Richardgm's Last.fm Journal

150 000 Tracks Scrobbed

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 14:09:32 +0000

And it happened to be Brandy - He Is.

Third Year - The Tracks

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 01:52:46 +0000

Today, August 30, 2009 marks my third year on last.fm. My custom is that every year on this day I post my top ten tracks and my top ten artists of the past 365 days.

In total I have played over 139 265 tracks*.
Therefore I played over 39 000 tracks in one year.
An average of 109 songs were played each day (down from 132)

Click for Year 1
Click for Year 2

NEW 1.Britney Spears – Womanizer - played 172 times.
▲ 2. Sarah Brightman – Attesa - played 167 times (217 total).
NEW 3. audiomachine – Thunderdome (Build @ 1:46) - played 151 times.
NEW 4. Beyoncé – If I Were a Boy - played 145 times.
NEW 5. Luciano Pavarotti –II gladiatore - played 136 times.
NEW 6. Brandy – Right Here (Departed) - played 129 times.
NEW 7.Brandy – Drum Life - played 128 times,
NEW 8. Martin Phipps – The Work Of The Lord - played 117 times.
▲ 9. Future World Music – Unstoppable - played 113 times (130 total).
NEW 10.Martin Phipps – Gloriana - played 112 times.

1. Britney Spears' first single from her latest album Circus, Womanizer has topped my most played track of the year. Interestingly, this is the second time her first single from her album has made my year-end top ten.

2. The first of two tracks that I played prior to August 30 2008, Attesa by Sarah Brightman is a great classical song. It has been played 217 times in total.

3. New artist Audiomachine makes a big debut with Thunderdome (Build @ 1:46). If you fancy the Trailer Music genre, then you have to listen to this track.

4. The first track I heard from Beyonce's latest album (I Am...) is one of the most powerful power pop song of the year; and it shows. If I Were A Boy was played 145 times in 365 days.

5. Pavarotti's Il Gladiatore is a powerful classical song with remnants of The Gladiator soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Luciano Pavarotti's perfomance is the best I have come across thus far, and it shows in play counts.

Third Year - The Artists

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:32:54 +0000

Today, August 30, 2009 marks my third year on last.fm. My custom is that every year on this day I post my top ten tracks and my top ten artists of the past 365 days.

Click for Year 1
Click for Year 2

In total I have played over 139 265 tracks*.
Therefore I played over 39 000 tracks in one year.
An average of 109 songs were played each day (down from 132)

– 1. X-Ray Dog - played 1,258 this year (11,446 total).
NEW 2. Martin Phipps - played 1,123 this year.
▲3. Michael Jackson - played 1,059 this year (2,927 total).
▼4. Future World Music - played 1,058 this year (2,592 total).
▲5. Mariah Carey - played 958 times this year (3,532 total).
▲6. Beyoncé - played 900 times this year (1,399 total).
NEW 7. audiomachine - played 873 times this year.
▼8. Moby - played 782 times this year (2,526 total)
▲9. Brandy - played 777 times this year (1,158 total)
▲10. Andrea Bocelli - played 742 times this year (1,438 total)

1. Again for the third consecutive year, X-Ray Dog have been my most played artist.
This year's top played song: Darkest Empire
This year's plays / position: 91 / #18

2. One of two new artists made their way unto my year-end top 10 charts, the highest placer is Martin Phipps. More on him and the music I have been listening to here.
This year's top played song: The Work Of The Lord
This year's plays / position: 117 / #8

3. Michael Jackson has made his way unto my top ten. Of course this is thanks to his recent death, and my discovering his older songs (Motown).
This year's top played song: Stranger In Moscow
This year's plays / position: 69 /#40

4. Trailer music creators, Future World Music has fallen one spot, and is now #4 on my year-end charts.
This year's top played song: Unstoppable
This year's plays / position: 119 / #9

5. Mariah Carey resurged this year, climbing one spot as her E=MC2 was played quite a few times (along with her old catalog).
This year's top played song: Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme From Mahogany)
This year's plays / position: 30 / #159

