#30: Your Favourite Song at This Time Last Year

I spent much of last spring listening to Beach House's then-new album, Teen Dream. Though it doesn't quite match Devotion for dreamy but nonchalant blissfulness, it's beautiful nontheless and songs like Silver Soul are absolutely inspired. This is the closing song, and it's lovely.

#29: A Song From Your Childhood

Fun fact: there is in existence home video footage of me dancing around the room to this at age seven. No, you do not get to see it. Ever.



The worst part? I thought I was SO badass because I liked these over Boyzone.

#28: A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty

Arguably a bit of an obvious one, but there was nothing else for it. It makes me feel horrendously guilty, and so it should. There is no ethical justification for eating animals; it's pure greed. I've been re-evaluating my relationship with meat a lot recently. I don't know if I could go full veggie (yet), but pesceterianism is definitely an option. One more play of this song might just push me over.

#27: A Song You Wish You Could Play

Naturally.

#26: A Song You Can Play on an Instrument

I really wish it was something cooler, alas.

#25: A Song That Makes You Laugh

This C86 gem was a contender for my least favourite song 'til I listened to it again and realised that it's madly entertaining - in its way. It's great because it's so irredemably awful, which is surely as good a reason as any.



DOES THE FISH HAVE CHIPS?

#24: A Song You Want Played at Your Funeral

It doesn't really fit, but this was the first death-based song to spring to mind and it's not as if anybody is going to dispute it anyway. I chose the Bad Seeds version over the original for two reasons: Dylan's evasive at best on Youtube and the original lacks the incongruity and eclectisim of its cover: Nick, Kylie, Shane Macgowan - surely all tastes and bases are covered here, therefore making it perfect for a people-y event like, well, a funeral. Anyway, I babble - I cease - you enjoy. (Sort of).



EDIT: Obviously I should have gone with Lay Me Low instead. Duh.

#23: A Song You Want Played at Your (Proverbial) Wedding*

A beautifully sincere and simple one from the Zombies. I love the song, the album, the sentiment and the person who introduced it to me. And yes reader, you're permitted to gag.

*lets not get ahead of ourselves now.

#22: A Song You Listen to When You're Sad

Do You Realise? is a rare song that achieves the astonishing dual feat of being both heartbreaking and hugely uplifting. I was lucky enough to see the 'Lips perform it live last summer, against the majestic backdrop of Wales' Sugar Loaf Mountain. By the end of the song I could barely see through all the tears in my eyes and couldn't fathom how anybody else could have witnessed what I had and not respond similarly. In illuminating the transcience, beauty and ultimately the loneliness of the human condition, Coyne and co. have crafted a song for any mood or occasion (I've heard of it being played at weddings), but I still feel it works best if you're feeling just a little bit sad.



So beautiful.

#21: A Song You Listen to When You're Happy

Given the pensive, somewhat sulky look she affects on virtually. every. single. photograph, you wouldn't expect Tracyanne Campbell to be a harbinger of the happy. But she totally is. Belle and Sebastian are like Arab Strap next to these guys. Listen and LOVE.

#20: A Song You Listen to When You're Angry

A couple of months ago I was walking to Uni in an astonishingly foul mood, angrier still due to the fact that I had nothing appropriately pissy to assauge it with on my iPod. Then I found One Hundred Years - by, ding! - The Cure and in all of its anger, apathy and reckless nihilism, it satisfied an urge, and suddenly I felt all better. Cure-ious and curioser. Here's the Peel sesh because the original is ostensibly all but non-existent on Youtube. (Grumble).

#19: A Song From Your Favourite Album

So as not to pepper this with even more Cure, I'm choosing a song from one of my favourite albums at the moment. Galaxie 500's On Fire was a bit of a late discovery for me but I'm now absolutely besotted with its languid melodies and dreamy, shimmery guitars. This video captures them on the cusp of success, and suprisingly it's a Youtube description that sums it up the best: "It reminds you how short their time was - school gym one day - thousands of punters a few weeks later - then it all ended. God I love them."

