Floating Leaf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
floatingleaf) wrote2005-11-06 08:36 pm
floatingleaf) wrote2005-11-06 08:36 pm
Entry tags:
music meme
I just came up with this simple, but fun idea for a meme. Imagine you can only keep ten CD's - which ones would they be? Of course it would be easiest to just make compilations of your favorite songs from different artists, like everybody does these days - but I mean "10 CD's" as in "ten favorite albums" that you like in their entirety, not skipping more than 1-2 tracks as you listen to them. Albums that you consider perfect as a whole, including the lyrics, the artwork and everything. Albums that you still love and play frequently, even though you've had them for many years - or some new discoveries that brought you to your knees and you simply KNOW you will love them forever.:) Here goes my list:
Fields of the Nephilim: Elysium
OK, I don't actually own this one on a CD. I own it on an old, tattered bootleg tape, bought in Poland in those memorable times when piracy was still rampant and CD's (or even authorized tapes) were much too expensive for poor bastards like me.;) Not that I actually saw that one's authorized edition. Anyway, I've had it for a looong time and it's still a perfect atmospheric background for falling asleep...
(Note: contrary to what you might think, it's a huge compliment in my book when I say that some music is perfect to fall asleep to. I wouldn't play just anything to get myself into a proper dreamy state, and I have always found melancholy, trance-like sound most appealing.)
Eloy: Dawn
Eloy is an obscure German art-rock band that issued plenty of weird music during the seventies & eighties... and this particular album actually came out in 1976 (needless to say, I was 5 years old then, so I discovered it much later ;). It's monumental, almost opera-like synthesizer rock with clear classical influences. Very pompous and German-style, and the vocalist sings in English with an all-too-clear German accent... but I LOVE it. The lyrics tell an allegorical story about the fight between good and evil, darkness and light... and the last track - The Dawn - is the most perfect instrumental illustration of sunrise I have ever heard. It puts me in a very elevated mood every time.;)
Annalist: Memories
The debut album of a Polish art-rock band (early nineties). (Yes, obscure is my middle name. So what? :P) Very melancholy, slightly experimental and extremely romantic. With lots of piano passages and wailing guitars.;) Oh, and the cover is midnight blue, with a huge full moon and a barren tree on it. Perfection.;)
Marc Almond: Enchanted
Do I need to introduce Marc Almond? I hope not. He is so gay that every self-respecting slasher should at least have heard about him.;P
Anyway, this particular album is pure magic. It's deliciously over-the-top in its theatrical intensity, but also genuinely beautiful. At least in my opinion. Songs like Death's Diary, The Sea Still Sings or Orpheus in Red Velvet are simply breathtaking...
Marc Almond: Open All Night
Yes, I couldn't be satisfied with one album. This one sounds best in the dark, dispersed only by candlelight and a full moon peeping in through the window.;) It has beautiful melodies and endearingly gay lyrics - playfully tongue-in-cheek, shamelessly cheesy and yet inexplicably touching even as they make you snicker... or maybe only I am weird that way.;) For example: Walking in the midnight rain, I'll never fall in love again... or like a flower slowly dies, so will I (and he sings it like he knows how absolutely, hopelessly gay it is ;P). Or: I'm an erotic neurotic, I need a little antibiotic (no comment here, I guess). Or: When we die, we're gonna go dancing in that nightclub in the sky. Just... yeah.
Delerium: Karma
Over 70 minutes of perfect lullaby, transforming me onto another plane of existence - especially with Sarah MacLachlan's vocal in Silence. Yep. New age is my middle name. Or one of them, anyway...:P
Anna Vissi: Antidoto
I love Greek music, and I love female singers with personality. This woman is the Greek Edith Piaf, and this album is a masterpiece. Most of the songs are dramatic enough to give justice to the power of her voice. Plus, she looks like a true Greek goddess. *melts*
Melina Kana: Portrait
Another Greek singer who truly touches my heart. Her songs are mostly quiet, thoughtful and very poetic. This album is an international edition with a booklet containing translations of the lyrics, so I actually know what she sings about.;) And it makes the whole experience even more precious. *sigh*
Collide: Chasing the Ghost
Perfect psychedelic lullaby... again (I am so predictable, ain't I? LOL). Just press play and float away.;) And... yeah.
10 Years: The Autumn Effect
My latest addiction. Bought it for 10 bucks at Borders last week and died ten times over. Just... magnificent. There's nothing like melancholy alternative rock with a touch of black metal. Or whatever other label it might go under. It has depth, it has power, it has that flowing, drowning feeling that makes listening to music almost better than sex. If you know what I mean (as if anyone's actually still reading this... I have almost bored myself already, LOL).
