In his book "Rock On," Dan Kennedy writes:
With hearts and brains like hard drives, we all move through this life constantly shuffling through thousands of songs triggered by memories and names, a certain season, or even just the way the light of landscape feels in a certain place.
Here are some of the songs that I added to my hard drive in 2011, my top ten.
1. Pumped Up Kicks, Foster The People
Thank you to NPR, or wherever I first heard about this song. One notable difference in my life in Dubai vs NYC is that, back in NYC I used to download a lot of really cool new music. In Dubai, my exposure is more limited to the local top 40 station or the dance tunes that the Lebanese girls play on Thursdays in the office. Where I used to hear a random cool tune on the an ad or online video and instantly download it for cruising tunes, I no longer have iTunes access here in Dubai (except for that gift card - thanks Joe!) so I don't just spend the occasional buck on a song. Instead, when I do here the occadional catchy song on an NPR "Summer Tunes" post or something, I file it away to my YouTube queue and listen on repeat. This song - totally loved it. Finally bought it with the aforementioned iTunes gift card from Joe. Not only do I love it, but it's a fave of James as well. Soundtrack of our Jumeira Beach Road cruising.
2. Here to Stay, Milagres
This is just my perfect kind of song. A chirping optimistic beat. A singalong chorus. A key change to minor to give it texture. Over and over and over, I listen to this.
3. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
This song reminds me of so much - our trip to Europe in the summer, hanging out in Fred's apartment, watching a movie years ago with a soundtrack by a group called Barely Drawn Boy, growing up in the suburban side streets of Richmond. There's a gorgeousness to the layers of instrumentation of this song. The way that the plaintive horn sounds in a minor tone.
4. Staircase, Radiohead
Radiohead often has this effect on me where I can instantly fall for one of their songs. It doesn't have to grow on me, it's instant. Other songs of theirs leave me indifferent, but sometimes, as in the case of this song, I'm blown away. I love this song.
5. Written on the Forehead, PJ Harvey
The only CD that I bought this year, the only CD that I've bought in a long, long time, was PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake". So much has been written about the prize-winning album, its layers of sound, its instrumentation. At first I loved a song called The Glorious Land, for its urgent guitar strum, which make me want to learn how to play the song on the guitar. I still love that song, but then also fell in love with The Words That Maketh Murder after another blogger posted it on her favourite song list. However, my choice to be included in this list is this song, because it grew on me, and because the chorus swells with such a rich melody.
6. Fool's Day, Blur
Ride along on a bike through London neighbourhoods. "Then on my bike/ Down the Ladbroke Grove/ To the forthcoming dramas/ The studio/ And a love of all sweet music/ We just can’t let go" and sing along to one of those simple guitar riffs that you just can't help sing out loud.
7. The Weight of the World, The Editors
Part of the intrigue of sharing a home with a new roommate is the inheriting of their musical collection. I spent a weekend morning importing all of James' CDs to my iTunes, and this song was an absolute favourite. Soaring guitars and chorus and crecendoes. My kind of song.
8. Higher, Taio Cruz
Here's the thing with live music in Dubai - as James puts it, it's the city where 80's bands come to collect that last hefty paycheque. Salt N Pepa, Sade, Britney Spears, Metallica, Michael Bolton... none are ever compelling enough to entice us into buying tickets to their shows. But when some friends offered us their extra tickets to Nelly Furtado, we decided, hey why not, and caught a taxi out to Abu Dhabi to see Miss I'm Like A Bird. Most awesome of all, however, was her opening act, this guy I'd never heard about before, playing catching pop song after catchy pop song. Taio - - you won a fan this year, and I listen to this song when I go running because it's the perfect pump up tune.
9. The Look, Metronomy
Isn't it just a cool vibe and cool beat? That's why I like it. There are some songs that you hear in ads, like ones for French railways that had this song, and you just like the song and have to hear it again. This song is one of those for me. Ultracool.
10. The Ossie's Going to Wembley song
I don't know the name of this song, and out of allegiance to Arsenal, my de facto official team, I won't embed the video of this song from the 1980's era Tottenham, but I felt it had to be captured here because there's a lyric within the song in which they refer to player Osvaldo Ardiles that goes "Ossie's going to Wembley" and we made in-house variations of this lyric throughout the year, e.g., "We are going to Doha" or "We're going to Abu Dhabi" etc etc etc. All of which is to say that I had to capture this song memory somehow.
11. Hard to choose a tenth (edit: I had repeated a number when I first wrote this, so I actually *did* pick 10 songs, but I'll leave this statement about picking one more here) amazing song. So many other favourites that have inspired impromptu dance parties in the dining room or passenger seat of the car. But the first nine of this list - all part of the hard drive, for sure.
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