The Oncoming Hope

Metric's new record is a strange hybrid of their very first album, Soft Rock Star, and Ladytron on a soporific. It's too soon for me to say whether it's good or bad, but there are certain production choices that are causing intermittent twitching behind my eyes (so bad, then?).

I could never say that something "sounds like Tangerine Dream" and mean it as an insult, so trust that I only mean the best possible things when I say that the best parts of Synthetica sound like they would fit right in with an eighties movie scored by TD (btw, has anyone watched The Keep recently? Batshit insanity. I cannot recommend it, but I can insist that you watch it). (so good, then?)

One thing I do know: there's not a single song on this album that's danceable. This much I do expect from Metric. The closest we get is the youthful exuberance of "Nothing but Time," which is putting Metric smack in the era of Star's Ageless Beauty, which, by the way, is the same era when Metric was kicking everyone's asses with songs like "Poster of a Girl" and "Empty."

As with most Metric albums, however, the proof lies in the live show. I can see how some of these songs take life on the stage. And lest I forget, there's one truly standout track: "The Wanderlust," featuring what is possibly the strangest, most random guest vocal in history (Lou Reed, muthafuckahs!).

I will leave you with remembrances of Metric from a better time, with the superlatively creative video for "Combat Baby":

Bet you all were expecting me to choose "Winter", weren't you? Well you know me. I like to keep things...unpredictable. The delicate piano part mirrors the settling of the snow, as the flakes freeze into something harder, colder. And then they let go into Spring, in a magnificent release (the song also describes a whole other kind of release in great detail ::blushes::).

I cannot tell the story of the song better than Tori herself can (oh how wonderfully witty she used to be before her "earth mother" phase). The blasphemy comes free, as does the Robert Plant impersonation.

If you don't listen to the lyrics, you'd think this was one of the happiest tunes ever written. But behind the B-52's style pop melodies, there lies total darkness.

I love Suzanne Vega's anecdote in the New York Times about her early performances of the song:

“Luka” was not a popular song when I would perform it back then. I would watch people from the stage. You could see their faces change as they thought about the lyrics; a frown would appear, then a general look of unhappiness, followed by a scowl directed at the floor and, at the conclusion, a smattering of reluctant applause. Then a request for something else, usually “Gypsy” or something in a major key with a chorus.

That's what Great Fakeout Songs is all about!

More interesting trivia about Suzanne Vega: "Tom's Diner" was used to optimize the newly invented mp3 format, as it were widely considered the most perfect recordings from a sonic perspective. Many artists used "Luka" to test their speakers for the same reason, including Philip Glass, oddly enough.

But if you think you're sick of "Tom's Diner":

“He wound up listening to the song thousands of times,” the article, written by Hilmar Schmundt, continued, “and the result was a code that was heard around the world. When an MP3 player compresses music by anyone from Courtney Love to Kenny G, it is replicating the way that Brandenburg heard Suzanne Vega.”

How lovely is that! Suzanne Vega may not have had a hit in over two decades, but we hear her sound in every mp3. Go read the article.

Anyway, here's the song!

Winter song time! Brrrrr...London's turned cold! After one of the mildest autumns in recent memory, nature is exercising her harshest punishment: freezing winds and ice rain. All the more reason to stay inside with a warm cup of tea and think about the songs that make us feel a little bit warmer in the wintertime.

"White Days" has to be one of my all-time favorite songs by The Juliana Theory, one of my all-time favorite bands (the devotion of an 16 year old never quite dies...). The fifth track from Love, it's the best example of how the band combined electronica style fast guitar riffs with classic song-writing.

I was always amazed how the band recreated the sounds almost perfectly live without any pre-recorded tracks or extra players. (My college roomate and I did manage to get pretty close to figuring out, to the endless unhappiness of our neighbors).

Anyways, it's a bit more melancholy than most of their tunes, which makes it perfect listening for a winter's day.

I couldn't find a good video of the song, so you get this weird fanvid instead:

Because this website isn't enough of a schizophrenic mess, I've decided to add a song of the day feature. But just to jazz it up, it will be themed (thanks for the suggestion, @lurrel!)

