I have been reading Sadi's List of the Moments and decided to offer up my own variation, picking five songs on my mind each week and elaborating on why I picked what I did.
This week's list:
1 - "Mad World" by Tears for Fears. I have always loved this song and used to sing it all the time. (Well, mouth it really, since I have little musical ability). My interest in the song was re-ignited by the excellent acoustic cover of it used in the brilliant movie Donnie Darko, as Wikipedia explains.
Check out these great lyrics:
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
2 - "Hallelujah" - I like both the Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley versions of this song, which also has amazing lyrics. As Wikipedia describes there are multiple versions of the song — including two versions by Cohen — with varying lyrics. It's so sad that Buckley died so young. And whether his death was a suicide, like his musician father's suicide before him, or accidental, he is someone who had so much talent and promise.
From Buckley's version:
Well, maybe there's a god above
but all i've ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
it's not a cry that you hear at night
it's not somebody who's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
hallelujah...
3 - "I Chalk" by Justin Roberts. This song is my favorite on his children's music album, which I reviewed previously. It is from his new album, Meltdown!
Sample lyric:
Outside our house, the neighbors just gawk (or maybe not)
Why can't they see there's a museum on our block
All the grown ups they just stand around and talk I chalk
I ch-ch-ch chalk
Sister and me, drew dragons and kings (with tiny wings)
While all the grown ups talked about their grown up things
I drew a monster's door and made sure it was locked I chalk
I ch-ch-ch chalk
Article comments
1 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
You're electic, like me... so you have varied taste... Johnny Cash is/was the man.... Have you seen The Man in Black? If not, i highly recomment it.
Good list - nicely done.... i know all of the songs on here and like them all. :)
cheers,
sadi
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Congratulations on, um, having ears, I guess.
3 - Steve
Hey, Scott,
Interesting list, only familiar with tune #1 however, and the cover of it you refer to (I may have heard Cohen's "Hallelujah" once). I preferred their follow-up album rather than their debut album from which "Mad World" comes from. Lyrics are rather dark on the latter one.
I agree with you about P.I.L., they have had a few good tunes ("Rise", "Don't Ask Me") but I don't think I could handle a whole album of theirs. His vocals are not the best to say the least!
4 - Scott Butki
Thanks. Proud of my ears.
Sadi, do you mean Walk the Line?
I don't like Tears for Fears poppier stuff like "shout".
5 - Steve
Would you say you are more of a 'rocker' than a 'popper' generally, Scott?
6 - Scott Butki
Not just rock. I like edgy stuff that doesn't always rock, like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry too.
And there are some power pop bands I like like Fountains of Wayne. What I don't like is bands that are good that go pop for no apparent reason.
7 - Steve
Actually, the more I think about it, not sure I can see there being a difference musically (as far as pop vs rock go) between their first and second albums really, only that their first album is darker and more pessimistic lyrically.
I remember the lead singer saying after the release of their first single between the two albums ("The Way You Are") that he felt there was nowhere else to go, in terms of the lyrical direction they were going in, and he didn't want them to keep repeating themselves.