Thursday's Very Cultured Playlist #8
Brady's Back!
I’m back. Zack graciously covered this feature last week and introduced me and hopefully many readers to the rabbit hole that is Dungeon Synth, down which I’ve gone this last week.
From me today, you know the deal. An orchestral work first and then our genre safari, with no shortage of left field picks and me trolling (or am I?). Please enjoy.
The list:
And the notes:
“Violin Concerto No.1 in G Minor, Op. 26” - Max Bruch (Cho-Liang Lin - violin, Chicago Symphony orchestra under Leonard Slatkin): I’m no Bruch biographer, which is to say I know next to nothing about the man. What I do know is that he was perpetually frustrated by the popularity of this piece to the point of calling German violinists stupid for wanting to perform it. Which I must say is a shame because it is brilliant. Again, not knowing much about the man, I have to say that I don’t understand that attitude. He apparently wanted his other works for violin (which he considered superior) to get equal play. There’s a lesson in there, I think, as artists: for us to release the outcomes once something is in the world and be grateful when an audience is so enamored with our work that we would achieve the relative fame of this piece, which has been in constant performance rotation for over 150 years. The first movement functions more or less as a prelude to the second, considered the concerto’s heart and the section with the most memorable melodic content. The third movement is quick and intense, full of pyrotechnic skill (the rampant double stops are especially impressive and if you’re a player you know how excruciatingly difficult they can be to execute well). Whatever the composer thought of it, this listener shares the common view of it being a majestic triumph of the violin solo repertoire.
“My Heart is of the North” - Ihsahn: Ihsahn is the frontman and mad genius behind the black metal icons Emperor and I think can rightly be called visionary in the field. His solo albums are a delight, while being a departure from his straight black metal roots. This track is an homage to his homeland and the love of it shines through. There is a good bit of progressive rock influence and I especially love the way the title line makes an appearance after an atmospheric interlude section. Moving.
“Mississippi Queen” - Mountain: Probably the most iconic use of cowbell outside of “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and just an incredible opening guitar solo. Once I had the ability, I learned to play it immediately. All around a killer classic rock track and one I’ve listened to on repeat for years.
“The Call” - In the Midst of Lions: This is on the simpler end, technically, of the deathcore spectrum but I include it for two reasons. One, it’s explicitly Christian music and I obviously appreciate that (you can still vibe with it if you aren’t a believer). And two, those pinch harmonics. Unbelievably cool.
“I Knew You Were Trouble.” - Taylor Swift: I mentioned in an earlier playlist that a group of Swedish producers dominated American radio pop for quite a while, most prominently Max Martin and Shellback. This is their work, along with Miss Swift in the writing. For my money, her music has declined sharply since this album but this track is still a total banger. When I first heard it I had no knowledge of anything even dubstep adjacent and the drop totally blew my mind. It still hits. The melody also has some really interesting wide interval jumps in it. I miss stuff like that in pop. I’m not ready to lay it at the feet of listeners’ declining tastes but certainly most radio melodies I hear now aren’t this cool.
“Tabula Rasa” - Soen: Let the polemics begin. Soen is Tool but much much better at it. And look, they are open about their Tool worship. This is intentionally derivative. But it transcends the source material in my opinion. YMMV. Regardless, excellent music.
“Ordinary” - Copeland: I’ve already done Copeland before but inevitably we’ll get some repeat artists in these lists. This one is really worth your time. I rank it as one of the 5 best love songs of all time. Pull up the lyrics while you listen. This is a really stunning tribute to the beauty of the seemingly mundane day in, day out of a long term loving relationship. It manages to make simple, warm comfort as appealing as passion can be in other artwork. A big achievement in my book.
“KARATE” - BABYMETAL: Look if you know what this is and like it, you’re gonna be stoked. If you don’t, I almost don’t wanna say anything about it so I don’t spoil your first listen. Just play the track hahaha.
“Black Balloon” - The Goo Goo Dolls: I’m sure you heard this a bunch on the radio. It’s a brilliant song. If you don’t know it’s about heroin addiction. The sort of semi-upbeat sound with a hint of melancholy I find really expressive of the thematic material in a moving way. And that natural harmonics riff it opens with is one of the best things to happen in 90s guitar work.
“Terror Storm” - Animosity: You can probably guess what you’re in for with the title of this song and the band name. And you’d be right. This is one of the best hardcore metal albums ever made and it is absolute lunacy. Not for the faint of ear, but if you can listen through the madness you’ll find mind bending technical ability on display. This is a favorite of mine. And if you’re a metal enjoooyer, just try not to yell the opening line along with them on what will certainly be repeated listens.
