The Soundtrack of Your Life

I know, I got some 'splaining to do (Ricky Ricardo is soo freakin cool )

Anyways... I love music and I love CD's. Some would use the words "unhealthy obsession," when describing me and music. Well, you all know I'm a bit off the beaten path so I'm not gonna worry about it. Here's what's on my mind... I have hundreds of CD's. Most of them I bought because I like a track or two and I drag them out only occasionally when I'm in the mood for that particular track. For the most part, most of my CD's stay shelved. There are few that I own though that I play all the time. Start to finish. I listen when I'm working, driving, whatever there are just those few that gravitate to the hand... like a favorite blanket, well worn favorite shoes... you get the picture. You don't even necessarily listen to the words anymore, it's just comforting background music... like a soundtrack. So here's mine:

1). Frank Sinatra, the Capitol Years
2). Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic
3). Pink Floyd, The Wall
4). The Wallflowers, Bringing Down the Horse
5). Metallica, S&M
6). Meatloaf, Bat out of Hell
7). Smashing Pumpkins, Rotten Apples
8). Jimmy Buffett, Box Set
9). Soundgarden, Soundgarden
10). Bob Seger, Night Moves.

I'll keep my list at ten like Toose's.

1) Radiohead - all. Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac. I know them all by heart.
"No alarms and no surprises"

2)Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire, Battle of Los Angeles, Renegades. Best guitarist ever + bottomless pit of US-government-directed angst + Marxist influences = heart attack music.
"Fear is your only God"

3)The Roots - Things Fall Apart. The Roots are the best group in hip hop history.
"On these 73 keys of ivory and ebony, I swear solemnly that I'll forever rock steadily"

4)Underworld - all the singles. Dirty Epic, Juanita/Kiteless, Rez, Born Slippy, etc. The most beautiful, sexiest songs ever created. 8-12 minutes each of pure floaty bliss.
"Sweet in winter, sweet in rain."

5)New Order - all. My favorite band of all time. The saddest, prettiest, most melodic pop songs I know.
"Oh, you've got green eyes, you've got blue eyes, you've got gray eyes."

6)Wu-Tang Clan - the early stuff. Most especially Enter the Wu, Liquid Swords, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Return to the 36 Chambers, and Ironman. No one's ever made music this hard and pretty and dirty and angry all at once.
"First things first, you're f--kin with the worst/I'll be stickin pins in your head like a f--kin nurse"

7)Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. 2+ hours of crystallized rock beauty sewn together by Billy Corgan's nasal whine.
"Journeyed here and there and back again."

8)The Chemical Brothers - all. Dig your Own Hole, Brothers Gonna Work it Out, Surrender, etc. Funkyass dance music, made for cutting a mean rug. I hear all these songs and wanna freaky deaky. The most fun out of all my listings.
"Where do I start, where do I begin."

9)Moby - all. Play, Everything is Wrong, Animal Rights, Moby, etc. Probably the most respectable musician around. He makes brilliant music, catchy and poppy, while never sounding like
bullsh!t. I can listen to any of his albums anytime.
"Here we are now, coming to the south side. I pick up my friends and we go for a ride."

10)The Strokes - Is this it. This is the newest album on the list, but it hasn't left my cd player since I bought it a month or so ago. The Strokes are Weezer, except about 100 times better. It's fast becoming one of my very favorite albums, and it's formed the majority of my personal soundtrack this past month.

I could easily name ten more. Great thread.

My list is different from those two, and highly vague:

1) Just about anything from the LOTR: FOTR soundtrack. This stuff is beautiful, exciting, and magnificent.

2) The "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. The music is wonderful. I'm torn between whether this, or LOTR: FOTR, is my favorite soundtrack of all time. The first is more emotional...this one is more enjoyable.

3) MJ's new album, "Invincible." Wow; this is great stuff! I don't care if MJ's sound isn't as welcome as it once was...this music is completely up to par, IMO, with his past hits. Admittedly, one or two of the songs are corny, or just plain annoying, but I'd say I enjoy listening to around 10-12 of the 16 songs, with 6-8 of those songs that I really, really like.

4) MJ's greatest hits: I can't pick just one album. I'm talking Billie Jean, Beat It, Black or White, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Speed Demon, Stranger in Moscow, and two of my favorites, Who Is It?, and Superfly Sister.

5) The score for "Unbreakable." I get goosebumps, literally, virtually every time I hear that music that plays when he's climbing out of the pool.

That's all I can think of for now. I don't listen to lots of music...I've heard plenty and all, but I don't buy many albums, and I tend to stick with certain discs or songs for a fairly long time. I get comfortable with most music I like before I start listening to something else regularly. I do like Lauren Hill, though...she's quite good...though not the type of artist I'd usually like.

Yeah, I think it's impossible to dislike Lauryn Hill. She's amazing.

I have to take issue with Michael Jackson's new album. I think it's absolutely dreadful. It's nothing like the old MJ sound, which isn't bad on its own, but the album is just a gigantic marketing tool. There's no "growth" (which as I said before, doesn't bother me), but it's hard to like songs as soulless and obviously aimed toward hooking a corny audience as the ones on Invincible. Jackson isn't on top anymore, and he doesn't know how to get back on top, so he records a bunch of wannabe corny pop hits. Wack.

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**** the Lakers!

