{ it's indefinable, magical, illogical. }

[delga]

When I started secondary school, like most kids my age, I went through an intense love affair with my radio, and more specifically, my local radio station. I'd wake up to my radio, it would be playing in The Mother's room; we'd come downstairs and turn it on in the dining room; we'd reach for the switch as soon as we got into the car &c. &c. Most importantly, I used to listen to it whilst doing homework.

Now, radio stations have certain songs they play a certain number of times during the week because of their selected playlists and what have you, and everyone knows that. But the guy who played songs just before the breakfast show had a habit of playing certain songs in the same time slot every morning. I always enjoyed the last fifteen minutes of his show because he played three to four brilliant songs and then when the six o'clock news came on, it was time to get out of bed. (Yes, my clock was set for 5.45am. No, I don't know how I used to deal with that.) He always played songs that were just coming out so I'd always be pretty interested in knowing what he was going to play. If it woke e up, all the better, because the song would force me to focus and wake the fuck up already.

[ Aside: another good time to hear a song you liked repeatedly was from 4-5pm when the station would play the top 5 picks of the requested songs in the 7-9pm slot from the night before. I'd come home, get dressed, and then jump around the room basically screaming Pink's Just Like A Pill. I loved that song, and still do, and I don't get shy about my love for pop because hey, I was a tweenager and it was listenable. So whatever. ]

My point is, I fell hard for a couple of songs during this early morning period. Most notably: Nickelback's How You Remind Me, Pink's Don't Let Me Get Me and a song that I dig out every year - Breathless by The Corrs.

The album Borrowed Heaven is a beautiful album, and I love The Corrs anyway, if just for their happy melodies, their use of strings and their folky background. Summer Sunshine and Angel epitomise summer for me purely because of the sound (also, Summer Sunshine has a perfect video); but Breathless, which which preceded them on the In Blue album, feels like the beginning of that tradition. As soon as I heard it, I knew that (a) I was never going to forget it and (b) that it was going to be one hell of a hit. I was right, too, because it went straight to the top of the charts, giving them their first (and only, to date) number 1.

My point is obscure. I picked them out today, and I picked out the Borrowed Heaven tracks as opposed to Breathless because musically they fit together better, and Breathless has something lighter to it. The lyrics are teasing, unlike the later two tracks which sound and feel much more solid, much more devoted. Angel is about their mother, so lyrically it doesn't fit in the same breath as Breathless and Summer Sunshine, two songs that sound like progressions of the same narrative. But The Corrs are important to me for another reason. I never followed them all that intensely, although I loved all the songs they brought out, which is why I asked The Sister to share her copy of their Greatest Hits album, and I don't associate their music with anything specific, which makes them a bit timeless to me. At the same time, I do mentally pair them up with my life at secondary school. Not so much actual events but the general idea of getting up at 5.45am, catching the bus, reading, having six classes a day and then comin home to do homework and watch tv at 9pm. Breathless came out whilst we were in year 9? So, what, 2001? What an amazing year. We had such a fantastic time that year, and we were just 14. So I suppose The Corrs make me nostalgic for the near-past.

What none of these things change is the fact that Breathless is a beautiful song, light and fun, and happy. These songs make you feel good, not in the anthemic way Springsteen might, but in a way that I think is fairly unique to rural singers. Lily Allen is cheeky; Corinne Bailey Rae is even lighter in some ways, but almost too serious; but The Corrs are a blend of pop and folk, and were singing in the tradition of their family. I always think that if you listen to them, you know what it sounds like to love music so much that it's in your blood, because that's The Corrs, through and through.

Comments

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

It's just lovely. It reminds me of sitting by that one small tree on the far left of the field, or our bench, white blouses and that curious feeling you'd get when the summer term started - the one where you anticipated the summer break, but wondered where the year had gone. And it reminds me of the breeze, too, and that smell it used to get in the very early spring time, this sharp, fresh sensation that I always loved because it didn't stay around too long and it reminded me of the same sensation when I was in primary school. I'm always amazed at the things that remind us of other things, but I'm especially amazed at the sublest signs of the seasons changing. It's so much more difficult to differentiate now.

*hugs* I hope you're well, darling.