artgeek707's Last.fm Journal

New Journals

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 19:05:06 +0000

I have decided to stop doing these last fm journals here as I have now got a tumblr, a more appropriate space for them. My account is http://covergence.tumblr.com/
To all the people who followed me here, thank you so much for your support. Feel free to continue messaging me and talking to me on here as I'm not leaving last fm.

I'm thinking of reposting a few of my better journals from here to my tumblr and I've already made one serious note there already, you can read it here
http://covergence.tumblr.com/post/4602979158/coming-up-man-sized-highlights-of-the-musical-career

thanks for your support and love

My Top Tracks of 2010

Sat, 8 Jan 2011 07:11:07 +0000

I figured I'd wait to post one of these until the year ended just in case something grabbed me at the very end. By now everyone is sick of these lists, but I'm going to make one anyway.... because I'm bored on a friday night with no one to hang with. So here are my favorite tracks of 2010.

Reggie Watts - Fuck Shit Stack
It takes a special kind of humor to keep me keenly amused. This track biting with acid for all those hip hop and rap stereotypes was a beautiful take that at the modern rap stations that play only the kind of music Reggie is mocking here.

Glasser - Mirrorage
Witchy, ethereal, haunting... all adjectives that perfectly capture the mood of this song. From the beautiful even tone of Glasser's voice to the throaty yells and gasps to the delicate instrumentation, this track captured my imagination an held my interest in this artist.

Cee Lo Green - Fuck You
Almost everyone who heard this song fell in love with it. A good natured take that at a horrible gold-digger, this song is so catchy that it grips your brain and wont leave until you tell that person who broke your heart off. Oh but it's such a fun song that most people can relate to. Part of it is like a nerds fantasy of being blown off by a shallow hottie and then later getting rich and powerful and rubbing it in said broke hottie's face. Sure it's corny at times, but the emotion is genuine and it deserves all the plays it gets.

Liars - Scissor
This song's atmosphere really makes it. It just builds tension and releases it in two gusts of fury. If it was slightly longer it might be a bit more satisfying but other than that I can't find any faults. Angus Andrew's voice is very well suited to this type of music and his drunken delivery of the lines only give the song a more deranged feel.

Gorillaz - Stylo
It can be said that the Gorillaz have an ear for particularly good feature spots in their songs and it's true Mos Def is great here. However, it is Bobby Womacks powerful and impassioned delivery that makes this song the crowning moment of awesome for an already great albbum. The entire song seems to be built around his voice as the mantra of "overload, overload" really kicks in on part of his guest spot. When he first appears on the track the music beforehand rises in this great crescendo. Positioned next to Damon Albarns monotone for fictional character 2-D Womacks voice has even more power and emotion to it.

Arcade Fire - We Used to Wait
A song about change in the times and a sad nostalgia, this song pretty much defines The Suburbs. Pathos, love, hope, and melancholy are all echoed in this beautiful track that makes great use of the size of Arcade Fire to great effect. This track is incredibly spacious and sounds huge making the emotional nature of it seeming to overpower the listener. To kick up the nostalgia an interactive music video was set up using the listeners childhood home address as the setting. It's quite moving.
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

Janelle Monáe - Cold War
Yes I am an emotional person and this tears at my heartstrings. The line "I try to find my peace/I was made to believe, there's something wrong with me," gives me goosebumps as I was heavily ostracized in my childhood. This is a universal sentiment and it's displayed so eloquently. The title has a bit of fridge brilliance as it refers not to a physical fight but rather one of words and bullying that displays itself in less overt, more passive forms that crumble victims sense of self worth. As an anthem for those rejected this song gives hope and an inspiring message of coming to terms with oneself.

Song Dissection: "Drumming Song" - Florence + The Machine

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:29:12 +0000

Uum this journal might become a little NSFW so proceed with caution.

It's that time again, now that the major celebrations are a few days past I feel up to overanalyzing pop music for my own and hopefully your amusement. It's another Florence + the Machine track (I promise if I do another journal like this I'll pick a different group) The track we're here to inspect is Drumming Song.

This as I said in my last journal was my first exposure to Florence Welch and when I first viewed this, though I wasn't convinced at the time, I could sense something different and interesting about the music. So I went back for a few listens awhile later, checked out her other singles (was wowed by Cosmic Love, and Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) underwhelmed by You've Got The Love).

Somehow after listening to the song for a few times I started associating it with paganism and lust and couldn't figure out why. So then I checked the lyrics.

There's a drumming noise inside my head
That starts when you're around
I swear that you could hear it
It makes such an all mighty sound

There's a drumming noise inside my head
That throws me to the ground
I swear that you should hear it
It makes such an all mighty sound

Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell

I ran to a tower where the church bells chime
I hoped that they would clear my mind
They left a ringing in my ear
But that drum's still beating loud and clear

Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell

Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell

Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell

As I move my feet towards your body
I can hear this beat it fills my head up
And gets louder and louder
It fills my head up and gets louder and louder

I run to the river and dive straight in
I pray that the water will drown out the din
But as the water fills my mouth
It couldn't wash the echoes out
But as the water fills my mouth
It couldn't wash the echoes out

I swallow the sound and it swallows me whole
Till there's nothing left inside my soul
As empty as that beating drum
But the sound has just begun

As I move my feet towards your body
I can hear this beat it fills my head up
And gets louder and louder
It fills my head up and gets louder and louder

There's a drumming noise inside my head
That starts when you're around
I swear that you could hear it
It makes such an all mighty sound

There's a drumming noise inside my head
That starts when you're around
I swear that you could hear it
It makes such an all mighty sound

Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell

Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell

As I move my feet towards your body
I can hear this beat it fills my head up
And gets louder and louder
It fills my head up and gets louder and louder

That all fit much better than I thought it would. Here's my interpretation for the song. The song is an allegory to the fight between a a proper god fearing Christian and her libido disguised (albeit thinly) as a fight between Christianity and Paganism.

First the Christianity vs Pagan conflict
Consider the fact that pagans are associated with drums and that in the Christian Church's early years, most of their efforts were in converting the pagans in Europe. It's only natural that when the two are invoked in a song they're pitted against one another as the adherents to the two have very different world views associated with their religions. The Drumming noise is the Pagan influence and the person hearing it is both drawn and repulsed by it.

The chorus points to at least one tidbit of interesting imagery.
"louder than sirens"
Many people nowadays associate pagan with Germanic and Celtic tribes and customs, however in the middle ages pagan was mainly a description for the worshippers of the Greek and Roman gods, thus the Odyssey reference. Hell, the western image of the cloven hoofed, goat horned, devil himself is based off of Pan.

