Olav Ehala is an Estonian singer/songwriter/musical genius. He has written some of the most beautiful songs in the history of Estonian music. In my opinion. But I know there are those who share my love for his beautiful songs.

He has a very unique (and, consequently, widely mimicked) style. His solutions to musical phrases are unexpected but really really beautiful.

He has written a lot of songs for old Estonian movies and the Mermaid Song is from one, too. It’s from 1984 Karoliine Hõbelõng (Caroline Silveryarn, if you will, although that sounds so totally alien for me).

I tried translating the lyrics, but they sound so much more luring and enchanting in the original. (The video is bs, but that’s not important anyway.)

On land a lot of exciting things are frowned upon,
life on land is stiff and boring!
Have you ever been enchanted by the water

and seen how scales and fins glisten here?

Do you have any idea of the wonders of the sea?
Do you know that a moment is the same as a month?
Those on land only care about money and names
but in the water different things matter

Power and debt are weightless in water
no difference in what is behind or to come
Feel the wings growing on your back
cool and mellow in the flowing water…
cool and mellow in the flowing water…

You realize that tenderness on land is not enough
grasp at the charm of the flowing water
come closer to the water, closer yet, closer
little more to go from land to water
little more to go from land to water

Watched Cry Baby again and this song just got stuck in my head. I can’t escape it. I am constantly humming/singing/annoying the hell out of Al.

I think Susanna’s version of this Joy Division song has more emotions. Sometimes the covers are better than the originals (take Hanne Hukkelberg’s version of the Pixies’ Break My Body for example) and I think this is true in this case as well.

… is hot. As hell. Although he is old enough to have seen the dinosaurs, he is still badass and ripped. And he makes awesome music. Listening to him right now with cheap wine on the side. Perfect combo in my book.

This song… wow. It took me to some whole other place, truly. It brings out a bittersweet quality hidden in me. The feeling that sometimes makes you want to be a bit sad, because it’s a feeling you haven’t felt for some time, but once you do remember it you kind of let it take over and drown you. I’m not sure if I’m making sense. I kind of got lost.

I love the first four lines of the lyrics the most:

What’s it like when you die?
Do you live on in memories?
If you can, I wanna try
I didn’t get nothing done in this life

I just remembered this song. There is something so sincere and forceful about it that every time I hear it it’s like getting a bitch-slap from truth. And the video (that I just now saw for the first time) adds to the feeling that emerges with this song.

Longing. Yes, that’s it. Passionate longing.

And brokenness.

I’m pretending to be a good fisherman’s woman
Just like Anna Ingunn’s mom
The gladiator of all fisherman’s wives
Makes it a lot easier thinking of you
On the sea where you have to be a month at a time
Working hard in the day
Your hands cracking from the cold and the salt
In the night when you go to bed
You try to sleep by listening to the boat breathing
The boat breathing
And the only thing
The only thing you can think of is me
Waiting for you by the window
With the brightest red lipstick on my lips
Just like Anna waits for her man
How will I learn
I’ll wait

“Music is worthless unless it can

make a complete stranger

break down and cry”

After all these years, I still love this song.

Kinda lose your sense of time
‘Cause the days don’t matter no more
All the feelings that you hide
Gonna tear you up inside
You hope she knows you tried
Follows you around all day
And you wake up soaking wet
‘Cause between this world and eternity
There is a face you hope to see

***
You know where you’ve sent her
You sure know where you are
You’re trying to ease off
But you know you won’t get far
And now she’s up there
Sings like an angel
But you can’t hear those words
And now she’s up there
Sings like an angel
Unforgivable Sinner

You’ve been walking around in tears
No answers are there to get
You won’t ever be the same
Someone cries and you’re to blame
Struggling with a fight inside
Sorrow you’ll defeat
The picture you see it won’t disappear
Not unpleasant dreams or her voice you hear

***

Maybe one time lost
But now you’re found
Stand right up before
You hit the ground
Maybe one time lost
But now you’re found
Stand right up before
You hit the ground – hit the ground

***

The cold autumn weather, with menace falling from the sky and other things not nice, really sets the mood on crappy-level. However, there is a cure. Well… for me, at least.

And that would be late-night mini road trips with Eva.

Our road trips started with us getting licenses. Eva had her mom’s car and everything was settled. At first, these trips were what we called ‘field parties’. We (usually 4 people) would drive on some muddy road leading god knows where at nighttime, find ourselves a nice field, stop and dance to good music. We were all alternative artsy people with our “different” music preferences when we started out. These trips really got us all out of our artsy comfort zones and into the whole ‘love for the beat’ thing.

It was no ordinary disco-dancing that took place on those fields. This was Animal Planet. We were the embodiment of natural ecstasy, oblivious to everything but our inner animal. Man, it was fun.

Now it has quieted down. The road trip is a trip on another level. It’s not about wildness but mellowing out.

A few nights ago Eva and I hit the road again. We drove this way, that way, back again – anywhere we damn well pleased and nowhere in particular. It’s so relaxing. No conversation is actually needed, music plays its own part. After 5 hours of driving nowhere, in complete darkness, on remote roads, with music providing a state of Nirvana… it’s all good. It’s like having eaten a bowl of happy-stew.

Just imagine this

and this

and nothing else for hours.

It’s Heaven.

Pipilotti is an artist from Switzerland. I looked at her other works and I did not get it. But I like this song.

I first heard it when (kind of) working in the infamous Lai 10 secondhand shop in Old Town. There was always something going on there. But I was so shy I never took the chance to get to know all those people who were there. I worked there on some Saturdays and Sundays. It was always fun.

It was Lee who played me this song and for about 5 years now I had not heard it. I had forgotten it. For some reason I remembered it last week and since then have listened to it too many times.