I Walked with Trouble

Keren Ann song "My Name is Trouble" came into existence, I think, after Sufjan Steven's "I Walked." But it feels spiritually like a predecessor.

"My name is trouble/my first name's a mess," she sings, so sweetly. "If you let me love you/I will love you to death," she chirps. And later, a bit apologetically, "If you were to come back to me/in pieces or in melody/there couldn't be a better way through."



Listen to "I Walked" after this, and you can't help but feel that Sufjan's narrator is merely doing what he must. That doesn't in any way lessen the bit of grim horror felt as it dawns on you that the line "I'm already dead to you" is, it seems, literal. "I deserve more/At least I deserve the respect of a kiss goodbye" has to be one of the most heart-wrenching universal wails ever expressed.

Sufjan Stevens: I Walked (via Pitchfork)