Liner Notes

Soundscape #65: “It’s Easy To Be Brave From A Safe Distance” — Aesop

It’s easy to love someone from a distance. You can project all the qualities and illusions you want onto the person without having him or her fucking it up and disappointing you. I’ve lived my life from this distance, whether physical or otherwise. Sure, I have ideas and opinions I’m passionate about but without having gone all out to defend them, I can never be certain exactly how passionate I am about them. It’s easy to tell a stranger you’ve just met all your hopes and dreams, all your fears and dreads but I cannot imagine that kind of honesty with someone I love. A stranger, is bound by social decorums and civility (however imagined) and you won’t be as affected even if he/she were to judge you. You don’t know this person so why should whatever he/she says affect you? With someone you hold dear, whose opinions you value and whose words you hang on to, it’s not so simple. You don’t want to destroy whatever impossibly good opinions he/she has of you and you don’t want to be destroyed by his/her reactions as well.

Edward Hopper. Hotel Window, 1955.

I’ve lived most of my life behind thick high walls, believing the world to be evil and will hurt you the first change it gets. I’ve never said anything important to me without being sure of the reaction I’ll get. I’ve never expressed my feelings to anyone without being at least reasonably sure of being reciprocated. It’s a shit way to live but no more. I thought I was protecting myself but I realise that even if the world is evil, I’m only killing myself behind these thick high walls. How can I claim to live my life when I won’t step outside and experience all the hurt that’s part of life? How can I expect good things to happen to me if I won’t even take the chance? So, no more. I’m stepping out of the thick high walls now and going all out. If I fall hard, so be it. I’m dying inside anyways.

download

Playlist:
1. (0:00) Yo La Tengo – Can’t Seem To Make You Mine (Camp Yo La Tengo)
2. (3:26) Voxtrot - Long Haul (Raised By Wolves EP)
3. (7:32) The National - Secret Meeting (Alligator)
4. (11:18) Radiohead – Nude (In Rainbows)
5. (15:32) Beulah – My Side Of The City (Yoko)
6. (18:57) Wilco – Too Far Apart (A.M.)
7. (22:42) The Ladybug Transistor – Hangin’ On The Line (S/T)
8. (26:19) Beirut – Nantes (The Flying Cup Club)
9. (30:10) Ohbijou – The Otherside (Swift Feet For Troubling Times)
10. (34:31) Nina Nastasia & Jim White – How Will You Love Me (You Follow Me)
11. (37:52) Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism (Transatlanticism)
12. (45:50) Mogwai – 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong (Rock Action)