Random Thoughts on Jon Brion's "Same Mistakes"

This is a song I can never put on a mix. If I ever did, I'd be committing what are clearly two of the cardinal sins of mixmaking: I'd be oversharing and I'd be creeping out the recipient.

But it's a great song, a true song, a song about me. It's the one moment on Jon Brion's maginficent solo album where the emotion fully dominates - where Brion's spectacular arrangements take a backseat to a simple lyric. I love Brion's voice in this, but more than that I love what he sings. "The line is thin between a selfish act/And things you do to keep yourself intact" he sings. "I could name a few." This hits me hard. Hits me here. It hits me, genuine and honest and stripped-to-the-bone beautiful. It's life.

"I don't wanna make the same mistakes/The same mistakes with you," sings Brion. Who hasn't felt like this? Who hasn't promised, silently, perhaps hopelessly, to learn? To be better?
I have. And no matter what happens next, that promise - that wish - is what this song is about. And it's my song, too private and too frightening to ever give to someone else.