Music in October 2023
October’s playlist begins with clammbon’s ultimate power-up song, which I would play to wake up in the morning at work. The next song is a similarly swinging piece from the same 2003 album, and yet like much of clammbon’s work, it pairs upbeat and even jazzy instrumentals with heartfelt, at times almost whispered vocals.
Following this are a rollicking rock song from Chatmonchy, Kaho Nakamura’s strange agitations, and The Dø’s windswept Sparks, which sounds like the Aurora Borealis. Then there’s another warm hug of comfort from Hitsujibungaku, another aching and heartfelt songbird’s delight from Yuta Orisaka, and another kinetic lo-fi piano delight from Masakatsu Takagi.
I am going through songs fast today, partly because I don’t have a great way to describe them in words, and partly because many of the songs on this list share similarities, especially as we go on.
Otto Totland’s Solêr sounds as if it was written to be the score of a film where one is waiting in melancholic anticipation, waiting to arrive at a station for a funeral.
I keep slipping ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION songs into these, often from the same albums, and that’s how you know I’m consistently listening to all of them, again and again. This track has a particularly fantastic melodic line sawing up and down between the verses.
After this point in the playlist I enter what some might argue is my ‘bad taste’ era. I wasn’t attempting to be contrarian, and I genuinely think all this music is pretty great, but I have learned that some of the more poppy tracks from the ‘70s and ‘80s that I’ve included are regarded as cringe. Well, what can I say – it was a silly era, and I’m a silly guy.
And that’s what much of this playlist is: everything from a Bond movie song to prototypical yacht rocker Christopher Cross; Roy Orbison’s soft-mouthed reveries to downbeat Madonna; even Kenny G! Of course I’ve got the great Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, but I’ve also included Charlene’s I’ve Never Been to Me, a song that apparently has been voted one of the worst hits of all time. Well, I beg to differ.
Leaving the Cold War, I return to my beloved Humbert Humbert, who has put all their power and gentleness into a song about a lunchbox. Next, a haunting score to metanoia from Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch’s score to Living. Then, I actually broke an informal rule and let Long Time slip in a second time after already including it in the July playlist – but it fits here. And Yorushika always fits anywhere, ready to explode with a combination of aggressive guitars and sweet vocals. Finally, we end where we began, with two songs from clammbon, only this time one is slow and blue, and the other feels benedictory; both seem fitting for an exit, a happy funeral procession in the rain. And isn’t that exactly what October is, after all?
