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This mix contains a handful of songs from three primary sources. The first is an 80's box set I couldn't justify spending the money on (since many of the selections therein were already in my collection), but whose remaining selections were plucked piecemeal from the iTunes Music Store. The second source is the most recent Paste Magazine CD sampler, and the third is the iTunes Music Store, to procure a few guilty pleasures, each of which will be revealed in due time as you, gentle reader, peruse on. |
 | Perfect Day - Hoku
I remember a sense of aural candy, courtesy of Don Ho's daughter, awash in the pink ocular candy that was "Legally Blonde". This upbeat jam found its infectious little way into my skull, such that only a complete listen-through would satisfy. Course, it's been a few years since that movie came out, so you can only imagine the sense of delayed gratification.
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Lightness - Death Cab For Cutie
The first of the Paste Sampler tracks. I'd sort of been looking for an excuse to get into these guys, but any catalog larger than one or two albums is a bit overwhelming to approach. This is a good taste--and it tastes good.
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Build A Bridge - The Redwalls
Back in March, these guys opened for Keane at the Quest in Minneapolis. Being the snob that I was, I couldn't be bothered with an opening act (J/K), and we ended up missing out on these guys, who feel like the offspring of the Allman Brothers...at least based on this track anyway.
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Mars Loves Venus - The Brunettes
Completing the initial hat-trick of the Paste Sampler (be comforted, though--more are on the way), this "Grease"-esque track by the Brunettes (a group I honestly know nothing about) features some fun spoken banter between boy and girl. I love the first line from the girl: "a sad love song kicks my ass every time".
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You Should Hear How She Talks About You - Melissa Manchester
Moving on to the 80's box set I couldn't justify, I had seen this track amongst its seven discs, wondering what it sounded like. Amazon's sound samples, for some reason, never seemed to work for me, but at work a few weeks back, one of my co-workers was talking about MM, and I checked it out on iTunes. Totally 80's.
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Touch - Sarah McLachlan
Props to KT Martin for a splash of original Sarah. A few years back, I was making the trip from St. Louis back up to Minneapolis, and she made me a tape to stay awake on the road. This instrumental piece sounded rather Enya-esque, and I'd always wondered a) what it was called, and b) what album it was on. I didn't know Sarah McLachlan was making music back in 1989.
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What Will You Say - Joe Rogness
By the time "What Will You Say" comes up in Joe's debut masterpiece, Right With You, I'd already heard a handful of songs I wished I'd written. This, the sort-of piece-de-resistance to that effect, is a slow 3/4 lounge-jazz style song, with a tremendous trumpet line atop some marvelous piano chords. This is the kind of song that was deemed too "inappropriate" to perform at one of my old churches. Congrats, Joe, on breaking through to the other side.
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Slow Slide - Fourplay
Intermingled in with a handful of perfect, late-night slow jazz pieces, and a worthy follow up to Joe Rogness, is this 6/8 cooler featuring Larry Carlton way out in front. This is complete relaxation music.
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Le Perif - Kia
Paris Under A Groove appeared on iTunes under the "downtempo" category, and, in my search for a birthday present for one of Jen's friends, came across this. These compilations are so funny, since you only get a taste of the artists included on the mix, but sometimes you stumble across a winner.
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Une Very Stylish Fille - Dimitri From Paris
My friend Mary Beth popped in this Dimitri From Paris album several years ago, while kicked back at her apartment. The lounge horns and the kitschy movie dialogue put me right on the davenport with the hi-fi in the background. Anybody who samples from the soundtrack to the original "Batman" TV series can take my francs all the way to le banque.
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You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - Dead Or Alive
This is one of those songs you're bound to hear at some point or another. I like the way the singer ramps his voice up and down to find his notes during the chorus. The beat is so heavy in this track, I actually have to turn it down a bit, lest I enter into a trance state.
And we're halfway through this mix. Flip to side B, por favor...
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Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
Sort of like the last track, this is one that you've most likely heard either in some 80's compilation, or more recently in "Zoolander". All personal scandals aside, these guys knew how to write fun songs. And George Michael does have a great pop voice. Just one of those tracks you have to throw in to clear the palette.
