Unidentified: soundtrack notes
[Index post] [If you haven't downloaded the soundtrack, you can find it here.]
1. Sufjan Stevens, "All the Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands" -- If I am alive this time next year/ Will I have arrived in time to share? [...] And I am throwing all my thoughts away/ And I'm destroying every bet I've made. Reassessment, right before things start over.
2. The Mountain Goats, "Wild Sage" -- And some days I think I'd feel better if I tried harder/ Most days I know it's not true [...] And when someone asks if I'm ok/ I don't know what to say. The day Rodney loses his memory could have started something like this.
3. Sondre Lerche, "Stupid Memory" -- Stupid memory/ Must you bring up these things?/ Stupid memory/ Can I forget all of that?/ All of that crap? If the Mountain Goats is that day for Rodney, then this track is the three weeks before it for John.
4. Andrew Bird, "Imitosis" -- He's keeping busy/ Yeah, he's bleeding stones/ With his machinations and his palindromes/ It was anything but hear the voice/ That says that we're all basically alone. First flashback. I go back and forth on who is a more disappointed person, Rodney or John, but I think it's safe to say that either way, Rodney got there first.
5. Calexico, "Si Tu Disais" -- If you said let's go/ If you said I'm sick of this place/ I would listen to you/ I wouldn't hesitate/ And whether it's for a town/ A godforsaken place/ It wouldn't bother me/ I'd be ready as if I was waiting. All the things John can't tell Rodney about L.A.
6. PJ Harvey, "You Said Something" -- How did we get here/ To this point of living/ I held my breath/ You said something/ And I'm doing nothing wrong/ Riding in your car/ The radio playing/ We sing up to the eighth floor. The day John and Rodney go to the beach, I wrote maybe twenty-five words to cover the first twelve hours. That isn't because it isn't important.
7. OK Go, "Maybe, This Time" -- Having spent your entire life quick-tongued and always right/ Hasn't being right just let you down? [...] Don't you think that possibly, this time, it's different?/ Don't you think that maybe, this time, you were wrong? Teyla doesn't quite ask John this question -- but while she knows the gist of the fight John and Rodney had, she doesn't know that in his own way, John asked Rodney this question too.
8. The Lemonheads, "Ride With Me" -- Time to get in my car/ Been so dull, tired, and tight/ Time to trust these old tires/ Time to not say goodnight [...] When you can't trust yourself/ Baby, trust someone else. Second flashback. John's first days back in L.A.
9. Regina Spektor, "Samson" -- And the history books forgot about us/ and the Bible didn't mention us/ not even once. The second flashback again, but through Rodney's eyes, because John couldn't bring the columns down.
10. The Magnetic Fields, "The Things We Did and Didn't Do" -- All the things I knew I didn't know and didn't want to know/ That you told me just to tell me later that you told me so/ Come flooding back to me now. I think this explains itself.
11. Modest Mouse, "Lives" -- Everyone's afraid of their own life/ If you could be anything you want/ I'd bet you'd be disappointed, am I right? [...] My hell comes from inside, comes from inside myself/ Why fight this? This song is everything Rodney believed about himself before, and the things he starts to learn when he goes back to Caltech.
12. Kathleen Edwards, "Good Things" -- There are some things I used to be/ Won't you find the will just to remind me?/ Because you are so safe inside my memory. The things John has lost, and the ones he doesn't think he gets to have.
13. Jeff Buckley, "Hallelujah" -- All I've ever learned from love/ Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you/ And it's not a cry that you hear at night/ It's not somebody who's seen the light/ It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah. Third flashback. This song is generally one of the lower blows you can pull on a soundtrack, but it got on there by accident and fit too well to take off.
14. Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, "Our Hell" -- Can't we stop/ When we stop/ My hands will shake/ My eyes will burn/ My throat will ache/ Watching you turn [...] There's a pattern in the system/ There's a bullet in the gun/ That's why I tried to save you/ But it can't be done. Third flashback; what the fight is for John.
15. Iron & Wine, "Upward Over the Mountain" -- So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten/ Sons can be birds taken broken up to the mountain. Third flashback. The expression on Rodney's face, right after he says, "Well, it's gotten me this far." It may not make any literal sense to someone who isn't me, but this is what's going on in his head: this kind of memory, this asking to be let go.
16. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, "I Called You Back" -- Love found us easily/ And if that's all we have, you will find we need nothing more/ And I called you back/ To a place beside me. The kiss on the balcony, that first morning after.
17. Songs: Ohia, "Goodnight Lover" -- We were free/ We were free/ We were/ Under those conditions/ Of pain that would not leave. Okay, it was all I could do not to copy and paste the lyrics in their entirety. Somewhere near the end of the first draft, I realized that this is actually two love stories; one of them ends well, and one of them doesn't. If "I Called You Back" is the anthem for the first one, this is the anthem for the second, and it's what John stays out on the balcony to say.
18. The Decemberists, "Sons & Daughters" -- Take up your arms/ Sons and daughters/ We will arise from the bunkers/ By land, by sea, by dirigible/ We'll leave our tracks untraceable now. This is what hope sounds like, when you find it after you're sure that things have fallen apart.
