June 15th, 2007 at 10:37 am
(Music)
I’ve been thinking of putting together a page of my favorite musicians, albums, and songs. In some ways you can tell a great deal about a person by not only the music he listens to but what music is his favorite. My musical tastes are varied, though, and this makes it difficult to pin things down in any order. Additionally coming up with a solid set of criteria is made extra difficult since I like different songs for different reasons. Some appeal to my sentimental side, others bring forth some sort of emotional response, and some are simply pleasurable to listen to.
One song I know would go in to the top 10 by most respects is Lightning from Philip Glass‘ Songs from Liquid Days. Musically it is different from most his work, or at least his work that I’m familiar with. Yes, it has the signature elements of his style, but it has the addition of electronic instruments, and unlike their use in Koyaanisqatsi (wow…spelled it right the first time!) they’re punchy instead of flowing. But then the whole album is different being arranged into songs instead of pieces, if that makes any sense.
The lyrics are nothing short of marvelous. It is one of those things I really wish I had written. Honestly, it rings so closely with my thinking and responses I think it is a little creepy. But then maybe it had an influence in how I think. I don’t own much of anything by the lyricist, Suzanne Vega, and I have to wonder why. I’ve never made it a priority…I should get some to see if I actually like her music.
Lastly, and this can’t be discounted, is the singer. Janice Pendarvis has a strong voice that carries the song perfectly. I remember seeing it performed on Saturday Night Live and thinking of how fantastic she was. She has also worked with Sting, so she may not be entirely unfamiliar to most. Hmmm…I wonder what she’s up to these days.
All said, though, the biggest highlight for me are the lyrics and I think they stand on their own:
Lightning struck a while ago
And it’s blazing much too fast
But give it rain of waiting time
And it will surely pass
Blow over
And it’s happening so quickly
As I feel the flaming time
And I grope about the embers
To relieve my stormy mind
Blow over
Shaken this has left me
And laughing and undone
With a blinding bolt of sleeplessness
That’s just begun
And a windy crazy running
Through the nights and through the days
And a crackling
Of the time burned away
Burned away
Now I feel it in my blood
All hot and sharp and white
With a whipcrack and a thunder
And a flash of flooding light
But there’ll be a thick and smoky
Silence in the air
When the fire finally dies
And I’m wondering who’ll be left there
In the ashes of time
Burned away
Burned away
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May 8th, 2007 at 9:53 am
(Music)
Watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Along Complex some time ago I fell in love with the theme song, Inner Universe by Yoko Kanno and Origa. I was familiar with Yoko Kanno from her work on Macross Plus among others and really enjoyed her work, but Origa’s voice was simply enchanting.
At some point thereafter I managed to score The Best of Origa. I’m still a little bitter that it costs over 40 bux to get any of her CDs, but that’s what you get for listening to anything thats different. Most of my David Sylvian collection cost an arm and a leg for much the same reason and that’s only coming from England. Anywho, the album is quite fantastic and Origa is an incredible singer. One of the songs bothers me, though, since I swear I’ve heard it somewhere before, but I can’t place it at all.
Now a little background on Origa. She’s Russian but became popular in Japan, so her albums are published through a Japanese company (at least as far as I can tell). Like any good vocalist she sings in several languages: Russian, Japanese, English, and even a little touch of Greek (at least that’s what aeria gloris is if the memory serves (which, by the way, means “heavenly glory”) from Inner Universe). The song listed as Waga Kokoro no Maria is thankfully sung in English, and reminds me of something, but I don’t know what. Here’s the lyrics:
Maria, I call your name in to the air every moment.
You’ll never know how much I wanted just one tender touch.
Maria, you ask me why, but I don’t know why I’m in love with you.
Something inside your heart called out to my loneliness.
I can’t go on without you, but I know you have to go.
Maria, I call your name in to the air.
Maria, I know I can’t see you again no matter what I do.
Maria, I call your name in to the air every moment.
You’ll never know how much I wanted just one tender touch.
Maria.
As you can see it appeals to my - uh - sentimental side. The thing that’s driving me craz, as I said, is I freaking swear I’ve heard it in something else, but I don’t know what. Either that or I’m experiencing some sort of ELIZA effect from the lyrics. I’m not sure which. 
Perhaps the best part of the song for me is her accent in singing Englinsh. It seems to me that she learned English through someone that natively speaks Japanese, or made her English sound like it would as though spoken by a native Japanese speaker. Her R’s are very soft, but not quite the non-R sound you’ll get from good Japanese singers singing English, but that makes sense since Russian has the same type of R sound (well…sort of), but the thing that really tips me off is first how she pronounces Maria as though it were three flat Japanese syllables enunciated by pitch, not stress, and second how she pronounces matter as though it was “mata”. All said it sounds very nice.
Contrast it with Celine Dion’s R’s. She sounds like a hungry basset hound when she hits one of those. Anywho, nice song, great singer. And if ANYONE knows where the fuck this song came from I’d greatly appreciate hearing about it.
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