This month's theme shall be: Winter Songs! I've got a great line up for you already, and I'll try to keep an ongoing spotify playlist as we go. I welcome your recommendations, but I won't guarantee that they'll be featured.

As it's already the 3rd, you guys get a double dose today.

Let's kick things off with "Northern Sky," by Nick Drake, which the NME once described with far too many qualifications as "the greatest English love song of modern times." Typical NME dithering about what truly is one of the loveliest songs...ever.

Instrumentation was provided by John Cale of The Velvet Underground, who had his hands in many of the great tracks of the 1970's, whether you realize it or not.

Our second song today is actually a tribute to Nick Drake, and is based on the lyrics of "Northern Sky" (connections, aint they fun?). It's hypnotic and gorgeous, and in one of the ironies that likely would have sent Drake to his grave if he weren't already dead, it was a much bigger hit than any of Drake's songs ever were. But really, it's just as beautiful.

Ironically, Nick Drake himself would only find mainstream fame after being featured in a Volkswagen ad in 2000. He went from being completely unknown to the 5th best-selling artist on Amazon in 2000. So advertising...isn't all bad?

Weigh in, folks. What are your favorite winter songs?

Well, let's see: Asian man in blackface performing voodoo stereotypes, chasing after the virginal white woman who beats the native threat with the salvation of Jesus. That's not racist at all! Take a look:

There is literally nothing about this video that isn't steeped in the most dangerous colonial stereotypes. Florence is explicitly styled as a Pre-Raphaelite Mary Magdalene, and we witness her literal fall. Her safe relationship with God is threatened by the evil natives and their evil religion.

It's everything that's terrible about European colonialism over the centuries, all wrapped up in a very ugly bow. It's not even a specific native that's threatening her, it's a composite native. An Asian in blackface!

Let's forget the fact that blackface is never ok, unless you're making a specific point about the wrongness of blackface (see Mad Men, Tropic Thunder) or you're playing the role respectfully.

Let's ignore the fact that this video engages with specific racial stigmas that have been used to downplay the autonomy of natives in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Let's even ignore the rabid anti-feminism at the very core of the plotline.

What's MOST offensive is the fact that this concept went past the artist, her musicians, the director, the sound crew, the film crew, the lighting tech, the CGI people, and the record company executives and NO ONE PUT A STOP TO IT.

Flail away in the comments.

One of Madonna's most distinctive songs, "Bedtime Story" was actually written by Bjork (shocker, right?). Bjork had declined the opportunity to co-write a song with Madonna, but did agree to write a song for her. The lyrics are actually a subtle critique of Madonna's own aesthetic, but Madonna kept it as it was. She then retaliated in the video for "Human Nature," casting a Bjork-alike and spanking her to death.

Bjork proceeded to rewrite the song entirely as "Sweet Intuition," keeping only one lyric intact: "And inside we're all wet, longing and yearning." The songs are otherwise so different that they scarcely bear comparison, but that won't stop us from trying. Which is your favorite, and why? I'm leaning towards the Madonna on this one.

Madonna - Bedtime Story by zocomoro

This past Saturday, Franz Liszt would have celebrated his 200th birthday.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is now, and will probably always be, my favorite piece of classical music. Liszt draws from Hungarian gypsy rhythms to create the most divine ivory alchemy.

So, to celebrate, I bring you my favorite performance of this piece, "Cat Concerto", which won an Acadamey Award for Best Short back in 1946. (You still can't match Tom and Jerry for sheer bloody-mindedness...)

The technical achievement of this particular short is on par with Liszt's own genius. For the first couple of minutes, even the correct keys are played in the animation.

Let William Hanna and Joseph Barbera bring joy to your Monday!

The art of the music video seems to have greatly improved since the decentralization of musical culture and the fading importance of MTV monoculture.

Avant-garde filmmakers Fleur & Manu have given M83 the cinematic treatment that they've always deserved, something both uplifting and destructive at the same time.

