Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So, what are you listening to?

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals -- This is the hottest music I've discovered in a long while.

I've been listening to "In Italia" by Fabri Fibra. It's really fast-paced, powerful, and <strike>optimistic</strike> cynical.

When my last girlfriend and I were going through a rough time, this became my favorite song:

Perfect
by Marianas Trench

Please sing to me,
I can see you open up to breathe.
Fast words make it easier on me,
If the points to never disappoint you,
Somebody's got to tell me what to do
I just wish you could have seen me
When it used to come so easy.
I'd like to say that it's easy to stay
But it's not for me,
Cause I'm barely here at all.

Slow down now, the secrets out
And I swear now I can make this perfect.
What you want, what you need has been killing me.
Trying to be everything that you want me to be.
I'll say yes, I'll undress, I've done more for less and
I will change everything till it's perfect again.

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/marianas_trench/#share

Algebra by Airship.

I'm back into a goth metal faze again so i've been listening to lots of Seraphim Shock and Type O Negative

Don't forget We Are The Fallen and Rain Fell Within!

Dude, I asked you a question on "Your latest favorite song" thread (p. 49) almost two months ago. Go look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNiJx_WMB_s&NR=1&feature=fvwp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3SqYMgKhsk&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTCigoQf7MU&feature=related


Just inna funky, 70's Bob Welch mood.

really in a funky mood.

Love me some Boz Skaggs too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s8l75Oxf1U&feature=related


and 10cc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-d5UXxOCE8&feature=related

the Orleans. Great stuff like this.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwK9gwX3ZBs&feature=related

Savage Garden's Hold Me - it's "our" song!

I've always been a sucker for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au0_4hE_4-g&feature=related

or any of their music actually.

Man, just clicking back through this thread brings up some great stuff. Still love me some Orleans.

Went bombin' round youtube and started making a list of songs just for fits and spickle.


Rock kills kid- Paralyzed
Foster the People- Pumped up kicks
Adelle- Rolling in the deep
Sixx AM- this is gonna hurt
Rev Theory- Hell yeah
The Racontuers- Steady as she goes
Seether- Remedy
Ugly Kid Joe- I hate everything about you
Godsmack- Voodoo
The killers- somebody told me
Wolfmother- woman
Wolfmother- Joker and the thief
Danzig- Mother
The Cult- Soul Asylum
Tantric- breakdown
Keane- somewhere only we know

I've decided to try to keep track of everything I listen to this year. Here's the CDs I've spun so far today, in no particular order, with commentary:

The Church, "Starfish" - The biggest-selling album by the Australian proto-goths is often criticized for its slick Hollywood production, but I find the sound to be a timeless tonic.

The Cure, "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" - Second only to its predecessor, "The Head on the Door" as my favorite album by the English proto-goths. It goes down like ice cream...or just like heaven.

Morrissey, "Kill Uncle" - The Morrissey album that it's always been hip to badmouth, and even my usually contrary self has to partly agree that it's not one of his better ones, although there's only a couple tracks that I find outright bad (I always skip over them, of course.) If the mix weren't so sterile, it would be a better listen. And for what it's worth, his hair never looked better than on this album.

Right now I'm listening to:

Julian Cope, "Saint Julian." Cope's first of two back to back "sell out to the mainstream" albums, and by far the better of the two, although his gift for melodic hooks deserts him on some of the album tracks, and "Planet Ride" sounds like a bad imitation of Peter Gabriel's more commercial stuff. But "Trampolene," "World Shut Your Mouth," "Spacehopper," "Eve's Volcano," and "Shot Down" all rock hard and true.

Currently listening to another Cope album, "Peggy Suicide," which I hadn't played for a while, because while his 90s albums are arguably the ones where he found his own voice, I now find that I much prefer Cope as a quirky 80s popster than a grumpy 90s hippie. Still, "Peggy Suicide" has some of the best psychedelic music recorded since the 60s.

So far today...

The Cars, "Heartbeat City" - My Anglophiliac listening tendencies make it only natural that I'd like the Cars, as they had far more left-field influences than most American bands of their generation (Ric Ocasek's vocal stylings owe as much to Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry as they do to Buddy Holly.) That said, "Heartbeat City" is the only one of their albums that I can listen to from beginning to end, and it's tempting to give the credit to super-producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, arguably the greatest producer in rock music from 1979 (AC/DC's "Highway to Hell") to 1987 (Def Leppard's "Hysteria.") It's as 80s slick as 80s slick comes, but sometimes that's a good thing.

The Cars, "Door to Door" - Originally intended as a back to basics album after the painstaking approach of Mutt Lange, there is no small irony that the worst tracks are the ones that sound most like the early Cars albums, and the best are those most in the same vein as "Heartbeat City."

