Compilation album of your life

I like it.

I'll try to drum up mine.

interesting stuff sarge! i have to do some self-reflection and see what i come up with. let me stop by later

Hit me with yours

vignettes

first got robbed at the public swimming pool - wallet, IDs, jeans -- went home in half naked and they played this song there

first girlfriend, love etc

off to University

to be continued...

I guess this'll do. Not really representative of my favorite songs, but I tried to pick out ones I have strong memories of or have been strongly inspired by.


1.) A Nightmare to Remember by Dream Theater
My first introduction to Dream Theater was this song posted to an "Underrated Gems" thread on one of the websites I administer. The second part of the song made we really sad the first time I heard it because it describes the events at the hospital following a catastrophic car crash where the Narrator struggles to reconcile their feelings from the looming impression that their family is dead with the euphoric drugs given to them.

Following this song and given the dual-interpretation of the word "Agony", I made it the name of the rainbow haired character some people know me for. Dream Theater remains one of my favorite metal bands.

2.) Yearbook by Hanson
Middle of Nowhere was the first album I ever owned and while typically recognized as teen pop, my favorite song on it wasn't even any of the pop songs they got recognized for. I got a lot of nostalgia for the album, having played it in the basement for hours while I tinker away on things, but the one that sticks out to me the most is arguably the saddest song on the track describing the frustrated absence of an old friend in a school yearbook. I can relate to this frustration because when people you had fond memories of move away and leave no physical reminder or even picture of themselves, it can be hard to accept that that person is no longer in your life anymore. I recently had the misfortune of discovering that the one and only yearbook I still own had succumbed to water damage. Those are memories I'll probably never get back.

3.) Just by Radiohead
I have a distinct memory of one day waking up from a dream in which rocks with Rayman-style eyes, hands, and feet did a stage performance of this song (I had a weird interest in rocks back then). Thing is, I had no idea what song it was and who played it. Fast forward to dinner that evening as I struggle to repeat the melody to my parents who welcome me to peel through their giant CD collection to see if I can find it. I recall the Audioslave album artwork for some reason. Sure enough I found it, 7th track on The Bends. I own Radiohead's The Best Of album now.

4.) 3D Dinosaur Museum from 3D Dinosaur Adventure
I don't know who the composer is, this is from back when crediting somebody for music in a game was barely even a thing. But I distinctly recall this and other haunting pieces of music used to accompany the then-impressive 3D animated dinosaurs appearing in this now extremely dated activity-center-style computer game. That's some deep-rooted chiptune nostalgia.

5.) Nell's Theme by Taishi Senda / The Second Book by Motoi Sakuraba
Speaking of video game nostalgia, I have to include these two games together because I cannot count the number of times I've taken my Gameboy Advance on a road trip anywhere without both of these games on hand. Every complaint I have ever leveled at a Tactics game is absent in Advance Wars and every reason there is to enjoy a JRPG is present in Golden Sun 2 and both have incredibly memorable soundtracks with very different moods between them. Advance Wars is crunchy and pop-y while Golden Sun is melodic with musical styles varying depending on your location in-game. Both are all-time favorite games of mine and both, criminally, never had their soundtracks released in any official capacity. My memories of my only relatives share space in my brain next to these games (in fact it was my late Grandma who spoiled me enough to actually buy Golden Sun for me when I pointed it out at the store even though I knew literally nothing about it at the time).

6.) Rock & Roll All Nite by Kiss
I'm not sure how many Kiss songs I've ever even listened to (probably many), but this the only one I really remember and it's for one simple reason: Some time back I would regularly visit my best friend's house and we would game the night away and eat up all the ice cream. Soul Calibur II, Super Smash Bros. Melee, you name it, but one game in particular was Tony Hawk's Underground. Every single track on that game was crap except for this one, and so it is that I have spent hours and hours and hours of my life running around to this song on repeat as a giant coconut-bikini-wearing floating pair of eyes as I try fidget my way up to the top of hollow skyscrapers with a skateboard in one hand. And our parents wanted us to go outside, what could be more ridiculous?

7.) Passion/Sanctuary (After The Battle) by Utada Hikaru
I couldn't list moments in video game music history without listing Kingdom Hearts somewhere. There are great tracks across both the first and second game, thanks mostly to Yoko Shimomura who is now one of the world's most famous female composers specifically thanks to these games, but I'm gonna give to this spot to Utada Hikaru's reprise of the opening theme which follows the final battle of Kingdom Hearts 2. I cried. I've never cried from a video game before, but Kingdom Hearts 2 made me cry.