A modernized take on Village of the Damned, we watch a group of superpowered children come to terms with their superpowers, until they seemingly band together to destroy the council flat hell-hole that surrounds them.

Creepy and wonderful. Watch on.

M83 - Midnight City from naiverecords on Vimeo.

Before emo went MTV, it referred to a very specific sound (one that bears no resemblance whatsoever to My Chemical Romance, for the record). For example, Bright Eyes was quintessential emo (but I think his emo stuff is absolutely awful, whether solo or with Desaparacidos. Stick to the indie-folk stuff).

While it was born of the punk movement (specific roots lie with Fugazi and Sunny Day Real Estate), it bears no resemblance to the "pop-punk" with which the term is now exchanged synonymously with. In fact, the movement was resolutely against makeup and style. We knew it was over when the sorority girls starting showing up at concerts with studded belts freshly purchased from Hot Topic.

In our day, it was about angsty white people who were heavily into literature and poetry and lost love, all the better for this brown girl who had the first two and had never experienced the last. For me though, the best emo was a little less angsty and more earnest.

When these artists grew up, they grew into straight pop. But for a brief, shining moment, they were ours, and ours alone.

I'm doing six this week because I need to include Sunny Day Real Estate, as the forefathers of the movement, though it wasn't strictly one of my favorites (it is awesome though.)

Special Guest: Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate

The genre wasn't always consigned to the underground. In fact, Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate was headed for the big leagues. SDRE performed the song all over late night television, and hitched a ride with Soul Coughing and eventually the Foo Fighters in support of the album. Then they had songs on two MASSIVE soundtracks: The Crow and Batman Forever. Sadly, the band suffered from internal turmoil, and never quite made it.

But in Diary, you hear everything that would come to define emo: literary references galore, high contrast between clean guitar and distortion, a powerful sense of melody, and dynamic range.

Clarity perfectly captures the other main characteristic of emo: the music tends to be so damned pretty. While Jimmy Eat World would go on to the greatest success of any "emo" acts (many say by selling out, but I think Bleed American is awesome), Clarity remains the album that emo boys would play to the girls they liked.

There wasn't a single guitarist I knew in college that couldn't play "For Me This is Heaven." Intricate dual-guitar parts? Check.

And as for the requisite literary references? "Goodbye Sky Harbor" borrows lyrics directly from the climactic scene of John Irving's Prayer for Owen Meany.

My personal favorite is "Just Watch the Fireworks", but I couldn't find a good live video for it, so you get this FANTASTIC performance of "For Me This is Heaven" instead. It's got Rachel Haden, who sang backup vocals in the recording, and was in many seminal acts of her own, such as That Dog and, more importantly, The Rentals.

Like many on this list, their first album was classic emo, and then they transformed into another genre entirely (in their case, 60s psychedelic rock. Very odd, but very awesome.) But Designing a Nervous Breakdown still holds a very special place in my heart, as I first heard it when I was struggling to learn guitar, and played many of the riffs over and over again.

And because we love our literary references, there are songs on this album titled: "The Heart is A Lonely Hunter," and "Hart Crane."

These guys were also headed for the big-time before they split, closing things out with an appearance on The O.C., if memory serves.

"All Things Ordinary" is a fucking kick-ass song, and the video is pretty damned fun. That is all. I particularly enjoy the "hoedown" skin in the video. Let me know your favorite.

Rainer Maria has the decency of putting their literary reference right there in their name. This doesn't stop them from naming songs "Breakfast of Champions," however. I was really stuck on which album to choose. Look Now Look Again is more traditionally emo, but Long Knives Drawn is a great example of how to take everything that's great about emo and make it a little less maudlin.

But this is an emo list, so I guess Look Now Look Again takes the cake. "Broken Radio" stands as one of the first five emo songs I ever heard (so when people claim there weren't females in emo, I always bristle, even though statistics-wise, it's probably true). The band became extremely polished, but "Broken Radio" makes full use of the rotten production values, and can't quite handle Caitlin de Marrais' shouting (but at 18, I certainly could, and LOVED it).

