Yvi

Girls rock. And belt and wail and get melismatic and occasionally yodel. This calls for a music post.





Florence and the Machine

Howl
A man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night
May still become a wolf when the autumn moon is bright

Drumming Song
There's a drumming noise inside my head
That starts when you're around

I can't get enough of this girl's voice. She reminds me of Dawn from Faun Fables, who reminds me of Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane. Songs are percussiony and raw and repeat-worthy.

Shakira
Octavo Dia

Es mas dificil ser rey sin corona
Que una persona mas normal
(It's more difficult to be a king without a crown
Who is a more normal person)

Say what you will about her, but bitch can sing songs. And she mentions Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton, and Tarzan in this one.

Vienna Teng
Grandmother Song

Oh, girl, you've never known war
When they come in the night and knock on the door
You can go from the high life to dirty poor
And lose everything you knew

Blue Caravan

He was a beautiful fiction
I invented to keep out the cold

I didn't get into Vienna Teng until a year or so ago, which is surprising considering how much I was into old-school Tori Amos. People tend to recommend other piano-pounding female singers to you when you mention Tori. What with them all being the same, y'know. I do find Vienna a lot more grounded, but not dull by any means, and I feel like her work speaks to me more at this point in my life.

Alela Diane
The Rifle

There were too many little brown shoes
Marching through

White as Diamonds

I've known mornings white as diamonds, silent from a night so cold
Such a stillness, calm as the owl glides
Our lives are buried in snow

Homegrown hodgepodge. Kind of bluegrass, kind of Irish, entirely addictive. Makes me miss living in small-town Ohio.

Krystal Meyers
Make Some Noise

We don’t need your rules
Don’t need a uniform
This is who we are
We won’t be ignored

For some reason, the video for this was being shown on Korean TV. I Googled it when the song got stuck in my head. Just try not to bounce.

Clannad
Skellig

Fourteen steps to nowhere
Out of solid stone
Don't lead us to the heavens
Or lead us to the sea

A history lesson and then some from one of the most enduring Celtic groups of all time (also how Enya got her start, being family and a former member of theirs).

Rasputina
High on Life

He smelled like propane and butterscotch
He kept his eyes on me 'cause he liked to watch me
Tore bedsheets to bandage him
He had been in a fight, but he did not win

Rock and Roll

Its been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time

That second one is indeed a Led Zeppelin cover, performed by cello-shredding, corset-wearing wenches.

Alanis Morissette
Not the Doctor

I don't want to be the glue that holds your pieces together
I dont want to be your idol
See, this pedestal is high and I'm afraid of heights
I dont want to be lived through

Classic raging-angsty-ohhellyeahsister stuff. Remember back when singers could vent with style? Those were the days.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Dull Life

Last on the village scene
Fall apart
Iron heart
More alive than you've ever been

Guitars! Good way to get the energy going.

Rykarda Parasol
Lullaby for Blacktail

Are strangers always so slithering wet?
Yes, if you don’t touch them

A lazy ballad-ish ditty wrapped up in a voice that alternates between glass-clear and hangover-husky and never once veers off the line.

Fisher
Mad Girl's Love Song

I close my eyes, the world drops dead
(I think I made you up inside my head)

Sylvia Plath's Mad Girl's Love Song, edited a bit and set to music. Starts off wistful and dreamy, then spirals into something much more intense. You really do get the sense that this girl isn't all there.

Heather Dale
Sedna

She offered them a name and otters they became
Keepers of her secrets in the ice

It's a song about an Inuit sea goddess whose father chopped her fingers off and thereby created various adorable marine animals! Eerie and excellent.


Um...let me know if you like stuff or if there are any issues downloading.