Original video located here. Accessed 28th October 2016
Song title: Burden in my Hand
Artist: Soundgarden
Year: 1996
Why I like this song:
Another song that took a while to reach me. In hindsight, I guess this was the end of the grunge era. And personally? It couldn't gone out on a higher note. Perhaps that this song has a sense of finality that makes it so engaging to me.
Also, regarding the video, never has four dudes wandering in a desert been so compelling.
Original video located here. Accessed 2nd February 2017
Song title: Drive
Artist: Gretta Ray
Year: 2016
Why I like this song:
I would give this song props for a snappy chorus but I find it most striking is that this sounds like it is coming from the voice of experience.
In fact, for someone eighteen she sure sounds like someone who's lived a lot.
Original video located here. Accessed 21st October 2016
Song title: Good Morning
Artist: You Am I
Year: 1996
Why I like this song:
It took me a while to warm up to Hourly Daily and I'm glad I did.
This song represents a time and place like no other: When You am I seemed unstoppable and were in the process of changing the course of Australian popular music.
And for me, it was a time when so much seemed possible...
Original video located here. Accessed 14th October 2016
Song title: Alternative Rock Polka
Artist: 'Weird Al' Yankovic
Year: 1996
Why I like this song:
This is another case of an artist I already knew of that fourteen-year-old me was still surprised to be around. It was also my first exposure to Weird Al's polka medleys.
Needless to say, it was odd to hear songs I already knew of (to some extent) reworked in a completely different context.
Original video located here. Accessed 12th October 2016
Song title: Blackstar
Artist: David Bowie
Year: 2016
Why I like this song:
And finally my journey with David Bowie's discography comes to an end with Blackstar.
Much has been written about this one: His final album. The sounds of a man nearing the end of his life. The man of many personas speaking in his own voice. A sterling example of someone doing what they do until the very end.
Intimidating much?
Needless to say, the shadow of death can't be divorced from this album. And whilst it may be difficult album to get through it is still brave, challenging and worth the effort.
And in the end, this journey I have taken has proven to be a worthy one. David Bowie may have been alien to me (har, har) for quite some time but now, I can safely say that I get it.
R.I.P. Starman
Song title: Down in Splendour
Artist: Straitjacket Fits
Year: 1990
Why I like this song:
Here's something I've been listening to recently: Early nineties New Zealand band Straitjacket Fits.
It is always fascinating to hear alternative music from the early-nineties/pre-Nirvana because much of it has since been forgotten. But hearing it now is hear a document from something that did exist - and still continues to exists even it got pushed aside.
It is been a frequented observation that when a new sound comes along and/or someone becomes successful, one can expect a whole of soundalikes suddenly emerge. And upon hearing this, I kind of get the impression that is a bunch of Kiwis hearing the shoegaze movement n the U.K. and putting their own spin on it - although honestly it sounds more indebted to Ride than My Bloody Valentine.
And it's that Antipodean take on a movement half a world away that makes this so compelling.
Original video located here. Accessed 10th July 2016
Song title: Down
Artist: 311
Year: 1996
Why I like this song:
At the time I thought this rocked hard and was impressed with the integration of rap and grunge. Still rocks hard now.
But here's a question; In the wake of the revolution that was nu-metal where do these guys fit in? One listen of this would think they would fit in (and the use of both a singer and a rapper predated Linkin Park) but at the same time, 311 did incorporate pop and reggae influences. And, crucially, they looked like they were having fun and weren't angsty enough.
Still one could argue that 311's stuff has aged better with time...
Original video located here. Accessed 18th February 2020
Song title: Dearest
Artist: Ayumi Hamasaki
Year: 2002
Why I like this song:
Back in 2004, I was friends with a woman who was keen on anime. She gifted me a cassette tape with a bunch of anime songs on it and this was on it.
A very beautiful song. At the time I had no idea what was being conveyed in the lyrics (damn language barrier!) but I could get the gist of it. And it was only later that I got to see it's parent anime, InuYasha, all the way through that I finally picked up on it.
So yeah, proof one can enjoy something even being unaware of the context. But that's what music should do, right?