You kiddin' me? Are you telling me you think tracks 1, 2, and 6 aren't MJ at his best? Track #6 is one of his better songs EVER. It's unique, but it's undeniably his style. Track 15 is a personal favorite of mine, too. Santana kicks a**. Some tracks are corny...a lot of the ballads, for example...but 4, 5, and 7 are all slow...but still quite good. You thought it was DREADFUL?

in no particular order:

1. Sade - all, any, forever
2. Lauryn Hill - only got one of hers ... has she made any other albums?
3. Gloria Estefan - her more traditional stuff, some I'm in the mood for more than others
4. Diana Krall - all, any, forever
5. Maxwell - all, any, forever
6. Dave Mathews Band - all, any, forever
7. Vanessa Williams - some more than others
8. Jill Scott/Me'Shell Ndegeo'chello - sort of equal footing here, don't listen all the time but often
9. Sarah Maclachlan- all, any, forever

sometimes, for me, it's more about an era, a style, a mode. not necessarily a genre, because i don't always like all the people in a genre. but, 70s and 80s r&b, soul, and funk music, heavily. Like, Teddy P, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye (OH! Marvin Gaye), Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Commodores, Whitney Houston (then, not now), stuff like that. Key characters from 1930-1950, like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin. Jazz. Then, Latin Jazz, and instrumental (Strunz and Ferrah, Marc Antoine).

I intermix them all and while I won't listen to one artist over and over (except Dean and Ella, those I could listen to forever) , together they all fit and all of them comingling, THAT's what i can listen to in the background nonstop.

I would have to say:

Creed - Human Clay, Weathered

Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

I don't listen to much music.

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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

1. Sarah Mclachlan/Mirror Ball- for all those lovey-dovey moods I get in.

2. Black Crowes/ Any album- For when I feel like rockin' my @ss.

3. Van Morrison/ Greatest Hits- Mellowing down easy.

4. Prince- Any album- For dancin' and other things.

5. Cake- All the albums played randomly. Perfect driving music.

That's all I wanna post right now. I have more, though.

Cake? CAKE? I despise Cake. Their cover of "I Will Survive" was simply the worst cover I've ever heard. They swore in it for no apparent reason (IE: "I should've made you leave your f*ckin' key"), they had none of the soul of the original, and sang it with the strangest, sh*ttiest pacing EVER. They sounded like William Shatner singing that thing. It was depressing.

That song isn't even on any of their albums. don't judge a band by their cover. Ha!

Yeah, well I've heard that "Going the Distance" song, and I didn't like that either. This isn't singing...it's someone talking at an odd pace with music in the background.

I'm going to quote Holden here," To each his own."

Van Morrison is fantastic. Brown Eyed Girl is one of my all time favorite tunes...

Steve, I don't know many of yours. I'm with you on the Pumpkins though... great stuff. Also Rage Against the Machine.... good stuff too, I'll check out some of the others

Man, I feel sorry for some of you? Smashing Pumpkins? Call me nuts, but I think Billy Corgan is less than highly talented. And what's up with that vampire look he's got going on? That band just never appealed to me. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" is just a loud, angry, depressing song to me.

What's stuck in your craw Mr. Pumpkin/Cake basher/smasher? I could have gone all off on MJ and his "Ghost of Diana Ross" lookalike scheme but did I restrain myself? Indeed I did!

I find the Pumpkins to be very compelling. Dark, yes but compelling. Lyrically, Corgan writes some of the best out there... at least to me. I don't know man, he strikes a chord with me regardless of his vampirish look (I know, same holds true for you and MJ). What can I say?

I stay away from bashing music, only on account to the fact I don't listen to much music. I'll bash movies day and night though.

Yeah, exactly: I'll admit it, man! MJ is freakish looking. I think he's got some pyschological problems to deal with...he was abused as a child, after all. Apparently his father, aside from getting overly brutal at times, told him he was ugly a lot. Sure explains a lot, eh?

I dunno...I don't mean to be so rude/blunt, but it just doens't happen for me. And, well, when someone writes something in an attempt to be deep and interesting, they run the risk of having sort of stupid to people who it doesn't strike a chord with. Same kind of reason I hate Incubus.

Fair argument. However, it doesn't mean that they should not make music. I'm sure when they write it they know a percentage of the populous will hate it. It's always been my opinion that one should do one's "thing" and not worry about running the risk of looking stupid. You're always going to look stupid to someone... agree?

Yeah, absolutely. I give almost all musicians credit for hanging their balls out there when they try to write something meaningful. They all get burned by it sometimes...ala Steve on MJ's latest offering.

I will admit to having a "thing" about some bands, though: IE, a bias against their music now and then, even if part of my gripe is with them specifically. Example: Marilyn Manson. Sure. "Dope Show" is a good song, but I could never bring myself to like them...the guy was a geek in high school, for crying out loud. He's about shock.

Worst of all, though, for me, is Slipknot. I can't even begin to describe how badly I hate this group. They wear these weird black masks; what's up with that? Are we supposed to be scared? Wearing a mask, black, and screaming into a microphone does not make you talented. As a general rule, most people who yell in most of their songs are people I don't think I'd like much.

On the flip side, though, I like "Blue Man Group," because they're not just weird, or shocking. I think they're funny...and pretty talented. I first saw them on Jay Leno...they took these big tube things and whipped them back and forth in unison to a beat. Awesome stuff.

Can't comment on Slipknot... never heard of them.

Manson is a phony. He's still a geek. He's the modern day Elvis/Beatles/Who/Ozzy Osbourne freak show of the minute. He looks like a complete fool. Just my opinion.

Of course, he can go on doing what he does with no protest from me. Just not my bag.

...and the blue men are way cool.