Thirty Days of Music Day 30 - Your Favourite Song This Time Last Year

I was a latecomer to the Fleet Foxes bandwagon, but I'm still riding it today.  Their first album was a serious contender for my favourite album of all time - it is one of the most consistently brilliant albums I have ever heard and it pretty much defined the boundaries of indie-folk.  Blue Ridge Mountains is my favourite song of theirs.

Starting off with the characteristic Foxes harmonies, it soon moves onto guitar and wonderfully crafted melody.  Pecknold's vocals are, as usual, understated and upright - the song exploring family relationships and the imagery of nature.  It is at 2:03 when the song hits top gear - breaking into a faster tempo and unleashing the soaring vocals that make the song.  'In the quivering forest/ Where the shivering dog rests' is belted out with great heart.

You need to get their album if you haven't yet.  Because, although this song was my favourite this time last year, it's still right up there on my list this year.

Thirty Days of Music Day 29 - A Song From Your Childhood

Ten years ago it would not have a been a rare sight to see me in back room with my mini toy guitar rocking out to Born in the USA.  Having always had great taste in music...ahem... I was a big Springsteen fan when I was younger - mainly due to my parents' influences.  Born is the kind of song that you can go properly crazy to - a song for the air guitarists among us.

Nowadays it's not my favourite song by Bruce - in fact, I don't even like it that much - but it's still a classic both in my eyes and in terms of recent musical history.  If you want to try out some Springsteen, check out Magic for a really great, polished rock album. 

Thirty Days of Music Day 28 - A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty

Justin Timberlake is most certainly a guilty pleasure of mine, and I really love What Goes Around.  It's probably the best song that he has ever made - the heartfelt retaliation of a spurned lover that actually tells a great story.  When combined with the video - which features Scarlett Johansson - the narrative is really effective and quite moving in an odd way.  The video is extremely polished and the modern-Venetian stylisation is beautiful.

I don't really need to describe the song for you, because I'm sure you all know it well.  It's a guilty pleasure because Timberlake has made some absolutely terrible songs as well as some classics, but I still have great respect for the guy because, unlike a large amount of modern popstars, he is actually a very talented multi-instrumentalist.

Thirty Days of Music Day 27 - A Song You WIsh You Could Play

In 2000 American Beauty won 5 Academy Awards , including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor but it was the soundtrack that really stood out for me - specifically the Original Score composed by Thomas Newman.  Any Other Name is quite possibly one of the most easily recognisable and iconic pieces to be produced for a film.  It has been copied and recycled repeatedly over the last ten years, and there's rarely a good drama without a similar piece of music.

It's so perfect because it lays a perfectly melancholy emotional base for the scene going on on top of it - the piano is gentle and unobtrusive but at the same time beautifully sad and emotional.  This is the kind of music that I'd love to be able to play - it can hold your attention for hours, demanding all your focus, or it can remain quiet, unnoticed and elegant.

It's not about the difficulty or the technical skill required to play the song - that's not important - it's all about what the song itself offers to the listener, and the beauty of the composition.

Thirty Days of Music Day 26 - A Song That You Can Play On An Instrument

Laura Marling's second album, released in January last year, was a costume drama-reminiscent meditation on women's responsibilities, love and loss.  Receiving great critical acclaim across the board, it also reached number three on my list of the top albums of 2010. 

Blackberry Stone, the fourth track off I Speak Because I Can, was the first song that Emma and I did a cover of.  The guitar is rolling, trickling and gentle but maintains a steady tempo and the melody is beautiful, Marling repeating some beautiful lyrics: 'But I couldn't turn my back on the world for what I like wouldn't let me.'.

When we did our cover - me on guitar and Emma singing - I think that we really captured the kind of atmosphere that Marling wrote into the song.  Our recording equipment  wasn't great but when you have such a great song to work with anyway, it's hard to go too wrong.  Hopefully we didn't go too wrong. 

Thiry Days of Music Day 25 - A Song That Makes You Laugh

Ben Folds is clearly a witty guy with lots to say - Army demonstrates this in full effect - and he deserves great respect for the style of his lyricism and songwriting.  He's been in the music industry for about 15 years in various forms and Army, released in 1999, is from his spell in Ben Folds Five.

The melody is catchy and upbeat and, although somewhat whiny, Folds' vocals suit the style of song he is singing.  The instrumentation is similarly upbeat, and varied - employing his classic jazz piano style and horns for the bridge.  However, the lyrics are what the song is all about.  Almost entirely biographical, the song recounts Folds' college breakdown and attempt at joining the army.  Even the line: 'Dad said "Son, you're fucking high"' is historically accurate.

