That's the thing about love. It acts as a fickle agent in my life. One that for the longest time hasn't found a way to quite correspond with my own convoluted way of dealing with things. Blame it on the gemini. Blame it on the artist. Either way, I've learned that music is the perfect muse for someone like me, who yearns for the beautiful disastrous. Songs capture emotions into commitment-free short snippets, yet the good ones stay with you for a lifetime. They remain through your wavering preferences, and even if you abandon them for years on end, they will sound exactly the same as they did for you when you last left them. At the same time, a song that has been played hundreds of times will still find ways to surprise you, just like the perfect lover. There's always that snare, guitar solo, punchline, that you never noticed before. Once you notice it, it becomes the highlight of the song, the reason you love it, even if you already loved it dearly before. In an ideal relationship, the ever-changing reasons for being in love hardly matter, as long as it's still love.

In December while all the magazines, websites, blogs, and stuff were listing the best songs of 2007, I wanted to make a list of the songs I fell in love with throughout the year, but I couldn't do it yet. Because that's the way love is...it tends to sneak up on you. What if I fell in love with a song on December 31?

Four days later, this is my list (well, at least part of it for now). Those of you who've been with me for the ride might recognize some of these. Some of them I'm still in my honeymoon period with. I can't stop listening to them. I go to sleep fantasizing of what it must've been like to be in a smoky Detroit studio in the 60's, tapping away at keyboards and dealing with microphone feedback. Some of the songs, I don't feel as much anymore, yet the memory of that love remains strong. It'll come back around, it always does.

Parliament - P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up) Perhaps my greatest frustration throughout 2007 was my intense yearning to create music, with seemingly no means of doing it. When I first started doing poetry, most of my favorite spoken word artists were just beginning to transition out of it, into the realms of music. Just getting into it, I felt a bit abandoned. This artform that I was swooning over was apparently no longer doing it for all of my heroes. This year I felt it more than ever. If it was ever my time to jump overboard, 2007 would've been the year. I wanted to make the audience move, and dance, and shout lyrics back--and reciting poetry a cappella in front of a mic stand wasn't cutting it for me anymore. In October I was on my way to pick up the rest of iLL-Lit for our Southern Cali tour, and I stopped by Amoeba Records in Berkeley on a whim. I decided that this weekend, I was going to get into George Clinton and Minnie Riperton (more on that later). I picked up two Parliament albums; The Motor Booty Affair and Mothership Connection. Leaving our hotel in Merced, I popped Mothership Connection into the stereo, and on our way to Santa Barbara, and that first track changed our lives. Clinton is a genius. And all along, I was picking my brain for a way to make spoken word work on a track, but in a way that was danceable, fun, innovative, and not overly preachy. Whenever I told people about my mission, I arrogantly explained it as "something that hasn't been done before." Wrong was I. Clinton is a genius. Need proof of the influence he's had on me since then? Check out iLL-Literacy's new intro about 1:30 into this. Blog down memory lane: 07.04.07: wannabe a music man

Mark Ronson - Oh My God (Ft. Lily Allen) So for real, I've been rooting for Amy Winehouse since I copped her first album wayyyyyyy back in 03. And I know it's perhaps a bit discriminatory, but I had to join the bandwagon and go on a comparison spree with fellow Brit pop sensation Lily Allen (though they are really of two separate genres, have totally different types of music, and are essentially very different from each other), and as much as I fought it, Lily Allen takes the cake in 08. My first memory of Lily Allen is me standing in front of the new releases rack at Best Buy, on the phone with my friend Helene. A: So I'm really digging the cover of this CD by this girl Lily Allen. Should I get it? H: Ehhhhh she's okay. A few months later I found myself on a plane to London, specifically on a mission to be drinking whatever water Lily, Amy, Mark Ronson, the Arctic Monkeys, Dizzy Razcal, and all the other artists that I was majorly digging that spring were drinking. Ironically, the person who sent me this song: Helene. Blog down memory lane: 06.17.07: lilyyyyyyyyyyyyyy (allen show in brooklyn)

Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (Paste Black Remix) 2006 was my year of trippy spaced out electronica muzik. 2007 was the year for that music, except hella spazzed out. Probably also fueling my eventual trip to Europe was all those crazy discotequeish-have-a-seizure songs coming out of France. I really resisted this music for awhile actually, being that I couldn't imagine myself listening to it without wearing a mesh muscle shirt and a pink faux hawk, but I finally figured out how to pump it while still staying thug. Plus, the video for this song kicks ass.

