I really enjoy music featuring vocals that are treated as simply another instrument. I might have inherited this trait from Grandma Country, who never really cared for lyrics in her music. She was big on piano-based pieces of the time. I take a modern twist on this approach; I’ve always enjoyed electronic instrumental pieces that include vocals that are just vocalizations. Texture in music is very important to me. Vocals as part of the texture is very pleasing to my senses.
Apple Music has a “Feel Good” channel, and these tracks came up during my morning walk. They definitely made me feel good.
One of my favorite albums of all time is “Cosmic Thing” by The B-52s. This song (“The Deadbeat Club”) has been on repeat in my head since late last night. Here’s your chance to enjoy it as well.
While most folks think “Love Shack” when it comes to The B52s, that track is probably my least favorite on the album. My favorite track is “Follow Your Bliss”, with the album version of “Roam” coming in a close second.
I was but a young gay when I first heard “Channel Z” at a gay club called The 1270 in Boston.
Oh, and here’s the official video for “Roam”. The choruses are truncated for the radio release (as seen here) when compared to the album. The album version gives the song the room it deserves.
One of my favorite songs of the 21st century is “Need You Now” by Lady A. I can’t believe this track has been around since 2009. It seems like it just came out just yesterday.
I have always been an ABBA fan. Even before their resurgence and the “Mamma Mia” productions and the like, I have always enjoyed the music of Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anna-Frid (Frida). So one can understand that when it was announced back in 2018 that ABBA had gotten together and recorded a few new tracks, there were many folks that were excited to hear the new these new numbers.
It’s 2021 and they still haven’t been released. Apparently, ABBA wants to accompany these new songs with a road show involving a young ABBA (as we remember them) depicted by holograms in concert. The technology is a little wonky at the moment, then of course there was the worldwide pause for COVID-19, and as things start to resemble whatever normal is, still no word on when the tracks will be released.
Let’s hope it’s soon. The world needs to say Thank You for the Music. Soon.
I think I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy the music of Anders Enger Jensen. As I type this blog entry (in between coding projects at work), I’m listening to the track “Thinking Of You” from his album “Retro Grooves Vol. 3”.
I was listening to CKOI out of Montréal while working this morning and a new song came on that impressed me very much, especially when I realized it was Miley Cyrus singing.
I’m not a huge fan of today’s pop music, by “Midnight Sky” really caught my ear. I took a look at the video and it has an old school Madonna vibe to it.
I’ve never liked the quality of music coming from the family Spotify account. I’m not talking about the selection of tracks or the app experience (the former being good, the latter being less good), but I’ve always thought the sound quality of the music sounds way too compressed. Songs I remember having outstanding nuance in the mix (when listening on vinyl and my really good Bose headphones) sound muddy to me on Spotify. The same tracks on Apple Music sound good, sometimes remarkably so, but there’s still a warmth found on vinyl that is lacking on their digital counterparts.
I stumbled across the Tidal Music service a month or so ago. We have a Plex server that stores all of our music and videos for consumption on our various devices and an introduction to Tidal Music came along with my Plex account. I was intrigued by the service, as it advertises “Master Quality” tracks, as well as using FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) as the default file format, instead of MP3s or Apple’s AAC.
The distance is quite noticeable and enjoyable.
I use music by The Carpenters to make the comparison, usually “Superstar”, “Only Yesterday”, and “All You Get From Love Is A Love Song”. First of all, Karen Carpenter may be one of the greatest female pop vocalists of all times. Secondly, Richard Carpenter’s arrangements are very thorough and nuanced. I feel much closer to their music when listening to the Master and “HiFi” (FLAC) offerings from Tidal.
My only pause with Tidal is that it’s quite pricey. As a Plex user, Tidal is $18.99 a month, almost double what an individual user subscription costs on Spotify or Apple Music.
Earl and I talked about it and because I listen to so much music when I’m working, we were able to justify or rationalize the expense.
I’m building a nice selection of Master clock tracks in “My Collection” on Tidal and thoroughly enjoying the experience. My ears are quite pleased.
I woke myself up in the middle of the night last night singing backup vocals on this track. This is not uncommon behavior for me, in some respects I’m happy I was still in bed and not standing naked outside thinking the balcony was some sort of stage or something.
My singing aspirations have usually centered around a group performance with me singing backups. I would love to do that once again with a group before I move on from this life, and this is one of the songs I would love to contribute to.
One of my favorite songs from the 90s, here’s Toad The Wet Sprocket with “All I Want”.
It’s been over a decade since I’ve really fallen in love with any music, but the New Zealand group Yumi Zouma has created some of the best music I’ve heard in decades.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
