Earth and Sky

This is Lisa Dupuy. She is one of Sudhir's friends, classmates and overall awesome human being. During a very intense one year in London, they bonded over good writing, issues relating to journalists and politics (lots of politics). However, one of Sudhir's biggest regrets is that they did not talk about music tastes more. This letter is Lisa's way of solving that problem. Thanks for writing in, Lis.

Dear Sudhir,

I am currently experiencing a somewhat sleep-deprived delirium the likes of which I have not seen since our panic-stricken thesis-writing days ... You’re well aware, of course, that telling people to only recommend two songs is impossible. But I see that’s part of the fun. You see, I listen to music in the form of albums. When I like a song, I usually don’t just appreciate its music or lyrics, but also like if it sits comfortably amongst its fellow tunes, or if it does a one-eighty and kicks the rest of the musical entities in their rhythmic, three-minute butts. 

The other thing I do is associate songs or artists with one another, sometimes in ways that seem random. I suppose everyone does that: music can transport you to places or moments you’ve been at. For example:  Me feeling in a pickle about this blog post brought me back to my nervous 17-year-old self on the day  I was going in for my university admissions interview. My dad had driven me to the appointment and as I sat in the car with a semi-case of hyperventilation he played me a song called ‘Bodies’. It’s a Sex Pistols tune. It’s about a girl who is getting an abortion. It’s about as horrible as you’d expect. “It’s to get the jitters out”, my dad said. And it did, so that my song for nervous occasions is still this embodiment of refinery. I figured that this would make an original pick for Mephobia. But then I realized, If I pick this abortion song, I have to pick my other abortion song – which I know sounds weird. 

The other song is called ‘Oasis’ and it’s a song by one of my heroines, Amanda Palmer. She wrote a painfully personal but funny and poppy song. But the thing is: I’m not sure that ‘Oasis’ is my favourite Amanda Palmer song. And as much as I would love to feature her stuff here (she’s a label-breaking, tweeting, Neil Gaiman-marrying, punk cabaret machine), I’m afraid that once I get started with her, my association skills will be bouncing off the walls, ratcheting into dusty black holes of ever-expanding CD stacks. And you did just inform me in our whatsapp conversation that one or two introductory lines should suffice. 

I guess the best thing to do here, is forget about the namedropping above. After much deliberation I decided to let serendipity do the choosing, mostly because I’ve always wanted to use the word, ‘serendipity’. The selection turned out to be cool brothers crooning out soulful heartfelt songs. There’s some politics in both, as well. 


The Rolling Stones : Salt of the Earth

Just last weekend my beloved brother played a horribly overproduced R ‘n’ B cover version. Big mistake. There’s no for a reimagination of this tune. It features my favourite ‘change’ in music of all time: the opening lead is being sung by Keith Richards in the first verse. at about 30 seconds in, Mick Jagger takes over. It gives me goosebumps everytime. Throw in some societal statements and I’m raising my hands in praise.

 



Paolo Nutini : Iron Sky

The entire Caustic Love get a regular repeat at my house, but in my opinion ‘Iron Sky’ takes the cake. I like a raspy voice and in this track Nutini is bringing his voice, for sure. Also – despair, dystopia: perfect musical building blocks, even politics works here. It’s something stirring in this song. And the Charlie Chaplin Dictator speech in there is a great trick, too.