December 24, 2010

Random Ten: Christmas Eve Edition

It's Christmas Eve, and that means it's time for another Random Ten from ChemGuy's iTunes...

Didn't even have to cheat to get clean songs, so that means the Random Ten will be accompanied by an 8Tracks playlist today.  Enjoy...
  • "Now That We Found Love (Club Version)" by Heavy D & the Boyz - Nice, upbeat groove.  Nothing that's earth-shattering.  The club versions less tight and to the point, but it's still a decent enough mid-90's little joint.  Three stars on m'iTunes.
  • "Nothing" by Dwight Yoakam - Interesting tune in that the first verse's music doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the song.  First verse has a heavy, electric guitar background that makes it feel slow, moody.  The rest of the song then keeps the same lyrical theme but shifts to a mid-tempo soul/R&B musical feeling.  Pretty typical Dwight sadness and loss.  Four stars
  • "Rock This Town" by the Stray Cats - Ah, that brief rockabilly revival in the 1980s.  I feel about that blip of musical lookback like I do about the zoot suit riot of the mid 1990s.  It was entertaining for a year or two, but it wasn't sustainable.  Looking back works for a little bit, but creativity has to move forward.  Each gave us some good tunes (this included) and got Brian Setzer some work, so that's not all bad.  Four stars
  • "Raspberries, Strawberries" by Bud and Travis - The folk boom at its heyday.  This is from a box set called Washington Square Memoir: Urban Folk (1950-1970) and is a pretty song about "the girls of the country side to whom we bit adieu".  Very much in the same style as the better-known Kingston Trio.  "Every young man goes to Paris...as every young man should...There he may find his love in every field and wood."  Apparently the French lyrics aren't, as I always kind of though, jibberish. Four stars
  • "My Heart" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Pretty, harpsichord-based tune from the criminally underrated Sleeps With Angels album.  Beautifully sets the tone for what would be another of Neil's albums about death (see also Tonight's the Night, On the Beach)  Four stars
  • "Dr Evil" by They Might be Giants - From the The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack.  Entertaining, occasionally chucklesome theme song for the Dr Evil character in a very strong James-Bond-theme style.  Sort of a pastiche of "Goldfinger" and "Dr No" which fits the series well.  Three stars
  • "Lay You Down" by Dave Matthews Band - Pretty song from the great Crash album.  This is back before I got thrown up on at their concert and pretty much let the band go. Interesting themes explored on this album - love lost, love found, infidelity, friendships changed.  Four stars
  • "Beautiful People" by The Books - I have absolutely no clue where this came from.  Obviously it's something I added to iTunes because it's my computer, but it's something that surprised me.  Interesting music - reversed sounds, drum machine loops, lyrics that sound non-English because of the modifications that have been done to them.  Worth a listen.  I apparently gave it four stars.  Neat tune.
  • "Mohammed's Radio" by Warren Zevon - Beautiful song by a criminally-underrated and not well-enough known singer/writer/nutcase.  Haunting background vocals.  Exploring the Mideast relationships, but I have no clue exactly what the story is.  Warren is missed.  Four stars
  • "The Road to Ensenada" by Lyle Lovett - Lyle has done music that's more fun, that's more chucklesome, more jazzy, but this is his finest album front to back.  It's an album of love about to be lost as his marriage with Julia Roberts was falling apart as he wrote the album.  This is one of the slower, folky-er tunes on the record and one of the most beautiful.  There's a haunting electric guitar line that comes in about 2:15 into the song that just wrecks me every time.  It's also an album that means a lot to me because of when/how it came into my life, but that's a story for another series of posts. Beautiful song...four stars


And thanks to Natalie Dee for the graphic today.

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