Pyramids is the sort of thing Prince would be doing if he were at the peak of his powers now rather than 25 years ago. And not a Jehovah's Witness. Unspeakably sublime.

Oh I like the majority of what I've heard in here, will make a larger comment when finished and listen to some I don't know...

 

Very pleased to hear it, I look forward to it! Have been keeping an eye on yours, and shall do the same...

 

Pyramids is the sort of thing Prince would be doing if he were at the peak of his powers now rather than 25 years ago. And not a Jehovah's Witness. Unspeakably sublime.

 

YES. I hope Frank doesn't follow the same career path though...

This countdown is off to a splendid start! *.*

 

Princess Of China went to #1 in my chart and Pyramids went to #3 in my chart. :D

#08

 

 

"An everlasting piece of art"

 

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It did come to the point where the reputation preceded the song, overloaded as it was with the duty to breakdown negative preconceptions of what a Eurovision song can be. Fact is, those clattering synths in the background are pure David Guetta, and even Loreen's trademark melancholy is transmuted into a more serene positivity geared towards what approaches a generic sense of club excitement. But it's still in her that the magic of 'Euphoria' lies. Quite apart from that dance routine - which I attempt to re-enact every time the song plays in a club, to everyone's embarrassment - the song itself moves in scattering, wildly free motion, with that build out the middle-eight a thing of true exhiliration. 'Euphoria' succeeds so beautifully because it doesn't overload itself with complexity, instead allowing Loreen's flying vocals to make the eponymous feeling one of pure musicality.

YES. I hope Frank doesn't follow the same career path though...

Luckily I don't think the gay PERMITS such a thing

Euphoria? Oh my god, I think that this is the best EOY Top 10 ever! :wub:

 

I love Euphoria because it's such an incredible dance song! :D

#08

 

 

"An everlasting piece of art"

 

(39-14-6-3-1-1-1-1-2-3-1-1-2-3-3-4-1-1-2-4-6-5-7-10-13-30-22-31-39)

 

It did come to the point where the reputation preceded the song, overloaded as it was with the duty to breakdown negative preconceptions of what a Eurovision song can be. Fact is, those clattering synths in the background are pure David Guetta, and even Loreen's trademark melancholy is transmuted into a more serene positivity geared towards what approaches a generic sense of club excitement. But it's still in her that the magic of 'Euphoria' lies. Quite apart from that dance routine - which I attempt to re-enact every time the song plays in a club, to everyone's embarrassment - the song itself moves in scattering, wildly free motion, with that build out the middle-eight a thing of true exhiliration. 'Euphoria' succeeds so beautifully because it doesn't overload itself with complexity, instead allowing Loreen's flying vocals to make the eponymous feeling one of pure musicality.

Oh I am DONE WITH THIS COUNTDOWN

Tyron, I am honestly not trying to predict your responses.

 

:kink:

#07

 

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7051/teenidle.png

 

"The wasted years / The wasted youth / The pretty lies / The ugly truth"

 

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'Teen Idle' captures, more than any song on Electra Heart, the album's mixture of self-effacement and performative bravado, in its fragile, wistful portrait of a regretful young woman. The absolute delicacy of the song is breathtaking, with Marina's vocals nearing falsetto, seemingly afraid to make too loud a noise lest she crack the lamented reflection in the mirror. The production builds to a trembling crescendo as the song climaxes, a whirring synth noise resembling a tragic music box, but it's in Marina's lyrics and her vocalisation of them that the song's true majesty really lies. She captures the precocity of life, the largess that miniscule failures become in our own heads, the ugliness of the realisation that adulthood is suddenly, horribly, unforgivably upon us. And yet in this, you sense that Marina recognises the beauty with which she delivers these feelings, the entire paradox of her self: the outward beauty, the inner disgust, the essential humanity of her entire charade.

#06

 

 

"Kiss me hard before you go"

 

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It was when I saw the video for this that everything clicked into place for me and Lana - specifically, when her body falls, in one held breath, over the cliff. The song hangs on these falls, with the notes in the chorus pausing, imperceptibly, for a moment, before the next comes along. The words "summertime sadness" sum up what Lana basically does - turns an essentially positive experience into a dour, painful one. But both she and this song are more complicated than that. 'Summertime Sadness' is a song alive with sadness, yes, but also with nostalgia, the glow of memory - there's a pleasure in the sadness, a romanticism that makes itself apparent in the echoing presence of Lana's vocals. Lana realises the completeness that melancholy brings to life, and the repeated emphasis on the title brings the lingering delight on her blue remembrances to the fore. The rhythmic movement of the beat never drives the song into the ground, but perhaps over a cliff - forever moving through the air, like Thelma and Louise, a triumphant defeat.

