My repost from yesterday mentioned this mostly unknown song from 90s trio Semisonic*. They had a hit with “Closing Time,” but really never caught fire commercially. I liked “Closing Time” enough to invest ten bucks in the album. There were a couple other songs I also enjoyed, but none rang out to me like “Singing in my Sleep.”
I’m not really sure why I homed in on this song the way I did. Except maybe that I remember making mix tapes–for friends, for crushes, for teachers, for anyone I wanted to convert to my way of musical thinking. I loved these sounds so much that I wanted share them with everyone. (My god. It just dawned on me that my blog is just one really long mix tape.) Mix tapes were an act of love. They were a way to bare your soul without the risk of actually saying what you were feeling (probably the reason I liked them so much). It was a chance to show someone your deepest desires and fears, your dreams and wishes. “Singing in my Sleep” captures that yearning to be heard so perfectly. There’s something impossibly romantic about this song, something impossibly sweet and innocent. It’s kind of wonderful to hear.
*Although listening now, “Come Anytime” isn’t really referenced in the lyrics. The line is “come around from another time” and that made me think of the Hoodoo Gurus song. Huh. See, it is possible to read anything you want into music.
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