12 random songs, blogged about randomly for your enjoyment.
1) The One, Kylie Minogue from X
I enjoy me some Kylie, can't help it, her crappy dance tunes are always really well produced crappy dance tunes, which makes them not so crappy after all. This one has a nice little synth part that's sort of telegraph like that holds the composition together, also the vocals are nicely multi-tracked and play off of, and build upon each other. Complexity in the service of something that sounds simple, it's pop, it's throwaway, but doesn't mean it's unmeaningful or unartistic.
2) Sleep, Imogen Heap from I Megaphone
Imogen was the singer for Frou Frou, they had that song you got sick of from the commercial for the film Garden State a few years back. Song is sleep, and it's a bit lullaby-ish, piano, and half sung, half spoken lyrics, interesting.
3) Planetary, Booka Shade from The Sun & The Neon Light
Atmospheric, and a touch spacy, which makes sense for a song called Planetary. Spare, and very electronic, with lots of sounds that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 8-bit era video games. In other words, right in my wheelhouse, I kinda really like this tune.
4) The Pearly Gates, The Real Tuesday Weld from I, Lucifer
The Real Tuesday Weld is an odd project, kind of soundtrack music from movies that never existed done in an electronica-ambient meets the British dance hall tradition kind of way. Very down tempo, but pretty, the whole album is pretty great, but is one of those albums that you need to listen to in one sitting, none of the songs stand alone as well as they do as part of the whole project.
5) Slow Love, Prince from Sign 'O' the Times
I must confess that I never really liked this song, always felt kind of cheesy when compared to the better tracks from this album. The intervening decades since this came out haven't changed that opinion. I think the bones for a really good slow jam are there, with a different singer and a more powerful arrangement, this might kick ass, but this version is limp (it pains me to post criticisms of Prince on this blog, but honesty trumps fandom)
6) Lonely Lonely (Frisbee'd Mix), Feist from Open Season
I don't remember downloading this album, and I don't think I've ever listened to it. Probably grabbed it when I grabbed her more recent album but never got around to listening to it. Has a nice funky drummer (on Quaaludes) thing going for it, that's a plus, they've played with the vocal track quite a bit (I'm assuming, don't recall hearing the original version), guess that's what makes it a 'mix'. Solid, mellow trip-hoppiness, can't complain, may have to listen to some of the other tracks on this album now.
7) Memphis, Joe Jackson from Steppin' Out: The Very Best of
I wasn't in to Joe Jackson back in the day. I liked the songs they played on the radio, but never felt compelled to seek out the rest of his catalogue or pick up any of his albums. That might have been a mistake, I like his stuff, and would have liked it back then, too. This has a Steppin' Out meets Green Onions feel to it. Strange mix of sounds, plus his vocals are shouty rather than smooth on this, strange choice, but it works.
8) River Come Down, Jolly Boys from Pop 'N' Mento
Old school calypso mon performed by old school Jamaicans. Nice little album, nice little song. Don't understand a thing they're saying, but doesn't matter.
9) And You and I, Yes from The Ultimate Yes
One of them big long prog-rock epics that Yes used to pump out back in the early 70s. Cheeseball stuff, some of this, and there's a touch of cheese to this, too, but it's really well done cheese, even while it's pretentious self important twaddle, there's also some great hooks within this piece, so it's easy to forgive the ridiculous. Takes its time to get where it's going, and did I mention that the lyrics are pure twaddle? Worthwhile trip, anyway, these blokes could play, that's for sure, and the composition is complex without being needlessly, or distractingly so (which for much of prog-rock, the complexity became the ends, rather than the means, which is when it all started sucking)
10) Eve White/Eve Black, Siouxsie & The Banshees from Nocturne
Off their live double album released in 1983, this was one of the tracks from that album that doesn't have a studio version. Kind of a slight little spooky song at the beginning, then becomes a bit of a noisefest towards the end. I love Siouxsie's voice, nice tone coupled with great power, not a combination that many singers pull off as well as she does.
11) Everything (That's Mine), The Motions from Nuggets Vol. 2
This is the foreign bands Nuggets collection. This is one of the more Stones-ish garage band songs on this album. Good song, lots of fuzzy guitars, this entire collection should be on Rockband (as well as the first Nuggets collection, which had American bands), it's what Rockband was invented for, garage rock from the 60s may not be well known to their target audience, but this stuff is fun, and almost all the songs are perfect for the game (I know I've complained that there's too much 'whiteboy' music in the game, and they should expand beyond 'whiteboy' genres, but they also should broaden their selection of 60s music given that those songs are perfectly well suited for the Rockband experience, plus it'd give the kiddies playing the game a musical education to hear this stuff and play along to it)
12) Grooveallegiance, Funkadelic from The Original Cosmic Funk Crew
This song can also be found on the album One Nation Under a Groove, it's mostly an instrumental piece, with Bootsy laying down a bass line that carries the melody rather than provides the beat. Layered on top of that is Mike Hampton laying down some solid licks on the guitar, but mainly this song is about freeing up the bass from it's usual foundational role and letting it loose (I'm assuming Bootsy's doing the more expressive playing on bass while some other bassist is keeping the groove, but I don't know for sure). Also, wikipedia is full of crap, the following sentence couldn't be more wrong, "A song with a slight reggae feel". The time signature is wrong, the drums are wrong, the bass line is wrong, and the guitar line is wrong, it's funk, with a hint of freeform jazz, but reggae, it's not. And yes, I have pledged allegiance to the flag of the United Funk of Funkadelica.
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