No matter how I try, I can’t get you out of my mind
For the past few weeks I’ve been sorting through the music library on my computer, weeding out any songs I just don’t feel are necessary to hold onto and basically slimming it all down. Apparently I have just under 4000 songs in my music playlist, which actually isn’t as bad as it used to be, but I don’t really listen to music much and when I do I usually just stick with the same old songs I’ve always listened to. There’s apparently over a thousand songs I’ve never actually listened to, and that’s terrible. Or, more accurately, there’s over a thousand songs that I’ve probably listened to once and then skipped over before it truly ends so iTunes doesn’t add a number to its Play Count value. For some reason Play Counts bug the hell out of me. If it’s an unplayed song then sure, no problem, but if it’s one that’s played several times it irritates me to see it continuously rack up. It used to be that every time my brother came over every System of a Down song I would play would rise by like three counts by the time he’d leave. Bugged the absolute piss out of me. I’m just that neurotic.
But while I was on holiday, I only took sixty songs with me, and I’d say it actually worked quite nicely that way. I do keep a playlist of songs I would consider near and dear to my heart, or just pretty rockin’, though it’s over 150 songs and weighs around 700mb, so towing that around on a small USB flash drive is not very fun. Weeding it down is actually an entertaining exercise, and I’d dare say I brought a pleasant mixture of upbeat tunes and downbeat songs, and managed to avoid just taking the entire Strawbs discography with me. I took all of their best tunes, of course (Just Love, A Boy And His Dog, Evergreen, Wasting My Time Thinking Of You, Ah Me Ah My, Pick Up The Pieces, All The Little Ladies… look, seriously, it’s my favourite band, I might as well just recap every damn thing they’ve made in these brackets), but I still had a pleasant dose of variety.
There were some songs I brought that I just wonder… what was I thinking? I mean, they’re not bad songs, but if I’m restricting myself to sixty of my favourite songs, why did I bring along Evening Bells by Ivan Rebroff, from The Best Of Russian Folk Songs Volume 1? Why, when I decided to take a song by Pink Martini with me, did I opt for the surprisingly repetitive City Of Night and not the infinitely superior cover of Que Sera Sera? Why did I need more than one Coldplay song, for that matter?
No regrets about taking the Germany theme from Neo Turf Masters, though. I’ve actually got an hour-long loop of that song that I take into work.
In theory I would love to open this up into a discussion about if you were going to be sealed in a bubble and had only one song to listen to for the rest of your life, what song would it be, but I’ve literally been swamped by spam comments these days. When I came back on Saturday there were about seventy comments in the queue, all of them spam. And all of them for the blog entry about Robin Hood, for whatever reason. There’s no doubt a plug-in that can solve this to a certain degree, but until I decide to actually try and learn what it is, I’ll stick with whining!
Wouldn’t know what song I’d take, though. Certainly not Evening Bells by Ivan Rebroff, dear god; nice song, but it’s a bit of a buzzkill when it’s wedged between songs from the soundtrack of The Good, The Bad, The Weird.
I believe that Stickerbrush Symphony from Donkey Kong Country 2 may be the best song ever created by human hands. That’s my song pick for the bubble thing.
Speaking of music, one thing you never discussed in your impressions of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was the music. What did you think? Hare Hare Yukai (the ending song) is quite catchy and a guilty pleasure for me.
It got ruined once the fandom turned Haruhi into a sodding religion.
Heck yes, David Wise’s ambient songs for the Donkey Kong Country series would definitely be among some of my favourite songs ever; I admit I’ve probably got more of a preference for Aquatic Ambiance from DKC1, though that’s probably because I’ve more familiarity with the first game and thus more chances to hear it. Stickerbrush Symphony is undeniably beautiful. Although it’s a very different theme, the Smash Bros. Brawl cover was actually good, good enough to be one of the songs I took with me while I was away. I did kick myself for not taking any David Wise stuff with me, though.
I was also pleasantly surprised about the music in the Melancholy of Hurfdurf Snoozeumiya. I’d heard (and seen) Hare Hare Yukai long before I watched the show, so naturally it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure, though I think half the fun does come form watching the awesome dance scene, which is almost heartbreaking when you see the credits – where’d the still images come from? GO AWAY WE DON’T WANT TO LOOK AT YOU, STILL IMAGES >:U
Although definitely not as catchy, the opening theme was actually relatively nice, though, again, it was more the very smooth animation that grabbed my interest. Even the song in, what, episode 11 or 12 wasn’t bad, and I can see why the animation company went on to make that other musically themed show; even the English dub of the song fit rather nicely, which is more than I can say for most other English dubs that attempt singing.
From what I’ve seen, Haruhi’s alright, but the hype goes way too far sometimes.
Also Season 2 isn’t a good idea for you to check, Ragey. Two wrods: Endless Eight.