Some listening for you.

[matt_doyle]

So I decided to make a Madcap Archaeology Soundtrack Post.  It'll tell you a little more about the characters and project, if obliquely, and will present a lot of entertaining listening material.

 

MADCAP ARCHAEOLOGY SOUNDTRACK, PART I

 

INDIR

When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade by The Boy Least Likely To
I’ve always got my head in the clouds
Hoping that I could find
One of them that’s silver-lined

Indir is a pretty simple guy.  He's by far the most straightforward of the main cast.  And this song would be the theme he chose for himself. 


Your Song – Elton John.
My gift is my song, and this one's for you

You would think this would be a shipping song.  Anyway, Indir is generous, romantic, and musical.

 

Love You – Free Design
Give a little time for the child within you
Don't be afraid to be young and free

I already said he was whimsical and romantic, so at this point this is just mood music.

Raffi – Bananaphone
(This song drives me bananas!)

Now I'm just being silly.  Which is rather the point.

(Freckles) Ruroni Kenshin Opening Theme
It's heavy, the love that I would share with you,
then it dissolves like it was just a sugar cube.
Now the little pain sittin' in my heart
has shrunk in a bit, but it really doesn't hurt me now.
Those silly horoscope signs,
Guess I can't trust them after all,

Even when things are serious and grim, Indir isn't.  This song works especially well if you're familiar with the Ruroni Kenshin opening, where this cheerful music plays while dozens of guys get the crap beaten out of them,

UB40 – The Way You Do The Things You Do
The way you swept me off my feet
You know you could have been a broom
And babe you smell so sweet
You know you could have been some perfume

At the end of the day, what Indir wants is for the people he loves to see themselves and the world as positively as he does.


 

NAURIAN

City And Color – What Makes A Man
What makes a man walk away from his mind?
I think I know.  I think I might know.

Naurian doesn't discuss his past.  Indir sometimes jokes that he sprang up newborn from a Flux storm, just before he met them.

The Climb – Miley Cyrus
There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Naurian is the practical one, determined to engage a life he didn't expect on whatever terms he has to.  Actually, really, this song could have described any one of the team in different ways... but Naurian is the only one who would choose it to describe him.

China Girl – David Bowie
I could escape this feeling, with my China Girl
I feel a wreck without my, little China Girl

He's the narrator, not the girl.

BTO Overdrive – Takin' Care of Business

I've been taking care of business (it's all mine)
Taking care of business and working overtime
Work out

I already noted that he was the practical one.  And all right, so that doesn't necessarily fit with the actual song... but there's an energy and drive to the music that does.

The Beatles – Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight
Once there was a way to get back homeward

Naurian's enough of a stoic that he's never going to show the weight he's carrying, if he can help it.  Doesn't mean it isn't there.
Though, thinking about it, a couple of these songs highlight for me just how similar Naurian and Jonathy are... not that either would admit it.

 

JONATHY

Annie Lennox – Into the West
Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see
All of your fears will pass away
Safe in my arms

Like Naurian, Jonathy's a stoic, but she's also more visibly melancholy.  She's protective.  And I get feelings of loss and of... mysticism (gnosticism?) off this song that also fit.

Coheed & Cambria – The Suffering
If it was up to me
I would've never walked out
So until the sun burns out
Oh, I hope you're waiting

I'm not sure I can say it more clearly than the lyrics can.  Jonathy's also someone who's left her life behind.  She's not waiting.  She's searching.

Colbie Caillat – Realize
Take time to realize,
That I am on your side
Didn't I, Didn't I tell you.
But I can't spell it out for you,
No it's never gonna be that simple.

What it says on the tin.  Naurian is reserved and secretive, but he's essentially straightforward.  Jonathy is... not straightforward.  At all.  Ever.  Though she doesn't see it that way.
 

OK GO – Invincible
When they finally come to destroy the earth
They'll have to deal with you first and now
My money says they won't know about
The thousand Fahrenheit hot metal lights behind your eyes

I love this song, though for years I have wanted to learn to vid just to make an FLCL AMV with it.  I mean, how good a fit is that?  Anyway...

That crushing, crashing, atom-smashing, white hot thing
It's invincible

The first rule of Madcap Archaeology is do not fuck with Jonathy.  The second rule of Madcap Archaeology is Do Not Fuck With Jonathy.
 

Aha – Take On Me

But that's me stumbling away
Slowly learning that life is OK.
Say after me
It's no better to be safe than sorry

I keep being unable to summarize Jonathy any better than the excerpted lyrics already do.

Poe – Spanish Doll
Is that I miss you still
And I cannot find you here
You left me tattered and torn
Just like that Spanish doll

Which I think makes the melancholy a little more understandable. 

The Calling – Unstoppable
When I wake up without you, knowing you're not there
I'm only feeling half as good
Now I'm gonna find a way
To wrap you in my arms, you make me feel alive

Even if I can't talk about Jonathy's secrets, there's a common thread running through a lot of these lyrics:  she lost someone.  She was hurt.  She's not over it.  And she's doing something about it.

 

VESSA

Katy Perry – Hot n Cold
You're up then you're down
You're wrong when it's right
It's black and it's white
We fight, we break up
We kiss, we make up

This isn't a great fit, but I wanted to start with something that gave an indication of how bipolar Vessa can be.  She oscillates between prickly, practical, and bossy; and lazy, friendly, and enthusiastically geeky.

Under the Weather – KT Tunstall
So sorry for being so bold
When I turn out the light
You're out of sight
Although I know that I'm not alone
Feels like home

Vessa is much more comfortable in her skin and her life than Jonathy or Naurian.  (Not as comfy as Indir.  Nobody is as comfy as Indir).  That comfort is actually sort of the root of her bipolarity.  She likes this life she's built.  When she's working to keep it, she's serious and driven.  The rest of the time, she's relaxing to enjoy it.

Live and Let Die – Paul McCartney
When you were young
And your heart was an open book
You used to say, "Live and let live"
(You know you did, you know you did, you know you did)
But if this ever-changing world in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry
Say live and let die

The geeky part came first.  Life taught her to be a little more proactive about looking after herself.

Every Morning – Sugar Ray
Something's got me reeling
Stopped me from believing
Turn me around again
Said that we can do it
You know I wanna do it again

This just sounds like the relaxed side of her, to me.

Killers – All These Things That I've Done
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no

But she has been very effective in her own defense before.

Drops of Jupiter – Train
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's time to change, hey, hey

Mood music, mostly.