30 Day Song Challenge - Day 22

I'm on my way home! I'm currently sitting in the airport looking out at the runway, waiting for my plane :). In the meantime, here is day 22 of the 30 day song challenge - a song that you listen to when you are sad.
This song is also good for travelling and going to sleep, so I will probably end up listening to it on the plane later!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 21

Today is a song that you listen to when you are happy. Today I am very happy because I am finally finished with exams and I am off for a week at home tomorrow! This came on my iPod today and made me smile. To me it is a song for sunny, chilled out days - bring on the summer!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 20

I did it again! I wrote the post but forgot to publish it! Silly billy!

Today's song description is A song that you listen to when you're angry. When I'm angry I tend to have a very low tolerance for upbeat music, but every so often there is a kick-ass song that just makes you feel better when you listen to it, and this is one of those songs. I've gone for Song for the Dumped by Ben Folds.

(Beware! Language!)

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 19

Today's description is a song from your favourite album. The album I have gone for is Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, since it was the first album I actually loved as an 'album' rather than a bunch of songs I liked. Now, in no way was I alive when this record came out, my love for Fleetwood Mac is definitely my parents' doing, so a big thank you to them for introducing me to one of my favourite bands!
and yes, I know that Rumours is everyone's favourite album, and therefore a bit of a boring choice, but there is a reason so many people love this album and that is that it is amazing. The combination of three main singers and songwriters means that the sound is incredibly varied, and the anguish that they were all going through at the time runs through the entire album, giving it this unexpected edge. Fab! It was so hard to choose a single song, since one song could never sum up the entire album, so I have cheated and gone for one song from each of the three main songwriters
first up, Stevie Nicks


Next, Lindsey Buckingham


and last but not least, Christine McVie









Ohhhh, and let's have one from all of them! I have no restraint tonight, I've just had about 5 long island iced teas!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 18

The description for today is A song that you wish you heard often on the radio. Well, an awful lot of the songs I love are the sorts of songs that you just don't hear on normal radio programmes, so it is hard to select just one. I did another search-through-my-iPod-until-I-find-something-suitable job, and this is what I came up with!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 17

Day 17 is A song you hear often on the radio. The only radio show I can really make time to listen to at the moment is Adam and Joe on 6Music, and they rarely play the same song twice. However the last two times I've been in the car with the radio on, this song came on. I was pretty happy about it too, as I love it! It makes me really happy to see genuinely talented singers like Jessie J and Adele topping the charts, as they are at the moment :)

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 16

Today calls for A song you used to love but now hate. It was quite difficult to think of one for this - songs usually tend to grow on me, and I tend to keep a soft spot for songs I liked when I was younger.
I have managed to come up with one though - Teenagers by My Chemical Romance. For some reason, for a short while in my life, this song spoke to me in some way. I don't know whether I was going through an angry phase or what, but I was a teenager and this is a song about teenagers.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 15

Whoops! I was so out of it last night - I wrote this post but forgot to publish it! I'll make up for it by posting two today!
Sorry my posts have been so brief lately, I have been cramming furiously for the past few days! My next (and last!) exam isn't until next week, so I am looking forward to doing something other than revision (namely, packing up all my stuff to move out of here) for a little bit.
Today's description is A song that describes you. This was hard. I have become convinced that musicians don't really write songs about people like me! Or rather, if they do, they write about aspects of myself that I don't particularly want to broadcast over the internet...
I've gone for Battery Human by Stornoway. I've certainly felt like this for the past few weeks - the combination of rain and revision has left me inside all day, chained to my computer and drowning in bits of paper! I intend to spend all summer outside to make up for it!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 14

A song that no-one would expect you to love.  Well I have no idea what people expect of me, but I think if you only knew my music tastes from what I put up on this blog, you probably wouldn't expect me to like this

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 13

Today is A song that is a guilty pleasure. I definitely have plenty of those - I am a huge power-ballad fan! However I haven't gone for a power ballad today, I have chosen Star Girl by McFly. I know, shameful - but isn't that the point of a guilty pleasure?

My favourite bit is when they say "there was nothing on earth that could save us when I fell in love with Uranus". Yes, I am very mature.