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Working For The Weekend - Loverboy
Another track from the 80's box set, downloaded as a single. My first exposure to Loverboy was their song "Heaven In Your Eyes" from the Top Gun soundtrack, which begins with a horrible vocal "oooh" during the intro.
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Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries - Johnny Mathis
I recently played at my boss' husband's 87th birthday party, and this is apparently one of his all-time favorite songs, so it was requested that I perform it for him. In my search for a recording through which I could practice and learn the song, I found this version by Johnny Mathis, featuring an uber-lush string arrangement supporting his sweet vox.
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Rodeo Clowns - G. Love w/ Jack Johnson
I remember "Cold Beverage" from my late junior high days, when my friends James and Eric were into G. Love. After listening to their Greatest Hits, my friend Melissa turned me onto this track, featuring a mellow-but-funky groove by Jack Johnson. If this doesn't paint a picture of summer, winter's been too long--which it tends to be up here.
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Best Of Luck - Nickel Creek
Here's another one from the Paste Sampler. I've honestly never heard much of Nickel Creek's music before this. Their most recent album, Why Should The Fire Die?, is their first without producer Alison Krauss, and this track features some opposing harmonies that messed me right up. A killer intro to a band I'm looking forward to exploring more thoroughly.
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It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It) - The Fun Boy Three with Bananarama
In the sea of brain-throbbing 80's tunes that comprise the mammoth Living In Oblivion box set (which I DID buy...not to be confused with the one I've referenced numerous times already--it's been an 80's season), I was relieved by the reprieve this fun, bouncy tune provided. The girls of Bananarama have a "like, totally" edge to their voices, making "do" sound just a bit more like "dew". And the Fun Boy Three are singing, one would venture to guess, a bit lower than they're normally accustomed to.
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Theme From "Back To The Future" - Alan Silvestri
The first tape I ever purchased (waaay back in 1986) was this soundtrack. Silvestri's score is one of the key players in this movie, going completely symphonic and ushering "Back To The Future" into a bracket of 80's films a cut above the rest. This version is a shortened, but very concise edit, of the overture/suite from the original soundtrack, which includes all the rise and fall of the primary theme, with the extended outro intact. In the words of Dan Nickolai, it's the perfect movie. I'm inclined to agree with him.
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Never Ending Story - Limahl
Recently described by my bandmates as "horrible music," Limahl's theme to the movie of the same name, circa 1984, is a melody I've had in my head for almost two decades. It has that air of faux sensitivity that many 80's artists tried to capture in their expression. For their token solo instrument, they went with the sitar. (Interestingly, however, when told the name of the song and the movie which featured it, this bandmate excitedly replied that he "could watch that movie right now.")
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Sunglasses At Night - Corey Hart
I remember driving to Bad Dog Productions in St. Louis during my senior year of college one night when this song came on the radio. My roommate Tyson was riding shotgun, and began singing along to Corey Hart's overdramatic vocal. Of the three parts of this song, I particularly like the part where he gets all raspy and cannot be understood. But, there are some great synth parts in the background that cement this in the "undeniably 80's" category.
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The King Of Wishful Thinking - Go West
Back in the days when I worked at a chiropractic office, the lite radio station was always providing the perfect, repetitive, saccharine soundscape. This is one of those tunes which, despite great production, is destined for such airwaves as these. Again, another infectious melody, and it wasn't until my fiancee and I were at the Pamida in Hayward, WI, looking for a DVD of "Never Been Kissed", that my ear caught the chorus vocal. Upon returning to the Twin Cities, a quick iTunes search put the poppy jam in my Purchased Music folder.
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End Credits (from "Romancing The Stone") - Alan Silvestri
THIS was a treat to find. I remember watching the DVD of "Romancing The Stone" in St. Louis, and greatly enjoying the jazzy, uptempo score playing over the end credits, as Michael Douglas' character trailers a giant sailboat down the streets of New York. It seemed like the perfect contemporary "riding off into the sunset" music to play as the film closed. And so closes this mix. You've survived my take on 22 songs in a row. God bless you.
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