Weekly Playlist Vol 13 : Queen

Life has happened this week so I have yet to see the Queen movie that just came out. Queen however was one of my favorite bands growing up. The Flash Gordon soundtrack was one of the first album's I owned, though in passing I was aware of some of their other songs even then. Queen is a band like Rush or even Pink Floyd where if you judged them on the merits of their radio singles you would not have a very clear idea what they were truly capable of. The incarnation I became obsessed with in High School, was their earlier harder rock songs of the first few albums. To this band I will stand by the fact that their second album is one of the greatest albums ever created and "Ogre Battle" is more of a master piece than Bohemian Rhapsody . Any ways while they are not a band that always gets mentioned in this blog due to the fact they are generally happier than what I normally listen to much like Kiss they will always hold a place in my heart and be deeply respected. So this week's playlist consists of my favorite Queen songs.

" Mustapha "






 "I'm in Love With My Car"





" Sheer Heart Attack"





"Flick of the Wrist"





"I Want to Break Free"





 "Ogre Battle"




 "Get Down Make Love"





 "Son & Daughter"





 "the March of the Black Queen"






 More of that Jazz"


 

Gothtober- Weekly Playlist vol 9 Bowie's Darkest Days

OK , I have been promising a Play list of Bowie for sometime now so this makes the most sense for me to make this an installment of Gothtober. But David Bowie isn't goth. Well it depends on what version of Bowie you are talking about and even then it varies song to song. One of his darkest songs that is included here is from "Lets Dance" which was Bowie's take on being an American pop star. Some of these are from his 90's album "Outside" that dipped his toe into industrial, a genre he had already influenced on "Scary Monsters". So that is what we are looking at here David Bowie's darkest moments. After Bowie died I did an article on Cvlt Nation called "Goth is the New Bowie" which looked at how goth would not exist if not for him. The article can be read below

https://www.cvltnation.com/goth-is-the-new-bowie/

 Now that should have cleared up any confusion you might have had, lets take a listen at Bowie's darkest moments. To clear up further confusion I am not saying these are arranged in a top 10 format, they are arranged according where they fall on their respective albums. Which is how I have been doing all the play lists because I am an OCD nut.



Hearts Filthy Lesson





Breaking Glass






Scary Monsters





 "Sons of the Silent Age"






Love is Lost






Time





Cat People





"We Are the Dead "





Rock n Roll Suicide



I'm Deranged

Weekly Playlist Vol 6 -the Cure edition

Some one said one morning that I am like the Cure dark on the outside and a marsh-mellow in the inside. I told them then I would make this, so here it is. I was pondering in this thematic series doing David Bowie, because while the Cure is one of my all time favorite bands, David Bowie still edges them out of the top spot and even Robert Smith would admit he would never have done what he did without Bowie. But readers with fine tuned ears or who are just not stoned enough to pay attention the lyrics might notice many of the songs in the Play List series has a common theme...love. Or something in that realm of emotion. This made the choice easier since when David Bowie tackles that subject matter he does so typically in the larger than life theatrical manner he does everything in his world, the exception being the songs on the b-side of  the "Young Americans" album he has a more soulful take.

Robert Smith on the other hand is someone whose perspective fit better. He is bi-polar as hell either in a low swing and writing about wanting to just disappear or he is bouncing round and it's all pastel rain bows swirling around like a lava lamp. This morning I could only listen to the Cure and was trying to get to the lava lamp swirling place , but was in a low swing so these are the songs where the lyrics said..."Oh yeah I feel that way" For better or for worse , music is a major part of my mental health. The Cure helps stabilize me when I am anxious, where metal can make my skin crawl. So here are some songs where Robert Smith meets his marsh-mellow side half way. He muses that sure if my be crazy and insecure, but he is going to embrace his feelings. He is either longing for someone there is a distance between or he is skipping around planning a picnic and smelling flowers he is so head over heels. I can relate. Here I'll shut up and give you music now, not the all time best Cure songs he has a ever written , but a great soundtrack for when I'm fluttery.

"Underneath the Stars"






"Before Three"



 


 "Six Different Ways"






"Strange Attraction"







" There is No If "








"Speak My Language" 







 "Close to Me"






-"Untitled"







"the Perfect Girl"



 

the Weekly Playlist Vol 5 : Nu-Metal edition

Breaking away from the trend of artist specific playlists I had going there for a couple of weeks to switch gears into a sub-genre specific playlist. I was going to stick to the artist theme and then make this a top ten list, but this makes more sense since we have a bunch of top ten lists as it as and the end of the year will be here before we know it. While I was no longer teenager when the nu-metal subgenre exploded in the late 90s, I appreciated the first wave of albums that came from it. Once certain artists got too much radio play it began to become watered down. Even after the first wave a few bands included here slipped by to make decent music.

This afternoon I played DJ for the female of most significance in my life and cued up music of this era to invoke a time when life was simpler. The unbridled joy of catharsis this music could still bring was very touching, So here some deeper cuts from some of those same artists and others from that time period. This music carried an undeniable groove and proved easy to get caught up in as the angst it often boiled gave voice to pain otherwise left to feel unheard. I often reach back in time for music that spoke to me at certain place so listen to the voice of my younger days. I time when idealism was the language of dreams and the weight of the adult world was a burden not fully realized.

Music is a time machine. It reminds me when I was not as calloused by beatings life had given me and I could throw caution to the wind and free fall into feelings with abandon. Older and wiser I try to have a more balanced approach, but music helps keep the vibrations balanced until my mind can catch up to my heart. So maybe dear reader, you to might share such a place in time with these songs, perhaps you might discover a song that went under the radar at the time . Either way life is too short to not have a soundtrack to remind us when we lived and loved at 80 mph. Perhaps we now know, more sustainable speed at which to engage this journey, and every journey needs a soundtrack.  

Disturbed - "Believe"

 

 Static X- "Love Dump"


 

 Korn - "Swallow"


 


Orgy- "Fetisha"

 


 System of a Down - "Spiders"


 


 Slipknot- "Vermilion"

 

 Flaw- "What Do I have to Do"

 

 Mudvayne - "Nothing to Gein"



Deftones-"Mx'


 

The Weekly Playlist vol 3 : the Nick Cave Edition

Thanks to the proper inspiration I am staying the course and now on the 3rd installment of the Weekly Playlist. While up to this point they have been thematic, this time we are taking another slant and focusing on a particular artist. The reason I picked Nice Cave is because when someone has an itch for folk that borders on country, and suggests they like the fact the singer sounds like a preacher, how can Nick Cave not come to mind? This is not the first time I thought about making this for them as other things they listen to point in this direction. Granted the lyrical content of these songs leans heavily to convey a certain message, so I am not saying these are the top 10 greatest Nick Cave songs ever in fact the might be more like ballads than his typical sonic saunter, but they touch a place in my heart, I can’t stop expressing even at the grocery store after the deli clerk who can’t tell the difference between a wolf and a furry asks “Are the cats in town?” So here ten of the most heartfelt Nick Cave songs that also hold hints of his twangy preachy side.


"Do You Love Me"



"Breathless"


 



"Babe, You Turn Me On"


 


" Lovely Creature"





"Hold Onto Yourself"

 


"Are You the One"



 


 "Carry Me"



 


 "Push the Sky Away"



 



 "Midnight Man"