Songs for the Synaesthesia Issue (A Selection)
Songbirds, we’re hard at work editing & compiling the next issue of Half Mystic Journal for you. Every day we spend with the pieces in this issue, we find a new thickness of colour & sound, a new intersection between what lives in the chest & the sea. Issue IX: Synaesthesia comes out on July 28th, 2021, & features work by Sara Elkamel, KB, Bessie Flores Zaldívar, Darnell “DeeSoul” Carson, Calvin Olsen, Arya Samuelson, Jessica Poli, J.I. Kleinberg, Paola Bennet, Lucy Hannah Ryan, Caroline Grand-Clement, myself, Kirsten Shu-ying Chen, Ryan Griffith, Erin Jin Mei O’Malley, Grace Qi Song, Sunny Vuong, Trini Rogando, Evy Shen, Amy Liu, Anne Kwok, & Janelle Cordero.
Synaesthesia is a song tethered to space, shocked in the present tense, undelicious as longing & surreal in fever pitch. This is a story about touch which means hurt, hurt which means salt, salt which means movement, movement which means joy, joy which—of course & always—means music. The synaesthesia issue is here, right here. What else is there, really, to be? Preorder your copy at this link, & help a small, independent business keep growing.
While you wait for Issue IX, we’ve compiled a selection of songs that have marked this era of fluid warmth, the soundtrack to which we’ve been dreaming a bright new thing into breath. As is traditional, selection of songs for synaesthesia: the blue undressing of voice—the song-scent wafting on wind—the tongues of memory & light…
“Too Many Colors” by Twin Shadow
am I in love or just obsessed?
I didn’t stop this gorgeous mess
I play this song like half to death
and everything’s all right
“It’s All So Incredibly Loud” by Glass Animals
super silence in the quiet
eye inside the storm
water from your broken iris
fall toward the floor
everything, waiting, shaking as it drops
“1965” by Zella Day
you had me spinning in the midnight summer grass
I never had nobody touch me
like I'm glass with a moon bird kiss
“Flume” by Bon Iver
only love is all maroon
gluey feathers on a flume
sky is womb and she's the moon
“Time Will Tell” by Blood Orange
finishing 8 or 9, tell me it's the perfect time
oh, oh, and it keeps on running back
told you I'll be waiting, hiding from the rainfall
yeah, and it keeps on running back
“Sweet” by Habe, ft. Chris Mazuera
my heart, it hangs on the wall
maybe they all call today
my heart, it hangs on the wall
maybe they all call today
“Last Night” by Arooj Aftab
last night my beloved
was like the moon
so beautiful
so beautiful like the moon
even brighter than the sun
“Sweet Conversations” by Black Pumas
with my soul steady grooving, all right
keep my wheels steady spinning, just fine
if I'm lost in my darkness with my soul on the pavement
won't you speak with me, spirit?
babe, we can't let this love run dry
“Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues
nights in white satin
never reaching the end
letters I’ve written
never meaning to send
“Love Song to a Stranger” by Joan Baez
my thoughts drift into the frozen night
Frankfurt is covered with snow
and numbly they ride on an icy wind
to places they’re longing to go
“Haze” by Amber Run
like a fever it grips me, like a lover it holds
I’m scared of getting older, scared of dying alone
I’m in a blue haze, a blue haze
“Look At The Sky Right Now” by Ohio Martinez
I tried so many times to paint with dry watercolor
but if you look at the sky right now, it’s wrapped around your finger
“Heavy Storm” by First Aid Kit
she used to play that old mandolin
and the moon and the sea invited her in
I wish that I had told her by then
but she knew deep down that she only wished that time would come back
“Nonbeliever” by Lucy Dacus
you say nobody loves a city
nobody loves what can't love ‘em back
one-way ticket in your pocket
what happened to the charm of a small town?
if you find what you're looking for
be sure to send a postcard
“The Louvre” by Lorde
well, summer slipped us underneath her tongue
our days and nights are perfumed with obsession
half of my wardrobe is on your bedroom floor
use our eyes, throw our hands overboard
“Emperor’s New Clothes” by Panic! At the Disco
if it feels good, tastes good
it must be mine
heroes always get remembered
but you know legends never die
“Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers
I've hungered for your touch
a long, lonely time
and time goes by so slowly
and time can do so much
are you still mine?
“Something Wild” by Radiator Hospital
I saw your eyes, shining like two beacons in the dark night sky
they looked so wild, you looked so alive