Pop Drop: Gabriella Cilmi… Lies Live

Sixteen year old Australian Gabriella Cilmi reminds me a bit of Anastacia – soul and sass in a little package. Like Anastacia, her power output surprises. This is a live performance of her excellent second single “Save The Lies” (<— be sure to check out the produced pop-soul version if you haven’t been thrashed by it over the airwaves already.)

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5 Songs of Beautiful Melancholy

Coming up with the saddest songs of all time is an impossible task imo, as the strangest and most varied songs will make people cry (nevertheless, Saddest Songs gives it a good try anyway).

So I’ll leave the “saddest songs” list to the experts – this post is about the songs that elicit an ache or feeling of loss rather than outright emotional pain; songs that evoke an atmosphere of pathos and catharsis but whose melodies, entwined with the minor chords, create a heartfelt beauty.

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Enya – Boadicea

Made famous as the background sample for the Fugees “Ready Or Not” and less famously as the theme song for Stephen King’s (forgettable) Sleepwalkers movie, this Enya classic is simple but haunting and memorable (if only I could get that “ready or not, here we come, you can’t hide…” refrain out of my head >_<).

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Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah

I love Jeff’s version of this Leonard Cohen original – his fragile vocal sets the perfect mood. The song’s been covered a million times by every man and his neighbour’s dog and Shrek, sadly, ruined it for me but Jeff’s version redeems it every time xD. I love the beautiful tone of his guitar… why can’t I get that sort of sound out of my $40 acoustic?

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Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings

Many of the electronic remixes of this song are laughably awful but they prove that you can be completely devoid of emotional intelligence, culture or artistic comprehension and still appreciate something beautiful <– inviting flames xD.

The London Symphony Orchestra’s version of this piece was the highest selling classical piece on iTunes for a while. The saddest thing about beautiful pieces of art like this is that they end up being used to sell shampoo and bombard us from every movie and cheesy TV parody moment to the point where we forget how amazing they are…

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Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush – Don’t Give Up

Peter Gabriel’s verses are the melancholy element of this song – Kate’s choruses are hope-drenched anthems. I love Gabriel’s faintly hoarse vocal and the winding melody; the 3/4 metre (nicely accented by the bass riff) – whilst not in any way rare or greatly unusual – provides, at least, a marginally uncommon point of interest in the world of 4/4 pop/rock.

In this live version Paula Cole sings with Gabriel.

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Walking In The Air (from the Snowman)

My favourite of the list and a beautiful, timeless classic – so beautiful that it even warrants cheesy cliches like “beautiful, timeless classic”. It’s impossible not to feel the soaring melody spear your heart; the initial piano riff hints at an oppressive minor tone but each chord change is more beautiful than the last…

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Honourable Mention

Kermit sings Needle in the Hay

Somebody is going to Muppet hell for what they’ve done to Kermit here…

Retro Reminiscence: Three Strange Days by School of Fish

Apologies for yet another day of no postage as I had no machine upon which to post : (. My laptop deserted me utterly but it’s been rebuilt and will be up and going again tomorrow at last! : ).

Here’s a great little schoolboy pop-rock track from a band that didn’t make much of a splash over here beyond this one song. The vocal is delivered in a fairly staid way but the melody and the main guitar riff is catchy and memorable.

∞ Random Interest Snippet: the most notable personal tale from School of Fish’s history is the death of frontman Josh Clayton-Felt by testicular cancer in 2000 at the age of 32 : (. Of the other members, guitarist Michael Ward eventually joined Jakob Dylan’s Wallflowers and drummer Chad Fischer went on to create the Scrubs original theme “I’m No Superman” with his band, Lazlo Bane.

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Cover Zen: The heads have it – Portishead by Radiohead

Two great bands… I haven’t yet decided what I think of Portishead’s latest offering “Three” – I have to admit, Dummy has always been the definitive album for me. Anyway, the link between these bands, in my opinion, is that they both make cinematic soundtrack type music and “mournful” and “melancholy” are words that could be used to describe more than just the odd track by either.

I love the original video of this track for its dark mood birthed from simple animated visuals – another Radiohead parallel – and I think Thom’s voice fits the gloomy atmosphere perfectly.

∞ Random Interest Snippet: Portishead’s guitarist and co-founder, Adrian Utley, loved the cover: “Thom sounds beautiful singing it, it was amazing, such a buzz.”

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Little star Stina Nordenstam as jazz chanteuse

Stina Nordenstam has a little voice which is perfect for singing her hit “Little Star” from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet soundtrack. There were some great tracks on her album “And She Closed Her Eyes” that showcased her delicate, childlike voice with extremely dry production (i.e. there was no reverb applied to her voice, so it sounded like she was sitting inside your speaker singing to you). Ben Harper is another example of very dry vocal production; the technique only suits certain singers and it’s an interestingly intimate production style when you come across it.

