August 22, 2003
Top Twenty Songs From iTunes
I have 2062 songs currently in my iTunes library on my Powerbook G4. Over the past six months I've been scoring the songs I liked the best - the ones that make me stop working, switch to iTunes and hit "Replay" so I can hear it again. Here are the top twenty songs from my iTines library:
Song Name - Artist (Album Name)
- 4 - Jim O'Rourke (Bad Timing)
- A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay (A Rush of Blood to the Head)
- American Pie - Don Mclean (American Pie & other Hits)
- Fuzzy Sun - Jim O'Rourke ( Halfway to a Threeway)
- Lazy Line Painter Jane - Belle and Sebastian (Lazy Line Painter Jane)
- Looking For Space - John Denver (Greatest Country Hits)
- Mary Jo - Belle and Sebastian (Tigermilk)
- Prelude to 110 or 220/Women of the World - Jim O'Rourke (Eureka)
- The Boy in the Arab Strap - Belle and Sebastian
- The Workplace - Jim O'Rourke (Halfway to a Threeway)
- Walt Whitman's Niece - Billy Bragg & Wilco (Mermaid Avenue)
- Ring the Bells - James (Seven)
- Kill the Clown - Jim Gaudet (Give Up the Ghost)
- Till the End of the World - Nick Cave (Soundtrack: Until the End of the World)
- Dance of the Bad Angels - Tim Booth & Angelo Badalamenti (Booth and the Bad Angel)
- Te Namo - Te Vaka (Te Vaka)
- Vaseline Machine Gun - Leo Kottke
- Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon
- Cows With Guns - Dana Lyons
- Metamorphosis Five - Philip Glass (Solo Piano)
Note: I actually own (in bold) the CDs for about 70% of the MP3s I have. The rest of my MP3 collection is made up of ripping CDs borrowed from former coworkers and former roommates. While I don't condone the trading of MP3s -- nor do I use Kazaa or any of the file-trading networks -- I fully support "trying out" new music in MP3 format. Usually, if I become addicted to a new band or new style of music I follow that up with buying a couple of the CDs that are sometimes hard to find even in the collections of my friends and family. Support the artist, not the label.
If you know of more music similar to the songs above, I'm taking recommendations. It's time to weed out the crap and the average stuff and expand my listening.
Posted by Cameron Barrett at August 22, 2003 08:07 PMDon McClean? OMG.
Posted by: andrew at August 22, 2003 09:30 PM
Inspired, I checked out my "Top 20" -- Interesting that we almost intersected with the Glass piece -- I had Metamorphosis Two. I may have to check out who your Belle and Sebastian are. (I hope they're not Disney cartoon characters.)
Posted by: Frank Patrick at August 23, 2003 01:23 PM
'Lazy Line Painter Jane' blew me away when I heard it first time, especially with Monica Queen on guest vocals. She's done a solo album, which I haven't been able to get my hands on yet, but I will!
Have you heard Gorky's Zygotic Mynci? A Welsh band, but thankfully not *all* their songs are in Welsh. Check them out!
Posted by: Pär Nilsson at August 23, 2003 02:51 PM
Have you heard anything by a band called Candidate? I'd particularly recommend their album "Tiger Flies".
Posted by: Simon at August 23, 2003 05:48 PM
If you like Nick Cave's "UtEotWorld" You might also enjoy more from Crime and the City Solution, which also appear on the same soundtrack.
Posted by: Ross at August 23, 2003 11:35 PM
Kathleen Edwards' album "Failer" - especially "One More Song the Radio Won't Like".
Posted by: Marshall at August 24, 2003 06:32 PM
If you like Belle and Sebastian, I'd suggest checking out either album by a group called The Essex Green. Also, there's a group called Salako that's on Jeepster (former label of B&S) that puts out some highly fun, twee pop music that's pretty good. Along the same lines, I'm not sure if you've heard of them or not, but one member of B&S (Stuart David) has a band called Looper that put out two interesting electronic pop records ("Up A Tree" and "Geometrid"). Their third was a big mis-step into weirder territory that didn't work as well.
As far as O'Rourke goes, you're on the right path, but definitely check out his "Insignificance" album. It's his best one, easily (in my opinion). Also, he had a bit of a hand in the most recent Wilco album ("Yankee Hotel Foxtrot") and that disc has its moments as well.
If you enjoy the Nick Cave you've heard, I'd say check out the album "Let Love In." It's probably his strongest overall (although some people would probably say "Tender Prey"). I also enjoy "Henry's Dream" and "Murder Ballads" (ah hell, I like pretty much all Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds stuff, though).
My favorite band of the moment is Broken Social Scene, and I'm pretty much recommending them to everyone. "You Forgot It In People" is their new album, and it's really damn good.
Some other random stuff you might want to hunt down; Super Furry Animals, Do Make Say Think, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Four Tet, Henryk Gorecki (3rd Symphony).
Okay, I'm done here.
Posted by: aaron at August 26, 2003 04:02 PM
If you like the finger-picking acoustic guitar style of Kottke and O'Rourke you might like Pullman. They have a couple of albums on Thrill Jockey, in a similar vein as O'Rourkes - Bad Timing.
Also, if you are feel like expanding your horizons check out O'Rourkes previous band Gastr Del Sol. Some of it can be 'difficult'(at least compared to some of the other stuff on your list) but very rewarding if you can understand it. Id recommend their album 'Upgrade and Afterlife' as it is pure brilliance.
Posted by: steven at August 26, 2003 11:16 PM
Hooray for Gorecki!
Posted by: da5id at August 27, 2003 04:55 AM
andrew took the words right out of my mouth.
but seriously. go purchase mr. zevon's cds. you'll be glad for having his work in your collection.
Posted by: Marcus at August 27, 2003 06:50 AM
Well, I respect that you are supporting music. But for a really cool project on sharing mp3's legally, check out irate radio . It downloads legal mp3's automatically to your local drive. Lots of crap, but also some great unknown stuff.
Posted by: Robert at August 28, 2003 06:56 PM
Its funny but I was drafting a blog entry on what made me stop work and listen when I came across this post. I can endorse the comment about Warren Zevon - great lyrics.
I would add:
Start me up - Rolling Stones
Vissi d'arte from Tosca
You've changed - Billy Holiday (from Lady in Satin)
Dos Gardenias - Buena Vista Social Club
Posted by: Ian at August 29, 2003 01:18 PM
