Planet Skaro's Favourite Songs

[Rob McCow]

This is a new thread where you can tell us all about your favourite tunes, the ones that move you and make you feel special, or the ones that comfort you when your down, or the ones that just make you get down and dance.

One of my favourite songs is Bizzare Love Triangle by 80's pop/indie band, New Order.

I probably first encountered New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle as part of a mega-mix of New Order songs that I heard on LP at my cousin's house. It was my cousin who got me liking my first 'proper' band. Before, the only singles I'd listened to had been James Bond soundtracks and some Def Leppard song. I probably had it on a compilation tape after that, but it was when I got New Order - Substance on tape that I discovered what a great song it was.

Recieved opinion seems to be that New Order's best tracks are Blue Monday and True Faith, but for me nothing can beat the fresh, upbeat, feel-good sounds of Bizarre Love Triangle. For most of the early 90's I'd casually mention it as the best song ever.

It appears in two incarnations, as the synthisizer version on Substance and the guitar version on Brotherhood. There are numerous remixes about, but the single/Substance version is the best.

At it's heart, BLT is an utterly eighties track. It has that choral stab between that the Pet Shop Boys over-used on some of their songs. It has cowbell, synth noises that don't sound like any instrument, slap bass... all very eighties. It could have sounded cheesy, but because the arrangement is so thick and there's so much going on at once it has a real strength to it. It's not at all murky though, all the lines are crystal clear.

The lyrics aren't anything to write home about, #Every time I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray# is hardly... Joy Division. But in the context of this song they're wonderful. Barney's tone lilts up and down over the chorus, with the two phrases ending slightly differently, which makes the #see the words that I can't say# bit all the more exciting. In live concerts Barney always belted that line out and it sounded great.

It also has one of those great intros where you can recognise the song from just about the first note. Anyway, forgive me while I delve into weirdness -
What I really love is the sense of motion that the song creates, it has a superb momentum and energy. It puts me in mind of sunshine, of running impossibly fast through fields and cities against clear blue skies. It also has this crystalline sense to it, as if the notes are glassy and somehow brittle yet strong. For me, the song represents absolute joy.

Bizarre Love Triangle is a thing of rare beauty and it's good for dancing too. Hurrah the New Order.

[Brian]

Can I put Martin Grech - Tonight

Not sad, just seems it

[Teresa]

Mr Blue Sky - ELO
Always makes me smile!!

Let it Be - The Beatles
Always makes me a little thoughtful!

Teresa
xx

[Andrew Curnow]

Mr Blue Sky - ELO

You can't beat a bit of ELO!!

[Pip Madeley]

You can't beat a bit of ELO!!

*dances round the room like a loon*

[Andy Frankham]

Cardiff by Stone Sour. The title says it all...

[Trudi G]

I have to say Tribute by Tenacious D, i've never grown tired of that song and it always makes me giggle!

[Si Hunt]

"Idiot Wind" by Bob Dylan. It's my "angry" song.

It's basically the most hateful song I've ever heard. Verse after verse piles on by, with lovely poetic messages of vengeance like "one day you'll be in that ditch/flies buzzin' around your eyes/blood on your saddle" and culminating with the wonderful, whooped, seething "I can't see your face any more/your mouth has changed/your eyes don't look into mine!"

Then in the end he basically turns the "you" into a "we" and says that he'll probably never know how much she's hurting either, and the last chorus is in the plural - "we're idiots babe/it's a wonder we can even feed ourselves..."

Love that song.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

I like Idiot Wind too - it's a good little tune and I love the way he really snarls each "Iiiiiiidiot!!!!" in the chorus. Proper songwriting!

[Simon R]

"We Love A Parade" by Auntie Mabel.

It's a feel good anthem for the repressed classes and a celebration of love, life and humanity.

[Larry]

my favourite song has to be Imagine by John Lennon, a song written by a legend who's words call for the impossible dream of world peace and harmony..

my 2nd favourite is Bohemium Rhapsody - by Queen an awsome and unique song mixing rock with opera even now when you have the volume turned up and it sudenly switches from opera to rock it just blows me away.

[Paul Clement]

I don't think I have what you would call a favourite song. I have a handful of songs I have liked a great deal for a long time, while a lot of others I may have enjoyed more for a while but have since become less popular to me.

Ones that have stayed up there include:

Blondie - Atomic
Eagles - Last Resort
The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Suzanne Vega - Marlene on the Wall
Cat Stevens - Father and Son

[Andrew Curnow]

I don't really 'do' music, but if there's one song I always turn up loud when it comes on the radio, it's Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson". I've no real idea what it's about, but it's just such a gorgeous sounding, lyrical, tuneful, beautifully-sung/played/constructed song. Sublime.

And for that matter "Bright Eyes", although that always makes me sad.

[WileyKat]

Oooh. I change my mind so often!

Red Vines - Aimee Mann
The River - Bruce Springsteen
First We Take Manhattan - Jennifer Warnes (it's by Leonard Cohen, but this version with Stevie Ray Vaughn on guitar is just fabulous)
Bounty Hunter - The Men They Couldn't Hang
Private Eye - Alkaline Trio
Mack The Knife - Bobby Darin
Vengeance - New Model Army

[Paul Clement]

There are a lot of Simon and Gafunkel songs I like a lot. 'The Only Living Boy in New York', 'Bleeker Street' and 'Wednesday Morning, 3AM' being three of the better ones.

[kevinwho]

If you pick an artist I like, I might have a hope of picking out a single song as a favorite. To pick a favorite out of all the songs I absolutely love...well, there's no way.

I also have one of those memory's that can't handle a catalog that large all at once. Even if I had a favorite song, there's no way I could pick it out of my scattered brain.

So, to provide just some kind of actual response to this thread, I'll offer one of the songs that I consider "note perfect" -- songs I think just couldn't be improved in any way, that I'll never tire of:

Dire Straits -- Brothers in Arms

I very much like the Dire Straits sound, and they have quite a few songs that I think are spot on terrific, but I don't think there are any more evocative than this one. There's a reason it shows up on the soundtracks of film and TV shows. So, that's my pick this minute, next minute it'll be something else.

[cullsoft]

My absolute favourite seems to constantly change, but picking out what spring to mind as four of my favourites...

- Röyksopp - Alpha Male - A very floaty and drifty piece of instrumental techno that's great for waks and journeys. I love the way it feels like flying (which is funnily enough where I first heard it) - the calm introduction builds up into an upbeat main section as if slowly preparing for take off before gathering speeds, then drifts down again for a smooth landing at the end;
- Underworld - Born Slippy (Original Version) - Unlike the more commonly known N.U.X.X. version, the original is a purely instrumental track with a far more trippier trancey feel - this is pretty much what trance music was more inclined to being in its early days and in a way what trance music should be like;
- Dreamtech - Venus (Whirloop Remix) - Whirloop have become a recent strong favourite psy-trance group of mine, and this remix they did provides a great cyclic and psychedlic tune and beat that's made it an instant favourite of mine;
- Grand Funk Railroad - Some Kind Of Wonderful - Now for something different. I like 70's rhythm & blues rock and this is my favourite of the genre. I love the beat and rhythm on this track, and it's such a wonderfully simple and straightforward track with upbat lyrics that seem to purely be expressing "hey everyone, damn I love this girl!"

[Si Hunt]

My favourite Kirsty MacColl song is one that no-one ever talks about called "He Never Mentioned Love". It's a lovely, jaunty, melancholic little song about a woman who obviously loves this man for years but he "never mentioned love" to her, and every time she thinks he might be about to declare his love for her a plane roars by, or it rains, and she doesn't quite hear what he said.

Si.