Random Writing, Blogs and Adventures |
A mix of Random writing in an attempt to organize my thoughts, storyboard ideas and conserve portfolio space in the process. |
Day 19 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Our next song up is... Keep Your Head Up by Andy Grammer This is a really feel good song. I find myself listening to it a lot. I think what I really love about it is the encouraging lyrics. In a similar fashion to my Day four song ("S.O.Y.L. Entry #4 There's Nothing Holding Me Back" ) it reassures you telling you that everything will be all right. Your just need to keep your head up high. It is like a less tongue in cheek version of Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry Be Happy but the song seems a little bit more genuine. It makes a listener feel better after hearing it. Besides the catchy refrain there are some beautiful lyrics in this song. I love this verse: "The glow that the sun gives Right around sunset Helps me realize This is just a journey Drop your worries You are going to turn out fine Oh you'll turn out fine..." It paints a powerful visual image. Added onto that the song has a great beat as well. - |
Day 18 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Today song is... Dance Monkey by Tones And I With a song with the word "Dance" in the Title, you would hope that it would be easy to dance to. This one definitely delivers on that front. It has a funky punchy beat mixed in with a touch of jazz that your body automatically is tempted to move along with. I actually first heard this song from my Mother listening to the Youtube video for it. I don't know how she came across it but it did get an instant add to my playlist afterward. It is very catchy and you find that it is hard to listen to just one time when it is played. I also a big nod of appreciation to the music video for this one. I really like it. It features an old man (clearly the singer of the song Toni Watson wearing a costume and heavy make up) who comes to life once the music plays. It is awesome! - |
Day 17 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Not that "Stand By Me"... this is: Stand By Me by Oasis On the heels of "Dream on", it seems like we are running two great rock songs back to back. It is hard to compete with Aerosmith but this is a pretty nice song on its own that also manages to hit on an emotional level. I like the guitar lead in. My favorite part of song though is the segment that the song goes into right before the chorus. "What's the matter with you Sing me something new Don't you know the cold and wind and rain don't know They only seem to come and go away" It the most melodic segment of the song with a rapid rush of lyrics that makes me smile. In terms of themes... much like the classic Ben E. King song, the song is an appeal to friendship. The song is open to interpretation however, I like to think the song reminds you that while the future is uncertain it safer with a companion standing by you! - |
Day 16 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Our next song up is... Dream On by Aerosmith This one is an awesome rock piece!! I first heard this song on the series Glee. Matthew Morrison's character Will Schuester wound up getting into a singing battle with an old rival portrayed by the guest star of the episode Neil Patrick Harris. It was a really magnificent performance. Both actors knocked this song out of the park and it made me really want to look up the song afterwards. I'll link their performance below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYXYQRU2i7c (That last note wow!!) I think similar to Night Changes (see "Soundtrack of Your Life Entry #6 Night Changes" ), this song deals with aging which winds up resonating with me a lot as does the push to achieve ones goals. It is inspiring. The anime featured in the video I chose is the popular series Naruto. I think the reason why it works well with this song is that the protagonist of the series Naruto has a dream he is trying to achieve. He wants to become his village's champion in order to get acknowledged by the people in his village who look down on him. The song played in parallel winds up highlighting his struggle to achieve the dreams he was hoping for. - |
Day 15 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Today's entry is... Don't Stop Me Now by Queen This one contrasts significantly with my last entry (see: "Soundtrack of Your Life Entry #14 Somewhere Only We Know" ). "Somewhere Only We Know" isn't a depressing song but it is much more mellow and somber compared to the pure joy of "Don't Stop Me Now". This one is pure joy and energy. The singer is not wishing for a happy place, he's reached it and he's not stopping yet. It makes a listener want to jump and cheer. I suspect this is probably one of the more recognizable songs on my Play list. Freddy Mercury and Queen are well known and this song and Bohemian Rhapsody are two of their most famous song. I love the lyrics the this which "Shooting Stars, Tigers Race cars, Rockets". All symbols of speed and power. This song is about as feel good as you can get. The anime scenes compiled in this video are from the series Konosuba (a comedic anime about a Teenager getting stuck in an RPG world). I feel the maker of this video choose the scenes more from the characters personalities rather than Anime tone. The characters in the series tend to be really hyperactive and crazy. That and the magical blasts from the series Wizard. - |