Guys, words cannot convey my long-standing and everlasting love for The Juliana Theory. I've seen them live about ten times, and if they hadn't broken up, I'd see them live many more times. They were the second concert I ever attended (the first being The Bangles), and the first time I saw them was within days of heading to college.

They did some serious genre-fucking in this album and in its follow-up, Love, which meant that even when a major label picked them up, they had no idea how to sell the band. Even in their earlier days, they were considered an emo band because no one knew how the hell else to characterize them.

From "Into the Dark" all the way to "You Always Say Goodnight, Goodnight," the band takes you on a journey from emo-pop all the way to metal, with bits of gospel in the middle (I know, right?). (The follow-up album went from rock to techno to soul, so this is not a band that's afraid of innovation).

I'd link a video to the 9 minute masterpiece rock finale, but I'm saving that for a future post. Instead, you get another old favorite: "Into the Dark."

I thought about cheating and including both Swiss Army Romance and Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. For all intents and purposes, all the songs are part of the same album, and choosing between the two is a fool's errand. In fact, Places has a couple of remakes of songs from Swiss Army Romance. But listening to them today, Swiss Army Romance is clearly superior.

I still remember the first time I listened to "The Best Deceptions." I was 16 years old, and on a trip to Paris with my family. Convinced by one of my "cool friends" to listen to this song and to Bleed American, I burned them on a cd. As we took the train to and fro Versailles, I listened to this cd over and over again, until I made peace with Chris Carrabba's voice (it's a bit of an acquired taste). And then the inevitable happened.

I fell in love with Chris Carrabba in a bad, bad way. When that MTV Unplugged aired in 2001, I recorded it and watched it until I wore out the tape. These two albums represented everything that life held in waiting, mistakes and deceptions and loves and lost loves and just a hell of a lot of poetry and guitar.

I may not listen to Dashboard Confessional anymore, but he's had an indelible effect on my guitar playing and my obsession with alternate tunings and dynamic shifts (Joni Mitchell also deserves credit for this). But once you get past the angst and melancholy, this record opened my eyes to the fact that acoustic guitar could be just as raucous as electric.

And can I give a shout-out to Jolie Lindholm, backup-vocalist? When you hear a female harmony, it's her. (She also had her own band, The Rocking Horse WInner, but it was more pop than emo.)

Here's "Sharp Hint of New Tears," a song that remains one of my favorites. Seriously guys, that is one guitar part, played solo.

I love when songs mention other songs, mainly because they seem to give us insight into the teen years of our favorite songs.

Necessarily, these songs tend toward the nostalgic. Let's face it, if you're throwing around references to other songs, you'd better be referring to something more than just the song, or you're just being a show-off.

Don McLean - American Pie

The many references in "American Pie" add to its specific brand of nostalgia. Of course the song mourns the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, but it uses those tragedies as a frame for a more general longing for the past, for the joy of teenage years. And so McLean cites the hits of his own teen years, including "Book of Love," "Eight Miles High," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and "That'll be the Day."

Big Star - Thirteen

"Won't you tell your dad, "Get off my back"?
Tell him what we said about "Paint it Black"."

One of the most sweetly wistful songs ever written, I don't think anyone can beat Alex Chilton's evocation of a first crush, when everything seems possible, and the most important fights we pick are with the parents of our loved ones over the music we love.

Okkervil River - Plus Ones

No one wants to hear about your 97th tear, so dry your eyes or let it go uncried, my dear. I am all out of love to mouth into your ear, and not above letting a love song disappear before it's written. And no one wants a tune about the 100th luftballoon that was seen shooting from the window of your room, to be a spot against the sky's colossal gloom and land, deflated, in some neighbor state that's strewn with 99 others.

If this list were a contest, this song would win, hands down. Will Sheff takes 6 famous "number songs" and adds +1 to all of them, telling us the tale of the 97th tear, the 100th luftballon, the 51st way to leave your lover, the 9th mile high, 8 chinese brothers, and many, many more.

