Write to stay alive 2

Write to stay alive has become a staple in my listening experience. When things get in a bad way for me, I listen to these heavily. On the surface they may seem somewhat dark but this isn’t really the full ideology of the atmosphere I create for myself. These pieces of music really do heal me, and facilitate me to appreciate the place where I am when I’m wherever I am. I’m hesitant to re-enforce too much this idea of being in a ‘bad’ way, or when I feel ‘ill’. Mental illnesses are interesting and intriguing things indeed, but the more I live with and learn about them, in particular my own manifestations, the more I understand that any kind of moral slant on them is irrelevant. It is not a matter of any condition or state being better or worse, things are merely different, and then as a result, other things are difficult. Make no mistake though, periods where there is a lack of symptoms does not at all mean that those things are easier.
That is a discussion for another day.
The second iteration of Write to stay alive births a tradition that now endures to the fourth playlist that I am currently working on, where the last piece of the previous compilation opens the next. And so we begin were Write to stay alive 1 ended; Peter Gabriel’s The Drop. Given the opening paragraph of this entry, the relevance of Mercy Street should be clear, indeed this song was my introduction to Anne Sexton.

1. Peter Gabriel – The Drop – Up (3:03)
2. Peter Gabriel – Mercy Street – So (6:22)
3. Bat For Lashes – Bat’s Mouth – Fur And Gold (4:25)
4. Lisa Loeb – How – Firecracker (3:48)
5. Yoko Kanno – Circle line – Honey & Clover: The Movie (2:30)
6. Gustavo Santaolalla – Morning Pray – Babel (2:05)
7. Underworld – Skym – Beaucoup Fish (4:07)
8. Yoko Kanno – The Wave Of Flame – Mizu no Onna (1:39)
9. Keishi Urata, Hajime Mizoguchi – Destined Route – Texhnolyze: Man of men (4:45)
10. Yoko Kanno – The Black Sooty Dream – Mizu no Onna (2:31)
11. Bill Frisell – Under a Golden Sky – Finding Forrester (2:05)
12. Gustavo Santaolalla – Deportation/Iguazu – Babel (4:49)
13. Helios – Halving The Compass – Eingya (5:26)
14. Helios – For Years And Years – Eingya (5:33)
15. Yoko Kanno – Trifle song – Tokyo.Sora (2:01)
16. Yoshida Kiyoshi – Daylife – Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (2:09)
17. Bat For Lashes – Sad Eyes – Fur And Gold (4:16)
18. Stina Nordenstam – Little Star – Romeo & Juliet ’96 (3:39)
19. Massive Attack – Protection – Protection (7:51)
20. Takagi Masakatsu – Girls – Coieda (4:36)

1 hour, 17 minutes.

The second playlist is more focussed than the first, has a greater sense of progression, a more focussed atmosphere and is decidedly darker lacking such solemn but nevertheless buoyant tracks from Samantha James for example. Mercy Street I think sets the tone well and clearly expresses what the entire series is about – Bat’s Mouth only carries us farther along.
Worth noting are the inclusions of Yoko Kanno’s pieces from Mizu no Onna and Tokyo.Sora, both favourite films of mine, as well as selections from Gustavo Santaolalla’s Babel. Underworld’s Skym is my most favoured composition from them, and possibly more than any other piece here reflects the atmosphere and moods of my persona aside from Destined Route which immediately follows it. Keith Kenniff arrives with two of his best from Eingya, one of the very few albums that I regard as perfect, and Bat For Lashes returns with one of my most treasured pieces of music both lyrically and musically with Sad Eyes.
Circle Line, Little Star and Protection I guess are the closest to buoyant that this compilation gets; some abstract of encouragement, or self re-enforcement/comforting in the face of isolation.
Takagai Masakatsu’s Girls is the perfect finisher; part optimism, part resignation, mostly acknowledgement and acceptance.