dawes, daft punk, the vaccines & the xx
(Clickly click on the songy song titles to listen)
Dawes: This is hard because I don’t have a genre I can outright hate, it’s usually a song by song basis. I guess I don’t really like the majority of modern pop music, but even then there are new pop songs that I really like.
Daft Punk: This is like asking me to choose my favorite child. I really love video game and movie music, which is typically all instrumental, so my favs switch out a lot when I get new games and such. I guess I’ll pick one that isn’t from those genres, Rhapsody in Blue, one of my favorite classical pieces of all time. It’s a long song (Like 15-20 minutes), but very good.
The Vaccines: Hmm this is tough, I’m gonna cheat and do lyrics from three songs that I like.1. Louis Prima’s Buona Sera always makes me really happy when I listen to it, which is weird because I normally don’t really get affected by love songs like that. But when the second stanza starts, “Buona sera, signorina, buona sera.It is time to say goodnight to Napoli” and the music starts ramping up, I always feel good (Buona sera means “good evening” in Italian).
2. This is a weird one, but Lemon Demon’s Redesign your Logo has always had some fascinating lyrics, especially because the song originated from some bizarre Pepsi logo propositions that seem like they came straight out of a capitalist nightmare. I’d basically choose the entire last stanza in for my favorite lyric, but here’s a small part of it, “There's no longer language, Only recognition, There's no longer country, Only corporate colors, Color makes us hungry, Hunger makes us human, Everyone can see it, Everything's connected”
3. The Eagles Hotel California is one of my favorite songs of all time. I always like the opening, “On a dark desert highway, Cool wind in my hair, Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air”. The lyrics don’t have any real meaning to me, but I can always picture the scene in my head whenever I hear it. It’s just one of those lyrics that stick with you forever. There’s always been a vaguely sinister, dark air around Hotel California, and I just love it.
The XX: Also tough, because I’m never really opposed to listening to new music. I guess there was this band I’d never heard about before that I just discovered, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. The name is silly but their music is amazing, right up my ally. Save My Soul, King of Swing, and their cover of Mr. Heatmiser (now my new favorite Christmas song) are some of my favorites.