Thoughts From A Sleep Deprived Mind

I got no sleep last night. None. Well, okay, I got like 3 hours. I woke up at 3am and that was that. I could not go back to sleep. Eventually I got up, headed to the couch, put some headphones on, listened to some music and had these thoughts:

1. Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago might be quickly becoming my most favorite album ever. It's truly an amazing piece of music. The whole thing. One big glorious piece of music. I've written about it before. It really must be experienced on headphones to hear every little part of it. The sporadic blips, the sound of his fingers hitting the wood of the guitar, the breaths of his voice, the endless layers of vocals. Really something special going on with this album.

2. Haley Bonar's Lure the Fox is a perfect companion piece to For Emma, Forever Ago. It's the girl meets boy of modern acoustically driven music. Or maybe For Emma is the companion piece to Lure the Fox. Lure the Fox did come out first...Oh, Bon Iver, I see what you did there...

3. Bon Iver's new album titled Bon Iver or Bon Iver, Bon Iver - depending on who you talk to - did not sit well with me at first. But holy crap is it wonderful. Maybe Bon Iver albums need to be experienced first via headphones in a truly sleep deprived state, seeing that For Emma didn't truly resonate with me until about hour 6 of an overseas plane ride while I tried desperately to sleep.

4. Eddie Vedder, I will always love you. Especially now that you sing ridiculously sweet love songs on the ukulele.

5. Music and songs and albums are best created in manic states. While lying in bed with my pillow crushed over my ears, eyes clenched tightly closed, I envisioned my entire next album. From the opening notes to the track order and how they will all move from one to the next. Every instrument, sound, vocal is now swimming around in my mushy sleepy brain. I heard the whole thing. Interestingly enough (for me) two songs written for the album did not make the final cut in my brain. Maybe that means they don't belong.

6. I hope it's a nice day today.