Lilacs and Buttercups

I first fell in love with the song "Mushaboom" by Feist when I moved to London a year ago. It was one of the songs that I began my life in London to, and along with Belle and Sebastian's "I'm a Cuckoo" (an all time favourite), it's the one song that has remained on my "Streets of London" iPod playlist all year long (which I listen to daily when I'm on the move).

Then last month when we were in Lebanon I discovered that Feist recently released a remix album called "Open Season", with different remixes of several of her best tracks. There were four new versions of "Mushaboom" on the album, the best one being, by far, the remix done by The Postal Service (who, by the way, if you don't know them, are mind-blowingly brilliant). The remix is even better than the original track, which was already a practically perfect, albeit beautifully simple, song. The Postal Service remix has taken things to a whole new level, and the track is by far one of the best pieces of musical perfection I have come across in a very long time (aside from the Postal Service's own stuff, of course).

It's just such a nice, simple, beautiful song. It reminds you that life is not always supposed to be so complicated, so frustrating, and so ugly. The original version is quite upbeat and cheerful. It makes you want to run through fields of green like a wonderful old cliché, or dance in circles on your rooftop at dawn with your arms outstretched as you give your city a great big good morning hug (which was one of the best moments of my life back in DC). In the Postal Service remix, the original tempo of the track is actually slowed down a bit, making it more mellow. It's a tad bit more melancholic, but that just makes it even better because now it showers you with such a bitter-sweet feeling that you don't quite know what to do with yourself. And the fact that it will now always remind me of our time in Lebanon right before this hideous war started makes it all the more bitter-sweet for me.

I guess the main thing that makes me never tire of this song, both the original and the remix, is the lyrics. They just perfectly describe the way I think about life - about my future, and my life with P. The beautiful shining light at the end of the tunnel that we still have yet to reach the end of. This song is perfectly us...this is me and P laying in the grass with our heads together, fantasizing about all the little details of our upcoming life together, as we so regularly do.

Go ahead and listen along to "Mushaboom (The Postal Service Remix)" by Feist.

Helping the kids out of their coats
But wait the babies haven't been born
Unpacking the bags and setting up
And planting lilacs and buttercups

But in the meantime I've got it hard
Second floor living without a yard
It may be years until the day
My dreams will match up with my pay

Old dirt road (mushaboom mushaboom)
Knee deep snow (mushaboom mushaboom)
Watching the fire as we grow (mushaboom mushaboom)
Old

I got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house
And we'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done

How many acres how much light
Tucked in the woods and out of sight
Talk to the neighbours and tip my cap
On a little road barely on the map

Old dirt road (mushaboom mushaboom)
Knee deep snow (mushaboom mushaboom)
Watching the fire as we grow (mushaboom mushaboom)
Old

Old dirt road (mushaboom mushaboom)
Rambling rose (mushaboom mushaboom)
Watching the fire as we grow
Well I'm sold...