Song on my mind... "Universe and U" by K.T. Tunstall

A fire burns
Water comes
You cool me down
When I'm cold inside
You are warm and bright
You know you are so good for me
With your child's eyes
You are more than you seem
You see into space
I see in your face
The places you've been
The things you have learned
They sit with you so beautifully

They played the song in the background, during last night's season finale of Grey's Anatomy, as Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Webber sat in a dark hospital room - their accidentally mutual sanctuary - and tried to gain perspective on their respective situations. Since I don't want to ruin it for those who may have saved the episode on their TiVos to watch later, I'll be cryptic and say that flawed characters are frustrating (especially when I'm rooting for them and they do dumb things), but I still love them. Every good story needs them for tension and resolution. Last night's finale delivered plenty of the former that will need the latter next season.

A Quick Aside: The other song that caught my ear came at the end of the show. For the life of me, it sounded like Snow Patrol. I visited their site and learned it was "Chasing Cars", one of the songs on the album they just released last week.

I recently purchased Tunstall's album, Eye to the Telescope. It currently shares the honor of My New Favorite CD with Daniel Powter's self-titled album. Tunstall's record came out two years ago in the U.K., but I only became aware of it recently because radio stations have "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" in heavy rotation and Katharine McPhee sang it not too long ago on American Idol. I still think it's funny that some Idol fans believed the song was a McPhee original.

Her performance of "Black Horse" withers when compared to the recording of K.T.'s live performance when she visited NPR a few months ago. I believe her MySpace site also has a video of one of her performances.

Instead of having a band support her, she supports herself with the help of looping machine. She presses a pedal with her foot to start recording, taps her guitar for a few beats and presses the pedal again to stop recording and start the loop. Then, with a good sense of timing, she repeats those steps with a tambourine, a hand clap, some short guitar melodies and some vocal harmonies.

The whole process takes about forty seconds. It's fascinating to hear the creation of each layer of sound and listen as they come together to form the familiar shape of the song right before one's ears. Perhaps it is merely a stage gimmick, but I think it shows she has more musical aptitude than your typical pop star or Idol finalist.

Besides "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", my other favorite tracks include "The Other Side of the World", "Under the Weather", "Silent Sea", "False Alarm" and "Suddenly I See". That is half of the album, which makes it worth the money in my eyes.

You know there's no need to hide away
You know I tell the truth
We are just the same
I can feel everything you do
Hear everything you say
Even when you're miles away
'Cause I am me, the universe and you