If only Seanan McGuire would come back to the east coast (since I missed her recent visit due to familial obligations), my world would be a beautiful place.

Of course, Seanan is having some awful back issues right now, and I hope she gets better quickly in a minimally-invasive sort of way, not because of my eastern location, but because back pain sucks in a way that should not be allowed, and she seems to have been hit with some pretty wicked suckage.

Oh, look.  If I had a point, I would have left it somewhere back there.

Friday fangirl squeee!

Well, OK, it got here yesterday, but the postman left it in the door and didn’t ring the bell, so I didn’t see it until I left the house this morning.

Here’s my fan-girl, squeeing, play-by-play account:

1. Follow Me Down
“I’ll be the May Queen, you’ll bring on the frost”
Excellent start to the album – I love the Celtic influence and the fluidity of the song. It makes me want to be walking in the woods barefoot.

2. Paper Moon
“Some stars fall home, and this one still could.”
I’m not at all familiar with Martin’s Passage, but this song makes me want to learn. I’m only on my second pass through this album, and this song is already stuck in my head.

3. This Is My Town
“Little lies and little choices; all of it’s a game.”
This was one one of my favorite songs on Seanan’s live album, Pretty Little Dead Girl, and I love it just as much here. Smooth, beautiful, and mesmerizing.

4.Dorothy
“Dragons lurk, and witches lie.”
This is my second-favorite song on the album. Not only is it a fabulous song, but I can see it adapted for the stage in a Wicked-esque retelling of Dorothy’s story. Dark and a little bit evil, but with a catchy brightness. Full of win and awesome.

5. River Lies
“I have no time left for cold River lies.”
This was another one of my favorites from PLDG. It’s even more magical here, and completely heartbreaking.

6. Four Color Love
“And you can keep the mask on if it helps you sleep at night”
Equal parts noir, sex, and geek, which equals perfection in my world. Egads, I wish I had pipes like that.

7. In This Sea
“The cost that every man must pay who comes to love the sea”
So very sad and beautiful – the raw emotion of the song comes through brilliantly in the harmonies.

8. Sycamore Tree
“There’s a sort of lunacy that teenage girls fall victim to”
This song is great for singing along at the top of your lungs while driving down a country road on a summer day with the windows down.

9. Take Advantage of Me
“It’s a little slice of chaos”
Seanan in a corset, hot-pants, top hat and cane dancing around a chair. Well, not really, but that’s where my brain goes with this song, in a really, really good way. I *love* both the guitar solo and the wailing that Michelle does in the background. One of my favorite songs on the album – even without the corset.

10. Country Song
“And baby…you’re dead.”
This is my least-favorite song on the album. Seanan’s voice loses some of its magical quality for me when pared with the twang of a banjo. But, hey – it has zombies!

11. Downhome Aphrodite
“I need to touch a holy place.”
I heart this song so badly that it hurts. It makes me want to sit in a dark smoky room and nurse a glass of scotch.

12. Evil Laugh
“Ha ha MUNCH MUNCH DIE.”
This will soon find its way onto the USB drive in my truck between JoCo’s Skullcrusher Mountain and RE: Your Brains, where it will remain in constant rotation.

13. Earthquake Weather
“The Princess of Storms is having a ball tonight.”
This song reminds me of my first impression of PLDG – the lyrics and Seanan’s voice sucking me in and holding me mystically captive. It feels a little bit wicked in a 1980’s underground witchcraft sort of way.

14. Still Catch the Tide
“I never thought that I could hold you forever”
This is the only song on the album that Seanan didn’t write, but it was made for her to sing. It is, hands down, my favorite song on the album – the voice, the notes, the harmony, and the emotion of the lyrics come together so well, I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes by the end.

15. Pretty Little Dead Girl
“It’s a very sad story, it’s a very sad tale”
It’s a bouncy fun song about dead things! It’s well-placed on the album – I needed this pick-me-up after the weight of the previous song. The live version always makes me dance in my seat, and the studio version doesn’t disappoint. The girl-band doo-wop vibe is fun and infectious – I’ll be walking around the office tomorrow singing “pretty dead girl, pretty little dead girl”.

~~~

The only bad thing I can say about this album is that I can’t listen to it while I need to be focusing on something else – the music, it eats my brain. (I have the same problem with Pretty Little Dead Girl.) The entire album is well-written, well-sung, and well-produced. The tracks are presented in perfect order, and they gel into the kind of cohesive album that is rare in today’s mp3-centric world.

In short? If you don’t have it yet, buy it. Seriously. Order it now.