Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Just Living

Warning: rambling about positivity and the awesomeness of life enclosed; if you're tired of reading the same thing over and over, go read Stuff White People Like and think about me.

I'm sitting in a study room in the basement of the library at school, updating my blog from my old laptop. Flashback much? I've been working on this huge presentation that I have to make at 9:30 tonight pretty much non-stop since yesterday. Group projects are fun.

Anyways, this is the first time I've been able to get on the internet on my old computer in a few months. The man has shut down the old internet on my side of campus and I can't get access, but I figure since I'm sitting here for another hour with nothing much to do, I can at least post something I've been meaning to for about four months.

Ted Leo's 2007 album, Living With the Living, was one of my favorites of the year, however, I mentioned that the album needed a shower and a shave, so to speak. A few edits, rearrangings and additions later, I came up with Just Living, a perfect version of Living With the Living (along with the bonus Mo' Living EP), that reflected both Ted's genius pop scientist songwriting as well as the songs that he played most live. This album has been sitting on my computer, waiting to be uploaded and posted about since the beginning of the year. It was only today that everything worked out in its favor.

This week is going to be excruciating; today I have a huge presentation that's worth 25% of my final grade and I'm fairly sure I'm going to do terribly because of an incompetent group. Thursday, I have another group presentation for a different class, which I haven't even thought about, a huge history midterm and an art project due; the one saving grace is that once all of that is over, I will officially be on break. I leave campus at 7pm to go home, get a haircut, and leave the first half of my sixth semester behind. It certainly has been a difficult one.

It was a bit ironic that everything happened like this today. I met with a few group members to edit the Powerpoint presentation that we're going to have to give later and I'm planning on meeting the rest of the group in about an hour to test it all out. While I was sitting here, thinking about all the things I've missed about this laptop and all the things its seen, I saw the Ted Leo album, just asking to be posted. It made me think more and more about the past and the message of the album.

Living With the Living is really about losing. There are moments of optimism, but they're often overshadowed. Whether it be oppression of a government that doesn't care or being bested by your own demons; it's an album about losing. The version that I've created is literally about "just living;" it's about fighting to survive and winning. It's a constant reminder to never give up.

I feel as though Ted Leo's intention was never to release an album that was so heavily pessimistic, but it just turned out that way, and that's why he put out the extra EP with brighter moments. The version I've compiled is not only superior musically, but really has a sense of urgency rather than sadness; of course, there are going to be darker moments, just like with anything, but in the end, it really should be about coming home at the end of the day and being able to sleep at night.

One moment that got pushed to the b-sides was Ted's cover of "Rappaport's Testament (I Never Gave Up)." For those of you who don't know the reference, check this. Ted's version is so defiantly positive, that it serves as a great centerpiece.

One of the greatest moments comes at the end of Just Living, with the song "La Costa Brava." The first few times I heard the song, I didn't quite get it, mostly because I was trying to take it in all at once and also because it wasn't originally at the end of the album. This was meant to be the centerpiece of the album, however, I feel like the open ended optimism it leaves you with gives it the merits of any of the best album closers out there. Enclosed are some of the greatest lines I've ever heard: "Everyone needs a Sunday somedays/everyone needs to take some time away/so come on home from the frontlines, baby/you know you've done more in your time than there was supposed to have been/a little time out could turn your head around/a little time out could lift us out of this mess we're in.../everyone gets to feeling weak/but if everyone gets a week and change their pace/you travel west 'til you hit Girona/I'll travel east out of Barcelona/and I'll meet you halfway/one day and night on La Costa Brava/we'll forget the fright and remember why we wanna be brave/and that there's something to save."

I've been feeling like I've been getting beat, but now that I've uncovered this album and all the feelings it evokes, I feel as though I'm going to be able to make it through this week and my life for a little while.

I love and miss you all too much. I have next week off, so come see me or call me.

*EDIT: I forgot to renumber the tracks in iTunes. My bad.
Here's the tracklisting:

1. Nothing Much to Say
2. The Sons of Cain
3. Colleen
4. Rappaport's Testament: I Never Gave Up
5. Already Too Late?
6. Who Do You Love?
7. Some Beginner's Mind
8. Old Souls Know
9. Living With the Living
10. La Costa Brava

Just Living