Shuffle Synchronicities: Volume 1 - #77
"I Want a House" by (Mr.) Twin Sister - 03/20/21
"I Want a House" by (Mr.) Twin Sister
This song is from the summer of chillwave of 2009, which soundtracked my soon-to-be-ex-wife and me falling in love.
The microgenre is characterized by a faded or dreamy retro-pop sound, escapist lyrics (frequent topics include the beach or summer), psychedelic or lo-fi aesthetics, mellow vocals, low-to-moderate tempos, effects processing (especially reverb), and vintage synthesizers.
I remember many drives on the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu that summer with the windows all the way down, the sun shining through the sunroof, the sea air filtering in, the conversation sparkling, a one or two beer buzz, the music caressing, and the good vibes flowing.
Even though some music critics were quite dismissive of it:
~“Chillwave strikes me as hugely middle-class music...whereas punk reacted with anger and a desire for change, chillwave was the sound of escapism and resignation.”
~“The genre's practitioners share a kind of fond nostalgia for some vague, idealized childhood. Its posture is a sonic shoulder shrug, a languorous, musical 'whatevs'."
To me, it felt like a blissed-out response to a summer of falling in love.
We loved the sounds of that summer so much we even made a playlist of our favorites from that time to soundtrack guests’ arrival at our wedding.
I also happened to notice that while I was writing the post today, the founder of Pitchfork played a new (Mr.) Twin Sister song:
So the microgenre survives!
I was woken up this morning by a maintenance man who came by to check out the old refrigerator and air conditioner in my apartment, which appeared to have broken.
After he fixed the AC and promised to return with a new fridge and left, I couldn't help but think for just the briefest of moments how much I was alone.
Then I shuffled to this song.
I want a house
Built of old wood
You can paint it any color you like
Just so long as I can live with you
There’s something about that line, “You can paint it any color you like, Just so long as I can live with you’ that resonates.
My soon-to-be-ex-wife and I were planning on buying a house before we separated, and we would have finally had enough money in the year we split to do it here in LA.
Even in the summer of 2009, we talked about getting a house in the Silver Lake/Los Feliz area, but prices kept going up (middle-class problems).
In 2020, between the down payment from my inheritance from my grandmother/dead and her high salary for her job(s) for the mortgage, it would’ve finally worked.
But it was not to be.
I want a house
Built of old wood
You can paint it any color you like
Just so long as I can live with you
I remember when my soon-to-be-ex-wife and I went home for my dad’s funeral, I found a book of photography I had given him for his birthday that November of 2018 that he was reading in the living room.
The book was the 100 most influential photos of all time.
And had images of celebrities like Babe Ruth and wars like Vietnam and everything in between.
The book had a bookmark in it.
The bookmark was on a photograph of a house in Los Angeles in a modernist style.
I remember wondering if part of him, the part that believed suicide wouldn’t make him a burden on my mother and our family, did part of that part of him also think that by killing himself he would allow me and my soon-to-be-ex-wife to own a home in LA?
I want a house
Built of old wood
You can paint it any color you like
Just so long as I can live with you
Now I don’t want a house anymore really.
But if I could live with her, I might still.
Okay, that’s the seventy-seventh Shuffle Synchronicities.