The B-52's - Deadbeat Club

Going down to Allen's for
A twenty-five cent beer
And the jukebox playing real loud,
"Ninety-six tears"
We're wild girls walkin' down the street
Wild girls and boys going out for a big time

This is the second song on our list that references "96 Tears." Which is an absolutely terrible song, if you ask me, but hey. "Deadbeat Club" is one of my favorites songs of all time, a surprisingly sober number for the normally outré band.

Watch for the Michael Stipe cameo!

Jimmy Eat World - Praise Chorus

"Praise Chorus", from Bleed American, throws around a litany of song titles in the bridge, including "Crimson and Clover," Madness's "Our House," Bad Company's "Rock 'N Roll Fantasy," They Might be Giants' "Don't Let's Start," and Motley Crue's "Kickstart My Heart." It's far from my favorite JEW song, but when that bridge kicks in, its hard to deny the surge of happiness in your heart. Also, it's a very danceable tune.

Honorable Mention (I know I'm only allowed 5, but I gotta let this one in):

Def Leppard - Rocket

First of all, I'm still working hard to spread the gospel of the Leppard (and I suspect that I always will, and that's a topic for another blog post. In one phrase: one-handed drummer). Second, this song mentions some of of the very best of British pop: "Benny and the Jets," "Ziggy Stardust," "Jack Flash," "Jean Genie," "Killer Queen," and more. This is not my favorite Def Leppard song, but it does sound most like something that would come out of the synthesizer in Masters of the Universe.

Weigh in! What are your favorite songs that mention other songs?

A Lumiere tribute! Guy Pearce! Stop motion silent filming! This video has it all, and I love it. Not many people realize it, but once they moved out of grunge, Silverchair became one of the most innovative rock bands, incorporating symphonic sounds and operatic backing tracks. How many rock bands do you know of that have piano parts recorded by David Helfgott (That's in "Emotion Sickness", in case you're wondering).

Enjoy!

A friend of mine sent me this video with the tagline: "If the Killers were Irish." Well, Bell X1 seems to have a few advantages over the Killers if you compare this debut single with "Somebody Told Me."

The lyrics are (marginally) less nonsensical, and Bell X1 seems to have locked down the wistfulness that makes the Killers' second album, Sam's Town, an improvement on the first. The lead singer also seems to have a more melodious voice, which sets this tune apart from other would-be Killers, and lends them an air of Interpol.

Anyway, check it out!

I am in no way, shape or form a Justin Timberlake fan, but I can't deny the dancefloor appeal of FutureSex/LoveSounds, or however you spell it.

A group of comedians (at least I hope they're comedians) have put together a fairly awesome plea for the return of Justin Timberlake, singer. It's pretty damn hilarious.

Be warned, it's NSFW.

I've had this album for over a year, but I still find myself tuning in and wondering, "Hey, what's that song in the instrumental sample?"

Well, I've found a ton of resources in various formats, but this is the best one I've found yet. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out who created the graphic originally, but if they stumble across this post, I hope they let me know.

Enjoy! Click here for the full-size version:

Thank god it's friday, eh? After spending the day on more serious things, I get to bring you a top five list in no particular order of no great importance. Today's topic? Songs that mention writers.

The rules are simple. The song must reference the author by name, it cannot allude to the author, or simply reference one of the authors' works (which unfortunately rules out a whole bunch of Led Zeppelin, Rush, and other prog-rock).

I tried to represent a number of different styles (this list could too easily have been all-folk).

Weigh in in the comments, of course.

Patti Smith - "Land"

I don't even pretend to know what this song is about, I just know it's great. It references Arthur Rimbaud, the great literary love of Smith's life:

"And I fill my nose with snow and go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud."

If you haven't read Just Kids yet, you really need to get on that. It's probably my favorite book of the past 2 years (and is now being made into an inevitably horrid feature film).

