Sometimes the more you wonder why....the worse it seems to get

You know how it is.

It's not the right thing to feel but it somehow happens to the best of us.

Yes, I am talking about your favourite secret band/singer.

This seemingly unpopular, under-rated but oh-so-talented band/singer who has captured your imagination and every song from them just goes down well with you. And the best thing is, your friends don't know about it.

But this band/singer that you "discovered" soon gets good and gets uncovered by all the listeners of Perfect 10 pop-ish radio stations.

Bah!

Suddenly because the object of your undivided attention, solely because it has to be shared, becomes lousy. A sell-out.

For me, Jeff Buckley was one. So was Massive Attack, Portishead, Coldplay and a few others. Snow Patrol being a recent example. But I wasn't aware of them from the start. Not until Final Straw and the excellent song called Run. Well, not exactly adored by Perfect 10 pop-ish radio stations' listeners but they just sort of cross over from the "underdogs" into the "winners" side of things.

Until now I still have Rufus Wainwright and Duncan Sheik.

I don't know how long more these two will remain so painfully under-rated and unappreciated. That doesn't matter. The important lesson here is this: The quality of a band/singer and in fact, just about everything, does not diminish just because it is popular. The converse is true. Popular stuff may not be bad as well. But if you suffer from some delusions or lack self-esteem and reckon that your identity is formed by your lack of common taste, well....you can go on liking only the unknown, unpopular and under-rated.

Actually, I shouldn't have rumbled on so much. I just wanted to share the first Duncan Sheik song I heard. It was the title track from his self-titled debut album. The song is titled "She Runs Away". Duncan Sheik just released a new album. I think I will buy it.

Anyway, when I first heard it at the "trying area" in Music Power House (the defunct main branch at Stamford), the radio-friendliness was right in my face. I thought radio stations everywhere will play this track. And when he sings the second verse, everything in the world stops. Well, I'm exaggerating (lousy spelling, how the fuck do you spell exagerrate?). I was caught by the last line in the 2nd verse:

Sometimes the more you wonder why, the worse it seems to get

She Runs Away

You may not see the end of it
But luckily she comes around
It isn't what she talks about
It's just the way she is

(..and she says)
Ooh darlin' don't you know
The darkness comes and the darkness goes
(...and she says)
Ooh babe why don't you let it go?
Happiness ain't never how you think it should be so

I mystified the simple life
I covered up with consciousness
I saw myself and broke it down
'Til nothing more was left
She saw the symptoms right away
And spoke to me in poetry
"Sometimes the more you wonder why
The worse it seems to get"

(...and she says)
Ooh darlin don't you know
The darkness comes and the darkness goes
(...and she says)
Ooh babe why don't you let it go?
Happiness ain't never how you think it should be so
But she runs away
She runs away....

And then you know there comes a time
You need her more than anything
You may believe yours are the wounds
That only she can heal
Then everything will turn around
And she becomes so serious
What she choose to offer you
Was all that you could have

(...and she says)
Ooh darlin don't you know
The darkness comes and the darkness goes
(...and she says)
Ooh babe why don't you let it go?
Happiness ain't never how you think it should be so
But she runs away
She runs away...

Duncan Sheik