Morrissey, "Your Arsenal" - To my mind, this is Morrissey's masterpiece. Produced by guitar hero Mick Ronson (David Bowie, Ian Hunter, Bob Dylan), the album has a thick, muscular sound that nonetheless gives the songs plenty of room to breathe. And, oh, what songs! Kicking off with the brisk "You're Gonna Need Someone By Your Side," we then stomp along with "Glamorous Glue," where Morrissey laments globalization (in 1992!) The next two tracks are among Morrissey's most controversial -- the softly menacing "We'll Let You Know" refuses to flinch from the insular ugliness of hooligan culture, leading many to believe he was glorifying it; "The National Front Disco" is a bucking stallion of a rocker which again refuses easy answers to the queasy topic it broaches, in this case lost and confused youths who are easily led down the road of right-wing extremism. And just when the album threatens to become oppresively grim, we get a triad of frisky pop songs: "Certain People I Know" (an affectionately bitchy appraisal of Morrissey's circle of friends), "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" (a venomously bitchy swipe at Morrissey's rivals), and "You're the One for Me, Fatty" (self-explanatory.) Then, once again, before the album seems like it's going too far in one direction, comes another shift: the acoustic dirge "Seasick, Yet Still Docked", the most "typical" Morrissey song on the album, but a lovely number nonetheless. The album climaxes with the one-two punch of "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" (a string-laden ballad featuring an unusually hopeful lyric) and "Tomorrow" (which seamlessly alternates between power chords and a steady chug-chug.) This, to me, is what should have been the future of rock and roll, not the thud and blunder of grunge. Still, I can take comfort in knowing that this album holds up much better than other, better selling and more influential albums of its time.

Morrissey, "Vauxhall and I" - The follow-up to "Your Arsenal", recorded after the death of Ronson and two other members of Morrissey's circle, does a 180-degree stylistic turn towards an ambient softness. The mourning singer wrote some of his best, most clear-eyed lyrics for this album. The only problem I have with it is the uniform sweetness of Steve Lillywhite's production, which works beautifully on the ballads but gums up the rockers with sticky aural caramelization. Still a remarkable album, a favorite of many Morrissey fans, and the singer's own favorite of his solo albums.

Currently playing...

Bob Dylan, "Live 1975" - Documenting the tour known as The Rolling Thunder Revue, on which the lead guitarist was the great Mick Ronson, this double-CD set makes a good case for Dylan as a still-vital writer and performer in the decade immediately following the one with which he is most associated.

At this moment, Treble Charger's "Brand New Low".

Today's theme has been (allegedly) lesser albums by great artists...

Morrissey, "Southpaw Grammar" - The follow-up to "Vauxhall and I" seems to have started out as a return to rockier territory, but something went awry. What we ended up with was a bunch of rather samey-sounding rock songs bookended by two overlong monstrosities, although at least the first monster, "The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils" works as a sort of post-punk update of pomp-rock. "The Boy Racer" and "Reader Meet Author" stand out among the shorter tracks, while the middle track, "The Operation", would be the catchiest thing on the album if it weren't for the gratuitous drum solo and guitar wig-out. A hard album to love, but there's something perversely compelling about it.

Morrissey, "Maladjusted" - I think this one is underrated, and that the problem most people have with the album is that the mellow and/or frivoulous tracks are much better than the ones where Morrissey bares his teeth. Lead single "Alma Matters" has a lovely melody, "Trouble Loves Me" is a beautiful ballad that should have been a single, "Roy's Keen" is a camp delight, and "Papa Jack" is a sort of refinement of the previous album's sound. "Ammunition", "He Cried", and "Wide to Receive" are all pleasant enough. Overall, the album seems to anticipate the relocation to sunshiny, easy-going Los Angeles that Morrissey embarked on soon after its release.

Julian Cope, "My Nation Underground" - This is the one where he pretty much just gave up and tried to be a compliant little pop star. Thankfully, he shook off that malaise and has never looked back. And the album's not uniformly terrible -- the oldies covers are fun, "I'm Not Losing Sleep" is decent, and "Charlotte Anne" (charlatan, get it?) is a standout; even Cope admits, in hindsight, that "Charlotte Anne" was the one song on this album that he got just right.

It may come as a surprise that I like some of R.E.M.'s albums, even though they were the godfathers of mall-ternative rock. But they did it first, and they did it best.

