See the colors

Image: Andrew Hem

Two songs of soft-swaddled narcopop. Like wrapping a lightbulb in a towel, setting it on the floor and gently, gently pressing down with your foot.

Have You Seen the Colors - Samara Lubelski

Take just the title and try to imagine who Samara Lubelski might be asking, and why. Did she redecorate while her husband was at work and is she nudging him to notice? Is she walking a child down a country lane on the first day of spring and explaining this miraculous change of season? Or is this the fevered dream of a different world--a twistered Wizard of Oz hallucination of color-drenched spectacle? Or like that film Pleasantville, where the characters, numb and blind, open their eyes for the first time to feel and see?

Then listen to the song and the line fleshed out: Have you seen the colors once were new/Now that you have found your honeydew? Past-tensed with "onces" and "nows", nonsensed with fruit, the possibilities are different, but endless.

From Parallel Suns (Amazon, eMusic), Myspace

Midnight Sun - Speck Mountain

This is a cotton lullaby sung to yourself after a long crying jag--a cat's purr, a soft pillow, a rough brown mug of spiked apple cider. A mantra ticking in the penumbral halflight, I'm alright, I'm alright oh, I'm alright. Whispered so many times, you start to believe it.

From Summer Above (Amazon, eMusic), Myspace

World of web:
A mostly true tale of breaking bands and bands breaking, from the Oxford American.

9 of the most repulsive buildings on earth. Dunno, I've always thought #1 was kind of charming. But #9, 6 and 4: soul withering for sure.