christmas anticipation
tuesday, december 4, 2001
i was going to quote a song up here, but i couldn't pick just one. so. go read all the lyrics to maria mckee's 'life is sweet' album. heh, right. :)
it always surprises me that so few have a clue what a wonderful album "life is sweet" is. it made me buy everything maria mckee's released. unfortunately, it turned out that that cd was the best of the lot, and all the things that came before were sort of leading up to it. there hasn't been a peep from maria mckee since that cd, 1995, either, apart from one measly song on a soundtrack this fall.
she was this folksy punk country girl with an intense, strong voice, and "life is sweet" was supposed to be big, dammit--it really deserved to be. broken guitars, trailing voice, love and misery sown together in little story songs. but nope. perhaps people couldn't shake her as the howling "show me heeeeaveeeeen" chick.
i fell for her voice when i (and a large chunk of the rest of the world) bought the pulp fiction soundtrack and heard her sing "if love is a red dress." that voice--shivers, i tell you, shivers. she claimed a spot right next to tori amos, bjork and pj harvey in 1995, when i started to explore music for the first time.
and then poof--gone. now she shares little handwritten notes at her official website, promising a new record one of these days. but it's been almost 7 years--i can't even guess where she is at musically now. that last album was so out of the blue.
anyway. it's a very good album. it's very, very rare that i feel like i have this forgotten gem around that people need to know about, but really. if you like great vocals, sad, passionate lyrics and guitars, go for it. :)
me, i'm doing okay. i'm stalking a guy a little bit. shrug. it's something to do? i'm having troubles sleeping. memories are persistently popping up and won't shut up. and i'm having troubles eating. eh. i'll live. friday is the last day of classes--a few finals and zoom--i'm done for the semester. woo �� 7:00 p.m.
