Jul 18, 2007

Soundtrack to Life

I realize this is the sort of thing a 14-year-old girl puts on her Myspace page. You've seen it before; the rules are simple: put all of your music on shuffle and fill in the blanks with whatever song comes up. It seemed like a fun activity because it could give everybody a sampler platter of my music. There are, naturally, a few embarrassments that popped up as it was completely random, and I'm not sure how representative of my music it ended up being, but since I put the effort into doing this, here is the report:
  1. Opening Credits: "I Do (Cherish You)" - Mark Wills -Oh man, off to a horrible start: a cheesy country love song to open with. I almost gave up right away when this happened, or considered just skipping it (the only reason it's part of my music collection is Allison shares this computer with me and has loaded some of her music onto my iTunes, anyway). But then ended up singing along to the song and remembering that I actually like it, though I'd never admit that to anyone and definitely never publish it on the internet.
  2. Waking Up: "Come On Eileen" - Dexy's Midnight Runners - It's a fairly good waking up song in feel. And I, like so many girls, can't help but be a bit of an 80s music junkie.
  3. Average Day: "The Compromise" - The Format - It's one of my least favorite songs by The Format, who I love, and I was sad to not have something more meaningful by them come up, but I suppose it works fairly well as the soundtrack to "average day".
  4. First Date: "Starlight" - Muse - I love this song, but it's been stuck in my head for over two weeks now, so my reaction was more "nooooo" and I changed it quickly and didn't think about it for too long.
  5. Falling In Love: "I'm Only Sleeping" - The Beatles - This actually fits quite well. I tend to fall in love quite unconsciously and lazily. I did some research on this song because I've heard that it was written about being on drugs, but didn't know if that was true or not. But at least whoever wrote the article on Wikipedia about the song believes it really is about how much John Lennon loved staying in bed.
  6. Love Scene: "Minute Waltz" - Chopin - My reaction: "awww, cute."
  7. Fight Scene: "Ice Ice Baby" - Vanilla Ice -I don't want to talk about it.
  8. Breaking Up: "The Business of Getting Down" - Ozma - A fairly mediocre song from Ozma, but I'm glad that the "breaking up" track includes the line "If you'd drop by to see me again, I'd open up the door," for that's very typical thinking for me in a break up.
  9. Getting Back Together: "Come As You Are" - Nirvana - A recent conversation at apartment 36: "How could you not like Nirvana?" "I never smoked pot." "Okay, you have a point...but I liked them before..." I'll have you know that I personally, have never smoked anything but love Nirvana. And "Come As You Are" is good for a getting back together song.
  10. Secret Love: "Oh, It is Love" - Hellogoodbye - Fitting. I'm not a huge ukulele fan (they make any song instantly cheesy), but it's cute.
  11. Life's Okay: "O Valencia!" - The Decemberists - Good beat for "life's okay".
  12. Mental Breakdown: "Never There" - Cake - I automatically thought of the time a couple days ago when I had a mental breakdown due to this song. I was playing the iLike music challenge game on facebook (that one afternoon that I spent far too long playing...it's horribly addicting, though) and the question was "name this Cake song" and they played this song and I knew it was "Never There", but I clicked to quickly and clicked "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" instead and it killed a streak I'd been pretty far with and I knew the answer but....it was horrible.
  13. Driving: "Tainted Love" - Soft Cell - One of those instantly recognized songs that just warms your soul even though it's not a warm song at all.
  14. Learning A Lesson: "Meike" - Flake Music - For those that don't know, Flake Music was The Shins before they were The Shins. So think The Shins but in 1997. You know how there are a few lyrics that pop up into your head constantly? Well the line "you make it easy to deci-i-i-ide" from this song pops up whenever I'm making a decision.
  15. Deep Thought: "King of New York" from The Newsies - Somehow the only thought that comes to me when I think of this song is "I love Bill Pullman."
  16. Flashback: "Mo Money Mo Problems" - Notorious B.I.G.- Because I'm so street. I had no idea I even own this song until it came up. But I'm positive it's not something Allison added, so I must have it on a CD somewhere. I couldn't sing a lyric to this song to you, I don't know it at all, but the title makes me laugh.
  17. Partying: "Truly Madly Deeply" - Savage Garden - Not really a party song, but one I was excited to get. I've only recently added Savage Garden to my collection following hearing one of their songs at a bowling alley and realizing I like them far more than I admit to people.
  18. Happy Dance: "Always Love" - Nada Surf - Not really a dance song, but a good song and happy enough. A little hippie-y ("always love, hate won't get you everytime"), but what can you do?
  19. Regretting: "The Old Apartment" - Barenaked Ladies - I haven't thought about Barenaked Ladies since they days when they were big until recently when I happen to be dating someone who brings them up every once in a while (big 90s music guy). I like them a lot, though.
  20. Long Night Alone: "Hanasakajijii (four: a great wind, more ash)" - Anathallo - Rather happy sounding, but an excellent song and calm enough to satisfy the "long night alone" track. I've really liked Anathallo since I saw them open for The Format last year. Post-rock (meaning: very experimental) and perhaps a bit of an acquired taste, but they're a good palate cleanser in a world where all music sounds the same.
  21. Death Scene: "Bye Bye Bye" - NSync - I laughed out loud for some time when this came up for my death.
  22. Closing Credits: "Finale" from Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony - I was very pleased with this ending, it's the ending to a real symphony, and an excellent symphony at that. I can't think of a more solid closer if I want to close off feeling heroic.

4 comments:

Trev said...

Hooray for being a big 90's music guy! That was very entertaining to read, love. I would say I knew 62.1% of those songs. ;)

Anonymous said...

my only thought: i too love bill pullman

Anonymous said...

Bill Pullman = awesome.

But on a totally unrelated note, I love your blog and want to continue to check it every day, but I am going to need some assurances that for the next two weeks or so there won't be any Harry Potter spoilers. I'm very concerned about this, as I'm not sure when I will actually have time to read the book, and I'm trying to edit danger areas out of my life. So, dearest, can you reassure me or should I steer clear until I've completed that vast and, dare I say, frightening tome? Do let me know. (Not sure why I sound all British here at the end...)

-L

Anonymous said...

this morning i made melanie pinky promise that if she finished the book before me she wouldn't tell me anything. she said, "that is like making me pinky promise i won't sleep with your husband." do we have the same agreement?