting better and better. I feel more blessed than ever. My musical choices for the year are as eclectic as ever. Some hopeful, some despairing, all really enjoyable and so, in no particular order, my list of songs for 2010.

Black Keys/ Tighten Up: Besides whistling, of which I am a huge fan, I must say I enjoyed this song much more after I saw the video of the two schoolboys brawling for the affections of their playground love.

Mumford and Sons/Little Lion Man: Here in Portland this received a copious amount of airtime and threatened to get old fast. I don't care, I love it and will sing it at the top of my lungs much to Kieran's chagrin.

Michael Franti and Spearhead/ Say Hey: Kieran won't let me listen to this song anymore. Overplay definitely killed it for him. Overplay or the fact that I boistrously jumped into his lap everytime it played.

Eminem/Not Afraid: This is a stop and listen song for me. Just thinking about it now has me tabbing over to YouTube for a fix. I find Eminem very talented.

Broken Bells/The High Road: Infectious, haunting perfection.

Flo and the Machine/ Dog Days: She released this song not once, but twice before! Silly Americans finally got it right and gave her some airtime.

Black Eyed Peas/ I Gotta Feeling: When we had to use this song on the fly at our introductory assembly at school I just about wet my pants. Brava Dickers.

Muse/Uprising: New anthem for my revolution.

Pearl Jam/ Just Breath: Sad and beautiful. A poignant reminder.

Jay Z and Mr. Hudson/ Young Forever: I have always loved this song, in many of it's reincarnations. JayZ, however, is magical with whatever he touches and this was no exception. He also did New York with Alicia Keys this year. Nice work, sir.

Now, because I can never really make up my mind about something, there were plenty of honorable mentions in my mind. I was addicted to Script's Breakeven for awhile. Such a beautiful voice. BoB Airplanes? I sing it in the shower. As for Lady Gaga. Alot of people think she's disgusting. I agree with Ozzy: she is amazingly entertaining but she needs to disappear for awhile. She is a marketing machine, no shame in her game. I loved the Glee episode dedicated to her and think the Telephone duet with Beyonce is funky, in a good way. Someone else I saw all over the place this year was Bruno Mars (Nothing on You, Just the Way You Are, Billionaire) but I'm not tired of him. He's adorable. A song that I enjoyed that may suprise my mom and my kids is CeeLo's F*$% You. Priceless and perfectly acceptable use of the F*bomb.

Someone that I didn't even know about until I sat down to write this today: Gil Scott Heron (I'm New Here). He did amazing work in the 70's R&B and spoken word. Smooth and rebellious. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. His new work is rich, raspy folk bluesy. Like.

Now go find some good music and share it with me please.