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Well, I’ve bought a new car. It’s frankly ridiculous, it’s so big it has its own gravitational field. A massive old Merc. But I love it, no matter what everyone else says. It’s one of those “beyond your wildest dreams” things, I would have never have considered driving an old fart’s car like this when I was a hyper aggressive arsey mad dry drunk phase. But I sit there in double glazed splendour, tootling along at 70 (I can’t afford the petrol to go much faster) and lapping up tunes on the amazing stereo that the millionaire who bought this car in 1996 selected. There’s no iPod connection, I’m not sure whether to put one in, but for the moment it’s CD’s. And you get to listen to CD’s over and over again on big trips, as the changer is in the boot (or “trunk”, for our North American readers). The signature CD for this car appears to be Levy’s 2005 debut Rotten Love. What can I tell you about Levy, fact-fans? Not a lot. It appears to be the working name of James Levy. He used to work in a Jewish cemetery. He’s from Brooklyn. ANOTHER great musician from Brooklyn! I can’t now remember where I heard this track, but I couldn’t find the mp3 to steal anywhere, bought the CD, and the whole thing is great. It’s pretty breezy, pretty slick, some big sky sounds, dare I compare it to, hum, Coldplay? Well, maybe there are hints there, but there’s some Smiths in there too and it’s sufficiently quirky and dreamy and intelligent and knowing and assorted not to be too hideous. And I really should confess to having a soft spot for “Yellow”. Anyway, enough confessions. Here’s the title track.

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Levy - Rotten Love

I didn’t do tolerance when I first came into recovery. And I could never get why it was such a big deal, that and this letting go of resentment mantra I kept hearing. Yes, I could probably see why we needed to tolerate everyone who came into the room, it was necessary in a sort of “lets all be nice to each other” group therapy sort of way, but did that need to apply to me? Weren’t there some nice yuppie meetings where I could enjoy being tolerant to tolerable people? And what was the big deal?

The big deal was acceptance, and until I learned that I had to accept other people for what they were, then my disease was going to run riot in me, and eventually kill me, whether I was actively engaging in it or not.

A song about tolerance and letting go of resentments would be pretty toe-curling and much less fun than a song about intolerance, over projection and festering resentment. Listen to Soko and do the opposite.

Soko - Photo: David Mushegain

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Soko - I’ll Kill Her

Next topic: But For the Grace of God.