"Life's Rich Pageant" - As I just don't "get" their first three albums, their fourth is my personal number one. Teaming up R.E.M. with John Melonhead's producer, Don Gehman, must have seemed a recipe for disaster, but the proof is in the pudding. The beautiful "Fall on Me" should have been a much bigger hit than it was, "Flowers of Guatemala," "Swan Swan H", "Cuyahoga," and "Why Don't We Give It Away" are all lovely, and most of the uptempo ones are both fun and thoughful. "Superman" (a cover of a sixties obscurity) and "Underneath the Bunker" are just plain fun.

I don't own the fifth album, "Document," because I think the only decent thing on it is the cover of Wire's "Strange," and otherwise it's a dreary and colorless attempt at a "rawk" album.

"Green" - A nice variety of styles on display on their sixth album and first for a major label, my favorite being the hit single "Stand."

"Out of Time" - Another grab-bag of styles, this one is more uneven than "Green", but it has two of my favorite songs of theirs, "Shiny Happy People" (yes, I like it, and I make no excuses) and "Losing My Religion." The only dud on it is the churlish opener, "Radio Song."

"Automatic for the People" - A masterpiece of contemplative ambience, comparable to Morrissey's "Vauxhall and I" from two years later. Not a bad track on this one, and if "Life's Rich Pageant" is their Saturday night album, then "Automatic for the People" is their Sunday morning album.

The whoosh through the furnace's air return vent.

wye oak

Felt sick, stayed in, listened to a lot of music:

Madness, "Madness" - A band that is not to blame for its load of bad American imitators, these Londoners playfully blended English music hall, Jamaican rhythms, and universal carnival keyboards, while adding enough substance and melancholy to avoid being purely whimsical. This compilation, which introduced the band to Americans, is a combination of UK hit singles with selected tracks from what is generally considered their best album, "The Rise and Fall."

Madness, "Total Madness" - A later compilation notable for including six of their later, less successful singles, which in hindsight are just as good as their earlier ones.

Nick Lowe, "Labour of Lust" - One of the best albums to come out of the New Wave movement, it was recently reissued with the proper amount of tracks and sequencing. Playing the role of irrepresible but nonetheless lovable rock & roll rascal, Lowe unleashed a dozen melodic tales from the road, including his biggest hit, "Cruel to Be Kind."

Elvis Costello, "The Very Best of..." - The only two Elvis C. albums I own are this compilation and the covers collection "Kojak Variety." I think the guy has a facility for the clever turn of phrase, an exquisite taste in music, and is great at talking and writing about music (his liner notes are often more entertaining than the albums,) but he's just not much of a composer or singer (although I find his much-mocked voice to be more endearing than annoying.) This compilation gathers most of the highlights from the first decade of his career. IMO, it peaks early with the peerless UK #2 "Oliver's Army" (sometimes the charts don't lie.)

Squeeze, "Singles 45 & Under" - At their best, bandleaders/singers Glenn Tilbrook & Chris Difford blended their contrasting voices and lyrical outlooks to make some terrific pop songs...and one terrfic album (see below.)

Squeeze, "East Side Story" - Another of the best albums to come out of the New Wave movement, this is a delightful assortment of tunes and styles from start to finish, and includes the band's career high, "Tempted," (sung not by Tilbrook or Difford, but by Paul Carrack, who has a richer, fuller white-soul voice that made all the difference -- if only Carrack had stayed with the band longer.)

More to come later.

Lily Allen, "It's Not Me, It's You" - Proving she was much more than a celebrity for its own sake, her second (and possibly final) album revealed her to be a sly social commentator while showing a greater emotional range than her relentlessly sweary and sarcastic earlier work; oh, she can still spit venom with the best of them (one track is titled "F*** You" -- maybe that's where Cee-Lo Green got the idea), but the most affecting moments are the confessional ones, my personal favorite being her ode to her complicated relationship with her mother, "Chinese" (as in, "We'll get a Choinese an' wotch TV.")

The Style Council, "The Singular Adventures of the Style Council" - My Anglophilia has, surprisingly, never translated into a real appreciation of Paul Weller. But of his three phases -- the angry young New Waver of the Jam, the pseudo-continental white soul crooner of the Style Council, and the gruff confessional singer/songwriter of his solo career -- I prefer the Style Council by far. It doesn't all hold up, especially the later songs, but the sincerity of Weller's love of black music puts it head and shoulders above the majority of his 80s peers.

Heaven 17, "Higher and Higher, the Best of..." Human League offshoot whose songs hold up better than those of their sister group, maybe because they weren't as popular in America and so didn't get overplayed on the radio and reduced to fodder for ironists with nothing better to do. Having said that, my favorite is their only US Hot 100 entry, "Let Me Go."

Have spent most of the day sick in bed, will get back in bed soon. Hopefully more music tomorrow.