Here's a great live performance of the song:

Manic Street Preachers - "Faster"

This is just a fucking great song. It's an anthem for the nihilist, which I certainly loved in my youth (though I doubt I'd like it so much if I came across it today). I cannot possibly do it justice in words, so I'll quote you their own:

"I am stronger than Mensa, Miller and Mailer, I spat out Plath and Pinter".

Elsie Carlisle - "Pu-leeze Mr. Hemingway!"

The reference is right there in the title, but there are some very cheeky references within the song (this song was frequently banned in the 1930's):

"I love a brave man
With big he-man stuff,
But not a caveman,
So remember not to play too rough!"

Simon and Garfunkel - "A Simple Desultory Philippic"

I think every other Simon and Garfunkel song ever written has literary references, but I narrowed it down to "The Dangling Conversation" and "A Simple Desultory Philippic." For humor's sake, the latter won. Written to be a spoof of Bob Dylan, this song is pretty much the masterpiece of random author mentions, such as:

"I've been Ayn Randed, nearly branded Communist, 'cause I'm left-handed."

And my personal favorite lyric (actually this is one of my favorite lines from any song ever):

"He's so unhip, that when you say Dylan, he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas, whoever he was. The man ain't got no culture, but it's alright, ma, everybody must get stoned."

I couldn't find a live performance, sadly, but you can at least listen to the song here:

Tori Amos - "Tear In Your Hand" and her many Neil Gaiman mentions

Tori Amos' long friendship with Neil Gaiman has been noted in detail elsewhere, but for now I'm just gonna note the songs that mention him.

From "Horses," off Boys for Pele

"Will you find me if Neil made me a tree"

From "Space Dog," off Under the Pink

"Seems I keep getting the story twisted, so where's Neil when you need him?"

From "Carbon," off Scarlet's Walk

"Get me Neil on the line. No, I can't hold. Have him read 'Snow Glass Apples,' where nothing is what it seems."

There are a number of other references to Gaiman's work, but there's only one specific reference to him left, my favorite, the first, made before they even knew each other:

"If you need me, me and Neil'll be hangin' out with the Dream King. Neil says hi, by the way."

That's "Tear In Your Hand," off of Little Earthquakes.

Here's one of my favorite live performances of the song (at Glastonbury 1999, if I'm not mistaken?) (stay tuned for a super-hot guy singing along in the crowd):

Runners up include: "Hey, Jack Kerouac" by 10,000 Maniacs, and "Rave On, John Donne," by Van Morrison.

Aha! I fooled you! After all, there is and can only ever be one River Song, even if she is part-Timelord and can possibly even regenerate. But Doctor Who returns tomorrow, and I can't wait for more River, so to tide us all over, here's a few river-related tunes, along with my totally objective assessment of when/if she might listen to these songs.

1. Joni Mitchell - River

One of the most beautiful songs every written, the live version below is even more haunting.

Would River Song listen to this river song: I imagine she would listen to this pretty much constantly in her creepy house of quasi-death, along with her team of quasi-dead researchers. In reality, I can imagine Amy Pond listening to this song every moment she has alone, until she finds her daughter. "Now I've gone and lost the best baby that I ever had," indeed.

2. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary

The ultimate Woodstock anthem, "Proud Mary" became successful twice over, as the Tina Turner version became an even bigger hit than the original.

Would River Song listen to this river song: Not only would she listen to this song, I would lay money down that she was at Woodstock in the crowd, and hooked up not only with CCR but with Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Probably at the same time.

3. Bruce Springsteen - The River

I don't even know what to say about this song. Just listen to it. The video below is its first ever performance I believe, and the emotion is so raw. Just beautiful. Seriously.

Would River Song listen to this river song: Just a general comment on these river songs. They're all fucking classic songs in their own right. We know River hangs out with musicians, so maybe they all separately wrote songs about her. Maybe, just like the Doctor leaves random evidence of his existence throughout time and space, River leaves a bunch of awesome songs.

4. Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks

My favorite Led Zeppelin song by far. The first time I ever heard it was actually when Tori Amos covered it, the day after the levees broke in New Orleans. It's a powerful song that perfectly captures the awesome power of nature with that driving guitar riff which seems to get bigger and bigger every second.

