Freitag, 22. Feb 2008, 2:36
I binge on songs. Like crazy. Most of the time, this leads to my sampling some of the artist's other songs and gradually developing a fondness for his/her/their work.
Sometimes, however, I'm not that fond of the artist's work in general, and in a few cases, I might even believe the artist's overall work to be total crap. What can say, though? Some songs are so catchy that I just can't get rid of them. This has led to my charts being quite unbalanced.
Artists that have made it onto my Top Artists chart solely because I binge(d) on one, two, or three of their songs:
Songs to wear pants to - Okay, this isn't entirely accurate. Andrew actually has a massive amount of songs that he wrote at the requests of numerous people who sometimes make rather odd demands (such as a cover of Experimental Film in a bizarre style the requester called "Celtic/punk." The end result was somewhat obnoxious). Since the vast majority of his songs are a minute or less in length, he shot up my charts quite rapidly. However, I'd say that for every one catchy and enjoyable song I download, there are about five that I listen to and promptly delete.
Still, I am loathe to delete songs from my Recently Scrobbled charts (no matter how embarrassing), so they all show up anyway.
Camille Saint-Saëns - I am by no means saying that he wasn't a great composer, but all I listened to here were the same Saint-Saens - The Carnival Of Animals tracks over and over, particularly my personal favorite, The Swan. I really need to pick up my own Carnival of Animals album.
Oppenheimer - Again, just to clarify, I do like these guys. airencracken recently gave me their album, but I've been afraid to listen to it since they already have at least 115 plays on my charts thanks to my rarely ever having skipped Breakfast in NYC and My Son, the Astronaut when listening to my playlist. Considering my constant gorging on Mew, however, that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense.
Tori Amos - My former literature teacher recommended her to me after discovering that I'm a Kate Bush fan. The only two songs that have really struck a chord with me are Cornflake Girl and Crucify, and my playlist doesn't seem to want to play the latter anymore. I've been rather "meh" about most of her stuff, to be honest, but it's not bad.
Zbigniew Preisner - This one's a Polish composer who's done the soundtracks for a few films. In a class I took on French cinema and culture, I saw a rather artsy movie called La Double vie de Véronique. I thought the film was okay, but I was quite impressed with the soundtrack. Preisner's presence on my charts is due to my having binged on three pieces sitting in my playlist.
I'm not sure if I really want to buy the whole soundtrack, though.
The Beatles - I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but yes, they're here because I kept playing two of their songs over and over again: Because and I Am the Walrus. I'd actually discovered the former through Elliot Smith's cover of it for American Beauty, and the latter was what my former history teacher would occasionally play as background music during tests. When I found out that airencracken hates the latter, it suddenly didn't seem so catchy anymore :( I haven't listened to it since.
Naturally, I feel lousy for not having heard a lot of Beatles music. I like what I have heard so far. I must have more.
Aaron Ackerson - I tried to like his stuff. Honestly, I tried. Frankly, though, it's some of the cheesiest electronic music I've ever heard, and I've heard (and can generally tolerate) a fair amount of cheesy electronic music. As a devoted Lemon Demon fan, I almost feel bad for not being terribly fond of Aaron's stuff, but no, not really. However, I am contemplating downloading the free mp3s of Not the End and SHC since I found them just so freakin' catchy. I had to get those two off my playlist because I was shocked to discover that I'd somehow managed to get Aaron 73 plays on my charts.
I'm sure you're a good guy and all, but I'm just not that big on your music, Aaron. Sorry :\
Carpark North - I decided to check them out since they're supposedly similar to Mew (not quite, Last.fm, not quite). I've enjoyed Human and Best Day so far, but the rest of their stuff I haven't been too keen on yet. I'm willing to give them more chances, though; perhaps they'll grow on me.
Tom Lehrer - Oh man. I seriously need to purchase his albums. The first song I ever heard was The Elements, and I've liked his work ever since. The Vatican Rag has never left my playlist, and for a while, I'd been binging on a couple of other tracks.
Globus - The only song I've liked is Prelude (On Earth as in Heaven). For a while, I was optimistic about them since I was interested in the orchestral aspect of it, but their lyrics are so…well, pop-y. Although I don't normally focus so much on lyrical content, pop-sounding lyrics simply don't seem to work with such heavy orchestral music, particularly when the orchestra in question also does a lot of dramatic movie soundtracks. The clash is just too difficult not to notice for me.
Limozeen - Lawlz. Obviously, the only two songs I've played repeatedly from these guys are Because, It's Midnite and Nite Mamas, though the former much moreso than the latter.
Tally Hall - I love how their voices sound together, but I want to hear more than just the cover (Smile Like You Mean It (Album Version)) available on Last.fm. This is quite frustrating.
Viola - One of the few bands I've heard that actually do sound pretty similar to Mew, at least vocally. I haven't found them nearly as engaging, though I do enjoy Lovelights and Breathtaker. Again, perhaps they'll grow on me.
There will undoubtedly be more artists that'll show up in my charts as I keep binging. I'll just have to keep updating, I guess.