This is how you listen

It's not about what each song means, but what it makes you feel. It's how you listen.

[mxsiclyrics]

Arctic Monkeys - Why’d you only call me when you’re high ?

[glassdollz]

“i wish i wrote a different song no ones ever heard. I wish my mom would just admit she’s sick of every word. Overplayed, overstayed, it was a smash hit. Its funny how overplayed songs sound like crap. I was told true fans don’t like this song, but I hope they’ll sing along, I hope they’ll sing along.”

[howyoulisten]

< a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/4UJIlTw7mvaLdTT45jmglr">You Instead (Acoustic) - The Make (2011)

Lying there on the midnight sand He said he's give her the sky if she held his hand She counted every star in the sky and said I, I don’t want that I want you instead

[howyoulisten]

A Wish - Gregory and the Hawk

Ignoring me the morning after isn’t enough And I swear I’m gonna cry I’m sick of trying to be tough

[howyoulisten]

MakeDamnSure - Taking Back Sunday (2006)

A long night spent with your most obvious weaknesses You start shaking at the thought You are everything I want Because you are everything I'm not

[howyoulisten]

I Am A Rock - Simon & Garfunkel (1966)

I am shielded in my armor, Hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.

[howyoulisten]

new sheets, the white flag of a Saturday night

fun., Sight of the Sun (2013)

Actually one of the best metaphors I’ve ever met.

(You know I try not to speak superlatives/but it’s impossible to you)

[lifeinpoetry]

‘Do you fall in love often?’ Yes often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all.

Jeanette Winterson, from Gut Symmetries (via lifeinpoetry)

With a song, a broken voice, the perfect line, with just the right stroke on just the wrong chord.

[turnon]

[sosoftpony]

[howyoulisten]

For moments like these, listen to: Colors - Halsey

For all its talk of morning sunlight, the song feels like dusk just as the sun’s disappeared. Again, this deserves its own How You Listen, but hey, if you ever find yourself staring at a lilac sky rapidly darkening into purple with a bed of creepily fast-growing flowers bursting into bloom at your feet, you know what song you should be playing.

And while we’re here, do you mind answering something for me: why are we constantly captivated and fascinated with beautiful and broken things?

You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece And now you're tearing through the pages and the ink

[howyoulisten]

My name's 'Blurryface' and I care what you think.

Twenty One Pilots, Stressed Out (2015)

Pretty much the moment you know you’re really going to like this song.

[w0ahcam]

[howyoulisten]

For moments like these, listen to: All My Friends - Snakehips

Let’s be honest, this song deserves its own How You Listen, but I can’t get this image out of my head: the city lights pulsing in and out of focus, everything moving except for you. After that, there’s really no choice but to open with the vultures kissing the cannibals. 

Do you get lonely? Sure I get lonely some nights When the angels on my shoulder Slump my head ... You didn't call me, call me, call me, call me I'm crawling, crawling, crawling back to you

[psychopass]

[howyoulisten]

For moments like these, listen to: I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix) - Mike Posner

Best part:

I'm just a singer who already blew his shot I get along with old timers Cause my name's a reminder of a pop song people forgot And I can't keep a girl, no Cause as soon as the sun comes up I cut em all loose and work's my excuse But the truth is I can't open up

[howyoulisten]

This is how you listen to: ILYSB by LANY

ILYSB - LANY (2015)

It’s not exactly sunset, but we’re getting there. The weather’s just this side of cool enough to put a jacket on and the sun has finally relented for the afternoon, so you thank the clouds and the wall you’re leaning against for the shade and small mercies. 

Your ice-cold lemonade hits a little too sweet; you know you’re going to be leaving it half-full, lukewarm, in the plastic with no more condensation an hour or so later. It’s just a prop anyway: something you take and fiddle around with to give your hands something to do, keep them occupied, while you figure out what else to do with the rest of your body.

The song begs a sunset, so you pray you’ll stay here until then. Mad cool in all my clothes/mad warm when you get close to me. The song suggests you go inside at some point, and you know you will. Slow dance these summer nights/Our disco ball’s my kitchen light. Skin meets skin as the claps sneak in; we all know where this is going. After he says you need to know I’m hella obsessed with your face, I don’t think you really need any further convincing.

[howyoulisten]

[howyoulisten]

Diapsalmata

What is a poet? An unhappy man who conceals profound anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so fashioned  that when sighs and groans pass over them they sound like beautiful music. His fate resembles that of the unhappy men who were slowly roasted by a gentle fire in the tyrant Phalaris' bull—their shrieks could not reach his ear to terrify him, to him they sounded like sweet music. And people flock about the poet and say to him: do sing again; Which means, would that new sufferings tormented your soul, and: would that your lips stayed fashioned as before, for your cries would only terrify us, but your music is delightful. And the critics join them, saying: well done, thus must it be according to the laws of aesthetics. Why, to be sure, a critic resembles a poet as one pea another, the only difference being that he has no anguish in his heart and no music on his lips. Behold, therefore would I rather be a swineherd on Amager, and be understood by the swine than a poet, and misunderstood by men.

Søren Kierkegaard

Either/Or

Source: http://www.ccel.org/k/kierkegaard/selections/diapsalmata.htm