Extinguished Eyes

Completely falling, falling without knowing...

Some secluded stand of trees...

Okkervil River- Calling and Not Calling My Ex. A fine song, fine lyrics. It's sunny outside, and a song about endings and beginnings and airports and errors seems apposite. Click here to hear this song to define the summer...

She was once mine,
that smile that shines
from the glossy magazine
that's stuck inside the Sunday times.
She was so sweet
on Christmas eve
with the snow set deep
when we went walking through the pines
I had just been fired and her first offer had arrived
and the new year would see her
flying far away from me
though I didn't know it a the time.

With out-stretched hands
now she commands
a famous figure
for every picture,
and she stands
up strong and she demands
and they deliver
yeah she's a fixture:
and it's mixture of dumb jealousy and fear
that I might feel should she appear
just like it hasn't been three years;
and there's a distance to her voice over the phone
and that's because she stands alone,
while I'm still sitting here...

Girl, you see me here
on another quiet night.
I will wait until another
indistinguishable day arrives.
I'll sigh when the light
is even and bright
where my life is sweet
as it's slightly disappointingly
just gliding softly by.
Girl, you won't wait for me
in some secluded stand of trees
some Christmas eve
some god was kind enough to set aside.

Although I love you too, I'm proud of you,
God knows I'm feeling really stupid now...
for ever having said "goodbye".

During the fight
I said yeah right
when you insisted
that I'd visit
that you'd write.
Now I know you're working hard
so I never hear from you
and that's fine-

you look the same on TV as when you where mine.

I walk in from the kitchen
and I finger the remote control:
I watch you from the distance,
you go walking through the terminal.
I remember every instance
when you stunned me
well you're so lovely,
yeah you're so smart...

So go turn their heads,
go knock them dead,
go break their hearts.

Go break their hearts,
baby break their hearts-
and I know you will...

...out of here/ Past the atmosphere...

Andrew Bird- the song is Oh No, and the words you hear should be making you think, 'Hang on, is he actually saying things about calcium mines and harmless sociopaths?'

And then there are the pains we know only too well, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Soyons amoureux: it's as if grunge never happened.



It's tiny and simple and as good as it gets; ready to oscillate... two velocity girls waking up in bed...

Tinted Distances

So we hit the beach
And on the beach we're hit
Along a line of crimson
Alone on a beach with Jesus...


Incoming- keep your head down:

The Hold Steady- ABC- 1st October
Sigur Ros- Carling Academy- 6th November
Leonard Cohen- Birmingham NEC- 22nd November

And as for Conor Oberst, sole member of Bright Eyes, doing a 'solo' album, it's lucky for him that the record is solid gold...

...the real best out of the evening...

So, say it again: the night may be starless and dateless, but it's far from pitiless. In the wake of Tommy Burns's death, the emotional pressure on the Celtic players at Tannadice must have been immense, but now they can accept it properly, and everyone else can breathe again- it was sad and scary, and almost unbearable, but ultimately joyful, a celebration.

In Yeats's phrase, 'We sing amid our uncertainty'.

The Sound of Falling Love

They're back, and they're still beautiful...

Big Diamonds, Happy Flower Children- Best of 2007

The 100th Walking on Snow post. Test centurion indeed.

The best of 2007- t's all girls, as it will be at the end of the world...

Best single of 2007

...oh, my gosh...


Honorable mention to this stunning Long Blondes song


Best Album of 2007

Sahara Hotnights- What if Leaving is a Loving Thing


Best Film of 2007


Sigur Ros could have won all three, and Britney nearly won album of the year. Seriously. Blackout is as strange and surprising as anything you'll hear...