UGK - International Players Anthem (Ft. Outkast) Um, besides the fact that Andre and Big Boi kill it? This was my favorite song to introduce to people all throughout the spring. I specifically remember the looks on the faces of Jose and Dahlak when I first played Andre's verse. It was a mix of "whaaaaaat theeeee fuuuuuuuuuuck" and "ohhhhhhh myyyyyyy godddddd." I don't know if this is my favorite Andre verse of 07, but this along with "Walk it Out," "Throw Some D's," "Art of Storytellin' 4," "What a Job," and "30 Something" have definitely thrown homie back on as my favorite emcee. Not to dismiss the spectacularness of UGK, of course. Pimp in peace, Mr. C.

M.I.A. - Paper Planes My first memory of this: at the Bay Area fundraiser barbecue for the APIA Spoken Word Summit. Jason Bayani taking a swig from his brewskie and saying, "Ahhhhh...this song is so GREAT." Yesshh. This might be my feelgood song of the year. I still haven't decided if my favorite aspect of this song is the beginning buildup, the effect on her voice, or the gunshots. Lets just say it's one of my favorite songs of 2007. Kapish? Kapish. Kapish? Kapish.

Janis Joplin - Summertime (Ft. Jimi Hendrix) The Summer of Love was in 1967, and I happened to catch it 40 years late, but I still caught it nonetheless. Shortly before leaving for New York in June, I was at a used bookstore in Oakland and grabbed a copy of Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix. This was also around the time that Rolling Stone, the magazine that I tend to pick up at airports, was celebrating their big 40 year anniversary as well, with plenty of good hippie fun. I became incredibly obsessed with Jimi, and along the lines also got deep into Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and the Beatles. One afternoon in the Harlem apartment we were staying in, I read about how Jimi was living in Harlem and decided to fly to London with just $50 in his pocket, and it completely shifted the course of his life. Soonafter, I booked my flight to London. Did it completely shift the course of my life? Yeah. So this song isn't a Hendrix song, but he kills it in the solo of this live version. And not to bag on Winehouse again, but Janis makes Amy sound like a white girl. Blog down memory lane: 07.08.07: back in the bay: experienced 07.09.07: at the risk of morbidity 08.29.07: on the london debut

The Beatles - I Want You (She's So Heavy) 07 was the year that I finally started really understanding the Beatles. My, I've changed from my college sophomore self, who refused to listen to John Lennon because I was convinced he had an Asian fetish. Sorry 2003 Adriel, but John SHREDS. Plus it's rather comforting to know that even the Beatles could relate to the despair of love. I thought I was the only one that wants you, that wants you so ba-a-a-ad. This song was Jose's way of returning my "whaaaaaat theeeeeeee fuuuuuuuuuuck" moment. No better way to hear it than on an original vinyl print of Abbey Road. A couple of weeks ago I was driving to San Jose with Phatrick and he skipped past in the middle of the song, and I was pissed for the rest of the ride. DO NOT STOP THE SONG BEFORE IT IS FINISHED. The ending is the best part. It is the best song ending. In the world.

Kanye West - Good Morning (Intro) I must admit, I got the bootleg to Graduation hella early and have been bumping it for a good portion of the year. People are always quite intrigued that my favorite track is the first track of the album. It's this first track curse I guess, that's like "what...you didn't like the rest of the album?" I think also because the song is named "Intro." I myself used to skip the first track of albums, now they're extremely necessary to me, especially the first time I hear an album in its entirety. But all of that doesn't quite pertain to Graduation because in the bootleg it was towards the end of the album, giving it a similar irony as "Good Morning" in Reflection Eternal's Train of Thought(which is my favorite track from that album). I've always been a pretty unapologetic Kanye fan, throughout his ups and downs. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that I was living in Chicago the summer before College Dropout was released. I had devoured all the mixtapes...Get Well Soon, Kon the Louis Vuitton Don, High School Dropout...yeah. Jockin. Graduation got me through a lot of my trip in England. Over there, Kanye, Jay-Z, and Rihanna are pretty much the only American celebrities that the tabloids don't crazy bash on. Memories of "Good Morning" while sitting in a sunny hostel lounge in London. Gotta Love It. Blog Down Memory Lane: 01.19.07: self versus self verses

to be continued...gonna go watch juno. again.