A January Night

Here is a song about a January night, just like the one we are experiencing right now.

Cat Power songs are so pretty and sad. Her songs either remind me of the dead of Winter where there is frost covering all the bare tree branches, or the middle of a muggy summer night with the windows open. Cat Power songs remind me of these parts of the year because her voice is so sad and lonesome in a wistful, nostalgic way...just like frosty winters or muggy summer eves.

I love this song. I like the part where she talks about being someone different. The song is almost monotone until she gets to the part where she imagines being someone different. Then her voice escalates with emotion. It goes from sad monotone to full of emotion, the sadness of  thousand little heart breaks. The lyrics are simple "I could stay here/ Become someone different/  I could stay here/ Become someone better" but they become more meaningful with the depth in her voice. It is like she is desperately trying to convince herself that she can become someone different, and she desperately wants to, but she doesn't fully believe she can be anyone except herself.

I got this album (Moon Pix) in high school. At the time I was living in a small town and didn't visit cities very often. This song always made me want to visit cities because she says " It's so hard to go in the city/ 'Cause you want to say hello to everybody/ It's so hard to go into the city/ 'Cause you want to say hey I love you to everybody."  This made me want to go visit the city where I could people watch and fall in love with everyone I saw. Sometimes now that I live in the city I like to imagine going up to everyone and saying "hello!"

When she sings about a January night, I thought for the longest time she was singing about January ninth. I liked the specificity of it. It wasn't just any day, it was January ninth. I thought something important must have happened on January 9th. It is funny how mishearing a lyric can really change the way we perceive a song. 

Something else that is sad and nostalgic and beautiful all at the same time is watching sunsets from the passenger seat of a car. Here are the last pictures I took at the end of some trip I went on. I was on my way home and the sun was setting. Summer was almost over.