Anyway... that's all, folks. I need to go to bed (I actually spent three hours writing this, while simultaneously trying to make a compilation tape of lately acquired music that will go into my car player). And before you ask - no, I don't have a life. Good night, everyone.:P
Fields of the Nephilim: Elysium
OK, I don't actually own this one on a CD. I own it on an old, tattered bootleg tape, bought in Poland in those memorable times when piracy was still rampant and CD's (or even authorized tapes) were much too expensive for poor bastards like me.;) Not that I actually saw that one's authorized edition. Anyway, I've had it for a looong time and it's still a perfect atmospheric background for falling asleep...
(Note: contrary to what you might think, it's a huge compliment in my book when I say that some music is perfect to fall asleep to. I wouldn't play just anything to get myself into a proper dreamy state, and I have always found melancholy, trance-like sound most appealing.)
Eloy: Dawn
Eloy is an obscure German art-rock band that issued plenty of weird music during the seventies & eighties... and this particular album actually came out in 1976 (needless to say, I was 5 years old then, so I discovered it much later ;). It's monumental, almost opera-like synthesizer rock with clear classical influences. Very pompous and German-style, and the vocalist sings in English with an all-too-clear German accent... but I LOVE it. The lyrics tell an allegorical story about the fight between good and evil, darkness and light... and the last track - The Dawn - is the most perfect instrumental illustration of sunrise I have ever heard. It puts me in a very elevated mood every time.;)
Annalist: Memories
The debut album of a Polish art-rock band (early nineties). (Yes, obscure is my middle name. So what? :P) Very melancholy, slightly experimental and extremely romantic. With lots of piano passages and wailing guitars.;) Oh, and the cover is midnight blue, with a huge full moon and a barren tree on it. Perfection.;)
Marc Almond: Enchanted
Do I need to introduce Marc Almond? I hope not. He is so gay that every self-respecting slasher should at least have heard about him.;P
Anyway, this particular album is pure magic. It's deliciously over-the-top in its theatrical intensity, but also genuinely beautiful. At least in my opinion. Songs like Death's Diary, The Sea Still Sings or Orpheus in Red Velvet are simply breathtaking...
Marc Almond: Open All Night
Yes, I couldn't be satisfied with one album. This one sounds best in the dark, dispersed only by candlelight and a full moon peeping in through the window.;) It has beautiful melodies and endearingly gay lyrics - playfully tongue-in-cheek, shamelessly cheesy and yet inexplicably touching even as they make you snicker... or maybe only I am weird that way.;) For example: Walking in the midnight rain, I'll never fall in love again... or like a flower slowly dies, so will I (and he sings it like he knows how absolutely, hopelessly gay it is ;P). Or: I'm an erotic neurotic, I need a little antibiotic (no comment here, I guess). Or: When we die, we're gonna go dancing in that nightclub in the sky. Just... yeah.
Delerium: Karma
Over 70 minutes of perfect lullaby, transforming me onto another plane of existence - especially with Sarah MacLachlan's vocal in Silence. Yep. New age is my middle name. Or one of them, anyway...:P
Anna Vissi: Antidoto
I love Greek music, and I love female singers with personality. This woman is the Greek Edith Piaf, and this album is a masterpiece. Most of the songs are dramatic enough to give justice to the power of her voice. Plus, she looks like a true Greek goddess. *melts*
Melina Kana: Portrait
Another Greek singer who truly touches my heart. Her songs are mostly quiet, thoughtful and very poetic. This album is an international edition with a booklet containing translations of the lyrics, so I actually know what she sings about.;) And it makes the whole experience even more precious. *sigh*
Collide: Chasing the Ghost
Perfect psychedelic lullaby... again (I am so predictable, ain't I? LOL). Just press play and float away.;) And... yeah.
10 Years: The Autumn Effect
My latest addiction. Bought it for 10 bucks at Borders last week and died ten times over. Just... magnificent. There's nothing like melancholy alternative rock with a touch of black metal. Or whatever other label it might go under. It has depth, it has power, it has that flowing, drowning feeling that makes listening to music almost better than sex. If you know what I mean (as if anyone's actually still reading this... I have almost bored myself already, LOL).
Anyway... that's all, folks. I need to go to bed (I actually spent three hours writing this, while simultaneously trying to make a compilation tape of lately acquired music that will go into my car player). And before you ask - no, I don't have a life. Good night, everyone.:P