Sing me a love song / From your heart or from the phonebook

The Editors released a new album recently, emotively titled The Weight of your Love. For me, 2008 was filled with An End has a Start and I was extremely jealous when my sister saw them at a festival. Then came the shock that was In This Light And On This Evening, because suddenly there was a lot more synth and a lot less guitars. It was like listening to a different band, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Well, here is a song I like from their newest release.

If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son

I stumbled across this tumblr, and boy has it made my day not only because it is funny but also because I've had the song looping over and over in my head since Sunday. Ok, no, not the entire song, just the chorus. And damn it is getting irritating. So this was great comic relief.

Click here for all the 99 problems, Ali Graham is on #41.

And my favourite:

I will wait

Actually, no, I won't. Mumford & Sons got it wrong. Sure, waiting for love has this chivalric, romantic connotation. Waiting for love because it was meant to be, because this is the stuff soul mates are made of, because if you don't live for the love of another, what is the point of it all. No. I apologize, songwriters, but waiting is never this honourable, nor this great, nor this worth it.  

It feels as though I spend my life waiting for others.

My sister has a very strong penchant for not being able to be on time. It is as though being late has no consequence. Normally it doesn't, except for me waiting. Which doesn't matter because my time is not worth the same, is it. 

The Silverton Post Office is another place of waiting. Their service is so atrocious that I would like to burn the place down and dance around in the ashes, giggling like maniac before the people in the white coats come to take me to some mental institution. The post office has had the same electronic announcing board, but since 1998 it is still in installation mode: FADE / SPLIT/ WIPE/ FLY LEFT/FLY RIGHT. In the meantime the post office has had some new programme installed on their antiquated computers, which I know because of the encouraging white sign, printed in Comic Sans, that tells the customers "Service will be slow" because of the new system. Again, they have had this system for 4 months now, and they are just as slow as in the past 14 years. To collect a package takes an hour. It is as though the employees do not understand that working at snail's pace when there is a queue of more than 40 people is not an option. 

In Germany, the space to pack your stuff at the grocery store is tiny. You have to move to pack all your things into the three bags your brought along, because the condescending sales attendant won't help. Not for shit. Here it is the size of a small inflatable swimming pool. Also, there is mostly someone who will do the packing for you, and if it takes a while, well, all the better. 

I wait for things to download. I wait for Japan to tell me they want me. I wait for 2013. I wait for my HD to be replaced. I wait for the video on YouTube to load. I wait to pee. I wait for the exciting part of my book to start. I wait for you to leave. I wait for you to come back. I wait for Cape Town. I wait for you to reply. I wait for the students to finish writing. I wait for the elevator. I wait for the next song. I wait for the cake to rise. I wait for the doctor to put patches on my back. I wait for those patches to show what I am allergic to. I wait for the alarm to ring. I wait to fall asleep. I wait for when you have time. I wait for you.

                     I wait in limbo, because I don't know if Heaven or Hell would be preferable. 

Gee my jou lyf, jou hart en jou siel

So ja. Ek luister nie juis na Afrikaanse musiek nie.  Dalk 'n bietjie Heuwels as my playlist op skommel (ha ha) is of Chris Chameleon se Ek herhaal jou album waar hy Ingrid Jonker se gedigte sing. Ek onthou nog, dit moes 2009 gewees het, toe ons Oppikoppi toe is en Chris by die boonste bar begin sing het. Net hy met 'n kitaar op 'n kroeg-stoel en 'n klein groepie mense wat na hom geluister het. The Narrow het onder op een van die Maine of Myn of Mayne verhoe gespeel so die meeste mense was onder besig om na Lonely Lonely lyf te skud. Die vorige keer wat ek hom gesien het was jare tevore ook by Koppi toe ek vir die eerste keer Boo gesien het. Ek dog dis 'n absoluut wonderlike freakshow. My vriendin en ek het so die musiek geniet dat die bankie waarop ons balans gehou het gebreek het. Gelukkig was daar 'n stywe crowd wat ons gevang het.

So van lyf-skud gepraat, 'n paar dae gelede luister ek toe nou maar na Jacaranda FM, so bietjie teen my sin want al die ander radiostasies het nie ontvang nie. Een of ander ou het toe heel lekker in Afrikaans gesing, tot ek hoor hy sing "gee my jou lyf, jou hart en jou siel". Klink 'n bietjie soos 'n seks-sekte vir my. Maar ek is bly hulle prioriteite is reg, 'n mens se voorkoms is natuurlik op plek een. "Gee my jou siel" sou dalk ook effens te satanisties wees, ek sien Voldemort en die Death Eaters voor my wat jou siel uit jou suig. Soos 'n menslike suigstokkie. Dalk nie die regte ding om op 'n Sondagoggend op pad kerk toe te luister nie.

Eerlik gesê, ek weet amper niks van Afrikaanse musiek af nie. Rooi rok bokkies, kapteine wat seile span en Liefling is hoe ver ek kan saamsing as dit by traditionele, Huisgenoot-hits kom.

Ek weet dié is nou nie Chris self se lirieke nie, maar ek sal enige dag "klimaat van jou lyf/o meidjie dousag/maar jou oe vlieg wyd/oor die nimmermeerdag" bo "gee my jou lyf" kies.




As julle belang stel, die sanger van Lyf is Albert de Wet, julle kan hier kyk na 'n paar videos wat hulle geneem het gedurend die Jakaranda Friday Live sessie.