Fire up the ghost machine and lay back in a wood-paneled room cuz we’re going for a ride through a bookish quadrant of your musical memory. Music you’re supposed to say you get because you’re supposed to get it and god help us cuz we just might not be lying and actually do get it. That’s why you smoke clove cigarettes under the covers.

Grocery Stores In The Middle Of The Night

The Twilight Sad – Call it turnips since I like the texture, but I’m not sure about the taste. A sprawling accent addled tune carries the emotion with little to lyrically earn it unless you can decipher his aural hieroglyphics.

The National – A song from the Mark Mulcahy tribute to his now-passed wife finds the Brookyln cum Cincinnati troubadors foraging for sadness and light in a Polaris tune with all the appropriateness of drinking after the wake.

Mason Jennings – If you have a list of “what’s wrong with Richmond Fontaine” it might be worthwhile to apply those reasons to Mason Jennings as well. However, I think it’s the most vicious song on the disc, a gut-punch of scrappled memories from a leftover teenage experience complete with an unrelated chorus that only seems to make more sense as the song winds through the senseless events of a life set to random play.

Yo La Tengo – There’s maybe 3-4 YLT songs on their new record, the rest will make you appreciate the delicate retro-soul touches of Belle & Sebastian. I don’t blame them for attempting to worship their heroes of a past age, but it seems like a bit of a struggle to work up the energy for something that should be organic and fun. Like conception-oriented sex I suppose (I wouldn’t know).

Soulsavers – Here it is, the Richard Hawley track from the new Soulsavers release. Especially selected for those of you (like myself) who had no interest in this superstar laden project beyond his whiskey aged vocals. And as you fatalistically expected, it doesn’t really live up to those reduced expectations.

Dappled Cities – I won’t throw stones by calling this an elegantly overproduced impenetrable chocolate fortress, instead I’ll force a compliment by saying you’ll enjoy the overindulgence. Not as fun as their previous effort yet it finds a leaden charm of its own.

Sian Alice Group – The most cohesive song on the disc plays leadoff track, though as I cycle my way through the intended running order perhaps the skeletal song 7 would have been a better pick. Too late note, we’ll take the traditional path through moody meadow.

Nocturnes – Somehow the caboose on these trains always turns out to be a song I reserved for future listens yet somehow didn’t get around to enjoying for two months. Is it guilt that got me to program this unfocused tune? Or the excuse to grab another glimpse and make an informed hot-or-not decision on the singer? For everyone’s sake I’ll say it’s the guitar – I liked the guitar.