Could it be????????, SATAN <-- 12 points to Gryffindor for anyone who gets that reference

So the listener goes to a church tower to drown out the sound, which only causes it to get worse. An interesting fact here to note is that when Christianity spread to the country in many areas the priest actively adopted many pagan practices and symbols into the church to bring in the country folk. How many of you celebrated Christmas with a Christmas Tree? That's a very popular example that's endured for ages. A different more mysterious example would be the Sheela Na Gigs of Ireland and Britain. They're there carvings of old women prominently displaying their genitals that many scholars believe were aids for women in childbirth and fertility protectors for women and livestock.

so that's what that early PJ Harvey song was a reference to

This second one is a picture I took last summer when I was in Ireland. See if you can spot the Sheela.

Most of these stone figures were found in old country churches where later after their rediscovery, were treated like an embarrassment to the church with many being destroyed or hidden from public view. So if said tower our unnamed narrator were running to had a sheela carved into it, it only makes sense that the drums would grow stronger.

The woman dives in the river to baptize herself to dispel the evil but fails while the song continues and you have to hear the rest of the chorus again. Why she fails we don't know for sure. But i suspect the reason the baptism didn't dispel the voices was because like the sheela na gigs many holy places where christians baptized people were also the site of pagan holy springs or rivers. Thus the older religion prevails.

Christians:0
Pagans:1

That however isn't just the end of the song as the drumming is put in context of a person with the noise getting amplified relative to the proximity of the narrator to said guy. You can't have these spatial references with only spiritual references. You need a good individual or object to take up the space. An obvious clue in the favor of love song. Consider again, pagans these days are associated with primal carnal things, from human sacrifice to Orgies of sex. Thus I believe that this song has two layers one in which an uptight conservative young woman gains such a deep seated attraction that it sets off her libido (being portrayed as paganism of course) and her strict moral code (christianity).

This explains why when the thing she's think about gets nearer her lust for that thing or character grows the closer she is to him/her/it. She attempts baptism or being born again to try to erase these feelings that she considers sinful. But in the end it doesn't work and keeps growing.

The video again seems to have my back on this one. It takes place in a church (support!) and has Florence dressed in blue (a color associated with the Virgin Mary in Catholic tradition) with four other saintly girls kneeling, hands pressed in the "praying" position as she calmly starts to sing with a blank expression on her face.

This scene cuts back and forth between Florence writhing on the ground in black (a color often associated with evil) alone and dancing with those same girls from before also robed in black.

Once again I suspect the women in blue are the exterior facade and the women in black the libido.

damn sexy

As the song picks up after the chorus the libido Flo chokes

and the song picks up the pace the libido Flo and the libido girls become way more animated in their dancing. I interpret this this to signify a higher arousal

Before they genuflect like their exterior selves

And have their costumes switch back to virginal blue

and back

and forth

again

We then cut to Libido Flo and the gang swaying magnificently for the "water" verse. Possibly showing how that attempt at praying away with holy water failed.

Cue back to cut of the purity brigade tiptoeing underground possibly giving in to the libido

And from their arm positions we see them revealing the flashes of gold cloth underneath the blue robes. Perhaps a slow loss of inhibitions

Next we see regular Flo twirling around, having totally given into her libido with no concern whether her under-garments are seen. She's gone from this:

to this:

Both regular Flo and libido Flo are dancing in the same way now that her strict moral code has been set aside, for at least the video.

This is then intercut with Libido Flo wearing a mask. For those too lazy to watch the video it's something like this

It's one of those things you might not see the first time if you're not paying attention

The mask itself reminds me intensely of the designs of Leafman or greenman faces seen on some Germanic churches.

We get a reprisal of the chorus with more of the same cuts we've been seeing with a few shots here and there of the mask before it starts up again and there's a big difference. There seems to be four different groups now. The first that is distinctly separate is the leafman mask. I think that Flo symbolizes the brief euphoria experienced when giving in to her desires.

Then there's the Libido, there throughout the song but strongest when aroused and given in to

There's the external Flo who shows literally what route she's following, be it pleasure or modesty but following the example. They actually seemed to first appear after the "water" verse and you'll notice certain elements of their outfit are different from the blue robed "chastity" types.

And going from what I just typed this last "modesty" group hasn't been seen since the "water" verse where Libido effectively "won" out, and they don't look too happy about it.

Their return might mark regret for actions taken while in the aroused state. Sort of the self blame one might heap upon oneself after a regretful one night stand.

Yeah I'm done now. This is why I did "Rabbit Heart" first.

Anyway that's really all I have to say. It's quite a lot. I hope it's not as confusing or rambling as I think it looks. Keep in mind these are my opinions and my interpretations. None of this is fact unless Florence Welch sees this and confirms it. (which would be cool but impossibly unlikely)

Feel free to post a comment on either my idea or your own interpretation. I'd love to hear your spin on this song.

Song Dissection: "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" Florence + The Machine

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:17:51 +0000

Because I'm tired of just harping on bad music this is a new type of journal I'll do sporadically. Basically I'll take a song an try to find an underlying "hidden" theme or meaning underneath the sound. I will take suggestions but only songs that strike me personally will be "dissected"

I first encountered the group Florence + the Machine in the middle of 2009 on last fm through an advertisement comparing her to PJ Harvey. I was wary but intrigued and so I looked up Drumming Song. Though I disagreed with the ad (she sounds nothing like PJ and the themes both artists explore are different) I enjoyed the song and explored more of her small discography. Around that time I found this song; Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up).

Overall the song on the surface seems to be about empowerment. The majority of the comments I've seen on this song by fans tend to be about how pretty the song is and how it's like Alice and Wonderland. Very few recognize the not so hidden theme of human sacrifice within the lyrics.

The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamor fades
I start spinning slipping out of time
Was that the wrong pill to take (Raise it up)
You made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up
But will it ever be enough
(Raise it up, raise it up)
It's not enough
(Raise it up, raise it up)

Here I am, a rabbit hearted girl
Frozen in the headlights
It seems I've made the final sacrifice

We raise it up, this offering
We raise it up

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

I look around, but I can't find you
(raise it up)
If only I could see your face
(raise it up)
Instead of rushing towards the skyline
(raise it up)
I wish that I could just be brave

I must become a lion hearted girl
Ready for a fight
Before I make the final sacrifice

We raise it up, this offering
We raise it up

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

Raise it up, raise it up
(repeat)

And in the spring I shed my skin
And it blows away with the changing wind
The waters turn from blue to red
As towards the sky I offer it

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight
(repeat)

This is a gift

The first stanza on it's face seems rather innocuos and almost more Alice and Wonderland themed with the immediate mention of a looking glass. This could be a bit of a red herring meant to distract from the more obvious cues to the theme. Within that stanza is the line, "You made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up."