#18: A Song You Wish You Heard on the Radio

Here I'm (slightly randomly) plumping for Summer Camp because they're new(ish) and lovely and with media support and proper attention, they could totally cross over into the mainstream.

#17: A Song That You Often Hear on the Radio

Because I don't own a radio, I'm posting a song I often hear on the internet. On Twitter I described it as 'The Room of songs'. I stand by it.

#16: A Song That You Used to Love But Now Hate (Becca)

I never quite loved "New York City Cops", but there's nothing like an ill-fated music video media project to fuel the fires of ignominy.

#15: A Song That Describes You (Becca)

Note: not self-ascribed; this is me according to Katie.



With friends like these...

In other news, comrade Tom has given up. Soz, Mike.

#14: A Song that No-one would Expect You to Love (Becca)

Apparently. "Love" is a bit strong, mind.

#13: A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure (Becca)

Are the Arctic Monkeys something to be guilty about? Arguably, but I maintain that Whatever I Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is a legitimately decent album made better by Alex Turner's excellent writing. Favourite Worst Nightmare was mostly crap and their new single reeks, but for a time, the songs they were playing actually lived up to the (colossal waves of) hype. Here's one of them.

#12: A Song From A Band You Hate (Becca)

I've lapsed! For this I apologise on bended knee. It doesn't help that this challenge has turned a bit shit. I can't think of any band that I vehemently hate, but there's a fair few that I certainly don't love, and Razorlight are one of them.



I don't hate Razorlight, I just don't find them pretentious and uninteresting. A bit like this challenge, really.

#11: A Song By Your Favourite Band (Becca)

YES, more Cure. You love it.



Contrary to what I wrote on Day #1 of this blog, this is probably my favourite song ever, whether by The Cure or by anybody. It's hard to write about without sounding wanky because, like all great art, it defies description (how wanky), but I shall prattle on regardless. As my two favourite bands, I often pit The Cure and The Smiths against each other and while The Smiths were undoubtedly more consistent, they never reached the ecstatic heights The Cure do here. Absolutely beautiful.

#10: A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep (Becca)

I can't fall asleep listening to music unless I'm extremely tired, in which case music is merely incidental, not instrumental in my, er, fall, ironically. And so I present you all with an (admittedly very good) song that doesn't make me fall asleep but was simply playing in my ears as I lapsed consciousness in my chair on Christmas Day two or three years ago after not sleeping all night before because I'm a big baby, etc...Yes.

#9: A Song That You Can Dance To (Becca)

Fuck Buttons are something of a bone of contention in our camp; whilst I'm in love with their sonic melodies and thumping beats, Tom sees them merely as an aimless, meandering, crap imitation of Black Dice. When we saw them live at (yes) Green Man last summer, I danced 'til I couldn't breathe while Tom, as I understand it, was counting down the minutes 'til they finished (while being simultaneously hasselled by an over-zealous baldie; a story for another time, alas). Whichever way you look at them, Tarot Sport's opener is at worst a bit of a toe-tapper, and at best a rousing, pulsing beast of a tune. Witness.

#8: A Song That You Know All the Words To (Becca)

It's not with pride that I admit this, but incredulity.

#8: A Song That You Know All The Words To (Tom)

Yep. I know all the words to this song...

#7: A Song That Reminds You of A Certain Event (Tom)

Animal Collective, Carling Academy 2 - 11th July 2006.
Deakin plays a particularly repetitive guitar riff(?) in this song. His guitar was mixed way too loud. It's practically all I heard.
Awesome gig though.

#7: A Song That Reminds You of A Certain Event (Becca)

Choosing the event was easy: the Green Man Festival has marked the best weekend of the summer for the last two, er, summers for me, and it pains me that I sha'nt be gracing its muddy fields with my well-worn wellies this time around. That said, choosing a specific song was really fraught, simply because there's so many I could have opted for. Alas, you're getting this, one of many drawn out of the proverbial hat. Lucky for you, it's a beauty.



