My Top 1000 Songs #904: Speed Of Sound

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

This is my third visit to Big Star co-founder Chris Bell's posthumous I Am The Cosmos LP. Is that overkill for an album that didn't even exist until some 14 years after the musician's tragic passing? Perhaps. But there's just so much beauty there (and that's not even touching the upbeat rockers). "Speed Of Sound" is one of the most heartbreaking break-up songs around, a tough listen, with mournful synths interspliced with gentle acoustic guitars and Bell's soul-crushing lyrics. "My love grows, and yours is gone." Jealousy and defeat, and ultimately a metaphorical plane crash. But we endure.

The song got a little well-deserved attention when it showed up in the 2008 film Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I've never seen but, hey, helluva soundtrack!

I personally prefer the "alternate version" from the reissue, which is a little less somber:

Man, they should put this song in every movie...