Looking at my list can
sometimes be a frustrating experience because I always feel like
there is someone I missed. And while it's actually impossible for me
to represent all of the bands that I enjoy in this list, I did find
that there are a number of bands that I really enjoy that have not
been included that actually surprised me that they didn't make the
cut. And again, it's not that I don't like their music, it's that
somehow I was unable to make room for my favourite songs of theirs.
So, I am going to take
the opportunity right now to share some artists that I am
legitimately surprised didn't make the list and the song I probably
would have chosen.
Canada's Arcade Fire
are a band that have had a lot of solid and memorable tracks that
have lasted through the years, but puzzlingly enough didn't make the
cut. Though, if I were to pick my favourite, I would probably say “My
Body is a Cage” or perhaps “Rebellion (Lies)” or even the
reworking of “No Cars Go.” Perhaps it was my inability to pick a
favourite track of their that excluded them from my list which is
either an injustice or a compliment... or maybe both.
I am quite fond of a
lot of Sufjan Steven's work and often thought to include his track
“Chicago” in this list, but for one reason or another I couldn't
fit it in. It had reached a point where it seemed like no other
tracks were expendable.
Stars are another
talented Canadian act that have had a lot of great songs over the
years, But it is definitely their New Wave pop track “The Ghost of
Genova Heights” that I would rank as my favourite of theirs. I
still feel like it has a place on this list... I just don't know
where. Apparently here.
I'll leave it at that
for now. There are more artists missing that I'll share in future
issues. For now, let's get back to my list...
80.) DJ Iah –
Mangrove (2005)
This is an obscure one
for you. Acid Jazz artist DJ Iah made a great impression on me with
his debut album Saga
Boiz Engine Room, and while I didn't think that
his second album was as strong, it had some moments that really
impressed me. “Mangrove” was the highlight for sure. It's a brisk
two and a half minutes, but it covers a pretty healthy amount of
ground. The intro is a near-psychedelic synth trip that leads into a
percussion heavy guitar jam and then it takes a turn about half way
through which is what really won me over. In comes a jazz inspired
muted trumpet solo which is just blissful for me. I've expressed
before how the sound of a muted trumpet, to me, is one of the most
amazing sounds in the world. It just hits the right notes to send me
into a music induced coma for about a minute and a half.
The downside to having
something that's this obscure in my list is that I can't for the life
of me find a copy of the song to embed into the article. DJ Iah's
album The Hi Lo Fi can be found on iTunes though so listen to
the sample through there if you're curious enough.
79.) Gorillaz – Don't
Get Lost in Heaven / Demon Days (2005)
Okay, I'm cheating
again as this is technically two songs, but I'll make the same
argument as before with my Mercury Rev entry: these songs belong
together. They are based on the same musical ideas, they lead
directly into one another, and they just don't feel complete when
they're alone. “Don't Get Lost in Heaven” could be considered the
introduction to “Demon Days,” but I guess the Gorillaz felt that
they were different enough to separate. And I suppose they are quite
a bit different in that there is a much more tranquil atmosphere
atmosphere to the latter song, but that to me just adds a lot of
different dimensions to the whole piece.
What I like so much
about these songs is how dramatically different they are from
anything else Gorillaz have done. Granted, they are a band that has a
pretty diverse career musically. But even then, who could have seen
them making a couple of orchestral, gospel inspired tracks with
reggae undertones? What a great way to cap off the album. There is so
much soul and passion captured by the choir and when lead by 2D (or
Damon Albarn in real life) it somehow all makes sense. It's like a
strange sandwich that's full of the oddest ingredients but somehow
tastes delicious.
See? Someone on Youtube
even thought they they belonged together!
78.) The B-52's –
Follow Your Bliss (1989)
I like The B-52's, but
I don't love them. I find that their goofy overtones sometimes
detract from what is otherwise pretty decent songwriting. They make
it work only most of the time. But “Follow Your Bliss”, the final
track on 1989's Cosmic Thing, was a very different kind of
song for them. It is them alright. It has their quirky and playful
spirit and lightheartedness, but it feels tempered and controlled.
It's actually a really charming and smart instrumental track and I
really get actively into it every time. I seriously have to fight the
urge to air piano to the intro and air guitar the rest of it.
Sometimes I don't fight that urge, but you know, sometimes I'm in
public and there is a socially acceptable level of how much you can
be into a song.