Everything Is Free Now is a bit of cheat, since I'm posting it primarily because of the (impressively HQ) video rather than the song, but it's not like any of you like us for our slavish adherence to the rules anyway. You can't see us, but both Tom and I were there, right at the front and narrowly out of shot, probably a bit teary for all the high emotion. Isn't it just perfect?

#6: A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere (Tom)

I'm trying. I really am trying. Trying to not have every other post relating to either a Cure song or Smiths song. But it is futile.
I went to Canada a few years back. It was awesome. Around this time, I was horribly obsessed with The Cure and their admittedly average self-titled album had just come out. But as a relatively new convert, I thought it was the best thing ever and pretty much listened to it exclusively, while travelling with the (sort of) family, sitting in a park, or wondering round Toronto on my own, horribly lost (sorry Dad).
So really I should post every song off the album, but in the interests of 'sticking to the rules', I'll post just one.
Here it is.

#6: A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere (Becca)

No Union night would be complete without a token play of Mr. Brightside, apparently the only 'indie' song the people of Leicester University are aware of. Those opening notes aren't inherently objectionable, yet every time I hear them I die a little inside, and suddenly all I see is VKs, bright lights and sparkles. It'll haunt me to the end, I swear.

#5: A Song That Reminds You of Someone (Tom)

BREAKING RULES AGAIN.
This doesn't apply to anyone in particular, I kind of just wanted to post the video.

#5: A Song That Reminds You of Someone (Becca)

He knows.

#4: A Song That Makes You Sad (Tom)

I am going to break the rules.
Due to my interest in moping around and hating people, I really could not choose just one song that makes me 'sad'. But really, these songs don't make me unhappy, they're just unhappy songs to begin with.

1.


It could have been 'Katy Song', 'Duk Koo Kim', 'Moments', 'Void', 'Grace Cathedral Park', etc, etc. Kozelek really is the master of mope. He is my hero, man.
This song is brutal. Don't listen.

2.


When, when we were young...

#3: A Song That Makes You Happy (Tom)

#4: A Song That Makes You Sad (Becca)

In the interest of not turning this blog entirely into a catalogue of Cure songs we have... ostensibly a bit of an odd one, actually. The Exploding Hearts' Guitar Romantic is a cheeky, fun, frustrated and unmistakably young record, but a tragic gravitas is given to it by what happened next. Shortly after its release, three of of the bands four members were killed in a car crash, lending the album, but especially this song, an unexpected, unintended but intense poignancy. Unlike anything else I would have chosen, this song breaks your heart precisely because it was never supposed to.

RIP, boys.

#3: A Song That Makes You Happy (Becca)

YES. Obviously it's a bit cheesy but I don't think I've ever heard this song and not wound up smiling like an idiot. Odyssey and Oracle has to be one of the most uplifting albums there is - even when the lyrics dip into melancholy the melodies are almost consistently joyous, and this is quite possibly the point where all the merriment culminates and explodes into two minutes of pure pop. A silly, catchy, shamelessly celebratory paean to love and lovely couples, it's euphoric yet not entirely bereft of irony: Jean isn't the only girl in Jim's life, after all...

#2: Your Least Favourite Song (Tom)

It's incredibly hard, for me at least, to think of a song that would receive enough acknowledgement on my part to be deemed 'my least favourite song'. It proposes a vested interest on my part on why this song is so bad, why it is deemed less superior to other songs, why, after all these years a single song should suddenly pop into my mind when prompted. This proposal is puzzling to me. Why should I care about this song if it is so bad? Why should you care if I find this song so offensive? By admitting that this one song is so bad, that it has somehow cemented itself in my mind, surely means the song has been a pop success, and in a horribly abstract way, it has appealed to me... However, this song is just really shit.



Fuck you, song.

#1: Your Favourite Song (Tom Version)

I'm going to stick to the rules. For now...

Do you know, it's really quite difficult to find a video of the album version of 'Pictures of You'? (On Youtube at least.) So sadly it will have to be a live version, but when you consider how dreadfully awful the single edit is, then this is the best possible outcome.
My favourite song ever. Yep.