This lyrical mastery, along with the piano, is Folds' calling card and Army is the perfect example of this.  The lyrics are damn fine, and when sung they just get better and better:

well i thought about the army

dad said, son you're fucking high

and i thought, yeah there's a first for everything

so i took my old man's advice

three sad semesters

it was only fifteen grand spent in bed

i thought about the army

i dropped out and joined a band instead

grew a moustache and a mullet

got a job at chic-fil-a

citing artistic differences

the band broke up in may

and in june reformed without me

and they'd got a different name

i nuked another grandma's apple pie

and hung my head in shame

i've been thinking a lot today

i've been thinking a lot today

oh, i think i'll write a screenplay

oh, i think i'll take it to LA

oh, i think i'll get it done yesterday

in this time of introspection

on the eve of my election

i say to my reflection

god, please spare me more rejection

'cause my peers, they criticize me

and my ex-wives all despise me

try to put it all behind me

but my redneck past is nipping at my heels

i've been thinking a lot today

i've been thinking a lot today

i've been thinking a lot today

i thought about the army...



Thirty Days of Music Day 24 - A Song You Want To Play At Your Funeral

Coldplay tend to get a lot of stick compared to most bands and, although this is probably a natural reaction to the massive success they've had, it seems to be unwarranted and unnemcessary.  They are extremely gifted band and have produced a number of consistantly polished albums.

A Rush of Blood to the Head, probably the most highly acclaimed of their albums, is a collection of stunning songs and Amsterdam is one of the best.  It's a gentle, passionate tune based all around the interplay between Martin's vocals and piano-playing - and his heady falsetto combines beautifully with the sparse instrumentation.

It's music for a funeral because it's solemn and emotional but uplifting and positive.  Martin's lyrics are a similar mix of the positive and negative: 'And time is on your side, it's on your side now', 'oh my star is fading'.  This is the kind of music that can envoke mixed emotions with ease, and this is what makes it so perfectly poised.  Not many artists can so easily straddle the line between joy and sorrow.

Thirty Days of Music Day 23 - A Song You Want To Play At Your Wedding

Soul Meets Body is the kind of exploration of love, joy and purity that you would expect to be played at a wedding.  It would be one of the songs I would choose to dance to because it has got a reasonably quick tempo and an accessible beat, but it is also appropriate for the kind of occasion that a marriage is.

The whole song revolves around the unity of two people and the lyrics are touching and romantic:

I cannot guess what we'll discover

When we turn the dirt

With our palms cupped like shovels,
But I know our filthy hands

Can wash one another's
And not one speck will remain

 

The key to the lyrics are the survival of the two characters when they are together; they 'wash one another' and the the narrator describes his partner as 'A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere'.

Such Great Heights, another stunning love song written by Ben Gibbard, is also a perfect choice for a wedding song.  Although not as perfect to dance to as Soul Meets Body, it excels lyrically to an even greater extent than my first choice. 

I am thinking it's a sign

That the freckles in our eyes
Are mirror images and when we kiss

They're perfectly aligned

And I have to speculate

That God himself did make us

Into corresponding shapes

Like puzzle pieces from the clay

It's really such a stunning song both lyrically and melodically - it's clear that Gibbard knows exactly how to write a perfect love song and I haven't even talked about I Will Follow You Into the Dark.

Thirty Days Of Music Day 22 - A Song You Listen To When You're Sad

Bon Iver mesmerised us all when he released his 2008 debut album For Emma, Forever Ago.  The whole record is one heartfelt outpouring of emotion, and Vernon's log-cabin lamentation is absolutely stunning.

Re: Stacks is the best song on the album and sees Vernon at the height of his tearjerking beauty.  The guitar is simple and unobtrusive, putting all the emphasis on the vocals.  Vernon's delicate falsetto is pure and emotive, and the world-weary lyrics are a delight to the ears.  His lyrics are so evocative and the song plys you with images: 'pouring rain', 'black crow', 'wiry legs are crossed', 'the fountain in the front yard is rusted out'.  

When you are sad this is a song to wallow in.  It's not a song to cheer you up, or to make everything feel ok; it's not a song to show you the bright side of life or warm your heart or lift your spirits.  It's a song you listen to when you wan't to embrace sorrow; when you don't want to be cheered up and 7 minutes of sadness is all that you need.