While very nondescript the first thing I thought of when I heard this was the biblical story of Jephthah and his daughter. In this story Jephthah asks God to help him win a battle and promises God that he will sacrifice the first person or thing that greets him when he returns home if he wins. He wins and when he returns home he is greeted by his beloved daughter. In the story he does indeed end up sacrificing his daughter.

The line "Who is the lamb and who is the knife" is a more obvious cue to the theme. The bit on Midas isn't necessarily about sacrifice but the story the line alludes to is Midas gaining a golden touch and accidentally killing his daughter by turning her into gold. A more metaphorical sacrifice of his family to his greed rather than a straight up tithe.

The next stanza is seen from the point of view of the victim preparing to be killed. There are a lot of stories of human sacrifice, particularly of the willing but one that strikes me as appropriate for this stanza is that of Iphigenia.

Iphigenia is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra of Greece. (anyone familiar with the Illiad should recognize those names) The myth goes that Agamemnon angered the goddess Artemis and she took the wind out of the sails of the Greek ships that were launched to attack Troy. The goddess could only be appeased if Iphigenia was sacrificed to her. What makes this story stand out from the others of fathers sacrificing daughters (anyone else notice this theme) is that she's portrayed as readily accepting this responsibility and willingly let herself be killed. This is why I suggest this story for this stanza as the tone seems to beset with determination for the act at hand.

The last stanza has several elements that point to the theme. The most obvious being. "The water turns from blue to red" A harder to catch one would be "And In the Spring I shed my skin" that refers to both springtime fertility sacrifices and one method of sacrifice; flaying.

The last words of the song represent to me the part in which the character draws her last breath.

The music video directly supports this theme with Florence Welch actually getting sacrificed. The whole look in the costuming and set evokes Victorian ideas of what pagans/celts were like (an interesting look to choose considering Victorians were obsessed with tragic beautiful deaths)

They celebrate a feast with Florence at the head and receiving the honor for her impeding doom, a practice that has been documented in several cultures that practiced ritual sacrifice

The table is then converted into a coffin and florence is placed in it, killed off camera, and the box lowered into the lake

So what did you think of my analysis? Was I too obvious or not enough? Did I over-analyze or gloss over important details? Feel free to comment even if you don't agree with my conclusion.

I know the next one of these will be another Florence + The Machine song, though I'll let you guess which one. Other than that I don't have any other songs planned for an analysis like this so feel free to leave suggestions. I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for reading.

The 3 Most Annoying Pop Music Cliche's

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 03:51:49 +0000

There's many reasons why a lot of people despise pop music and go out of their way to profess their hatred of it. I myself often avoid musicians that crack the top 40 charts. One of the biggest reasons are the cliches that plague the genre and make a lot of the fair sound exactly the same. While there is good pop music that ignores these awful trends, the majority that gets radio airplay does not so it's only fitting that I air my little list of grievances that I have with pop music.

1. "Shawty"
Shawty is the most obnoxious girl ever. Shawty wears applebottom jeans with fur lined boots and gets low low low low low.... okay okay my idiotic bid at humor failed but still I'm sick of hearing the word "shawty." For those of you lucky enough not to have encountered mainstream rap and r&b "shawty" or "shorty" is a term of endearment used by hip hop artists on girls they like. It's very similar to the use of "baby" in that way but damn is it annoying. Apparently it's too difficult to attach names to these girls you want to rap about (that or you're a shrewd business man who figures your female fans want to entertain the notion you're only rapping about them a construct that doesn't hold up if you name a girl) and so shawty is the go to word. You listen to enough of this music and you'll hear of shawty eventually. Hell Justin Bieber is using the term so even those who hate hip hop will hear it.

2. Singspeak
Remember when people actually cared about whether their pop divas could sing? If Milli Vanilli and Ashley Simpson received notoriety precisely because it was proved they could not sing live. Well there's an easy way around that (besides auto-tune) and that's speaking in time with the music. This "style" has become a rather widespread thing especially under some notable hacks like Katy Perry, Ke$ha, and 3oh3. Taylor Swift also lapses into this when she feels that it's not worth the effort to sing verses. (though she avoids it during the chorus's)Rihanna has built a career off of weak sing-speak made to sound like singing. You need to go to a live concert to hear Lady Gaga sing as The Fame is almost entirely comprised of sing-speak. It's disgusting that people with little to no vocal talent are rewarded for their lazyness and sing-speak as it's become so huge its hard for actual singers to make it in this industry. Going back to Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta realized early on that stupid teenagers would rather listen to this:

rather than the far superior this:

^ that is exactly why this is a huge problem in the industry. I'd buy an album from Stefani but would spit at Gaga if I got the chance

3. Auto-tune
For those of you that think that auto-tune is just some cool vocal effect T-Pain invented then think again. Auto-tune is program created to correct the pitch of singers in the studio. Because it's so much easier to do this than to you know, sing it again until you get it right. This goes back to the lazyness that plagues the industry as well as the notion of the singers rather than the music as a product. Recently it's gained notoriety as T-Pain manipulates it and uses it like a vocoder. This is what people associate it with even though that's not it's original intent. Auto-tune has launched careers from people who's voices were originally too weak to get contracts. Here's Britney Spears actual singing just to show you the scope of auto-tune

5 Most Overrated Songs

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 03:07:03 +0000

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but there are a few songs that everyone loves that I can not stand at all. I hear them at the most innocuous times and despite the age of some they never go away!!!! So to take out my frustration, here's Meredith's top 5 list of the most overrated songs ever.

5.Misery Business by Paramore
I hate really catty superficial girls. So the story of this piece of shit is that there's this whore who cheated on her boyfriend who broke up with her and now Hayley Williams is bragging to her that she's now his girlfriend. That's pretty much it. On top of Hayley's annoying voices we get a stupid sophomoric theme. The video also follows suit with a bitch/slut hurting random people in a high school for fun but breaks down when Hayley wipes her make up off and takes the pads out of her bra (sexual harassment much?). I felt like I was watching John Tucker Must Die. Not a good feeling.

