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What is your favorite song of all time and why?
I would have to say Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond. It's got a spacey presence in the beginning and the solos hit, which are so wonderfully crafted. The vocals come in and the chorus sounds magnificent and epic in nature. What are your thoughts?
Personally, Mr. Blue Sky
I've known it pretty much since I was born and I've always loved it.
This was mine for the longest time as well... still is definitely in the top 5, depending on what I can to listen to
I really enjoyed that, reminded me a lot of Kavinsky!
Oh man, I haven’t listened to that song for years!
Emily by Joanna Newsom. If you ask me (which you did!), this is the peak of inviting but also winding and dense lyricism, it feels like the vocal performance is specifically tailored to my taste, the subject matter is beautiful and really gets at some emotionally resonant things for me in regard to family, and it captures my attention 1000% and I hang on every little vocal inflection. The more I dig into music, the rarer an experience like this is, so it's really special to have something which continues to give me that same feeling.
Your pick is great too @Doors. I'm not the biggest Pink Floyd fan in the world, but all of WYWH is incredible...including that :)
I'm going to write up a full reply down the thread, but Only Skin and Go Long are my two choices. Have you listened to Roy Harper before? I think that's something you might enjoy.
I've listened to Stormcock and wasn't terribly impressed. Do you think it's worth trying anything else of his if I wasn't huge on that?
Try "Flat Baroque and Berserk" if you want, which is his last album before "Stormcock." The problem with Roy Harper is that he's almost as much as an acquired taste as Newsom is, and sometimes if it doesn't click, it never will.
I'll do that, thanks!
Porter Robinson & Madeon - Shelter
Two incredible artists, and they combined their sound perfectly.
Porter Robinson's Worlds album is my favourite album, and I still listen to Madeon's Adventure (deluxe) album all the time.
The music video is also wonderful and a great addition to the experience.
Worlds is great. Hear the Bells is probably my favorite song off the album.
I always get a bunch of flak for this, but for me it's Beethoven's 9th IVth Movement. It's the first piece of music I truly remember, and I remember watching the fall of the Berlin Wall celebration with my parents.
It changes week-to-week. I think two of the best songs of all time are I felt the Earth Move, and I'm on Fire. Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus is also up there.
As far as favorite albums go - I like You Forgot it in People, The Lonesome Crowded West, and I can Hear the Heart Beating as One
It's between two songs by Joanna Newsom, for me.
"Only Skin" is 17 minutes long, weaving a surreal narrative (involving black airplanes, the myth of Sisyphus, Sybil-seacows, spider's ghosts, etc.) all surrounding what it is to be a woman in love with a man who keeps failing her. Every lyric is placed so well, I think this is the closest that music gets to being literature in itself. "And if the love of a woman or two, dear, could move you to such heights, then all I can do, is do, my darling, right by you."
"Go Long" is along the same lines, re-telling the story of Bluebeard while at the same time probing questions of masculinity ("...the loneliness of you mighty men, with your jaws, and fists, and guitars, and pens, and your sugar lip...), and how she can navigate not knowing the answers to these questions. ("Will you tuck your shirt? Will you leave it loose? You are badly hurt. You're a silly goose... You are caked in mud, and in blood, and worse. Chew your bitter cud. Grope your little nurse.")
Lately I've also really liked "Blackened Cities" by Melanie de Biasio, and "Medicine Bottle" by Red House Painters.
This version of One Way Out by the Allman Brothers Band. Or maybe Ten Easy Lessons by JJ Cale. TABB and JJ Cale are basically 1a and 1b for me in terms of music. If there were a 1c, it would be George Clinton/Parliament (hence the username).
The Avalanches - ETOH, probably. Everything about this track feels so meticulous and done in such an exact manner to create this slow building atmosphere that peaks when it has the robotic breakdown. There are so many things buried in this track that are just little blips in the overall thing that all tie it together into one of the most stunning creations I've ever experienced.
King Crimson - Starless
No other song represents hopelessness and despair as well as the extended instrumental part at the end of this song.
So much about music for me depends on its context, to the point that it's hard for me to nail down favorites "of all time," because that would imply that I even have a favorite in all contexts.
Favorite Vengeful/Angry Song - "Not Ready To Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks (it has an awe-inspiring backstory that relates to 2004 flag burning and comments said in Germany about how proud the lead singer was to share a state with the current president--she wasn't).
Favorite Musical Piece of Engineering - "Marble Machine" by Wintergarden. The song that ends up being made has a timeless march feel to it.
Favorite Sobering Take On War/Revolution - "One Foot In Front of the Other" by Emilie Autumn. There is a certain timelessness to the questions posed in this song that seem applicable to just about every violent conflict.
Favorite Song That Is Actually Military History - "Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier" by Corb Lund --taking the "of all time" literally for this one, as the song is literally about the entire history of horse soldiers, their reduced role in modern conflict, and their likely continued usage in the future.
Favorite Steampunk Love Song Sung By Human-Robots "Honeybee" by Steam Powered Giraffe. And they said barbershop was dead. It will never die! It's timeless! And cyborg!
The White Ape by Leo Kottke
This piece always makes me feel like I have fallen through the strings, julienned to floating streamers. The notes lift me up and I wander behind my eyes.
Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart.
I actually only heard this one recently but it's a song that made me cry even when I was in a normal mood. ［老母］(mother) by Namewee. Just resonates with me because we share the same culture and same language, and it made me think of my mum.
I Will Survive - I can always rock out to that. Any time. Every time.