A few months back, Michelle, who teaches art at StART, threw this question out, “What are your most played songs on iTunes?” I thought it an interesting question, a little private, for I felt that list served as a fingerprint of one’s character. Shyly, I admitted, Love The Way You Lie. 618 times.

A bit of a psycho… I know, seeing that my list was only a year old, and that song, much younger.

Prior to this, I’d always been on a Mac, or else my iTunes would have had a lot more Natalie Merchant on it. Oddly, Oliver, from the time he was one, had taken to her music as well, and would only listen to the limited edition anthology I had purchased directly from Natalie years ago.

Aside from the choice of music in my Top 25, the numbers are quite telling. I think you’d be able to ascertain from the frequency of my top songs that I’m a bit of an extremist, that when I get into something, I go off the wall with it. There also was a time when I had listened to Love Reign Over Me all day, for weeks on end. That I believe has not been recorded.

From the list you’ll notice that I have more current songs than I do old ones. More of a forward thinking person? Perhaps?

Tryad is a pop music project, one where music is collaboratively composed on the internet. I used a piece of theirs, Beauty, in the first commercial I ever art directed. That song has been stuck in my head for 3 days now, and is set on loop on my iPod.

Beauty carries a certain elegance, a steady poise, that I find very soothing. And it has helped restore some calm in this turbulent period.

Beauty is one of the rare songs I’ve chanced into where the lyrics can’t quite stand alone beyond the realm of the song. When spoken rather than performed, the words take on a different manifestation, conveys a different meaning. When read on the page, the lyrics comes across as a poem of undying love, but when sung, you kinda sense a patient longing that is haunting, almost painful…

There are bits of the song that are beyond my grasps. Actually, the song’s overall message still escapes me. I would love to meet its creator to ask him or her of its true meaning.

Of this I’m fairly certain. That in its essence, you will find beauty, and a certain dignity…

>>Listen to the song

Beauty
horizon swallowed you by
and i was no longer home
a sip, a sin, and a sigh
and we slow danced alone

you smiled somewhere
and our lives changed
i found i could share
the things i never could say

someday
you will find me
and i’ll follow you
endless

together we’ll be
green light across the blue
don’t run
though i’d run anyway
for this love of ours

at peace
shining silver or grey
i’ll join you in the stars

i will find you
ton corps cache
metéore illumine

i will find you