“Ave Maria” - Charles Gounod (Yo-Yo Ma - cello, Kathryn Stott - Piano): You might know this Gounod setting of the Ave Maria that is played over the accompaniment of the first Bach Prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier. This is a simple and pure kind of lyrical piece that has a profound meditative beauty about it. A nice palette cleanser if you made it through the last track ;)
“Counting Worms” - Knocked Loose: KL is a divisive band in the hardcore scene because their fans and appeal cross a lot of cliquish boundary lines. I happen to love them but I include this very short track for one specific thing that happens before the breakdown. You’ll know exactly what it is when it happens. For extra credit you can try to look up the tweet the official Wendy’s account made about this song. It’s pretty funny.
“How Deep is The Ocean” - Hal Galper: Hal is a tremendous pianist (and if you’re a jazz player check out his educational books, the guy is incredible at teaching improvisation) and we find him here playing an old standard tune with every modern technical trick in the book. He and his band do everything they can to stretch the time feel of this thing without ever losing the groove going on in the background. This is challenging listening in a way because it will make you feel a little off balance rhythmically, but it’s meant to. Just hang on.
“Tipsy” - J-Kwon: Haha yeah. I’m serious. No, this isn’t high art. But it’s a really fun song with an incredible beat. The track sounds awesome. This is “shut off your brain for a bit and enjoy it” music. And we need that as much as the really brainy stuff sometimes.
“Another Day” - Dream Theater: This is cheesier than a two-ton quesadilla, I know. But also, it’s a really solid song and the playing as always with this band is massively impressive. The sax and guitar solos are really wonderful. You just have to deal with the corniness. It’s worth it.
“The Take Over, The Breaks Over” - Fall Out Boy: I like FOB without a trace of irony up through this record. The melody here has those same sort of wide intervallic leaps like the T Swift song above and those are always fun. The playing is serviceable if not impressive and the songwriting overall is just great. And that’s why this band succeeded like they did. Also, Pete Wentz is a criminally underrated lyricist. It’s not this tune, but this album has that line “I’m just a notch in your bedpost, but you’re just a line in a song”. Utter brilliance. And while not that good (how can you top that?), all his lyrics approach that quality.
“Headlines” - Guerilla Warfare: Yay, more polemics. This is Rage Against the Machine but heavier and actually interesting. (runs away from the Rage fans attempting to stone me to death…)
“Round Here” - Counting Crows: Incredible lyrics and delivery. I am in awe of this from a songwriting perspective…. until the bridge. Seriously, the bridge of this thing is so bad. I wish I could have a cut of the song with it edited out. Still, this is worth many a listen. The rest of it is good enough to atone for the horrible bridge section.
“Jikininki” - Whispered: More Japanese metal. Except, surprise, these dudes are Finnish. I don’t know the story behind this band but all their music features prominent Japanese folk music and instruments and it’s incredible. Maybe it’s just a personal interest they all had and I have no idea how “authentic” those elements are but this music sounds so good and so epic. Makes me wanna watch samurai movies.
“I Fall to Pieces” - Patsy Cline: One of the timeless Dames of country music, giving a star performance of a truly sad song about a jilted lover. I miss when country music was sad. And well performed. And well written. And just not mostly commercial garbage. Retvrn.
“More Than a Feeling” - Boston: Boston’s self-titled album sold 18M copies. Yeah, 18 times platinum. Insane. But not for nothing. Wonderful writing, amazing vocals, and of course their famous harmonized guitar parts. This is feel-good music with a slight edge and it’s rendered masterfully.
“In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” - Frank Sinatra: The title cut from my favorite album by Ol’ Blue Eyes. This one is near perfect for me. The arranging, the orchestration, the vocal performance. The whole album is music for a rainy day. It's definitely blue, but beautiful too and the combination makes it strangely uplifting for me.
“Spirit and Fire” - Wytch Hazel: Traditional metal about the day of Pentecost. WH is a great band that, in my opinion, is actually making contemporary Christian music that sounds cool. No offense to the worship music crowd, but sadly lots of it is simply lame. Maybe this is to some people too, it’s certainly possible to construe it as cheesy. But the strength of the writing carries it for me and the chorus on this one is phenomenal. Sing along loudly.
This wouldn’t fit into the “playlist” format per se, but Blind Guardian has an album called Nightfall in Middle Earth—it’s a themed power metal album about events and characters from the Silmarillion, and thus is stupidly good. Worth a listen/review!
"Black Balloon" is my favorite Dolls song. Back in the olden days before streaming, I would just hum this song over and over again when it wasn't playing on the radio. If I were to pick a song off "Images and Words" for a Very Cultured Playlist™, I'd personally have to go with "Take the Time."