4.Going Under by Evanescence
Oh Amy Lee, you pile of wangst in a corset you. I used to love Evanescence. Hell when I first heard "Bring Me To Life" I wanted to buy every song from them that I could get my hands on. So I got the albums and for about a year and a half I listened to them almost exclusively. I got bored though and couldn't figure out why until I realized that underneath the rocking guitar, pretty vocals, and badass stage makeup was the same song being played over and over again. After I realized this I grew less and less enamored with the group until that love I had for Evanescence turned into flat out annoyance. With about two exceptions Amy Lee's music is ALL about her struggles with men, angst, and the world sucks. We get little reason as to WHY the world sucks, just that it does and that we should all makes angsty teen records about it. I still maintain that Amy Lee has a lovely singing voice even though I no longer listen to her music. I just wish she'd do something else with it rather than complain. Hell if she gave a reason to complain I'd like her music better. To be honest there are quite a lot of Evanescence songs that deserve to be up here but I resolved only to post one. I was thinking of "My Immortal" as every young emo girl loves that song and it inspired a horrible Harry Potter fanfic of the same name, but it is atypical as the original version features string instruments rather than guitars and it's quite quiet with decent melodies. "Bring Me To Life" was another contender but I can't bring myself to hate that song. "Going Under" however is quite annoying as it features all my above complaints and amplifies them. The video is also amusing as it seems like it's trying to channel Aphex Twin a la Rubber Johnny but where the visuals in that video succeed, Going Under makes it look cheap and low budget. I love how she sees her fans in the video as horrible monsters

3.Take Me On by Aha
Do I really need to explain this? It's Aha, this song is horrible. Catchy yeah, but horrible. That high note the lead singer hits is just godawful. If my boyfriend asked me out that way I'd say no. That being said, I do rather like the music video concept. Pity it was wasted on Aha.

2.Don't Stop Believing by Journey
FUCK YOU GLEE!!! You just had to bring this one back. For the record, I have never liked Journey. I always found their music to be overly long and intolerable. They create pseudo epic songs based of empty sentiments. This song is about gross stranger sex in a train toilet from two people with absolutely no idea what to do with their lives and really don't care. Now doesn't that sound like an awesome and inspiring song. What gets me the most is the chorus and how it tries to make such an act sound inspiring and courageous. The words "don't stop believing" don't make sense as these people described in the song for all we know believe in nothing in the first place. For those of you about to protest my accusation take a second and think about what the line "taking a midnight train going anywhere" really means. That to me seems like apathy and based on other lyrics these people just got on the train to have casual sex with the first person they met and hope they don't catch herpes.
Then there's the music. The whole song is made to feel epic which makes the lyrics and subject matter only more out of place. Based on the title and music alone this anthem should have been a beacon of hope to the poor and disenfranchised, instead you get train sex. The song goes on too long and Perry's voice is annoying. I do not dig men caterwauling. The glee version is even worse with only the soloists getting interesting parts and everyone singing "dah dah dah dah," with little change in the notes. In my high schools poorly run concert choir I had to sing this (yes despite the concert choir label my incompetant teacher ran it like a glee club, I was not her favorite student) and let me tell you singing "dah" the whole song on top of being placed in the wrong vocal part (I'm a soprano she made me an alto) does not make for a good performance.

1. Paralyzer by Finger Eleven
This is the track that made me create this list. This track haunts me everywhere I go. And this track is just awful. First of all the only reason this track is ever played on repeat is the guitar riff during the chorus as it's one of those instantly recognizable and damn catchy song motif that are the wet dreams of music producers. I like everyone else loved this song when I first heard for that riff. I didn't care what the song was about it was like this to me

RAAAAAAAWK
But then I kept hearing the song over and over again and the music became less and less satisfying and so I listened to the lyrics...... there's a reason most people don't remember them. This song according to the lyrics is a club song. You heard me.

Yeah like most of todays inane and cheap songs this one takes place inside a club. It's the guy complaining about the club and how boring/pretentious it is. He then notices some female writhing around and gets aroused thinking of all the dirty things. He uses his "I'm so hardcore" singing tone (to contrast with his bored sing-speaking) to describe "a dark lit place" trying to make the casual sex location sound gothic and daaaaaaaark. And then delivers the line "Or your place or my place."
That just doesn't roll off the tongue. Even when I liked this song and paid no attention to the lyrics I thought that part sounded off. I mean look at those two lyrics one after the other.

"Well, I am imagining a dark lit place
Or your place or my place"

First of all rhyming place with place is not good lyrical form and secondly the second line in this couplet of awful would work so much better as a question rather than a list of options, regardless of the previous lines end rhyme.

"Well, I am imagining a dark lit space
Your place or my place?"
FIXED (not perfect but much better)

So then he goes on complaining about the club. You'd think that after finding a hot girl who he enjoys watching as she dances would make him cheer up and be happy that the club attracts hot girls.... but no he thinks he can impress her by whining some more. Apparently this song is not him speaking to her but him in his mind telepathically trying to get her to hookup with him. GUYS THIS DOESN'T WORK. I've had experiences at dances where guys would just stare at me and not say anything and it was really fucking creepy. If you want to dance/do more with a girl approach her and get to know her. She can't read your mind and would rather talk to an assertive secure man than a dithering loser. There's really not much to this song. It's a club song that tries to be dark but overloads on the angst..

The video's not really memorable except for some of the choreography for the dancers which looks cool.

So there you have it. Five songs of pure mediocrity that get lapped up like milk by the public. Honestly there's a lot more that deserve to be on here, but I don't feel like it. I might do a part 2 later on we'll see. Feel free to post a comment

some good music to lighten the mood

^A good "club" song (it helps that it's a cynical take on cocaine abuse)

Willow Smith's Single "Whip My Hair"

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:36:03 +0000

Honestly I don't know how to start this off when criticizing Willow Smith's single Whip My Hair. I feel that there are three groups of thought that emerge after listening to this single. The first are a group of people that legitimately like it and think it's a good song in it's own right. Keep in mind these people are the same that like Nicki Minaj (see Willows similar artists) so they already enjoy mediocre beats, shitty rapping, and annoying monotones.
The second are people with varying opinions as to how bad the song is but defend precocious Willow for her age (she's currently 9 years old, a fact that makes the context of the video even more creepy) and say that she may inherit her daddy's (Will Smith) talent
Then there's people like me who hate this utter trainwreck of a song and think little Willow should be banned from all recording studios in the future.