1. Sufjan Stevens, "All the Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands" -- If I am alive this time next year/ Will I have arrived in time to share? [...] And I am throwing all my thoughts away/ And I'm destroying every bet I've made. Reassessment, right before things start over.
2. The Mountain Goats, "Wild Sage" -- And some days I think I'd feel better if I tried harder/ Most days I know it's not true [...] And when someone asks if I'm ok/ I don't know what to say. The day Rodney loses his memory could have started something like this.
3. Sondre Lerche, "Stupid Memory" -- Stupid memory/ Must you bring up these things?/ Stupid memory/ Can I forget all of that?/ All of that crap? If the Mountain Goats is that day for Rodney, then this track is the three weeks before it for John.
4. Andrew Bird, "Imitosis" -- He's keeping busy/ Yeah, he's bleeding stones/ With his machinations and his palindromes/ It was anything but hear the voice/ That says that we're all basically alone. First flashback. I go back and forth on who is a more disappointed person, Rodney or John, but I think it's safe to say that either way, Rodney got there first.
5. Calexico, "Si Tu Disais" -- If you said let's go/ If you said I'm sick of this place/ I would listen to you/ I wouldn't hesitate/ And whether it's for a town/ A godforsaken place/ It wouldn't bother me/ I'd be ready as if I was waiting. All the things John can't tell Rodney about L.A.
6. PJ Harvey, "You Said Something" -- How did we get here/ To this point of living/ I held my breath/ You said something/ And I'm doing nothing wrong/ Riding in your car/ The radio playing/ We sing up to the eighth floor. The day John and Rodney go to the beach, I wrote maybe twenty-five words to cover the first twelve hours. That isn't because it isn't important.
7. OK Go, "Maybe, This Time" -- Having spent your entire life quick-tongued and always right/ Hasn't being right just let you down? [...] Don't you think that possibly, this time, it's different?/ Don't you think that maybe, this time, you were wrong? Teyla doesn't quite ask John this question -- but while she knows the gist of the fight John and Rodney had, she doesn't know that in his own way, John asked Rodney this question too.
8. The Lemonheads, "Ride With Me" -- Time to get in my car/ Been so dull, tired, and tight/ Time to trust these old tires/ Time to not say goodnight [...] When you can't trust yourself/ Baby, trust someone else. Second flashback. John's first days back in L.A.
9. Regina Spektor, "Samson" -- And the history books forgot about us/ and the Bible didn't mention us/ not even once. The second flashback again, but through Rodney's eyes, because John couldn't bring the columns down.
10. The Magnetic Fields, "The Things We Did and Didn't Do" -- All the things I knew I didn't know and didn't want to know/ That you told me just to tell me later that you told me so/ Come flooding back to me now. I think this explains itself.
11. Modest Mouse, "Lives" -- Everyone's afraid of their own life/ If you could be anything you want/ I'd bet you'd be disappointed, am I right? [...] My hell comes from inside, comes from inside myself/ Why fight this? This song is everything Rodney believed about himself before, and the things he starts to learn when he goes back to Caltech.
12. Kathleen Edwards, "Good Things" -- There are some things I used to be/ Won't you find the will just to remind me?/ Because you are so safe inside my memory. The things John has lost, and the ones he doesn't think he gets to have.
13. Jeff Buckley, "Hallelujah" -- All I've ever learned from love/ Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you/ And it's not a cry that you hear at night/ It's not somebody who's seen the light/ It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah. Third flashback. This song is generally one of the lower blows you can pull on a soundtrack, but it got on there by accident and fit too well to take off.
14. Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, "Our Hell" -- Can't we stop/ When we stop/ My hands will shake/ My eyes will burn/ My throat will ache/ Watching you turn [...] There's a pattern in the system/ There's a bullet in the gun/ That's why I tried to save you/ But it can't be done. Third flashback; what the fight is for John.
15. Iron & Wine, "Upward Over the Mountain" -- So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten/ Sons can be birds taken broken up to the mountain. Third flashback. The expression on Rodney's face, right after he says, "Well, it's gotten me this far." It may not make any literal sense to someone who isn't me, but this is what's going on in his head: this kind of memory, this asking to be let go.
16. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, "I Called You Back" -- Love found us easily/ And if that's all we have, you will find we need nothing more/ And I called you back/ To a place beside me. The kiss on the balcony, that first morning after.
17. Songs: Ohia, "Goodnight Lover" -- We were free/ We were free/ We were/ Under those conditions/ Of pain that would not leave. Okay, it was all I could do not to copy and paste the lyrics in their entirety. Somewhere near the end of the first draft, I realized that this is actually two love stories; one of them ends well, and one of them doesn't. If "I Called You Back" is the anthem for the first one, this is the anthem for the second, and it's what John stays out on the balcony to say.
18. The Decemberists, "Sons & Daughters" -- Take up your arms/ Sons and daughters/ We will arise from the bunkers/ By land, by sea, by dirigible/ We'll leave our tracks untraceable now. This is what hope sounds like, when you find it after you're sure that things have fallen apart.