The Soundtrack of Psychopaths

So I got the urge to listen to a song, last week. Hadn’t heard it in a long while, thought it might be nice to hear it again. Happens to people all the time. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

Except the song I wanted to hear was Birdhouse in Your Soul by They Might Be Giants.

So I cued it up via Rdio, and listened to it on my walk to the Metra on Friday. After playing it once, I listened to it again. And another time while on the platform waiting for the train. And then listened to it some more on the 15 minute ride in to Millennium Station. And then on the walk to work. And then at my desk, as I started working.

A few times, I took a step back and wondered what others might have thought of me… had they been able to hear this incessant looping of this crazy song. Once or twice is a kind of novelty, but to have it playing over and over again for 30 minutes? For an hour? For multiple hours?

I tried imagining my headphones as loudspeakers, and started to feel like a psychopath.

To change things up a bit, I looked up the music video for the song… and it’s equally bizarre. And kind of confirmed my whole “psycho soundtracking” status for looping this song. While it definitely has an 80’s aesthetic to it, the video also makes me think of something a crazy person would direct, when trying to interpret the lyrics.

Since Friday, I’ve had this song playing during my walks to/from work. And also at my computer at home, while I’m working. Because Liz works in the next room over, I tend to not blast my music. And in this case, when I’m playing something over and over and over again, I kept the volume low.

So I looped this song repeatedly while at home, but kinda quietly… in the way that a insane yet considerate person would do.

I find it so interesting that I get into these mantra-like loops with particular songs. For whatever reason, when one clicks… it just clicks. And sticks around for a while. This one though just kind of feels like it came out of the blue canary in the outlet by the light switch.

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