30 Day song Challenge - Day 12

Just a quick one today - today is supposed to be a song from a band you hate. Not sure I hate any bands (except possibly Kate Nash) but there are plenty I don't like, or that annoy me. One of the things that annoys me about some songs is the artist's attitude towards women, and also euphemisms that are so obvious they kind of cease to be euphemisms. Today's song encompasses both of these.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 11

Day 11 is A song from your favourite band. Yet another difficult one! I'm not sure I have one favourite band, as there are many that I adore, so I've gone for a band who's music I have been listening to a lot lately, and, well, I've listened to them a lot since I first came across them a few years ago.
Today's song is by Sigur Rós, from the first album of theirs I bought - Takk, and the song is Sæglópur, which translates as "lost at sea".



incidentally, what happens at 4:10 is part of the reason I am terrified of seaweed!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 10

Today's description is quite fitting for how I feel today - A song that makes you fall asleep. It was also a very easy choice. I've gone for Silent Sigh by Badly Drawn Boy, although it isn't the particular song that makes me fall asleep, but the album it is taken from, the soundtrack to About A Boy.
Around the time the film came out, my sister bought the soundtrack. It proved very popular with my whole family, and we would listen to it in the car. I distinctly remember a time that we went to visit my family in Co. Durham - one day, this CD was playing as we were driving back to my Grandparents' house from my Uncle's house. Suddenly a song came on that I had never heard before. I was completely puzzled - we had had the CD for months, and I had listened to it many times... Only then it dawned on me - I had only ever listened to it at night, or on long car journeys, and I had always fallen asleep halfway through!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 9

Today's song description is A song that you can dance to. I feel that this needs to be accompanied by a disclaimer - I cannot dance. I have the sense of rhythm, but absolutely no co-ordination or style. So, if by dancing, you mean flailing randomly in an overexcited manner, then this song will make me do that! I would have gone for Do You Love Me by The Contours, but since I mentioned that in an earlier post, I thought I'd go for something else. If you don't at least give a little shimmy when you listen to this, there is something very wrong with you!
So, here it is - I Wish by Stevie Wonder!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 8

Day 8 calls for A song that you know all the words to. Well, this was quite difficult, since I know the words to an awful lot of songs. There is a lot of valuable space in my brain that I could use to store knowledge of chemical thermodynamics or phylum synapomorpies, but instead is taken up by song lyrics. I still remember all the lyrics to every song by the Spice Girls and S Club 7, who I was obsessed with when I was about 6. You get the picture.
Since this was so hard to choose, I basically came up with my selection by skipping through songs on my iPod until I came to one that I really enjoy singing along to. It also happens to be rather nerdy!
I've gone for one of the songs from the Lord of the Rings musical - Lothlorien
I went to see the Lord of the Rings musical with my Dad just before it finished in the West End, and absolutely adored it. We have the CD, of course, and I do know pretty much the entire thing off by heart (yes, including The Cat and the Moon), but this song wins for today, thanks to all those twiddly bits, that bit of elvish at the beginning (told you I was nerdy), but most of all, it's sheer belt-ability!
The beginning bit is Legolas singing, but the main bit is Galadriel, played by the fabulous Laura Michelle Kelly

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 7

Today is A song that reminds you of an event. I've gone for a song that I can't hear without thinking back to the beginning of my first year at university, and specifically back to Science Frosh. It was summer 2009, a day organised by university students who were clearly fans of SNL, and at the end of the day, there was a party boat cruise of False Creek. We were on a boat. Yes, you guessed it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU&feature=related

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 6

Today's description is A song that reminds you of somewhere. It was actually surprisingly hard to think of songs that reminded me of places that weren't gigs or festivals (thought that would be a bit boring) since songs generally remind me of events rather than just places. A lot of songs make me think of driving between places too, rather than one particular location, since I always listen to music in the car. Then there are the songs that make me think of places where I've never even been - so all in all, it is quite difficult to filter through all of that to find a song that reminds me of an actual, single, place!
The song I've come up with is Love Today by Mika, and it reminds me of the carriage driving camp I went to in the summer for a couple of years. One year, one of the other kids had the CD with them, and we ended up listening to it all the time, and even doing a musical drive to it on the last day.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 5