First of all I'd like to just say I have no idea why anyone would want to hear a 9 year old sing about whipping ANYTHING let alone her hair

NO GET OUT

Secondly has music really gotten this inane. The song tries to push the concept that whipping your hair makes you more of an individual or some other bullshit but I don't buy that for a second. All this song is about is about shaking your cranium so the strings of dead cells attached to it go flying around until they hit someone in the face. I mean really is that so appealing? Next there will be a song about being annoyed by phone calls even though the solution to that is to turn the damn thing off...... oh wait

I still don't see how this song got popular

Lastly that's all there really is. The backing "music" is nothing more than your standard rap/pop radio hit (mercifully without all the synth thats been going around) Willows vocals are the typical annoying whine on the chorus (a la Beyonce's Diva and Black Eyed Peas Rock Your Body) The sung parts though not ear wrenching are still lack luster and at times sound more spoken than sung (which is fine only if you're Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen neither of which Willow is)

Now for the video I honestly feel sorry for the dancer hired for this horrendous project as their talents could b better spent else where. It's obvious that Willow could not keep up with the dancers so the footage keeps cutting back and forth between footage from the same angle of the same moves just one without the "artist." The imagery is pretty basic and the message bizarre. The video seems to be saying that one can cure monotony and blandness by just shaking ones hair as that will get everyone pumped and spray paint everywhere. The highschool setting only seems to illustrate how out of place Willow is and this part sticks out like a sore thumb in the video. The amount of make up and stick on jewelry young Willow wears also sets off my alarms. It gives me childrens pageant vibes which just creep me out. I mean really she's 9 isn't she too young to be wearing all that make up and be doing some of those moves. The girls seem to be sexualized at younger and younger ages and it's quite disturbing. A lot of people bring up Miley Cyrus and her newest music video as an example of this, but one needs to remember. At the moment Miley is 17 one year from being an adult. While she's still a role model for younger girls she is no longer one (though her lack of maturity may speak otherwise) Rather it is her sister Noah that embodies this creepy sexualization much better

This is a problem and it's not going away any time soon. Sorry for that segway but I feel that needed to be said.

All in all the song sucks, the video sucks, and no one should give Willow Smith any credit as an artist or performer.

Watch this instead

14 Voices I love

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:46:36 +0000

When listening to new music I am most often listening primarily to the vocals. Not necessarily the lyrics, though if clever enough those are added bonus's. There are just some people with incredible voices that can't be ignored and so I'm going to showcase my favorite 7 female and 7 male singers in this journal. Btw these will not be ordered rankings, just short displays

Male
Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf is an interesting case. He blends folk music with electronica and sometimes pop which automatically makes his style nothing short of unique. He balances this out with his tenor voice that every now and then drops into lower registers. His voice can be smooth and melodious or gritty and growling. Sometimes he skirts with both styles in the same song. His voice has this quality that makes it both beautiful and offputting at the same time and I've grown to love it

Thom Yorke

Yeah, yeah I know most people reading this who saw my profile before hand saw this coming from a mile away, but what can I say? I love Radiohead and a major part of that love is indeed Thom's voice. Though he's aged and his voice is nowhere near the quality it was in the 90s this man has a spectacular tenor range and great lung capacity. There is concert footage of him holding a long 20 second note with no extra breath and modulation on the infamous song Creep back in 94. Even more recent is the beautiful note he hits on the track Nude off of their album In Rainbows. The part where he sings "you'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinking," damn it gives me chills every time.

Maynard James Keenan

Before you make your assumptions I have to say I am not a fan of his flagship band Tool. Think Tool makes some interesting pieces of music however, they're not anything I can really sit down and enjoy. I find it too overwrought and long. However, another last.fm user, AnnaDraconida made me look into his other projects A Perfect Circle and Puscifer and I thoroughly enjoyed both. MJK has this smooth voice that's beautiful with hints of malice lurking just beneath the surface. The first APC song I heard, Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums, has this interesting contrast of disturbing sounds and soothing vocals. The piece starts off with what seems like footsteps that turns into creaking wood. All of this blends into a backing drum beat and one hears cries of pain layered with a flylike buzzing and a cheering crowd. Over this come the vocals which are oddly comforting and very smooth. Then the shouting part starts.....When I heard it my mind was blown. The "go back to sleep" part..... oh my it's just orgasmic.

Tom Waits

I love the gravel and grate in this mans voice. Only Tom Waits can sing incredibly rough and still get an incredible emotional response out of me. Unfortunantly there is no video for my favorite Tom Waits song, 2:19 so I'll just leave you with this

Les Claypool

This man has one of the oddest voices I've heard. It's very a nasally whine and it's so exaggerated it can seem cartoonish. But it works..... and how. Primus is a very irreverent band making music that's fun for them. It's quite hard to classify what they are as the heavy bass playing guitar lines might indicate funk, the dark subject matter metal, and the humor involved in most songs parody. It's this odd amalgam that Les lends both his vocals and superb bass playing to and it fits snugly like a glove. He can sound anywhere from a hick to a raving madman and it works. A lot of the time his lyrics are jam packed with words and he spits them out so fast one would think his tongue would stumble.... but he never falters. There's also this strange twang not unlike that of a bass guitar that sometimes creeps into his voice.... it's just perfect. Just give it a listen.

Sly Stone

Sly and the Family Stone are the epitome of good funk music. Sly Stone's low cigarette voice gives all the emotional creel it needs and conveys an honest confession without going overboard on the vocals. His voice isn't perfect, there's a slight rasp, his high notes are slightly cracked, and he doesn't use his range to it's potential, but all these flaws do not matter as the way he uses his voice in the music is beautiful and just fits the mood of the songs.

Peter Gabriel

I am not a huge Genesis fan. However if I had to pick a period in that bands lifespan that I liked the most it would be when Peter Gabriel was the head of the band. People tend to compare Peter Gabriel with Phil Collins as both were frontmen of this group and while Phil has a larger fanbase I find Peter's work both solo and with Genesis to be far superior. While Phil's music tends to sound the same and after listening becomes stale and cliche, Peter experiments and tries new things with his voice. Experimenting with native american themes before trying more electronic music... he manages to make his expressive voice fit each particular style. The layers in his music are incredible and add a breath taking quality to his music.

Female
PJ Harvey

This woman has a unique voice that I often wouldn't enjoy, but she manages to make it work. She deviates from strong brash and in your face loud, to whispery frail and delicate soft. Her music runs a gamut of styles and she's never been keen to be pigeon-holed into one particular style. Her voice is incredible expressive and haunting. I remember being scared of the rather soft but ominous song Catherine. Her low voice is an anomaly in an industry that favors sopranos and because of this her duets with the likes of Nick Cave, Tricky, Thom Yorke, Josh Homme, and Björk are all the more interesting. She's not afraid of singing in VERY low female registers and if anything has perfected that range and made it suit her music. She growls, yells, and uses excessive vibratto and it fucking rocks. Very few female musicians take that kind of risk and make music as hard as she does. Her music is incredible and her voice lends a special magic to it.

Björk

What I said above for PJ Harvey about the risks she takes with her voice is by no means a trait that only PJ Harvey owns. Bjork can growl, roar, and yell with her while sometime adding "r" rolls. Bjork truely has a unique voice and uses it fully to her advantage. It is her voice that tends to make her a polarizing figure in music.... that and her quirky personality. You either love her or hate her. There is very little ground when it comes to Bjork and personally I'm a staunch fan. She has a diverse range of styles and can sing pop, trip-hop, electronica, or just pure vocal music. Her body of work is incredibly diverse and shows off many aspects of her voice. Some of her vocals are lovely and ethereal, some are gritty and purposefully ugly but almost always they're used masterfully. Bjork is a great performer.