(To understand what I mean by “dry”, sit right next to your speakers or crank up your phones, play some Celine Dion, awash in reverb, to hear how she sounds like she’s singing in a massive hall, then put on Stina or Ben to hear the effect of the dry vocal production that makes it sound like they’re sitting right next to you.)

This live performance of “One For My Baby” reminds me of Lisa Ekdahl’s jazz covers projects – jazz standards and the like don’t immediately leap to mind when I hear Stina’s fragile, Bjork-like warble but this performance is interesting in its own way.

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Retro Reminiscence: Luscious Jackson

This early 90s single from alt-popsters Luscious Jackson has a great, driving main riff with a funky edge and syrupy chorus hook. It reminds me of long, workless days chilling with mates in a house that had long been vacated by the parentals xD.

∞ Random Interest Snippet: the ‘Jack – as I have just this moment decided to call them – were the first band signed to the Beastie Boy’s Grand Royal label (Kate Schellenbach – the ‘Jack’s drummer – was the Beastie’s drummer from 1981 to 84).

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Hip hop with Atmosphere

Still no adequate PC access so this is a quick drop of an “underground” hip hop act that’s been in my “Considering…” list (to the right there) for a few days now. Like The Roots, Atmosphere now tour with live instrumentation and this track has great flavour for a hip hop track; backed solely by a clean guitar riff, rapper Slug’s emotional social commentary is compelling and weighty.

“…my better half is mad at making magic out of canned goods / my tax bracket status got her questioning my manhood / my shorty got caught smoking weed at a concert / and if I smack him everybody treats me like a monster…”

If you like your hip hop to have something to say other than “I’m the greatest” and videos without the classic hip hop standards (fish eye lens, shots of rims and woodgrain) then check ‘em out.

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Pop Drop: Into the Galaxy with the Midnight Juggernaughts

Gah! Computer issues all of yesterday, hence the lack of post-age . I shall return forthwith – for now: thanks, Sthy, for filling me in on the rocktabulous Midnight Juggernaughts. This is my favourite song of theirs – and this video, specifically; not the other one they’ve brought out with the biker in France…

I knew as soon as I missed a Triple J Hottest 100 release I’d miss some good stuff… Triple J can always be trusted to deliver the goods.

∞ Random Interest Snippet: the Triple J Hottest 100 annual poll attracts over half a million votes every year and is apparently the world’s largest music poll (Triple J is an Australian youth radio station).

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5 more eighties songs that still kick ass today!

Since the last post I’ve had some great suggestions for more kick-ass 80s songs mailed through to me so I had to select this next lot based on my former criteria: these are songs that can be covered by a hard rock band without a trace of irony and still rock a jaded anti-pop crowd (I also elected to choose the more well known songs of those suggested.)

Thanks for the contributions, fOo!

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Don Henley – The Boys Of Summer

The Ataris cover Don Henley’s classic with punk-pop attitude and pretty hair. Noisy guitars and rock beats can’t hide the catchy melody of the original. The no-keyboards rock treatment gives the song a needed edge for this 90s update.

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Billie Jean – Michael Jackson

This cover by Cobra Starship is good if you can forgive the occasional vocal discrepancy by Gabe Saporta. There’re a few minutes of unfunny gaggery at the beginning but it eventually gets into the song and the band shows a deft arrangement with surprisingly adequate falsetto backing vocals.

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Steve Miller Band – Abracadabra

Well… I couldn’t find the video for Sugar Ray’s version of this song but I did find the following clip which has the Sugar Ray audio over pics of … New Zealand O_o … Good enough… xD.

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Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time

Saosin’s cover of this classic song sees another boy band vocalist struggling with the occasional note. Quietdrive also do a popular emo boy cover. I don’t have much to say about it as the song has been covered by at least 120 different artists O_o so I’m sure we’re all familiar with it. My favourite cover was performed by Everything But The Girl.

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Shout – Tears For Fears

Disturbed’s cover rocks the clock. Listen unto it, say I.

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Retro Reminiscence: Bran Van 3000

This late 90s pop psychedelia single evokes hazy memories of laid-back summer days on my cousin’s porch.

Canadian electronic collective Bran Van 3000 merge stoner fuzz guitar, trip hop trance electronica, mumbled Beck-ish “rap” and an r&b soul chorus hook in a stoner anthem with a slightly melancholy vibe.

The Twang recorded a less than perfect cover of the song last year.