Today calls for A song that reminds you of someone. For this I have chosen What a Difference a Day Makes by Jamie Cullum. As for the person it reminds me of, well, they know who they are :). Whenever we hear our favourite rhyme in this song ("when you" with "menu"), we have to send the other person a little message to let them know. I've gone for the live version because we were both at this concert. It was in the courtyard of Blenheim Palace, it was my first proper concert, and it was absolutely mind-blowing! Jamie Cullum is such a fantastic performer!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 4

Today is A song that makes you sad. I'm not sure any song makes me sad, exactly - music is generally a joyful experience for me, unless it is bad! However there are many songs that move me deeply, so I have gone for one of them today. I've also gone classical, because I find that classical music is the most likely to move me to tears. I have chosen A Child's Prayer, composed by James MacMillan in memory of the victims of the Dunblane massacre. Even before I knew the story behind the piece, the first time I heard it on the radio, it was so unlike anything I'd heard before and it moved me profoundly.
This version is by The Sixteen, my favourite choir, from their album Ikon and the soloists are Elin Manahan Thomas and Grace Davidson

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 calls for A song that makes you happy. Well, there are many songs that make me happy, but if I have to pick just one, I have to go for the one that only takes one second to cheer me up - it's that good.  It might seem weird to go for a Smiths song, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the lyrics - I mean, it's The Smiths, they are hardly going to be all happy-go-lucky. Nope, instead it is that fabulous Marr guitar riff that gets me up and doing 80s dance moves around my room! Have a listen:

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 2

So today's description is Your least favourite song. Well, that is a lot easier than day 1, but only because of the existence of the song I'm about to post. I hate this song. I hate everything about it. I don't even know why. When it comes on the radio I will start screaming until someone turns it off. It makes me want to pull my brain out through my eye sockets. I think you get the picture.

Kate Nash - Foundations

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 1

So here we go on day 1 of the 30 Day Song Challenge, and of course they started with the hardest one: Your favourite song. I really don't have a favourite song - I like too many to ever make a definitive choice! In desperation, I looked at the most played songs on my iPod and was bemused to find that many of the top ones were songs that I don't actually like that much. Have a look:

I am totally confused by number 2 - I mean, I like that song, but listening to it 1980 times? That can't be right.
Anyway, finally, down at 9 is a song I genuinely adore. I don't know if it is my favourite, but if you count the number of times I have listened to it in the car with the bass turned up, it must be my most listened-to song. So I have gone for that one!


Seth Lakeman - Sound of a Drum

The man himself in action at Cropredy 2009

Spine-tingling bass, slightly creepy lyrics, Seth's lovely voice, and that mando bit at 3:30 make one fab song!

Bad Blogger!

Forgive me, I am a very bad blogger! As I mentioned in a previous post, I am quite busy with school at the moment, but I feel bad for neglecting this place! I just haven't felt like I have had time to write big blog posts - I do put a bit of work into them you know!
However - finals are starting properly next week, and the procrastination part of my brain is kicking in, so I thought I would attempt to ration my time-wasting into a little bit each day, and this is where the blog comes in!
You may have seen the 30 Day Song Challenge floating around on the internet, and I thought I would do it, but not on facebook, on the blog. That way, I can have a little bit of messing around on the internet every day, when I feel like taking a break from studying - good idea, non?
So, here is how it works - there is a list of criteria, one for each day, and each day, you find and post a song which fits the description! So, here is the list:
I'll be starting tomorrow, so hopefully I'll see you then!

day 01 - your favorite song
day 02 - your least favorite song
day 03 - a song that makes you happy 
day 04 - a song that makes you sad
day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone
day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere
day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event 
day 08 - a song that you know all the words to
day 09 - a song that you can dance to
day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep 
day 11 - a song from your favorite band 
day 12 - a song from a band you hate 
day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure 
day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love 
day 15 - a song that describes you 
day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate 
day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio
day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
day 19 - a song from your favorite album
day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry 
day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy
day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad
day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding
day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral
day 25 - a song that makes you laugh
day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument
day 27 - a song that you wish you could play
day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty
day 29 - a song from your childhood 
day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year


I'll be starting tomorrow, so hopefully I'll see you then!
Hopefully this will be nice for other people - maybe get some music recommendations? If not though, at the very least it will be therapeutic for me.