Erykah Badu

Many r&b singers stay within a comfortable predictable pattern for their music and refuse to experiment. They use the same beats, the same time signature and the same themes in their lyrics. Not Erykah. Erykah mixes humor, tight beats, and brutal honesty in her music. Her voice is a tight odd whine that just fits the stripped under produced feel of her music. The tight melodys, bridges, and choruses just work. I love it

Florence Welch

I am so happy Florence + the Machine landed a spot on this years VMA's and it was a good thing too as she was the only act that did well and in her case she was just phenominal. It's also nice to see an artist with a good voice rise in the pop charts over here in the US with all the Ke$ha and Rihanna crap that's saturating the airwaves. Florence has a powerful voice. It just dominates her music and expresses the music in wonderful ways. I first discovered her in late 2009 through an advertisement comparing her with PJ Harvey. Though they're thematically VERY different I can see where the comparisons where coming from with Florence's brash commanding voice. Most of the comparisons I see of her now compare her with Grace Slick. I love how soft and feminine her regular voice is and then how it transitions in the louder bits. There's a very good reason she named her debut album Lungs as she seems to have a great set on her. Though she's only got one album out so far I look forward to what this incredible new talent has to offer us in the future.

Kate Bush

This siren of the 80s has an incredible breathy ethereal voice. It's airy and light. She has an expressive voice that deftly conveys the sorrow and joy prevalent in her music catalogue. Her voice can cavort around a track and it'll be the best thing ever or it will express a horrible despair that chokes me up. Often mixed with synth her voice takes a melodious ethereal sound that conveys all the passion in the world. Hell she can make bagpipes sound sexy. She has by far one of the most expressive voices in music.

Róisín Murphy

The former lead singer for Moloko Roisin has an interesting voice to say the least. Personally I love her voice best during her solo career in the album Ruby Blue. On this album she seems to taunt and toy with the listener. It's incredibly sexy with her low voice intercut with spoken and falsetto parts Somewhat jazzy almost burlesque the sound of this album relies on her voice and it carries it well and beyond the mark of a good album. It's a pity most people don't know of her.

Karen O

The lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well as the composer for Where the Wild things are Karen O is a brash in your face singer. She has a nasally yell that she can switch in an instant to "conventional singing" and then back again without a moments hesitation. She like PJ Harvey and Bjork is not afraid of yelling, grunting, or screaming on stage and this frantic energy of her songs lends itself well to live performances. There are times in her songs where it sounds like she's having an orgasm and it fits perfectly. Hers is a forceful combination of sexual energy and adrenaline that carries well into her music and makes her quiet songs surprisingly soft and beautiful. She reminds me a lot of the time of Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders which is a great thing. Overall a strong voice that when it yields will surprise listeners with its beauty.

So what do you think of my selections. Agree or disagree? Anyone I should have had up here that I left out?

Winners of the VMA's if I were Calling the Shots

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 04:09:28 +0000

MTV is full of crap. They rarely show music videos any more and every year they strive to suck more music industry cock than the Grammy's (and manage to succeed). As a fan of music and more so music set to images I've decided to come up with my own set of winners for each category. I shall also give who actually won but I wont go into detail bitching about them. I wont do all the categories. Just the ones people seem to care about.

So let us begin....

Video of the Year
Who Won:Lady Gaga, Bad Romance
MY PICK:Fever Ray, When I Grow Up

This track is gorgeous in how haunting it is. Coupled with mesmerizing imagery the song takes on even more beauty. This video is proof that one doesn't need to have a storyline in a music video if your imagery is good enough. When I listen to this song I now only see the girl in the video. For being a perfect fit between video and music I feel this should have won Video of the Year.

Best New Artist
Who Won:Justin Bieber Baby
MY PICK:La Roux, Bulletproof

There weren't a lot of new artists in 2009 that I liked. Sure there was an immense amount of music I enjoyed, but most of it came from veterans of the industry. People who had been around awhile. Then I got around to listening to this song. All I knew was that it was synth-popand so I thought I would hate it. Surprisingly I didn't and found it both enjoyable and catchy. The subject matter I liked (a woman who after being hurt in relationships declaring she would no longer be vulnerable). It's a tad repetitive but I quite liked it. The video is rather generic but do you really want me to post Justin Bieber?

Best Hip Hop Video
Who Won: Eminem Not Afraid
MY PICK: Kid Cudi, Day 'N' Nite
Before I praise Kid Cudi I have to say something about the winner. Eminem uses product placement to sell the "beats" line by Dr. Dre, pathetic. Also the falling off the edge bit worked much better when Muse did it for Bliss. Moving on....

I love animation and was incredibly surprised by how well it was used in this video. The transitions between what we see and what is there are cleverly used. One particular moment I found delightful was when some billiard balls are hit and they go into orbit around a womans head. It lends a disorienting feeling to a song about isolation and paranoia. This works out well and it's this understated quiet, but interesting video that is my pick for best Hip Hop video.

Best Pop Video
Who Won: Lady Gaga, Bad Romance
MY PICK: Florence + the Machine, Dog Days Are Overvideo 1
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x917lr_florenceandthemachinedogdaysareover_music
(sorry for the quality, this is the only video I can get that's not silent or cut short)

Before I get complaints about me being wrong I'm going to clarify something that happened. The label released 2 music videos for "Dog Days Are Over." I prefer the first because it fits the music better and is coherent. The second seemed like VMA bait (guess which Flo video got nominated with this song)

Also despite what MTV says Florence + The Machine are pop not rock.

Now that that's been clarified on to the video. This is a fun high energy video that features Florence Welch being captured by a group of crazies and initiated in their band of awesome. It's better than it sounds. It could be symbolic in a sense of letting oneself go and having fun. However, I prefer to be swept away with the crazies and watch Florence become a clown.

Best Male Video
Who Won: Eminem, Not Afraid
MY PICK: Patrick Wolf, Hard Times

Normally Patrick Wolf has awful music videos. For some reason his music, while very theatrical and interesting doesn't translate into music videos very well and the directors don't know what to do. It all just looks very awkward. However, this video is the exception and while strange it seems to fit both the music and patrick very well without being too awkward or pretentious. It's well edited and the transitions between visible light and black light are rather cool. Also, just in case any 12 year old girls are stalking this journal , Ke$ha took the blacklight and kaleidoscope thing several months after this so please don't post any HE COPIED shit here.

