Sometimes I just get so tired of music.

But...

Only Skin from Joanna Newsome's "Ys," the kind of record music writers overuse metaphors to describe. I haven't read the reviews. I hadn't listened to the record. But after a month in which nothing seemed to inspire anything in me, it was this song that caused me to stop pressing shuffle and listen start to finish.

I love that it's her voice - her weird little voice rather than predictable drums and bass - that provide the stability, the shelf on which this song rests.

I presume the analog tape is at least partly responsible for the lovely timbre of her voice.

Lovely music supervision in River's Edge:

I'm Gonna Miss You, by Hank Ballard.

Especially the crossfade into Jurgen Knieper's score.

Generally, I like Christmas music. I like old, croonery, sleighbelly Christmas tunes. Not so fond of the pandering high melodrama of Mannheim Steamroller, the unnecessary showmanship of Mariah Carey or the gutter humor of receiving a beer on the first day of Christmas. (Okay, maybe that last one gets a pass).

One I like: "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" - almost too Protestant, I still like the gently surprising deviations from the major scale.

One I dislike: "Silver Bells" - for its slurring, drunk (regret it in the morning, not just a little giddy) melody.