Your DailyCrack

Ryan Adams- Afraid, Not Scared

i like artists who do melancholy well. i may be in the minority, but i gravitate toward slower, darker songs. i am more apt to listen to those songs when they mirror my mood because said songs, unlike many happy ones, make me feel better. mr. adams’ album love is hell provides the perfect soundrack to the all too frequent bad day. there are so many sparse gems for the downtrodden listener (or regular listener). you have the sweeter sad songs that talk more about regret or longing. you’ve got the darker songs that make you feel as though you’re dragging yourself along the bottom of the ocean. ‘afraid not scared’ is more sweet than not. it’s something of an unfortunate but soft surrender to circumstances; a slow fall into the dark.

these songs illustrate that there’s a certain beauty in sadness, and i believe that is no small lesson. i don’t want this to sound like a piece written for an undergraduate fiction class, but at times sadness can feel like thousands of black butterflies flitting about you. ok, now it does sound like something written for fiction class by a talentless aspiring poet. no matter. that’s what it feels like to me (on occasion). i’ll stop talking now.

Look at this ocean with everyone drowning
Idiots screaming and everyone sinking in slowly
We’re surrounded
In the yellow lights of the city wasted as bodies
In bed with somebody a touch away with nothing to do
We’re surrounded
I’m really dying here
I’m really dying here
And I’m afraid, no I’m scared

She started freezing, lungs all collapsing
The momentum is passing, but the moment is eating us whole
We’re surrounded
Put the guns in the water, they’re turning to vodka
Triggering nothing we’re sinking the sea takes the ship
And I’m really dying in here
I’m really dying in here
I’m afraid. I’m afraid. No, I’m scared. No I’m scared.
I’m just scared. Just let me down.

I’m getting really cold and I’m cold and I’m looking at you
You’re not moving
I’m getting really cold and I’m cold and I’m looking at you
You’re not moving
I’m getting really cold and I’m cold and I’m looking at you
And you’re not moving

-the skinny miracle

Neko Case - Things that Scare Me


‘things that scare me’ appears on neko case’s third album ‘blacklisted’ which was released in 2002. i first heard the album on a jukebox in a restaurant where i frequently had lunch. had it not been for that jukebox, i may never have heard the album or of neko case because (1) i am biased against country music; and (2) i have zero interest in the new pornographers, the band for which she sometimes contributes vocals. the first of those two reasons is most important. as a child, my mother would listen to the local station for weather updates and news. unfortunately, that meant on most mornings i would sit through at least an hour of country music. the majority of the i heard were terrible and left me with bitter feelings toward the genre. there were exceptions. i will admit to liking several songs by artists such as vince gill, randy travis, and trace adkins. in fact, one of my favorite songs from that period of my life was ‘don’t take the girl’ by tim mcgraw. having said that, i generally disliked country music and had little interest in learning about or hearing more of it outside those hour-long periods each morning. 

imagine my surprise when i heard this album. actually, it didn’t immediately register that this was a country album. i discovered that later when i read that ms. case was considered an ‘alt-country’ artist. i liked it because it was dark and sad. she (neko) sounds as though she’s mourning throughout the album. after hearing it for the first time, i couldn’t wait to hear it again. i went out and bought it soon after. initially, i preferred to listen to ‘ghost wiring,’ ‘deep red bells,’ and ‘lady pilot.’ these days, i consider ‘things that scare me’ my favorite track on the album. i am particularly drawn to the music. the interplay between the guitar and the banjo, and the dark, rich tones beneath it create a sound that’s slightly different from most country songs i’ve heard. it’s country, but it doesn’t feel like it- well, not immediately. i can live with that.

Fluorescent lights engage
Blackbirds frying on a wire
Same birds that followed me to school When I was young
Were they trying to tell me something
Were they telling me to run

The hammer clicks in place
The world’s gonna pay
Right down in the face of God and his saints
Claim your soul’s not for sale
I’m a dying breed who still believes
Haunted by American dreams
Haunted by American dreams

-the skinny miracle