Would River Song listen to this river song: Yes. During sexy times. Which, in her case, is pretty much all the time. But you know what I mean.

5. PJ Harvey - Down By The Water

This isn't specifically about a river, but oh well. It COULD be a river. I posted the mashup below because it's the best. thing. ever. It's a mashup of "Down by the Water," "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos, Bjork and Massive Attack. It's awesome. And you have to listen to it. I don't care if you don't like the artists, you need to listen to it anyway. It comes together beautifully.

Would River Song listen to this river song: Maybe not the original version, but definitely the mashup. "I'm going hunting for a mystery," indeed. And you know that River's taking fashion advice from all three of these women (fiery redhead with a wild mane of curly hair, who always has the most inappropriate outfit for any occasion). And while we don't know the whole truth about River, we do know that she is a mashup of some variety.

You know what I'm talking about. When you're in the car with your mom, and you want a radio station which doesn't make either of you wanna blow your brains out, you turn to the Adult Contemporary station and hope like hell that for every Celine Dion track, you get some Alanis Morissette, and occasionally they even oblige. But when I was 16, the stations were stuck in a time-warp: 90% of everything they played was from 1989-1991.

A little research informs me that the adult contemporary format began in 1988, which possibly explains why the stations lean so heavily from songs back then.

I freely admit that this post was inspired by a downward spiral into youtube inspired by Bridesmaids. I watched "Hold On," by Wilson Phillips, and then the temptation was just too great to watch everything that YT recommended. Many hours later, I've made this list for you.

Amy Grant - Baby, Baby

A peculiar trend of that 1989-1991 period was a lot of hit pop songs with relentless positivity (maybe this is why grunge immediately followed). This song is great because it's all "la-la I'm happy and in love" and manages not to be saccharine (though it has the silliest synth solo in the history of synth solos). I had never seen the video before yesterday, and quite frankly, I feel cheated. Hot men keep walking up to Amy Grant in the street and offer her baguettes! puppies! more hot men!

Basically, she's having a really, really awesome day. And why shouldn't she, with such a stellar collection of hats and fruit!

Donna Lewis - I Love You, Always Forever

I freely admit that I was a little obsessed with this song (possibly predicting my obsession with palm muting in my own guitar playing). It's the perfect little pop song, catchy and uplifting. And it probably helps that you can't quite make out what she's saying (I assume this is because she's Welsh) so you don't get overwhelmed by the sap. Seriously, I know I could look up the lyrics, but I prefer to think that she is singing that "those days, swan rape comes pushing back to me." For Donna Lewis is ZEUS! This song apparently came out in 1996, but it sounds like it's 1990, and so here it is.

Roxette - It Must Have Been Love

This song was all over the radio, and probably still is. There's a weird little synth riff between where she sings "It's where the water flows...it's where the wind blows..." that always reminds me of the bits of Zelda 64 where you're hanging out with that giant fish monster thingy (you know, there are lush waterfalls everywhere and tinkly little music that sounds exactly like the backing track for this song). This video, sadly, has very little to recommend it. Marie Fredericksson is a stone-cold hottie, but they keep cutting to scenes of one terrible, terrible movie that you may be acquainted with (though you may not consider it terrible). I do not miss that awful 90's trend of tie-in music videos. Especially since I watched a bunch of other Roxette videos (for research...of course...) and they're all quite fun and even clever for their day despite their intensely low budgets. Anyway, now I'm rambling.

Heart - These Dreams

So this video opens with a vagina shot...not really sure what that says about anything, but I felt compelled to point it out. I sincerely love this song, but this video is also great, mainly because Nancy WIlson seems to think she's in a particularly different video, like, for instance, a rock video. I still find it mystifying how Heart went from awesome hard rock to this airy fairy stuff, but that doesn't preclude my love for it.

Wilson Phillips - Hold On

And, of course, the video that started this whole thing off. What can I say really? Except...watch out for the power-walking. Memorize those hand gestures. Meet me on the other side.