Songs I Can't Stop Listening To

I have a very eclectic taste in music. And by eclectic I mean I regularly put Taylor Swift, Paul Simon, Jay-Z, and Bon Iver on the same playlist. So weird is probably a better descriptor but eclectic just sounds more classy, #amirite?

Do you ever discover a song and then put it on repeat for hours on end and then get so sick of it and then months (or years) later come back to it and it's like discovering it all over again? Yeah, that's totally me. Either that scenario, or I'm still listening to songs circa 2005 (Thanks, OC).

The following is a list of songs I can't stop listening to, in no particular order except I obviously left out the ones that are too mortifying to actually admit to. I mean, really.

"Dancing On My Own" by Robyn. Uh, case in point:

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift. Also known by its alternate title, "Stop Being A Hater and Learn to Love T. Swift"

My favorite Taylor Swift song, like, ever.

"Sour Cherry" by The Kills. This song brings me back to 2008, and a week ago I totally forgot that it existed. Remember when Gossip Girl ran those oh-so-risque "OMFG" ads with captions like "A PARENT'S WORST NIGHTMARE" AND "WHOLLY INAPPROPRIATE" and "HIDE YO KIDS. HIDE YO WIFE" (just kidding on that last one)? Well, this is the song that accompanied those promos. (Side note: based on an admittedly incomplete set of YouTube videos, Gossip Girl is like the dirtiest show on television. Hot damn. Also, Taylor Momsen, I'm #Praying4U.)

"Poison & Wine" by The Civil Wars. The Civil Wars are made up of John Paul White and Joy Williams, aka the Grey's Anatomy music supervisor's fantasy. But this song is beautiful and it's the first thing I listen to in the morning and the last thing I listen to before I fall asleep.

"Blue Lips" by Regina Spektor. Half because it's a magnificent song and half because it reminds me of the scary campfire story "Blue Lips" from my camp overnight days.

"Dreams" by The Cranberries. This is the ultimate walking song. And by that I mean, put it on while you're walking somewhere and all of a sudden you're walking with purpose. Hello, world, I am walking today. Try and stop me. Also it makes me feel like a 21st-century Angela Chase, all angsty and everything and we could all use more Angsty Angela in our lives. Case in point:

On school:
"School is a battlefield, for your heart."

On parental strife:
"I cannot bring myself to eat a well-balanced meal in front of my mother. It just means too much to her. I mean, if you stop to think about, like, chewing -- what it really is? -- how people just do it, like, in public." (SO MUCH TRUTH HERE.)
"My dad and I used to be pretty tight. The sad truth is, my breasts have come between us."

On socially awkward situations:
"What I like, dread, is when people who know you in completely different ways end up in the same area. And you have to develop this, like, combination you on the spot."

On love and sex:
"I couldn't stop thinking about it. The, like, fact that -- that people -- had sex. That they just had it, that sex was this thing people, had, like a rash. Or a, a Rottweiler. Everything started to seem, like, pornographic or something. Like, Miss Krysanowski has sex. So does Mr. Katimsky. They both have sex. They could... have sex together. Like right now."

Or... an Angela/Jordan scene re-imagined with Carrie/Brody:
Brody: Why are you like this?
Carrie: Like what?
Brody: Like how you are.
Carrie: How am I? How am I?
#MySoCalledHomeland

Thanks for indulging my Claire Danes girl crush. Moving on...

(But first, this: "Finkelstein? Finkelstein!? FINKELSTEN!!!" Major points to you if you understand this.)

"Down in the Valley" by The Head and the Heart. True story: once had this song on repeat for a full weekend. Like, back to back to back this song, forever. It's a testament to this song that I'm still not sick of it, months later.

"Television" by You Won't, if only because it's the greatest band name in the history of band names ("Three Car Garage" is also wonderful).

"Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z, if only because I can recite (let's not kid ourselves, it's nowhere close to "rapping") most of the lyrics, word-for-word, which, I mean, instant street cred for this perennially nerdy girl.

"Maneater" by Hall & Oates, during which all aforementioned street cred is lost. (Note: insert any Billy Joel, Elton John, or Paul Simon song in here, and the effect is the same.)

"Minnesota, WI" by Bon Iver. Choosing my favorite Bon Iver song is like choosing a favorite child, if I actually had children. But Justin Vernon's mumbling-as-singing has never been in finer form. Listen to the song, and then check out the lyrics. I've given up on trying to learn the words, I just mumble incoherently in approximately the same harmony.

"Anything Could Happen" by Ellie Goulding. Another song I forgot existed until this magical gift of a trailer was released last Friday. I mean, come on:

"I know I said he's murder-y in a sexy way but what if he's murder-y in like a murder way."
or...
"Oh, hello..."
or...
"Adam?!" "CACACACACACA!"
or...
More Katie/Sara banter:

(Other side note: this trailer for Lena Dunham's movie Tiny Furniture absolutely slays me. The blurbs are magical.)

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Because I think of Susan Sarandon in Stepmom and no one, including my very own stone-faced father, can see that film and not bawl like a baby.  I like to sing this one in the car with the volume turned way up to drown out my awful singing voice.

"Fifteen" by Goldroom. This song is dreamy in trance-like way. It reminds me of 80's music, which is a good thing, in a way I can't describe. Like I feel like this would be at the end of a John Hughes movie but instead of Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson you had Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Which is basically my way of saying I just want another movie where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are together.

"Reason Why" by Rachael Yamagata. I know every word to this song more than 8 years after it was released, and it makes me feel feelings in a profound way. (Honorable mention to "Worn You Down" and everything else on Happenstance, which is a gem of an album.)

"Bastard" by Ben Folds. My love for him cannot be repressed. Also swallowing my pride and inserting Jason Mraz into this equation (#dontjudge and, also, #sorrynotsorry), which basically adds up to me equaling a big doofus, and sorry for the use of hashtags on a non-Twitter platform.

That's it, dear reader(s) (are there more than one of you out there? I kind of like the idea of addressing a singular person, like this is a journal, except I sort of think "journal implies, like, a thirteen-year-old girl who rides horses and is obsessed with her mom, and it's just not what I'm doing.") And on that note...