Go ahead, describe the first five songs that come up on your music shuffling device.
Short ones for me today... I have to go sit at a dumb-ass company-wide meeting instead of getting work done.
- Oscar Peterson - Jim. Not really familiar with this one. Somehow, this album hasn't spent much time on my iPod. It's a nice track: pleasant, laid back, casual.
- Blue Sky Boys - Picture From Life's Other Side. An old timey, sappy, hillbilly ballad.
- Pavement - Flux = Rad. Loud, abrasive, and borderline annoying. Not my favorite Pavement song.
- Unrest - Isabel. A great Unrest song. I've always loved the tiny little slide the guitar does at the start of each verse.
- Love And Rockets - An American Dream. Not my favorite L&R song. It's not terrible, and I really like the slower parts. But it's a bit long and the constant repetition of the phrase "American Dream" grinds on me a little.
OK, you go:
OK, let’s go for an abridged list too.
1. Huey Lewis & The News – The Power Of Love
My ears! Damn those 80s compilations. Where are they now? Rolling in the cash from their regular royalty cheques no doubt.
2. The Shins – Red Rabbits
Another Cleek-influenced purchased. Love how the singer pushes his voice to it’s limits and how this particular song builds.
3. UB40 – Cherry Oh Baby
1984 reggae-ish chart topper from Birmingham’s favourite funksters. Not my thing but respect is due.
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
Beautiful and highly emotional song about being far apart from your lover. Great video – please check it out, it’s lovely. Karen O is a legend.
5. The Cranberries – Zombie
Terrible lyrics but a great riff and for a while this band had the world in their hands – I was in the US during Autumn 1994 and they were on *every* radio.
Short’n’sweet.
Oops. Screwed up a tag there.
The Cranberries – Zombie
my wife and i like to sing along with this, squawking “zombie!” in a parrot voice, whenever it comes on. “bwraawwwk! zombay! zombay! bwraawwwk! zombay!”
we’re awesome that way
1. Belle & Sebastian – Mary Jo
From Tigermilk. Typical B&S: catchy as a spiderweb and nearly as frail; a mix of a dozen instruments that lets each stand on their own; breathy and fey and if that’s not your cup of tea, well, it’s mine.
2. Castlevania, Symphony of the Night – Dracula’s Castle
What the hell? This is a video game soundtrack that aspires to be the theme song to an 80’s TV teen drama. Never heard it before, and don’t need to hear it again.
3. Roger Miller – Dang Me
LOL. The regulars here are all my age, so some of you probably remember Miller doing the jingle for Decker ham, based on this song.
This song also has this delicious malaprop rhyme: “Roses are red and violets are purple, sugar is sweet and so’s maple surple.”
4. Orbital – Out There Somewhere? Part 2
I used to listen to a lot of downtempo Drum-N-Bass while I was coding, but tended to eschew the “techno” category because it was usually too hyper. This one is low-key enough to not be obnoxious, though being all-electronic its range of sonic texture is a bit limited. Passable audio wallpaper.
5. Tracy Chapman – Subcity
From Crossroads. Not bad, but far from her strongest work. Chapman at her best excels at painting portraits of the downtrodden, but the lyrics to this one are so ham-handed it sounds like it was written by an earnest teenager.
Watching Liverpool – Manchester City on one PC and doing this on the laptop.
1. Manic Street Preachers – You Stole the Sun From My Heart
Decent enough song, catchy melody. The other single from this album, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next was a better song. I had not even heard of these guys before (weird, actually) until I can to Norway in ’98 and this album was HUGE that summer.
2. Shout Out Louds – Sound Is the Word
This is a nice little three minute pop song. It’s rather minimal but there is something about it that just grabs you. Much like a lot of their brilliant debut album.
3. Smashing Pumpkins – Landslide
Just goes to show that, even though I barely remember this song being done by Fleetwood Mac, you can’t keep a good song down. Oddly I just pulled out this CD a few weeks ago and inside I found a post it note from an ex-girlfriend thanking me for the loan of the CD.
(2-0 Liverpool…bleh)
(and geez, 3-0 a minute later…)
4. Mogwai – Waltz For Aidan
I really like Mogwai, and this may be their best album, but this is not their best song. It’s beautiful enough but doesn’t really go anywhere.
5. Depeche Mode – Puppets
The original pre-Yazoo, pre-Erasure Vince Clarke Depeche and you can hear it. Ages since I heard this and it isn’t a bad little synthpop song. there was a time that I thought Depeche Mode was just the ultimate band ever. Of course, there are a dozen or more bands that made me think that.
Have a good week, cleekifers. Next week there probably won’t be one of these from me as I will be living it up in New York City!
The only Smashing Pumpkins song I ever return to is ‘1979’ … that’s a real post-pub favourite, but Billy Corgan’s voice doesn’t do much for me generally. I did buy ‘Zeitgeist’ a few years ago but I can’t say I listen to it much.
I really should give Mogwai a go as I keep getting told that they’re right up my alley. Is it all instrumentals?
this could be embarrassing… here we go:
Ocote Soul Sounds… Tamarindo
J. Geils Band… Centerfield
Animals on Wheels… Just Saying
Ivy… The Best Thing
Aphex Twin… jynweythek
that was random.
just a note, i add whole albums to my ipod because it’s much faster to do it that way. for example, the Animals on Wheels song is just in-between track filler..
also, centerfield should read centerfold. I also never listen to that song.
Mogwai started out as all instrumental but have gradually added some vocals here and there, but not much. I had a hard time with that in the beginning for some reason, but I have grown to love them. Start with Young Team, their first. Come On, Die Young is a bit difficult but the third one, Rock Action, is nice. Mr. Beast is probably the most accessible. I haven’t heard their latest yet, though I hear it is pretty good.
Zeitgeist is a terrible SP record. Corgan can occasionally grate on me as well, but the music on Siamese Dream is so sublime it makes up for it.