8.) The Fort by Jamin Winans
Speaking of crying, watch this movie. It seriously made my year.

9.) Don't Hold Back by The Sleeping
Don't Hold Back is the song which backs the stickman fighting flash animation "Shock 2" which is obviously inspired by the oldschool internet flash creator XiaoXiao. This animation typifies the sort of power fantasy I enjoy, and would love more than anything else to experience in a video game. The way music is synchronized with the action exemplifies an especially pleasing approach to audiovisuals that I think is grossly under-represented across all known mediums.

10.) Tokyo Drift by Brian Tyler
Tokyo Drift was composed specifically to back a particular race which appears in The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift, but ironically, I found it infinitely better served in Monty Oum's fan production, Dead Fantasy II, in which a variety of Japanese RPG and Fighting video game heroines duke it out across lava and down a collapsing ancient ziggurat. This even more closely portrays the sort of video game I want to make.

Omnizoa likes Hanson? Those guys you could confuse for girls because of their long hair? Hmmm.

First five.


1: Neil Young - Old Man

This song reminds me of my step-dad who introduced me to some great music back when I was younger. I don’t see him often now as he lives in another country and listening to this makes me miss him. I feel terrible about this because I have a tendency to forget about a lot of things that happened in my past. Therefore I seem to miss people less than I probably should, and I don't know how beneficial that is for me. The only time I seem to miss people is when I am dealing with a breakup or separation from a partner who I have been spending a lot of my time. I think it’s just something I have developed as a defensive mechanism or something. Nonetheless, this song makes me think about him every single time I listen to it which I guess leads me open to the emotions that come with opening up a little. It's certainly bittersweet.


2: Blood on the Dance Floor - Scream for my Ice Cream

So I wasn’t the most popular child in school, and I ended up hanging around with the counter-cool (I guess) groups to try fit in somewhere. We liked strange music like this. It’s pretty awful, to say the least, but it resonates with me by transporting me back to those days. I kind of wish I had acted differently in school, as I would have probably made more lifetime friends. I am not in contact with anyone from school, and I am only really friends with one person from my town. I made far more friends in university, though. Hopefully, some will stick around for life.


3: Eminem - Mockingbird + Eminem - When I’m Gone

I want to keep these as one combined suggestion as they both evoke special feelings for me. They take me back to certain moments of my life, and the words do something for me that I can’t quite explain. Parts relate to parts of my life in some ways and enough to sympathise with Marshall. Powerful stuff.


4: Plan B (feat. Labrinth) - Playing with Fire

The music of Plan B takes me back, and I had honestly forgotten about some of the times I associate with him and his work. Before listening to Plan B, I had a little bit of a rocky time. I was a good kid in school until my last two years (and last year especially). I started getting into trouble, smoking in school, vandalising, stealing, smoking cigarettes and weed. I was a young kid, and I did these things so that I felt I fit into something - and I finally did fit in I think. It was affecting my school work, life back home, life in general. My mum helped me get out of this wrong place in my life, and not long after I got back on track.

Not too long after, some people from an organisation called 'Camps International' attended an assembly in school and offered students an experience that could change their lives. They said if we raised enough money we could get to Ecuador and help communities there. I was the only person from my school year who did it - in fact; I got the form in the very next day! I got a little bit bullied for this though when the next non-school uniform day came around because they had to pay £1 towards the funds of mine, and some pupils in the year below me's trip.

I never even got any of this money because I left school and went to college before the experience had started. Nevertheless, with the help of my mum, and a friend that I met along my fundraising adventures, I managed to raise the money I needed.

Much of this fundraising entailed posting envelopes and then going back for them to see if people would donate. When I was posting these envelopes, I remember being very fond of Plan B and his music. I listened to his albums on repeat (especially his first and third album). I then showed his music to other members of the other schools/colleges that went to Ecuador. I became known to love his music. Good times.


5: Akala - Fire in the Booth

I am leaving my university over the next few months which means I am going to be entering the ‘real’ world soon. To be honest, I am quite worried about what lies ahead of me, and I am not racing towards it either. I want this to last. However, I feel this song started a new part of my music taste and leads on from the Plan B mention. I saw Akala in a special lecture during my first year at uni. Since then I have attended a second of his talks and two of his shows. Akala is a great guy in many ways, and I highly recommend his work. I believe that is helped start my grime music phase - which I am still in.