Ten Random: 06/05/2009

Back and at full strength! Click the links... listen to the songs... you know you want to.

1. Nobuo Uematsu - Aerith's Theme (Final Fantasy VII Soundtrack)
I really like a lot of old-skool(ish*) video game music. The best of it manages to be incredibly nostalgic, which somehow makes it sound like more than the "just barely above MIDI quality" that it actually is. This is actually one of the more famous video game tracks out there, not quite "Mario Brothers" level, but very well known by folks who dwell in the creepy, dark corners of the internet where this sort of thing is revered. The slightly more fully arranged, piano-only "Advent Children" version is pretty sweet as well.

* Does not apply to old Atari games or most Nintendo games with which I have no nostalgic connection.

2. MF Doom - One Beer (mm.. food)
This man spouts word salad. AWESOME word salad. Rhyming things like "pizza guy" with "skeezers eye" - all over some of the most colorful beats and old-school comic references rap has to offer. Highly enjoyable. His new CD (Born Like This) doesn't compare to mm.. food, but it's still pretty good.

3. Quarashi - Malone Lives (Jinx)
This track was already featured in the second Ten Random, and is thus our first repeat. 11,000+ tracks and already a repeat? Ridiculous!

4. Beck - Steal My Body Home (Mellow Gold)
I really do like Beck, and Mellow Gold has some of his most interesting music, but this is a weird song. Beck goes ultra-slow and sings this with his molasses drawl. It's still good, but weird.

5. Spineshank - New Disease (The Height of Callousness)
Another song from the Shawn Palmer soundtrack. It's fairly generic Nu-Metal, but I guess it serves its purposes. I actually hadn't listened to this one in a long time til now.

6. Blur - On Your Own (Blur)
I prefer Gorillaz to Blur. That being said, this is a pretty great song. My initial experiences with Blur, like about 80% of America, revolved around Song 2 (aka "Woohoo!"), but most of the rest of this CD is quite a bit better, if slightly less energetic. Still holding out for more Gorillaz, though.

7. P.O.S. - Gimme Gimme Gunshots (Ipecac Neat)
Love me some P.O.S., and this is the first song off his first full length, so it gets hella points. As a song, it's pretty strange. The beat is so slow, as is the rapping, that it almost sounds like normal talking over a beat until the hook (or rather, the closest thing in the song to a hook) hits. The beat doesn't really change, but suddenly he's rapping about 15 times faster - it's sort of exhilerating. It's a good live song.

8. Church of Rhythm - I Still Believe (Church of Rhythm)
Oof. This song ruled when I was 12. Another one of those that really hasn't aged all that well, but the fact that it's off of the first CD I ever had (a sampler CD - a gift from my mother, who bought it in the bookstore at a bible camp) makes it just about irresistable to me. Cheesy as all get out, but what can you really do?

9. Coldplay - Death And All of His Friends (Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends)
I wasn't able to convince anyone that this CD was actually pretty damn good. Seriously, listen to Lost! and tell me that isn't at least a little interesting. This song's alright. It's the closing song to the album, and it draws the whole thing to a close nicely.

10. People in Planes - If You Talk to Much (My Head Will Explode) (As Far As the Eye Can See)
I really liked this CD when it came out (2006), and Baracuda remains an awesome song (I still can't over the opening guitar riff), but a lot of the rest of the CD sort of strikes me as "okay" now. This song still packs in the melody and crunchiness that drew me to the band in the first place, though. It just seems like a band like this should be able to make more consistantly interesting music.