for a peculiar sensibility of temperament

He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses. The most insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.

– Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Poor Roderick Usher. I empathize with his condition, having experienced bouts of hyperesthesia on several occasions. They almost always comes on the heels of some physical illness, and I’ve learned to accept it as part of the recovery process. Rather than manifesting itself as a languid morbity, in my case it comes in the form of extreme irritability. As I’ve been frequently ill these past few months, I’ve also been frequently irritable.

This morning was exceptionally bad. When these episodes happen at home, I can cloister myself in the bedroom in order to block out all unwanted stimuli (apart from the dogs’ usual rambunctious idiocy) until the feeling passes. I don’t have the same option at my job, however, and though my duties require a minimal amount of human contact, it can be a very noisy work environment (especially on Monday mornings) that will invevitably spill over the partitions and into my cubicle. The fuss and noise and bother got so unbearable at one point that I actually had to plug my ears with my fingers and close my eyes. (That sounds more dramatic than it actually was.)

Fortunately, I have a personal collection of soothing “peculiar sounds” on my portable hard drive that I can queue up in order to get back on a more even keel. It consists mostly of electronic music, but the Suburban Lawns’ self-titled album and a compilation of 60’s Euro-discotek cuts are in there as well.

I Monster – Who Is She? (from Neveroddoreven, 2003) – I caught a Macy’s commercial that featured I Monster’s “Daydream in Blue” the other night, and it made me do a double take. I know it’s common practice in the genre to use electronic tracks to score ads, but no marketing wizardry is ever going to erase my memory of the (potentially NSFW) “Daydream in Blue” music video. “Who Is She?” is a delighfully creepy rendition of Mario Nascimbene’s theme song to the 1969 Hammer film, The Vengeance of She.

Goldfrapp – Hairy Trees (from Black Cherry, 2003) – Black Cherry is right up there on my short list of favorite albums of all time. A friend of mine once dismissed it as being too derivative of Lamb’s material, but I honestly don’t hear it. This track in particular is a thing of ethereal wonder woven around some rather suggestive lyrics.