6. Beyonce's album I Am... was no doubt a hit, and it shows in my plays of her. Like Martin Phipps, and Michael Jackson, this is her first time on my year-end top 10 ten.
This year's top played song: If I Were A Boy
This year's plays / position: 145 / #4

7. The second and final new artist on my top 10 artists of the past 365 years is the Trailer music project titled Audiomachine.
This year's top played song: Thunderdome (Build @ 1:46)
This year's plays / position: 151 / #3

8. This is Moby's second year on these charts. While he falls to #8 from #7, my love for his music remains.
This year's top played song: One Of These Mornings
This year's plays / position: 57 / #56

9. Brandy's album Human was released late 2008, her album plays are reflected here. She too is a new-comer to the top 10.
This year's top played song: Right Here (Departed)
This year's plays / position: 129 / #6

10. Andrea Bocelli finally made it unto the top 10 year end after missing out on his debut year, the year 2008. His Incanto, along with plays from earlier works propelled him to #10, with742 plays.
This year's top played song: Because
This year's plays / position: 109 / #12

So what have we learned? I played a significantly smaller amount of songs this past year. What would have accounted for this? My final year at University, my non-reliance on music as a past time, and traveling on the road where my CD player does not scrobble tracks. This is my first year that all my 10 ten artists were not played over 1, 000 times.

Also, unlike my first year on last.fm (August 30 2006 - 2007), where New Age music mostly filled my appetite, Pop / R&B and Trailer Music seems to be preferred these days.

*These number are not entirely accurate as I am yet to scrobble two weeks of play data from my Zune.

E Lucevan Le Stelle

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:06:19 +0000

It has been a while since I wrote a note on a song. But I had to express my love for the track E Lucevan Le Stelle.

Oddly, I have had this track in my library for over two years without really noticing it. (This is one of the reasons why I don't delete songs I find "ok" on a couple listens... you never know what gem you my find when my 5,500+ mp3s are on shuffle).

I can't tell the exact time I downloaded my first version of E Lucevan Le Stelle, but I know for a fact it came from a bootleg Era album titled Ocarina Dream Opera.
I played this version 22 times, up until I realized that most of the songs came from the artist Quinn's album The Solemn Vow.

Oddly, the track doesn't exist on that album.... I still don't know who is the original artist for the track I currently have, now still titled Quinn - E Lucevan Le Stele (Tosca).

----during writing this Journal, something came to me; why not use SHAZAM, the iPhone application that allows you to determine the track and artist of any given song. Guess what? That version of E Lucevan Le Stelle came up UNRECOGNIZED. Anyone willing to take a listen to the version I have, feel free to download here, and if you know who it is (artist, album), please tell me.\

Anyway, back to my discovery of this track. It is important to note that the version I had for years now ( tagged as ERA then QUINN) contained no lyrics. This is probably the reason for me not taking note of the song.

Interesting to note that both versions of this song was played 44 times in total.

Enter Paul Potts' latest album Passione. Guess what? The last track on the album is E Lucevan Le Stelle.

It was one day a few weeks ago I realized that I knew this song; it did sound familiar. Indeed... this was when I realized I had it for years.

I really began to grow into the song when I discovered Jonathan Ansell... and he too had a version of the track. Since then (back in May) I favourited both versions.

It was not until yesterday June 18 that I really begain to love this track. So I decided to download / listen to all versions I could (thanks to the Zune Pass). I am, however, disappointed in the fact that Luciano Pavarotti did not record a studio version of this track. On the other hand, this version of the song is never-the-less great.

But unfortunately because of my OCDness, I can't download and keep a live-version of a track in my library. The cleanness of studio-tracks is my forte. I may concede, and download the live track after all. We have to wait and see though.

E Lucevan Le Stelle by Mario Lanzo is another version that I really like. Powerful good stuff.

I then downloaded Russell Watson's version, he does a great job with his interpretation of the classic song. His version is titled differently (according to Zune) it is Tosca, Act III: E Lucevan Le Stelle. I am tempted to rename it for the sake of order; since all the versions I have is simply:

E Lucevan Le Stelle

----

After doing simple mathematics I realize that I have played the track over 170 times by the above artists. If it was a single artist track it would have been placed at 78 on my overall tracks played since August 2006.

