Songs for the Twilight

It's half past one in the morning and sleep has once again eluded me. Normally when this happens, music fills the night and the singers and songs entertain me until I eventually drift off. Tonight I'm still energetic...I got to keep my mind active... so this hub is a list of songs that are great to listen to when looking up and the moon while you're doing a bit of soul searching.

There is something about listening to music during the twilight hours that is different from any other time in your life. Bar the obvious fact that the music becomes more mellow, and more often than not melancholy, there is also the mindset that you develop, especially when you let it begin to wander. The sheer size of the night sky and the feeling like you're the only person on the planet can cause this time to send shivers down the neck, and make you think your life... Old memories that float around like tattered old photographs become vivid, you start wondering what has happened to people you lost touch with, mostly old flames, the lyrics can spark a time when you felt at your most righteous, or even make you wistful, or it could be just me who thinks like that...Even so there's a song for everybody, and a time and a place to listen to them, the following songs are for my middle of the night soul searching journeys that come howling from my stereo and put me in a trance as I think about my past and and my future.

Tom Waits, the age old grandmaster of songwriting, back at the beginning of his career in his early 20's, when he sang like a bird, before the booze and cigarettes transformed him into the gravel voiced jazz beatnik hipcat that emanates coolness. This song generates old feelings of a girl that I once knew, I met her in a bar after a few stouts and we hit it off...the story of the song went along with how the night went, except I had a happy ending, I couldn't believe my luck, every time I hear this song I think of her and wonder how she is doing.

Back in 2004, Damien Rice broke into the scene with 'O', his first solo album. He is able to create a mood of capturing a moment in every person's life that is theirs, a moment that is not often thought upon on a regular basis. What made 'Volcano' unique was the introduction of Lisa Hannigan to the world. Her voice is unbelievable and she is beautiful, a rare Irish gem. She sang with Damien Rice for a few years until problems appeared in their working relationship, so she went solo, Rice's band followed her and she has released two successful albums. Her voice in 'Volcano' speaks volumes to the soul.

It's not very often when a singer songwriter leaves a unique feeling on their listener, one that could never be accomplished by any of the commercially driven pop music that's over played on the radio today. Former lead singer of The Czars, John Grant had to battle an army of personal feelings to stop himself from self destructing before he even had a chance to write and record his first solo album 'Queen of Denmark', after nearly killing himself from abusing drink and drugs, he went clean and recorded his album with help from 'Midlake' a band that was on the same circuit as 'The Czars'. His demons have produced some amazing songs, 'Leopard and Lamb' is quite gospel in it's delivery, and has touches of Morrisey's woeful song writing syle with music that is pure alchemy, raising the song from the pits of depression and supporting it's drive of getting over his crisis of missing a former lover. It's an amazing song to listen to in the night time...

'Negative Vibes' is for when you have had a bad day, for when you have niggling doubts about matters regarding your life, or for when you even put yourself down and you just can't love yourself never mind anybody else. Dempsey sings it with his typical street attitude and voice that cranks emotion from every lyric. It is a decleration of self belief and inner strength capped with the line, 'I'm never going to let, your negative vibes and comments get through to my psyche and cripple me...' it's almost like medicine for the mind, you can't help but see a more positive outlook on life. My fondest memory related to this song was going to see my best friend play a small pub gig in Wicklow Town a few years back. The pub was loud and rowdy, and on she stepped, with her mop of dark curly hair, wearing a purple cardigan, and carrying her beloved acoustic yamaha guitar. While the crowd chattered she began singing 'Negative Vibes' and you could hear a pin drop, needless to say she rocked the pub that night with her rendition of the song, putting her own rocky feminine touch to it, kind of like Patti Smith.

There is no over riding factor or special memory or feeling as to why this song is such an amazing song to listen to at night. even though the song is called 'Heaven', there is nothing about the song that feels religious to me, or any of the other songs in this hub. Heaven could be anything personal, a personal heaven has no religious aspects whatsoever to some people. It's loved basically because it's such a great song played by a great band, the lyrics are simple and striking, the bass is funky and the backing vocals give it a feeling of a far away place. This song is normally the one I drift off too, even playing it now could set me off, and it probably will...