
I love music. But I tend to listen to same twenty songs over and over and over again. I need to expand my musical horizons. I’ll be starting out with the Mighty Life List song list. But I need your help. If you have any recommendations for new or obscure music (anything instrumental would be good) head over to the comments and tell me about it.
Below are the first 100 new songs.
A few caveats: by listen, I don’t mean have on in the background while I am doing something else. These are songs I’ve actually sat, listened to and formulated an opinion on. Mostly meh, but still an opinion. In the same line, although I can’t guarantee I’ve never heard all these songs before, I’ve never registered them. Also it would be easy for me to gobble up some artists back catalogues as a quick way of populating my list. In the interest of broadening my horizons, I’ve tried to avoid this.
My comments are italicised and recommendations are starred. If you want to listen along with me, you can subscribe to my Rowan listens playlist on Spotify. (NB some of the songs listed aren’t on Spotify so I’ve linked to youtube instead.)
100 songs down, only 900 to go…
- “Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor” by Flight of the Conchords – *HEH, also I need to watch Flight of the Concords asap.
- “Bubblegum” by Mr. Loco
- “Stars” by Aspidistra Flies – * whimsical and wondrous
- “Stars go blue” by Ryan Adams
- Hatikiva, the National Anthem of Israel – * Just exquisite, soul lifting music. But so, so sad
- “Country” by Empire of the Sun
- “Everything is Alright” by Motion City Soundtrack
- “Dirty Sunshine” by Lillix
- “I Can’t Stay Away” by The Veronicas
- “Push” by Matchbox 20 – *Love it, so I listened to a lot of Matchbox 20
- “Easier To Run” by Linkin Park
- “Stay” by Safety Suit
- “Bruised” by Jack’s Mannequin
- “The Only One” by Yellowcard
- “Leaving California” by John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey
- “Asle Bjørn” BY Fyresvatn
- “All the Umbrella’s in London” by The Magnetic Fields
- “Sea of Love by Cat Power” – * aah I love this tune
- “Mun Ja Mun” Adjagas – *Shamanic yoik music from Norway, I like a lot
- “Ozan” by Adjagas
- Sargasso Sea by Suzanne Ciani
- “The very thought of you” by Billy Holiday
- “Lovesong” (A Cure cover) by Tori Amos
- “Lovesong” by the Cure
- “Goodnight Lovers” by Depeche Mode
- “Strangelove” by Depeche Mode
- “I’ll Be Your Mirror” by The Velvet Underground.
- “This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies – *on repeat, repeat, repeat
- “With a Little Help From My Friends” by James Taylor (The Beatles cover)
- “Alone Again Or” by Arthur Lee
- “I Was Made to Love Her” by Stevie Wonder
- “Divine Romance” by Phil Wickham
- “I Love you for Sentimental Reasons” by Nat King Cole – * what a voice
- “The Winner Is” by Devotchka – * love the movie, love the soundtrack
- “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison
- “Sleepyhead” by Chris Pickering
- “I’ve got you and you’ve got me” by New Buffalo – HATE
- “Safe and Sound” by Hawksley Workman
- “You are the best thing” by Ray Lamontagne
- “Winter Waltz” by Serena Ryder – *beautiful voice
- “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure
- “In the Summertime” by The Rural Alberta Advantage
- “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison
- “Love you till the end” by The Pogues
- “Dream Girl” by Dave Matthews Band
- “Heavenly Day” by Patty Griffin – too warbly and full of vocal gymnastics for me
- “Space They Cannot Touch” by Kate Miller-Heidke
- “Hold You In My Arms” by Ray LaMontagne
- “Heart It Races” by Architecture in Helsinki
- “Say Hey (I Love You)” by Michael Franti & Spearhead
- “No Ones Gonna Love You (More Than I Do)” by Band Of Horses – lovely
- “Christmas wish” by She and Him
- “Tuesday” by Paper Aeroplanes
- “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Leonard Cohen – I’m a big fan of Leonard but I’d never heard this before. FAIL.
- “Stick By You” by Brick
- “I Can Hear Music” by the Beach Boys
- “Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing” by Sufjan Stevens
- Homesick for the Moon by The Dirty Urchins.
