forty-seven

[amethysting.livejournal.com]

Hustle Rose
Metric
Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
2003

I told you earlier today that I haven't GASPED about any new music lately.  I was working on my Dad's mix CD, which tends to be a favourites of the year type-thing, and I was having a really hard time.  Maybe it's because I listened to so much Robyn this year (ha).  Or maybe it's because I don't give one album or artist the attention and focus it deserves (like the focus given to say, Robyn).  The way I listen to music has become a little ADD and, like, that's not cool.  This means hitting "next" after listening to two seconds of a song, without ever really sticking to anything.  I like listening to music when I'm cooking or washing the dishes because I'm less likely to hit that skip.  In 2012, I would like to be more patient. 

So, for today's post, I went back to the archives.  I was looking over some of my old Dad mixes, and like, dude, I'm pretty embarrassed about a lot of the songs I included over the years...the mixes are fine, but it's like they aren't entirely genuine.  I don't know if this year's is any better, but I tried to stick to true favourites...to songs that marked this year in some way.  "Hustle Rose" isn't on my 2011 Dad mix, BUT it IS on my December 16th, 2006 mix (Cue the Smoke Machines). I pulled it out of my mix CD diaries to listen to specific track, but kept coming back to "Hustle Rose".

"Hustle Rose" wasn't a favourite Metric song (it was one I consistently skipped) until I saw Emily Haines perform it live at The Metropolis (I have that performance on DVD, actually!).  Hearing this song again...I actually experienced a reaction.  Not because it makes me think of a particular moment in my life, but because it is a freaking good song.  I love that it sounds kind of different...that it takes you in all of these different directions...it's both quiet and loud...the lyrics are repetitive, but then you get hit with a makes-you-hold-your-breath line ("If I get to close, you wake me up/remind me softly to go").  I love when the music builds up at 3:30 and just kind of explodes (cue head-banging) and then levels out and gets quiet and slow again.  The lyrics aren't intensely descriptive, but they're enough: 

"If you’re looking for something life-like
Hit a sardine nightclub
If every surface you touch is cold
Never go home"  

How you could say so much in four short lines...it sort of blows me away every time.

forty-seven.

[cabaretlights.livejournal.com]

The Chosen Ones
Artist: The Storm
Album: Rebel Against Yourself
Year: 2011
♥: So I'd had this album downloaded for awhile, and randomly selected it to unzip Thursday before last. I knew very little about The Storm, except for what I know about any unknown artist I download: that at least one song on the iTunes Store preview caught my ear. I've become more and more discerning with what I download, as my cache of unzipped albums now totals...HOLY FUCK, um, 12.4 GB...and it's time to stop snagging everything, because seriously, I won't have time to listen to it all, and I want to take the time fall in love with bands again. I miss the day I discovered Florence & the Machine, where every song was a heartbeat bomb --- BUT. I unzipped Rebel Against Yourself, and randomly selected "Ghost River" as the first track to listen to. THAT INTRO! Jawdropped -- and the next song was fantastic, too, and the next, and when I started the album at the beginning, so was that one, and oh my god, was this a Perfect Album?

Perfect Albums. You know, those rare and fabulous albums where EVERY SINGLE TRACK is amazing?

Deciding on a song to post was difficult, because every song on this album really is amazing, all for different reasons. What they all have in common, though, is that they hit hard, and they have everything I REALLY, REALLY LOVE in music, collected. The only other band that does that, and it's the one to which I think they're most similar, is Shiny Toy Guns. Listening to Rebel Against Yourself made me hyperaware of my ideal musical preferences. I will share them with you (or at least, the ones I'm conscious of):
- LAYERS AND LAYERS AND LAYERS. I need to be able to hear a dozen different things, clearly (which is why I also need Sennheisers, haha)
- lyrics I can somehow relate to
- electronic instruments, icy synths, and crisp voices
- real instruments, rock rhythms, and howls
- a chugging, vibrant atmosphere
- and a very specific way of writing melody.

I wish I knew more music theory because then I could tell you more about the last one, but as it stands: all I know is that there are certain combination of notes that are guaranteed to make me love a song --------- and that's why I ultimately decided to post "The Chosen Ones."


With the intro to this song, the first time I heard it, I was like "meh." Sounds like any old rock anthem. "Misfits ready to run, ready to run, and you can't hold us down / we're the blood in your veins, blood in your veins, burning inside," okay, badass STRENGTH! lyrics, guitar and drums rocking out, anything new?

Yeah.
At 0:37, those icy synths come in.
And then, my notes.
Every time Pernille Rosendahl sings "angels of the sun," right afterwards (check 0:59 for the first one), there's an underlying three-note-phrase that FUCKING. KILLS ME. EVERY. SINGLE TIME. My stomach physically drops into my toes. STILL. The play count on this song is somewhere in the 40s and every single time, that phrase absolutely guts me.
I haven't FELT music, SOLELY music (like not related to something else it makes me think of or whatever), that physically in ages.

So, I'm giving you this song as an introduction (and how great is the explosion back into layered sound at 3:42?), but I want you to download this album and listen to it while you're baking or something, straight through, because ALL OF IT. is like a brand new heartbeat. ♥
Also it's Danish. So we're pretty close to our beloved Swedish pop here. hahaha

post forty-eight theme

[cabaretlights.livejournal.com]

so the year ends..