Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


Sunday Drivers, "The Sweetest Disguise" (File originally from their site, but it's timing out.)

I love the style of this song--the tense, dark vocals, the melody that pushes me towards the climax--the climax that doesn't seem to end for minutes...it's very reminiscent of my favorite music--the "new wave" music of the late 70's, early 80's. I wish there were more songs like it nowadays. More music needs to be inspired by bands like The Cult, The The, The Stranglers, and other "The" bands. The sound is also reminiscent of bands like Joy Division (with less heart-grinding despair), Soft Cell and Shriekback (who have a new album out, btw). I love how the song starts out so light and airy, and then grows murkier, more claustrophobic.

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The Sunday Drivers

Rats With Wings, "Hungry Like The Wolf"

Speaking of my favorite music...Duran Duran was my favorite band growing up (until I hit my surly teens and decided that I was too cool for DD). They're still in my list of favorite bands, as they always will be. One day I'll do a whole article on how Duran Duran are so great. For now, though, this is about the version of D2's "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Rats With Wings. It's faithful to the song without being an exact representation--preserving the melody, but slowing it down and giving it a completely different tone. Much of the tension of the original is gone, replaced with a hazy, folk-tinged vocal and gorgeous keyboards that mimic everything from an organ to a horn. This is the way to cover a song without completely reproducing a song.

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Rats With Wings album Tiny Guns

Peter & The Wolf, "The Fall"

This starts out harmlessly enough with a softly-strummed guitar, but the vocals soon take over, edging the song up with a rhythmic tension, bringing the song close, tight, surrounding you as the guitar crashes around you. It envelopes you, making it a little more difficult to breathe. A song that has a visceral effect like that is a song that truly has an effect on the listener. Music isn't supposed to be about just listening--it's supposed to be about feeling, whatever those feelings are.

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Peter and the Wolf are looking at directions. Huh...not very wolf-like, huh?

Bonus:

This is not apropos of anything, really, but my friends and I had a little bit more to drink than usual the other night, and the conversation briefly settled on exclamations of "Movezig!"

All your bases are belong to us.