- “All My Days” by Alexi Murdoch
- “Gracie” by Ben Folds
- “The River” by Anathallo
- “White Blank Page” by Mumford & Sons
- “The Wolves (Act I & 2)” by Bon Iver
- “The Chain” by Ingrid Michaelson
- “Saviour King” by Sweet Little Band
- “Awake My Soul” by Mumford & Sons
- “Ára Bátur” by Sigur Rós
- “Wide Eyes” by Local Natives
- “Colorado” by Paper Bird
- Northern Lights by Bowerbirds
- “Vesuvius” by Sufjan Stevens
- “Can You Tell” by Ra Ra Riot
- “Moonage Daydream” by David Bowie
- “Innocence” by Airborne Toxic Event
- “My Best Friend” by Weezer
- “We Are Man And Wife” by Michelle Featherstone
- “These arms of mine” by Otis Redding
- “Halloween” by Misfits
- “Essence” by Lucinda Williams
- “Comptine D’un Autre Été, L’après-Midi” by Yann Tiersen
- “La Valse D’Amélie (Version Piano)” by Yann Tiersen
- “You Send Me,” Sam Cooke
- “We Rule The School” by Belle & Sebastian
- “I’m in Love With a Girl” by Big Star
- “God Blessed Our Love” Al Green
- “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder
- Generous Palmstroke by Björk
- Zueignung by Richard Strauss
- “Ombra Mai fu” by Handel
- “Vampire’s Kiss” by John Gold
- “Heartlight” by Neil Diamond
- “Fever” by The Cramps
- “Un homme et une femme” by Patricia Kaas
- “ bowling with margo” by David Torn
- “in the forest” by David Torn
- “Postal Service” by Such Great Heights
- “The Way I Feel Inside” by The Zombies
- “Downtown Train” by Tom Waits
- “Be My Baby” by DM Stith
- “It’s all so bright” by Gilbert
I am pretty familiar with the genre of white-boy rock and angsty female singer songwriters. Classical, reggae, folk, funk, techno, pretty much every other genre not so much. Hit the comments and tell me what I’m missing.
More Magnetic Fields. Always more Magnetic Fields.
Architecture in Helsinki, Momus, Parts & Labor, Shannon Wright, Tunng, Iron Crease, Lamb, The Hinkley Veltones, Low, SJ Esau, MC Paul Barman, Why?, Odd Nosdam, Rose Kemp, Pivot, Throwing Muses, The Auteurs, The Mountain Goats, Sebadoh, War Against Sleep, Robin Allender, Galaxie 500, The Amps, Flying Saucer Attack, The Rezillos, Linda Perhacs, Azaelea City Penis Club, Cardiacs, The Jesus Lizard, dirty projectors, John Zorn, Richard Hawley, Teenage Fanclub, Annisteen Allen, Atmosphere, Dirty Three, Jonquil, Hefner, Guided By Voices, Longpigs, The Polecats, Silver Apples, Animal Collective, Venetian Snares, Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, The Postal Service, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Vialka, Stereolab, Broadcast, The Sea and Cake, My Bloody Valentine, Les Savy Fav.
On you go.
Author
LOVE YOU! On it!
First a couple of cover versions: Sweet Jane – Cowboy Junkies and Blue Raincoat – Tori Amos. Also Siren – Tori Amos. Then: Never There – Cake, The Frank Sonata – The Longpigs (previous comment made me think of this, although I cannot get on board with the Cardiacs), Last Stop, This Town – Eels, Granite Statue – Salad, 25 – Veruca Salt, Cyclops Rock – They Might be Giants, Broken Homes – Tricky and PJ Harvey, Nothing But a Heartache – The Flirtations.
I’m up to five on your list. Love this idea!
Maddy x
Author
Thanks Maddy, you’re a star. Love the Longpigs and They Might be Giants. I’m going to add these to Spotify in a mo xxx
The Promise – Tracey Chapman, I am the Sun- Darkstar, This boy’s in love/Talk Like That / The Girl and Sea – The Presets, Liberation/Anything -Pet Shop Boys, Lipgloss or anything off His’n’Hers – Pulp, Goddess on a Hi-way – Mercury Rev, Alice Practise – Crystal Castles, Anything – Eels, One Night Stand – The Aloof, Where’s me jumper – Sultans of Ping FC
Author
Heh, I knew you’d get a bit of Jarvis in there! I LOVE Goddess on a Hiway. Will check all the rest of this out xxx