Martin Phipps - New 3 Month King - in 1 day!

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 14:49:34 +0000

In a little over 24 hours since I started playing Martin Phipps, he has been played 392 times. This means that he tops X-Ray Dog, who was played 391 times in three months.

The album that I have been listening to is Elizabeth 1 The Virgin Queen. I discovered this soundtrack after watching the movie of the same name.

If you haven't figured it out by now; the album is great. Some notable tracks are:

The Work Of The Lord
The Virgin Queen
A Legacy Of Comfort
God Breathed
The Queen Lives
Remember Me
Gloriana

These tracks, coupled with the visual (the movie), are great... seamless... timeless.

Download it here. (iTunes)

/March 21 Edit: With 824 plays, Martin Phipps is now #1 on the 3 Month Chart.

120,000 Tracks Scrobbed

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 16:23:29 +0000

Today, Friday January 9 2009, I scrobbed my 120000th track: Tina Turner's The Best

It took me 132 days to play 20 000 tracks.

First Track of 2009

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 14:56:06 +0000

I recently downloaded the album Tina! because of the song Private Dancer by Tina Turner. It was my first track scrobbed of 2009.

2nd Year - The Tracks

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:03:30 +0000

Today, August 31 marks my second year (and 1 day) registered on Last.fm. To mark the date, I will list my top ten songs, and artists, played over the some 365 days.

number denotes amount played in 12 months
(number denotes amount times played in total)

NEW 1. Andrea Bocelli – Canto Della Terra - 338
NEW 2. Sarah Brightman – Canto della terra (Duet with Andrea Bocelli) - 234
NEW 3. Britney Spears – Gimme More - 231
NEW 4. Moby – Everyday It's 1989 - 227
NEW 5. Tarja Turunen – Our Great Divide - 211
▲ 6. Hans Zimmer – Calypso - 193 (530)
▲ 7. Pink – Who Knew - 162 (165)
▼ 8. X-Ray Dog – Dark Empire (Remix) - 151 (1,087)
▲ 9. E Nomine – Schwarze Sonne - 147 (148)
▼10. Josh Groban – Un Giorno Per Noi - 146 (1,005)

Interesting to note, 5/10 tracks are tracks I played prior to August 30, 2007.While 5 my top 5 played tracks are new.

My top 2 tracks are actually the same song; just sung slightly differently. You can see that I clearly prefer Andrea Bocelli's version of Canto Della Terra over the duet with Sarah Brightman.

2nd Year - The Artists

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:49:08 +0000

Click for 1 Year - The Artists

/note/ I started this Journal on the 30th, but didn't publish until I finished editing.

Today, August 30, 2008 marks my second year on last.fm. And to not break with tradition, I am going to list, and detail my top 10 artists played in some 365 days.

number denotes amount played in 12 months
(number denotes amount times played in total)

– 1. X-Ray Dog - 3,709 (10,186)
▲ 2. E Nomine - 2,483 (2,503)
NEW 3. Future World Music - 1,534
▲ 4. Immediate Music - 1,409 (3,149)
NEW 5. Within Temptation - 1,399
▲ 6. Mariah Carey - 1,353 (2,569)
▲ 7. Moby - 1,218 (1,744)
NEW 8. Tarja Turunen - 1,203
▼ 9. Lesiëm - 1,181 (6,904)
▼ 10. Enya - 1,121 (3,117)

Firstly one must note that X-Ray Dog is once again atop my charts.
Additionally, 3 artists are new, while 6 are artists I played prior to Aug 30, 2007.

One Hundred Thousand Tracks Played

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:33:40 +0000

Today (two years, and one day into last.fm), I played my 100,000 track, Same Mistake, by James Blunt.

It is the first time I played a 'milestone-track' on purpose. I must admit, I was hoping to play my 100,000 track on my 2nd anniversary here on last.fm, but I have seemed to have gotten somewhat of a life lately.

It took 2 months 2 weeks to play 10,000 tracks from my 90,000.