Off Topic Saints Not606 Music Thread

So for day 2, my album for today is the wonderful My Head is An Animal by Iceland's finest musicians Of Monsters and Men (see, I told you my other choices were more respectable than B*Witched!)

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So the song you probably know from this is Little Talks, which is a great, energetic song but the album's chock full of great songs such as Six Weeks, King and Lionheart and Mountain Sound. The contrast in vocals between Nanna and Ragnar works really well and the sound seems to vary between almost untamed and wild, almost like it reflects the landscape of Iceland, and gentle and tranquil like cold, snowbound winter's day.

I also saw them live last year which was great!

My favourite is probably this:

Though I also like this:

 

Here's another Icelandic band featuring the wonderful Bjork of course...

 

And you can’t forget the very wonderful Ásgeir:

 

The NPR desk concerts are really good.

Bjork was really highly regarded in the jazz community at one point and there are loads of covers of her songs during the late 1990s and 2000s. The usual over is "Hyperballad" of which I am aware of three. There is also a cracking version of "Unity" by Dave Dougals' quintet. Then there are groups such as Travis Sullivan's "Bjorkestra".....

It is funny how Scandinavian music is always supposed to evoke fjords and mountains. They statement is always made abut the music by Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal but you have a similar situation with the classical composer Edvard Greig. Got to say that the best thing about Grieg's music is Debussy's dismissal of it has "pink bon bons wrapped in snow."

 

Not bad, reminds me a bit of sigur ros, has that same kind of falsetto voice, a kind of slow tempo, mellow sound.

The first ever sigur ros song I came across, can't even remember how I found it.

Though not all sigur ros songs are mellow and slow tempo, Gong is another song that I like.

And of course, you may know this song from adverts for the BBC series Planet Earth. Also, random fact, this song was used at the end of the TV coverage of the 2006 FA Cup final between West Ham and Liverpool

 

So I've realised this is a lot harder than I thought, so I'm gonna have to leave out some albums I like... Anyhow, for day 3 my choice is Ocean Eyes by Owl City.

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So the song by Owl City you might know would be Fireflies which was number 1 for a while in about 2010, but Ocean Eyes has some great songs such as On the Wing, Hello Seattle, Tidal Wave. Owl City's music in general is fairly, er, electronic I guess is the word you would use, use of keyboards and synthesisers and such. As such, the music is generally quite upbeat but then are some more ethereal type songs. Interestingly, a fair number of the songs don't really have a chorus to speak of but I think as a song writer, Adam Young has a great ability to weave stories through lyrics. Heck he even manages to write an amusing song about going to the dentist!

My favourite songs are an easy choice though:

Firstly (in no particular order), Vanilla Twilight

I love the lyrics in this song. It perfectly capsultes the twin themes of loss and nostalgia (and as you know, I'm really big on those two things) and I like the way it's not clear whether the loss is a break down of a relationship, death or something else.

Secondly, The Saltwater Room.

This song was originally on another album but was reworked for Ocean Eyes and I much prefer this version. Again, I love the lyrics of this song and the combination of Adam's vocals and Breanne Düren's vocals work really well together, I think Breanne's voice almost hides a vulnerability which mirrors the theme of the song itself. Lyrically, I like the way the song portrays two people in the early stages of a relationship, falling in love but feeling scared, unsure of how the other feels and not wanting the flicker of love to burn out. It's just such a sweet song, IMO.

 

Oh Jeez PL, what are you making me do...

I’m only posting this because it was one of the first pieces of music my daughter performed to as a very young ballerina.... always gets me this one.

This year that little girl goes to Finchley to dance college

@Archers Road - that close to you? You may have to be my spy.

 

Finchley is just up the road from me Fats.

My ex missus was a dancer. She ran a ballet school at Alexandra Palace for years (she's sold up now, and moved to the West Country). I'll ask her if she knows the place in Finchley.

My mate's daughter trained at my ex missus' place. She spends half the year in India now, doing Bollywood movies.

 

Soothing.

 

That's good that you have a song that you can forever associate with your daughter, especially such a good song! Hope she does well at Finchley.

 

London studio centre

 

The virus claimed the life of Dave Greenfield Stranglers keyboard player.

 

Sad news, I can still remember vividly first hearing No More Heroes and his distinctive keyboards, this is probably his best moment on record

I go for a stroll in the trees fairly regularly.

R.I.P. Dave...

 

My absolute all-time favourite Stranglers track. I too go for a stroll in the trees when I can

 

Picking up on the story about "Glee" , I was reminded of a Christmas meal I had on site whilst working for a national contractor near Abingdon. The team went Go-kart racing and afterwards we retired for a meal at a Chinese restaurant. Everyone was seating in the main dining hall of the restaurant and the size of the room meant that people tended to chat amongst their neighbours or whoever was sitting across the table. It was quite noisy when the structural engineer piped up and said that the best ever gig he had been to was Cliff Richard at the Wembley Arena. The whole of the hall immediately fell silent in total shock. Needless to say, that was the end of his credibility on that project!

 

Yep purely heaven on earth.

 

I do like all music, but (un)fortunately, IMO there is no music like 80s music.

Louis Armstrong, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy, Big Bopper etc are just a few that I listen almost daily, but play me a line from nearly any 80s track and I will tell you the song, the artist, the year and most times the month

Black Box, ride on time signalled the end of the greatest era of music ever. IMO From an 80s child

 

No.7

I am not really in to pop music but I do think that the 1980s marked the end of the point whereby a lot of it ceased to be interesting. There was an issue with a degree of over-production and reliance on the use of things such as the Fairlight system to replacing drumming which mark this music of it's time, however, I do wonder just how hard it would be in 202 for someone such as Prince to break through. You wonder if that might be too challenging for a lot of today's audiences You could easily build up a list of artists from that decade who knew what they wee doing musically and where the results might not be dependent upon chart success. For example, you would have thought that an album like Sting's "Dream of the Blue turtles" might not be possible nowadays from a mainstream artist.

As far as jazz was concerned, I think the 1980s were terrific. There were still loads of musicians playing who had started their careers in the 1930s like Benny Goodman, Woody Herman and Count Basie whereas more modern players like Joe Henderson were still reaching maturity and after the deviation in to fusion, were starting to be appreciated again. At the same time, there was a generation of "New Neos" such s the Marsalis brothers who kick-started the interest in more acoustic jazz. This prompted a reaction from the avant garde whereas a new generation of jazz seemed to be ushered in with the likes of Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, etc. In Europe, labels like ECM seemed to be producing really innovative music whilst Britain's jazz community seemed to be divided over whether the likes of Courtney Pine or Andy Shepperd was better or writing letters to "Jazz Journal" complaining that the band Loose Tubes were not jazz. It was an extremely fertile era and replaying some music from this decade whilst a home, it is staggering just how much of it stands the test of time,