77.) Pogo – Sing 2
Self (2008?)
Pogo made a name for
himself remixing movies into music on Youtube, first catching the
public's attention with “Alice,” his mashup of Disney's Alice
in Wonderland. There are whole bunch of Pogo tracks that I think
are amazing and could have fit on this list, but I couldn't really
decide which was my all time favourite. So, what I wound up doing was
consulting my iPod. The song with the most amount of plays was the
winner. And “Sing 2 Self” wasn't the most obvious choice for me,
but it's true that every time I hear this song, it makes me happy.
Unlike most of his songs, I don't really know what he samples, but
that doesn't affect my enjoyment of the track, which shows there is
more to Pogo's music than nostalgic novelty. I feel there is a
genuine musicality to his songs which really resonates with me.
Off of his EP Table
Scraps, this song takes me back to around 2009 when I worked as
a projectionist and listened to music while travelling around the
projection booth, watching over the films as they played. I was just
getting into Pogo at the time and this was in the initial collection
of songs that I heard from him and I just couldn't stop listening. To
this day, many of those tracks are among the top played songs on my
iPod. The projection job isn't there anymore because of the big push
to digital projectors which was happening around that year, but this
track instantly transports me back and makes me miss those years.
It's weird thinking
that I get nostalgic for 2009, but so much has changed since then and
I think at that point in my life, I was actually quite content.
76.) Her Space Holiday
– Gravity Fails Us (1997)
I had a lot of trouble
picking a favourite Her Space Holiday song because I've often found
that I have more interest in his albums as a whole. One of my
favourites is his 2001 release Manic Expressive, but picking a
favourite song off of there almost defeats the point because of how
well the album works as a cohesive whole. But then I remembered the
beautiful “Gravity Fails Us” off of his debut album Audio
Astronomy. This is one of the really stand out tracks and really
shows his gift for emotional and contemplative song writing. In his
early days he relied a lot on guitar effects and synthesized
soundscapes to provide the backdrop to the song, while his hushed and
echoed vocals add that extra bit of soul to the song. Another thing
that fascinates me about this song is the misleadingly edgy intro
which sounds like it leads in from another song, but it doesn't
really. It's a great start though and perhaps makes the song more
poignant when it enters it's calmer, gentler, more dream-like
movement.
I discovered this song
in my late teens and was enraptured by it. I remember at one point
feeling almost overwhelmed by the song, like I was enjoying it too
much! And I remember my mom saying something like “It's just a
song.” But it wasn't just a song. It was a great song. And being
affected by it like that wasn't typical. Sometimes great music does
strange things to you and “Gravity Fails Us” is exceptional.
75.) Paul White –
Grimy Light (2009)
I often hesitate to add
songs that are this recent because I want to represent my whole
life's worth of musical experience in this collection, but sometimes
you just know you found something really good. Besides, I shouldn't
discount the here and now as it's just as much a part of my life as
20 years ago was. I don 't feel guilty about adding Paul White's
“Grimy Light” on here because it really is a track I can play
over and over again and still be engrossed in it. White is a great
electronic music producer who has been busy releasing material for
the last few years through One Handed Music, an independent record
label that seems overjoyed that Paul White keeps giving them things
to distribute and often sell out of. I picked up “Grimy Light”
through a Japan relief compilation album and it blew me away. Not
only that, but it gets major bonus points for sampling the King
Crimson song “The Night Watch” and completely reinventing it. The
song is his and there are only brief moments when we hear King
Crimson's musical influence.
Paul White is a
visionary, a forward thinking musician with influences deeply rooted
in the past, which is the way to go. Pay tribute, but don't repeat.
Sometimes he get's a little too out there and psychedelic, but when
he hits, he hits it home. “Grimy Light” is one of his finest
compositions.
74.) Jean-Michel Jarre
– Équinoxe
Part 1 (1978)
French electronic pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre was best known for his
1976 albums Oxygène,
which admittedly is pretty good, but I actually prefer Équinoxe,
his follow-up which was also a success, but not to the same degree.
But I didn't know any difference as a kid. I just remember browsing
my Dad's records and having the cover art capture my imagination. I
could sit there and look at it for ages (probably minutes) and just
analyze the shapes and images, finding myself captivated, if not
somewhat confused. It wasn't until I was in my early 20's when I
expressed interest in records again and my Dad let me take a couple
records out of his collection. There were a small handfull that I was
interested in, but I recognized this cover instantly. And it's
strange so much later in life, finding myself remembering what it was
like to discover again. To be teleported, if just briefly, into my
younger self and delve into music for the first time again.