#2: Your Least Favourite Song

Note: I'm discounting cover songs because, with a handful of phenomenal exceptions, I dislike them on principle.

It's hard to think of many songs that are fundmentally vile. Many songs start bad, and either excessive exposure or their majestic tosser-attracting abilities (occasionally both; see the ENTIRE DUBSTEP GENRE) make them worse. But it takes a special kind of bad song to offend from the offset. I realise emo bands are an easy target, but I really feel that this wretched, condescending shitbag of a 'song' by Simple Plan takes the biscuit.

I remember seeing this on TV when I was 14. I had the requisite green hair, mopey demeanour and absurd lack of perspective that grossly misinformed industry bigwigs were eager to capitalise on at the time, but even I couldn't buy into this croc of shit. Since I was an ardent fan of nu-metal back then, that has to count for something.



The self-pity. The whiny vocal repetition. The boring, ceaseless three-chord rhythm. God, it must be so hard being so rich and famous in your shit fucking band. Maybe he is talking from the perspective of a lameass emo tween, but I refuse to give him even that much creative credit. FOUL.

#1: Your Favourite Song

When I decided to start writing this, I made a couple of rules to myself, namely to:
- embed a Youtube vid into every post, because if there's no evidence there's no point. What I can't account for is the content of the videos: alternately Youtube users deserve to be shot or knighted.
- avoid sounding like a Pitchfork twat in my descriptions. This one is very important.
- only post one song per post.

However, with something like a favourite song it's simply impossible for anybody with any interest in music to select only one. There's songs for different moods, different times, different facets of the personality. For example, the part of me that likes to go out and dance my ass off to vile 00's indie does not appreciate the dulcet tones of Leonard Cohen as 1) it should and 2) as my more, er, good side does. As such, I'm going to post THREE songs today. I know right, breakin' the rules already. Imma fucking maverick.

Favourite kick ass song for walking with a strut and feeling like a mutha'



Sister Ray really could be the greatest song of all time; seventeen-odd minutes of noisy, awry, don't-give-a-fuck rock n roll. This is what so much lo-fi wants to be and isn't; exciting, sexy, loud, fun and decidedly NOT tediously generic pop music recorded with broken instruments on broken computers. I bloody love the VU.

Favourite song for sitting in bed with headphones on, being stirred, moved, reduced to mush...


The Cure are my favourite band, and my favourite song of theirs used to be the transcendent Plainsong, but I think in recent years A Letter to Elise has gradually eclipsed it (albeit, only slightly). Robert Smith described the bands Just Like Heaven as a perfect pop song, but that was before he wrote this. So lyrically and musically beautiful, so tender, so sad and overall, just an exquisite piece of pop. Flawless.

Favourite song for witty bits.

I genuinely do believe that Frankly Mr. Shankly represents the zenith of Morrissey's songwriting. Everybody talks about I Know It's Over and the like, and they're beautiful, desperately sad songs but Morrissey was never so funny, so acutely perceptive and so witty as in this. A snarky Wildean ode to fame, the industry and allegedly Rough Trade boss Geoff Harris, it's deliciously barbed and a perpetual delight to listen to. Sometimes I like to take a bit of a break from the Smiths, but I never stray from this song.

Introduction

'Cause I'm cool, I've opted to take up the '30 Day Song Challenge', which isn't really a challenge at all, but rather a pointless opportunity to show off what an exquisite music snob you are. Woop. The rules are here and the posts go here. I'll probably write little explanations too, just because frankly I can't help myself. There's an FAQ below and an (even more) nonsensical blog of mine here. Knock yourselves out.

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IFAQ (Imaginary Frequently Asked Questions)

Why not Facebook, bitch?
Because posting your favourite songs all over Facebook is irritating and obnoxious, whereas doing it on a blog is merely unimaginative.

Why do we care, bitch?
You don't. I'm just magnificently self-absorbed.

Your hair's shit.
Sorry about that.

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Let the games begin.