lördag 23 Maj 2009, 12:10

10. Nirvana - In Bloom

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xazh_nirvana-in-bloom
(lousy youtube and their 'this video is not available in your country', drives me nuts really)

This has to be my most listened song ever. I play it every time I play guitar and it's my top track on last.fm so that has to count for something I guess! Still it's 'only' 10th, imagine all the songs that still have to come!

Anyway, the video is pretty funny so enjoy.

This is pretty much an anthem, while it's meant to be an anti-anthem… Ironic isn't it?

Let's get to those lyrics!

Sell the kids for food
Weather changes moods
Spring is here again
Reproductive glands

He's the one who likes all our pretty songs
And he likes to sing along
And he likes to shoot his gun
But he knows not what it means
Knows not what it means
And I say
He's the one who likes all our pretty songs
And he likes to sing along
And he likes to shoot his gun
But he don't know what it means
Don't know what it means
And I say yeah

Killer chorus. I love the verses too, if you read closely and put each first line of each verse after each other and so on, it makes sense.

We can have some more
Nature is a whore
Bruises on the fruit
Tender age in bloom

And then the chorus again.. I love Kurt. After the second chorus there is a really awesome (anti)solo. It's so diabolic I JUST LOVE IT. The bassline is so repetitive yet so awesome too. I just love the sound of it. And of course Grohls' drums and backing vocals are pretty much awesomepie too!

Enjoy, I'd say!

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside

http://videolog.uol.com.br/video.php?id=197161

Ah.. My favourite song from my second favourite band ever. (yeah I know.. Some people really don't care for them or even hate them, but at least you can't deny they're technically a good/great band! Anthony Kiedis is way underrated too imo.. but yeah opinions)

This song is about Anthony Kiedis and his relation to drugs. I've really started to appreciate his lyrics after having read Scar Tissue. If you're even slightly interested in the Peppers you should definitely give the book a try. Anyway, the song starts of with a melancholic guitar intro and a heavy bass line and Anthony comes in with:

How long how long will I slide
Separate my side I don’t
I don’t believe it’s bad
Slit my throat
It’s all I ever

Then Chad comes in with some percussion, and John plays high pitched notes and Flea some higher bass and AK sings:

I heard your voice through a photograph
I thought it up it brought up the past
Once you know you can never go back
I’ve got to take it on the otherside

Centuries are what it meant to me
A cemetery where I marry the sea
Stranger things could never change my mind
I’ve got to take it on the otherside
Take it on the otherside
Take it on
Take it on

And then we go to the killer chorus again!

Pour my life into a paper cup
The ashtray’s full and I’m spillin’ my guts
She wants to know am I still a slut
I’ve got to take it on the otherside

And then the chorus again.. With some amazing backing vocals by John Frusciante! And then the unexpected bridge kicks in and AK speaks:

Turn me on take me for a hard ride
Burn me out leave me on the otherside
I yell and tell it that
It’s not my friend
I tear it down I tear it down
And then it’s born again

After this there's the simple but oh so amazing solo (that's what John's good at… Flea adding the complexity to the Peppers' earlier work. But John has definitely grown on Stadium Arcadium, my second favourite album by them, yes another controversial opinion among fans!) and then there's the chorus again. I LOVE THIS SONG.

8. Elliott Smith - Say Yes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcnHjjLdNXQ

I'm in love with the world through the eyes of a girl
Who's still around the morning after
We broke up a month ago and I grew up, I didn't know
I'd be around the morning after

This song is probably Elliott Smiths' happiest song. I just love the chord progression through this song and the low-fi sound of it. (and most of his work)

It's always been wait and see
A happy day and then you pay
And feel like **** the morning after
But now I feel changed around and instead falling down
I'm standing up the morning after

I think it's fantastic how he uses so few words to express himself, yet you can fully understand what he means..
I love how this part transits into this one:

Situations get ****ed up and turned around sooner or later
And I could be another fool or an exception to the rule
You tell me the morning after
Crooked spin can't come to rest
I'm damaged bad at best
She'll decide what she wants
I'll probably be the last to know
No one says until it shows and you see how it is

They want you or they don't
Say yes
I'm in love with the world through the eyes of a girl
Who's still around the morning after

The last part is the one of the most uplifting things I have ever heard. Smith was such a fine lyricist. R.I.P. :(

7. Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand In Mine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzIK5FaC38w

My favourite post-rock band ever. (Well maybe tied with GY!BE) They can put so much emotions in instrumentals.. It's really unbelievable. This song is the closer of The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place, which is one of my favourite albums ever.

The song starts off with simple high guitar notes and then the second and third guitar come in. After a while you can hear the drums banging far away… And around 1:10ish they finally kick in. There's so much emotion into this song.. It's amazing. You feel sad and happy at the same time, hard to describe really.

The 'break' around 2:20ish is also really amazing..
The arpeggio on the third guitar is so eargasmic and uplifting there. The drums starts to pick up a faster pace and the song is about to start a little climax… And then it builds off with the guitars doing a more quiet part and the drums in the background again. And then it ends with the drums kicking in again and the guitars doing their final part. The drums stop and there is one guitar fading away in the background.. And that's it.

6. Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRdet5Ehyo

You guessed it. Anyway, Radiohead is my favourite band ever. Amnesiac is my favourite album ever (yeah weird pick huh! And there's no Amnesiac song on this list, I'll probably come off as some Radiohead fan who only listens to the first three albums.. But the album as a whole is amazing).

This song is very touching and moving. It starts with an A chord and Yorke singing

Her green plastic watering-can
For her fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth

That she bought
From a rubber man in a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself

it wears her out

I personally think that this song is about the fakeness of the world these days and the media trying to create a perfect example for the people. If there's one band that isn't trying to look perfect, it's Radiohead.

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery for girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

and it wears him out

And then you can hear Jonny in the background messing with his guitar once the song climaxes with

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

And it wears me out

If I could be who you wanted all the time

Hey a change to first person! Interesting..

But I'll let you figure that out yourselves. I'm not here to lecture you guys about lyrics, you can interpret them as you want to. I just want to share my favourite songs!

P.S. check this live vid it's my favourite RH performance ever (except for the performances at the show I went to myself ofcourse.. But that's different) and one of the reasons why Jonny Greenwood is my favourite guitarist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDS4wOd_o1I

RadioheadExplosions in the SkyElliott SmithNirvanaRed Hot Chili Peppers