Tunes

Stealing an idea from bloggers more accomplished than I, I bring you the last ten eleven songs I listened to, as brought to you by my iTunes shuffle programme. I’ve cut out the boring selections, but otherwise it is as they came up. The photo, by the way, is of a glowing deciduous that inexplicably sprouted overnight in front of the statue of Gutenberg in November. I just thought having a photo would be nice.

In return for my efforts, I tag those bloggers who read this (you know who you are) and anyone who wants to leave a comment with, say, the last three songs they listened to, from any source, including department store muzak systems.

1) Under a Phrygian Sky Loreena McKennit : this was a birthday gift to Amynah from her lab. They figured that Loreena is Canadian, Amynah’s Canadian, ergo, Amynah will appreciate this. That Amynah could have got this herself in Canada was irrelevant. Personally, I would like to be able to say that I think Loreena’s a pretentious New Age dip, but I can’t, because she’s also a very good songwriter and apparently approached her albums with a level of history geekery that kind of appeals to me. Plus, I like pronouncing this song “Under the friggin’ sky.”

2) UFO Rosie – Weeping Tile: This was a minor alt-hit in the mid-nineties. Weeping Tile was Sarah Harmer’s band before she got boring. The song isn’t as good as I remember, but it does pretty successfully evoke “isolated Nevada trailer park paranoia.”

3) Stick Boy – Hanson Brothers: Hockey Rock! Who doesn’t identify with the stick boy? “I’m going to show ‘em that I came to play.” I think these guys might be the only band in the “Hoser Punk” section of your local record store.

4) Clampdown – The Clash: I have no idea what these guys are singing about in this song, but as with most of “London Calling” it makes we want to go blow something up. In a good way.

5) 38 years old – Tragically Hip : Lot of Canadians on this list, eh? Making sense of Gord Downie’s lyrics is always a mugs game – even if you understand what he’s saying, you never understand what he means. This is from back when he was still telling stories with his songs and the band was still rocking, instead of both sort of mushily meandering for four minutes and grinding to a halt.

6) Boten Anna – Bass Hunter : This was “acquired” in an attempt to familiarize myself with European music. It was a big hit in the Netherlands, apparently. It’s a dance tune of some sort. I’m sure the lyrics are moronic, but as they’re in Dutch I don’t care, and can merrily strike Euro-cool poses in my living room.

7) Mas y mas – Los Lobos : A Travis gift, this is old fashioned Tex-Mex (heavy on the Mex) guitar rock. Thanks to the movie, I’d always associated these guys with La Bamba type fifties pop – who knew they were guitar gods waiting to be unleashed?

8) World in my eyes – Depeche Mode: A friend of mine from high school had this tape in her car permanently, so I associate it with angst-y conversations on late night drives to abandoned beaches more than it being a Depeche Mode song would already imply. On the other hand, I’m fairly certain it is about sex, so that mitigates the gloom somewhat.

9) Devil Inside – INXS : A work colleague included “Mystify” by these guys on mix-CD she gave me, which reminded me that INXS could write a good tune, a fact that “Suicide Blonde” had obliterated from my mind with it’s utter craptitude.

10) Fatigante – Louis Attaque! : This is nostalgia appropriated from Amynah, who associates these guys (French folk-rockers) with nights dancing at Montreal's Le Dogue where, when the DJ would take a break from the Guns and Roses and put this on, the Anglos would stand around open-mouthed and the French would go nuts.

11) Somewhere over the rainbow – Eva Cassidy: This is a co-worker gift, and an example of a cover done right, in that Cassidy’s version brings a experience, though not world-weariness, to the song that changes it from an optimistic song for children into a hopeful song for adults.