Équinoxe
is constructed to be a single piece of music, separated into 8
movements, divided only by sides of the record. But none of the
tracks capture my imagination or that nostalgic feeling quite like
Part 1. It's a brief two minutes and it feels like an introduction
more than a whole piece of music, as I explained, but it has a
marvelous build up, with layers of chords of intricate echoed beeps
and boops being stacked on top of one another. It sounds glorious to
me and feels like it's making promises of great things to come.
73.) Peter Gabriel –
Darkness (2002)
Peter Gabriel is one of
the finest songwriters of his generation and I think that this is
pretty much an indisputable fact. Why so low on the list then? Well,
the simple answer is that he is one of the artists who gets two songs
so you'll see the other one later. And what's great is how much
musical ground he's covered in his career, so the two songs I've
picked are on very different ends of the Peter Gabriel spectrum of
accessibility. This is more on the progressive end of the spectrum.
“Darkness” is the
opening track from Peter Gabriel's masterpiece Up, which is a
pretty incredible album that gets better and better every time I hear
it. And it's a great way to start the record. It is intense and
emotionally dynamic, ranging from a gritty aggression into a
exploratory wonder. He sings of fears and overcoming them through
images and story, not relying on loose sentiments. And the music is
constructed to match the mood of the lyrics. When he sings about his
insecurities the music is harsh and abrasive, but when he sings about
his strengths the music becomes more melodic and uplifting. It's
arguably a bit melodramatic, but a healthy amount of theatricality
can still be effective and moving. I can't get enough of it. If I
could write just one song half as good as “Darkness” I would feel
like an accomplished musician.
As for the video, I
don't know why they chose a picture of fruit for it, but there it is.
It was either that or naked people sulking. Oh well.
72.) Broken Social
Scene – Stars and Sons (2003)
This was actually the
last song to make it on the list, primarily because I thought I had a
Broken Social Scene song on here and somehow I didn't. Originally I
thought it was going to be the song “Hotel” but I guess I was
unsure about it because I sat on it. And while I do love that song, I
somehow felt unsatisfied calling it my favourite, so I went back to
the album that made me love the band in the first place, You
Forgot it in People and then the answer became clear. “Stars
and Sons” was the selling point of Broken Social Scene for me. I
remember the chilly autumn evening in 2005 when I first heard it. A
good friend of mine lent me his copy of the CD urging me to give it a
shot. So I did while walking to pick up my younger brother from a
friend's house. And the first song had me interested. The second song
had my attention. The third song, “Stars and Sons” sealed the
deal. And it has remained a favourite of mine ever since.
It starts off
relatively simple. The song is carried by a bass line that is
surprisingly infectious and sung with frantic breathy vocals. And
slowly but surely the songs descends into complete chaos somewhere
around the three and half minute mark. There is something amazing and
beautiful about the sense of adventure that this song carries. They
just take something really simple and turn it into something really
big and ambitious and it somehow works.
71.)Remy Shand – The
Mind's Eye (2002)
Canadian Rhythm and
Blues artist Remy Shand released his one and only album in 2002 and
it really became a special addition to my collection and for the
longest time the final track, “The Mind's Eye,” was my favourite
song from the album. It's got that instant jazzy hook and smooth
groove that could have easily sounded forced or contrived, but Shand
is the real deal and captures the essence of what makes this sort of
jazz work. And a lot of that is that he builds upon the skeleton of
the song with first, a vocal section, then he moves into a long
guitar lead section, followed by a long keyboard solo section. It
takes jazz back to it's improvised roots, from the old days of Miles
Davis and his peers. The focus is on the skills of the music an whose
turn it is to play, and in this case, it's Remy Shand. He played all
of the instruments on the album. But it doesn't sound like an ego
trip to show off his skills, but simply puts together the right
melodies that service the song. And it is beautiful.
I loved this song so
much I actually wrote a paper on it for a music class I took in
college. It was our assignment to break down a song and explain what
it is that it going on and how that makes a song work. It was
actually pretty difficult and I didn't do amazingly well on the
assignment, but I remember listened to “The Mind's Eye” over and
over again and finding myself amazed that I never really got sick of
it from overexposure. That's when I knew that it was a real gem.
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