Day 14 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Today's entry is... Somewhere Only We Know by Keane In a Rock and Techno heavy playlist, this is one of the sweeter songs on my list. It still has a rhythmic beat to it but the melody is what carries this song. It a beautiful romantic song that really hits on the emotional level. The idea of breaking through and making a connection with a loved one resonates with me very well. As does two lovers finding a place they can be together that is special to them. It really hits me in my heart when I listen to it. You may have noticed that I didn't embed a regular music or lyric video to showcase this song. Instead I opted for a fan made AMV (Anime Music Video) for this one. The anime featured in this one is Clannad. If you look at the video's comment, you'll see that a lot of people, (myself included) agree that this anime fits this song perfectly. Clannad has notoriety for being one of the most emotionally intense animes out there. Nobody successfully walks away from it without crying. I feel I should give a spoiler warning for this though I doubt anyone reading is planning to watch the anime afterwards. The series is a romance where the main character a high school student named Tomoya is unable to pursue a basketball career after sustaining an injury. He meets a shy girl Nagisa and falls in love with her. The two ultimately get married. The series takes a dramatic turn in the second season where Nagisa dies after childbirth. Tomoya falls into a depression and avoids his child as she reminds him of her mother. Ultimately he manages to reconnect with his daughter but she passes away as well devastating him. The story doesn't end there though. The daughters spirit is able to save her father. She manages to gather the energy needed collecting happy memories in the after life to give her father one chance to travel through time and reunite with his wife and save her life. He travels back to a special place in time to reunite with her and ultimately the three of them live together as a happy family. Both this song and Clannad have the underlying idea of finding a special place where lovers can connect. They tie together very nicely. - |
Day 13 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. We've made it about one third of the way through this challenge... today's song is... Master of Disaster by John Hiatt I first heard about this song on the radio but not in typical fashion. A cover artist was being interviewed about an arrangement he did for it. They only played a short excerpt of this song which was enough for me to attempt to look it up and add it to my playlist after listening to it. It is a great mixture rock and blues. I love the instrumental accompaniment and fast pace. Added onto that I love the quadruple rhyme of the lyrics rhyming Master, Disaster telecaster, Faster in the same verse. Also that Saxophone solo midway through the song is pretty cool as well. When Jazz and rock mix... it makes for a really epic combination. - |
Day 12 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Today's Chanson du Jour is none other then... Let Me Love You by DJ Snake I actually didn't realize how much I liked electronically arranged music that emphasized beats until I was preparing these entries back to back and realizing how many songs in my play List feature them. This song features Justin Bieber performing the vocals for it and you have to give the man his props, he really knows how to sing. In addition to that there are some great electronic riffs that really knock that really knock this song out of the park. The refrain for this song "Don't you give up na na na. I won't give up na na na. Let me love you. Let me love you!" is really catchy. I'm a softie for songs inspiring determination. I was reading the comments for the music video for this song. Several people feel that the video doesn't match the song lyrics. I like it though as it features an exciting heist done by a couple. There is a surprising reveal is that the thief are gamers playing a video game in virtual reality. When I was re-watching the video prior to writing this, I was surprised to realize the girl in the video is Emily Rudd. She as gotten a lot more popular recently appearing as the lead female pirate in the One Piece Netflix series. - |
Day 11 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. The next song up is... Don't You Want Me by The Human League This song is just catchy. It has a nice electronic bass beat and a great upbeat tempo so it is very easy to get into. The is one of the songs that you can find yourself singing along to the chorus. It has easy to memorize lyrics and they repeat a lot making it tempting to chime in with. Of the 11 songs I posted so far, I think about 7 of them have fallen into the Trance genre so let me just take the opportunity to cover it a bit. As you may have gathered the trance genre relies heavily on electronic beats and wind up being relaxing to listening. They are known to be very easy to dance to and night clubs wind using these types of songs often. You can picture this one going along with flickering lights. - |
Day 10 of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" challenge. Today's song is... Mr. Roboto by Styx This song appeals to the science fiction fan in me. While it has a much softer beat then "Better Off Alone" from my last entry, it still hits very hard but with a melodic touch mixed with electronic synthesis. The best part of this song is an amazing set crescendos in the middle. There is section in one of those segments where the lead vocalist of Styx (Dennis DeYoung holds a note for an extended period of time adding a really nice affect: "You keep me alive ... you keep me al-li-ive". It is really awesome. This is another song that I first heard played in a commercial however I decided to add it to my playlist after the song was referenced in the movie "Ready Player One" (which coincidentally was released to Netflix earlier this month). The film left me high on Sci Fi goodness and it reminded me how fun this song was when I heard it mentioned. - |