Best Rock Video
Who Won:30 Seconds to Mars, Kings And Queens
MY PICK: Dead Weather, Treat Me Like Your Mother

I'm sorry but Jack White and Alison Mosshart shooting the shit out of eachother with machine guns is way more interesting and rock oriented than a video with "ethereal milieu and feelgood storyline." Fuck that, that sounds like a new age video. The premise and visuals of Treat Me Like Your Mother are way more interesting and "deeper" than a bunch of weirdos on bikes.

Best Female Video
Who Won:Lady Gaga, Bad Romance(noticing a trend of suckiness as well?)
MY PICK: Janelle Monáe, Tightrope

Fancy footwork with a storyline continuation from the Many Moons music video make for great watching. Big Boi also helps. The dancing is really impressive in how fluid and simple looking it is (it's not easy, I tried it) Everything is tight and in control. While there's only minmal exposition the video manages to carry on the storyline of Many Moons in a way that conveys what's going on and is easy for the audience to follow, even if they didn't see the previous video. I've previously referred to Janelle when describing her as "the spiritual love child of James Brown and Grace Jones." This video proves her legitimacy for that claim.

Best Collaboration
Who Won:Lady Gaga and Beyonce, Telephone
MY PICK: Gorillaz, Mos Def, and Bobby Womack for Stylo

The Gorillaz are pretty much a band based off of collaborations. Noodle has several voice actors and it's usually considered a side project of Damon Albarns rather than an independent band. However the music could not be a better example of fusion of styles. They do hip hop, rap, dance, pop, orchestral, choral sometimes several of those within one song. This track is particularly memorable because of Bobby Womack's powerful and soulful voice. While Mos Def also has some great bits that add to everything, Womack steals the show and 2D's melancholy tone manages to hold everything together and make it feel coherent. The video is also interesting. It has Bruce Willis as a bounty hunter and that's all you really need to know. Watch it now if you haven't.

Best Dance Video
Who Won:Lady Gaga, Bad Romance
MY PICK: no one
Honestly dance music was sort of stagnant this year. Unless you like drunk party girls or M.I.A. when she's PMSing then there is nothing here. While La Roux is up there (and she's honestly the only one looking back that I'd even consider for this) I don't think Bulletproof or her other singles were good enough for this spot. Great for Best New Artist (as first attempts are often shakiest) but not good enough for here. So To take up space I leave you with.......
FATBOY SLIM

that makes me feel so much better

Breakthrough Video
Who Won: The Black Keys, Tighten Up
MY PICK: The Black Keys, Tighten Up

This is the only category they got right. The only one out of the main. And thank God they did. While MTV has no credibility so to speak of anymore it's still pretty depressing to see yet another awards ceremony put on just to stroke the massive industry........ ego during a time where the lack of promoted talented artists and industry blunders is driving musicians and labels into the ground. So them getting one thing right is a little bright spot in an otherwise morose awards ceremony. The video is quite amusing and clever. Two kids respectively serenade the same song to the same girl and get into a fight over it at a playground. They're broken up by their dads whom after noticing the girls hot mom in turn DO THE EXACT SAME THING (only with a sexier sound) It's an effective video and does what it needs to do (entertain) without being blown out of proportion (Lady Gaga), having a massive ego behind it (Eminem), or advertising shit to milk more money off it (both the aforementioned "artists"). The Black Keys deserved this (as did several other videos in this category to be honest as well).

10 Guilty Pleasures

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:59:38 +0000

I am very picky when it comes to music. There are certain features of music that I love and certain other features that I abhor. Same has to also be said for certain artist a lot of whom I will almost always hate, and a few whose work I will almost always love. I know why I like the music I like and vice versa and there are a few features that reoccur in songs that I will almost always have the same opinion about. However, I'm not without my guilty pleasures and I stand by them even though they usually have aspects I would normally hate. So here is the top 10 list of my guilty pleasures in music

10. Forever by Drake
There's a reason this barely made it on and that is because I hate most of the song.The backbeat (though nice) is nothing special. The subject is just the typical "look at how awesome I am" Hip Hop cliche. Drake has a long almost droning drawl for the chorus that just puts me off, and his rapping just sounds really awkward and forced. However it's better than the other rappers featured on the song can say. Kanye West starts off alright but his lyrics are terrible. He goes from basketball to his granny's bad hip that looked "like a fanny pack." Geez Kanye, what happened to you after The College Dropout? After that the song goes from bad to worse when Lil Wayne takes the reigns. Ironically his rapping here is the best I've heard it since he got big but it's still mediocre at best. The raspy quality of his voice just doesn't carry well in the song. This song is going in the wrong direction, that is until the last featured artist gets his turn. Eminem saves this song. Now I am not an Eminem fan but DAMN his part in this song is just incredible. First of all the speed of his delivery is lightning fast, it's almost like his words were bullets. And while all of his lines are decent he has this great oneliner at the end. "I’m Hannibal Lecter son just in case you’re thinking of saving face
You ain’t gonna have no face to save by the time I’m through with this place
So Drake…" cue chorus and the song is over. It's awesome and I love it, or at least that part. And to think he teamed up with Rihanna after this, what a waste.

or you could cut the crap and just listen to Eminem's part

9. I can't believe I'm typing this but...Teeth by Lady Gaga
Now if you've read any of my past journals you'll know I really hate everything Lady Gaga stands for (ie selling out, contrived personality, covering up talent) However, I ended up hearing this song and was intrigued. The jazzy almost vaudeville beat in the back round is very nice and is complemented nicely with the trumpet blasts. The singing itself is much better than on other songs she's put out and is a rare display of her talent on the album. (normally you have to see her live to get actually singing instead of monotone recitation) The song itself seems like a Róisín Murphy song stylistically. Actually the song seems more appropriate as a Stefani Germanotta song (no they aren't the same but that's a whole different discussion) As good as it is there are still some things I don't like. The subject is the most tired one she's been using (SEX!!!!!) and while predictable it's still disapointing that someone with her talent can't find more to create a song about than money, fame, and sex. The lyrics themselves are alright despite the subject matter (I find the masicating euphemisms funny rather than arousing) The one thing I would rather be left out is the repeated echo that goes on after the chorus's. It gets mildly annoying. Otherwise this is a very surprisingly interesting song especially considering who wrote it.

if the little ogres like this enough she'll make a horrible music video that will ruin the song for me

8. What's up people? by Maximum the Hormone
Like most non Japanese Metal fans I first experienced this song by watching the popular anime series Death Note. The song appears as the second opening credit theme and it's awesome.