#05

 

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6722/runningsea.png

 

"Like savage horses kept within"

 

(1-1-1- )

 

The mournful, deliberate notes of a piano begin 'Running to the Sea', sounding more like the devastated finale to a song than its careful beginning. But as the synths and chimes build up on top, coupled with the smooth, ringing vocals of Sundfør - another ideal vocalist for Röyksopp, and one that sounds a darker note than the collection featured on Junior - the song takes shape as the oceanic epic that it is, an instant entry into Röyksopp's panthean of effortless beauties. The faintest touch of a ghostly choir make the pacey synths of Sundfør's absence almost the highlight, if it weren't for the restrained harmony of her efforts on the chorus. Röyksopp's trademark craftsmanship of turning familiar synths into unspeakable emotional weight is more in evidence than ever, with the song building into an overwhelming hatch of Sundfør's repeated confusion ("And the river grows inside of me") and the insistent thumping of the snare drum. This arrived late, but the majesty was immediate and undeniable.

#04

 

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7268/findaboy.png

 

"No more sad / And no more lonely"

 

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From the moment that beat starts rolling, punctuated by the increasingly loud crashes of a synth, I am hooked. You need the extended version for the full effect - the beat rising, unimpeded, for a full forty-five seconds before A*M*E's detached vocals finally chime in. The beat is a compulsion, a staccato, waving deliberation, but A*M*E's vocals smoothly roll over it until they join in the erraticism of the chorus, stalling on the search, the need for a boy. It sounds like the call of the dispossessed, a robotic search for a boy. If you go by Mic Righteous' fierce imposition of a rap, it might be exactly that - he chastises the modern performance of the search for a mate, the routine of maintaining an appearance and the requirement for the male and female to pair off. A*M*E isn't swayed, and her insistence on the title becomes almost hypnotic, a statement of desolation that she is willed so perpetually to this quest, repeating the impossible demand that the boy love her "all the time". The ceaseless roll of the beat makes this dubstep-tinged song embed itself in your memory, the ironic soundtrack to your own endless search for love.

#03

 

 

"On another level like we're doing yoga"

 

(1-1-1-1-2-2-3-6-7-7-9-10-20-18-25-23-24- )

 

I gradually worked on perfecting the lyrics to this song, and, given a few more weeks, I think I'll be word perfect. Which, considering the speed with which Gwen and Busy Signal deliver the verses here, is quite an achievement. What 'Push and Shove' has in abandon is swagger. The ska rhythm swings beneath the rapid fire of the verses, seeming to quicken towards a chorus that never delivers. Delivers on energy, that is - instead, Gwen's voice grinds to a mournful resistence, a playfully hurt kiss-off. She's soon back on fire again, throwing out words and jibbering nonsense that works as a weapon of enforced delirium. 'Push and Shove' combines the slower timbre of much of the album with the skittish, vibrant energy that usually effervesces from Gwen. It's a five minutes that marches past, and before you know it the song is looking back at you with a taunting tongue sticking out of its mouth.

I KNOW WHO'S WON.

I KNOW WHO'S WON.

 

Probably because I posted it on last.fm and twitter smart-arse ~

#02

 

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7348/fearloathing.png

 

"I wanna feel completely weightless / I wanna touch the edge of greatness"

 

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Weakness and desperation become one singular, epic masterpiece. Vast, sweeping and ethereal, 'Fear and Loathing' is more prominently an intimate, naked portrait of Marina, her performative tendencies left entirely to the production for Electra Heart's majestic closer. All the frequently elaborate backing vocals will deign to contribute is a taunting hum. Marina's voice echoes, but it doesn't float - her desolate vowels always fall back into the earth, grounded by the depth of her sadness. Few other singers can imbue the extension of a lingering syllable with such soft pain as Marina. Few other songwriters can interpolate such vast emptiness of their souls into such tactile, brief lyrics. 'Fear and Loathing' is a song few could dare to craft, because this takes an artist fearlessly leaving privacy at the door, throwing their every fear and weakness into their work. That it is delivered in such beautiful, majestic form is more than we could have ever asked for.

psychic powers, duh.

 

I always seem to forget about Fear and Loathing's existence but it really is a bit brilliant. Best she's ever done.

*goes to Twitter to see the #1*

 

:kink:

#01

 

 

(9-1-2-2-2-6-8-14-21-19-25)

 

The Olympics were, for most of us, a once in a lifetime experience. I attended none of the events, and was rather preoccupied with my own petty love life worries tied up with the opening ceremony, which I hardly had the greatest of expectations for in the first place, despite some friends involved who insisted on its awesome spectacle. The Olympics turned out rather well, as it happened (the love part less so), but never did I expect this to come along with them. Combined with the visual spectacle, this is quite simply on a level above most musical composition, a conception of literally epic scope that immediately legitimised Danny Boyle's creation as a truly magnificent piece of art. The synthwork here is truly electrifying, building the refrains across breathtaking minutes at a time, streaking sounds over the top and underneath and teasing with others so that their final delivery makes for even more delirious reception. There are, quite literally, no words, just the rush of tribal sounds and choral rushes, uniting people across the historical breadth of the visual story. The volume is immense - the music feels like it's filling an entire stadium. I feel myself inside this music, and that takes something very special, particularly when words are entirely absent. When the final whistling strikes up and the song begins to twirl down to a finish, I am lost.

Did you see my tweet, David? :D