What first made me like the song was how well it worked with the animated imagery. It fit the mentality of the main character perfectly and his descent into gibbering madness. It's such a powerful opening that it's spawned numerous parodies and many claim it rivals the OP sequence for Neon Genesis Evangelion.... but that's not what I am here to write about. For awhile I attributed my fondness of the song to just my fondness to the OP however I gave the full song a listen one day and, strangely enough, liked it even better. Though not a metal head I do like some music in the vast viking sea of a genre that is metal though this type of metal is not normally what I like. I honestly have no idea what makes m enjoy this so I'll just give you a link to the music video and let you make your guesses as to why I enjoy this so much.

"no they're not saying 'fucker' or 'sucker' "

7. American Boy by Estelle
This is such a fun song. It's about the British singer meeting a sweet American guy and wanting to visit his homeland. There's actually quite a lot to this song that doesn't meet the eye. For one Kanye West is the featured artist but instead of being corny he comes off as extremely likable and raps about the American stereotypes that many Europeans have about us citizens of the US. With the American boy he portrays it's easy to see why Estelle is so enamoured with him and his home in this song. As an American myself this song is such a breath of fresh air. America has major image problems (though most of the jabs thrown at us as a nation have truths in them) but here it's nice having a song about someone sincerely wanting to visit here or meeting a nice young person from America. While I agree that my country has a lot of faults we need to fix, this song is a small escape almost. A naive idealistic song maybe but it's nice to see us portrayed in a positive light for once by a foreign musician. Structurally the song has several things I would normally dislike, going on. The back round music is minimal, the beat itself is slightly generic, and it has Kanye West. However the song as a whole works for me. The first two issues I chalk up to the strength of Estelle's voice. It would be easy just to slur one's way through the song and be lazy about the vocals but instead her voice playfully bounces both with and against the beat making the sound itself quite interesting. The quality of her voice itself, is kind of soft and light so it fits perfectly with the song. The flirtyness is really cute like it should be rather than over the top like a lot of pop artists portray it. The mentions of shopping though there are brief and focus more on who Estelle is with rather than what she's getting. Kanye as I said before does a good job so all around this is a remarkably good song.

6. Alfie by Lily Allen
With the exception of Smile I never could really get into a Lily Allen song. I recognize the fact that she's a talented performer and songwriter but I just never identify with her. Then I found this little ditty. The song "Alfie" is about the worst younger brother one could imagine and is basically Lily just chastising the little brat. As an older sister myself, I identify a lot with this (though to be fair my brother is much much better than Alfie) What's rather charming about this song is the happy music that plays with the song. It's upbeat and cheerful despite the stoner, unemployed, gamer the song describes. Hell it even has tweeting birds singing with the song (and then later shown in the video smoking cigs) It's very silly of course, but in a charming way. The video itself underscores this and is ironically cutesy having the aforementioned birds and Alfie himself played by a puppet. Despite the puppet being shown smoking, sneaking beer from the fridge, and masterbating (to barbie porn no less) the video retains a cute and funny vibe that works. Where others have failed in this approach (notably Katy Perry for her offensive Ur So Gay) Lily makes the video work without being too over the top or insulting. And I quite like it!

5. Yellow by Coldplay
It's not that I hate Coldplay, no I just think all their songs flow together into one big mush and don't stand out from eachother. There are a few notable exceptions like Clocks and Yellow but other than that I don't listen to Coldplay. I don't mind them and if they're playing on the radio I wont change it (unless Viva La Vida is playing, I HATE that song) but I'm not going to shell out money for their albums. However I do like Yellow and Clocks quite a bit though I feel a greater attachment to Yellow. The version I heard first was the live recording at the World Cafe CD. Near the end something happened and Chris Martin just started cracking up. While I had been enjoying the song before that part, for some reason that mistake made the song even more special. Of course I was practically raised listening to the World Cafe so my fondness of the song may have to do more with nostalgia than any musical attributes it has but that doesn't stop me from enjoying it.

4.Walkin on the Sun by Smash Mouth
This is the song of my early childhood. Though the album this song debuted on came out in 97 I remember it most from first through third grade which for me was 98 through 00. I heard this song and loved it. I would request it at skating rinks and if it came on the radio I would even pipe in on the chorus. Of course I had no idea it was about drugs or much less what drugs were at that age. Back then I was the only kid I knew who knew that was Smash Mouth or could even recognize other Smash Mouth songs that occasionally popped up on our radar. That lasted until the Shrek franchise came out and every one was singing the lyrics to All Star. That sort of dimmed my elementary love for the band itself though I still liked the song. Even today it still works for me with the fast paced delivery of the clever lyrics. Though I recognized other songs by Smash Mouth are rather mediocre Walking on the Sun is still smart and interesting. What can I say part of it is that this song works and the other half is nostalgia. I love this song.

3. Fuck The Pain Away by Peaches
This may be kind of cheating as I do like some other Peaches songs but since I generally dislike crass displays of sex I'll include it. I don't know what initially drew me to this song but I love it. It's a fun song encouraging girls to use protection so they wont get preggers and drop out of high school as well as a woman being the dominant one in a sexual relationship. There really isn't much else to it besides a catchy beat and a nice bass. Oh and since there isn't an official video two fans created hilarious music videos of their own using old classic shows for the clips

The creator of the second one also created a hilarious music video with Alice in Wonderland set to Three 6 Mafia I'll include it below for kicks

2. Shoes by Kelly
I'll admit the Kelly persona is stupid but I find it all so hilarious. Shoes in it's heyday was incredible. I don't know why a man pretending to be a woman empowering herself by shoe shopping caught a national fascination but it was huge. It was the first amatuer internet sensation that I remember transcending platforms. It went from youtube to Fuse (the mtv of the day) over a short span of time. Yes I was caught up in the bandwagon and I enjoyed my stay there. Recently I've seen more "Kelly" shorts, my favorite being the inane and gross but amusing "No Booty Calls" but since "Shoes" came first it ends up here on the list.

1. Worlds Collide by Powerman 5000
This song is addictive. It's not all that great of a song but there are little things in it that make me like the stuff I would normally dismiss as crap. The song has basic and repetitive lyrics, the vocals go from whispering to just speaking to shouting, and you what? I don't care. The music is way more interesting than the vocals gong from otherworldly almost ethereal ambiance to guitar driven rock and switches back. The vocals work great with this as the whispering happens during the ethereal bits and the shouting during the guitar parts. Near the end the song climaxes with what sounds like screams, and it works. This song is pure adrenaline for me I just get pumped. I tried listening to other powerman5000 songs and didn't much care for them but this song just stays with me for some reason. Unfortunately the video sucks and sticks to the "rock concert in a strange place" but the song is still great and one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

So, tell me what you think. Are any of these songs guilty pleasures for you? Share your own and share your opinion. I always like hearing new music so feel free to post links and talk about your experiences.