My 2011 CD

This last semester, I took a music appreciation class. The class covered "western art music", which is colloquially called "classical". The music snob in me feels the need to point out that "classical" is only acceptable as a genre if you refer to western art music created from about 1750 to about 1820. Our class covered Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, and contemporary music. So I've decided to include a few tracks from these genre's on my 2011 CD. I was half tempted to include Cage's 4'33", but redbook doesn't compress files, so it would have taken just as much space as any other song four and a half minutes long. Some pieces that I really wanted to include will not be on here, because there is not room to do them justice (like Beethoven's 9th). So the first 1/4 of the CD is like that, and the latter 3/4 is more like my previous CDs.


01 - Damin Djawadi - Game Of Thrones Main Title
I love this song, and Damin is a great composer. If you're a fan of the TV show, this should raise your heartrate a few bpm (don't watch the HBO series until you have read the book covered by each season you watch).

02 - Miroslav Skoryk - Melody (performed by Kiev Soloists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3jSVouBRZM)
Miroslav is a contemporary composer that I first learned about from a concert I went to early in the semester. I've listened to about a dozen different performances of this piece, and this is by far my favorite. Kiev Soloists is the recording name of the Kiev National Chamber Ensemble. The violin soloist is Myroslava Kotorovych, and I've heard her play this in one other recording that is slightly less favorable to this one. This recording is taken directly from the YouTube clip linked to above (I could not find a way to purchase this song legally).

03 - Schubert - Erlking (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OHJ0QwmzFs)
If there's a chance that you ever hear this lied in the future, I may as well spoil all other version for you. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau will forever own this song. Ranked as the second greatest voice in recorded history, nobody will ever do a better job singing this. The piano in this version is played by the amazing Gerald Moore. I've heard two version of Erlking by Dietrich and Gerald, and this is the slightly better of the two. There are other recordings of Dietrich singing with different pianists, but even the best of those pales in comparison to this recording.

04 - John Adams - Short Ride In A Fast Machine
In class I called this a "woodblock concerto" (I am hilarious). This is another contemporary composer, which should be evident by the instrumentation and "American" feel. It sounds very Copeland-esque to me. Rumor has it that Adams went for a ride in a friend's car across San Francisco. The event frightened and inspired him, and that is what prompted him to write this song.

05 - The Beatles - Something
One of their best, and probably my favorite George Harrison song. George wrote the song for his wife of the time, Pattie Boyd (who later married Eric Clapton and had "Wonderful Tonight" written for her). It is The Beatles second most covered song (after "Yesterday"). George's favorite cover was done by James Brown, which he kept on his personal jukebox. Sadly, this is from the more recent remaster and not a monaural mastering.

06 - The Radio Dept - Sleeping In
Finally, a song that celebrates my favorite thing! Just a cool song, with great timbre. I fell in love with this entire album, but have not gotten into their other two albums. The album has a song titled "The Worst Taste In Music", how could I NOT love them?!
07 - The Radio Dept - I Wanted You To Feel The Same
Lovely song, if you ignore the lyrics. This is on my "sad" playlist because its meaning fits that description perfectly.

08 - Blonde Redhead - Oslo
I'm a sucker for a female vocalist with a whispery voice (Lisa Hannigan, Hope Sandoval, Maria Taylor, Orenda Fink, Natasha Khan, etc), so Kazu catches my attention pretty easily. This song, when played on a good system will shake your house.
09 - Blonde Redhead - Black Guitar
This was included partly so you get to hear Amedeo sing something from the group. They have a number of songs that he sings solo or alongside Kazu.
10 - Blonde Redhead - Love Or Prison (Kastellet Mix)
I like this mix better than the original (both from the same album). The original was a bit more "electronic", which I have long associated with insincerity (possible due to synthesizers in the 80's replacing traditional instruments)

11 - Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYnm9XHqnog)
Another song on my sad list. We listened to this in my music class, to show several aspects of composition. A very cool video too.

12 - Lisa Hannigan - Black Eyed Dog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvaqqk3pHLw&noredirect=1)
This is a cover of a Nick Drake song, from a concert of various artists paying tribute to one of the UK's most underappreciated songwriters. Watch the video (watch the entire concert if possible), and at the start of this song you will see an audience politely clapping and barely willing to sit through this Irish lass. By the end the audience responds with thunderous applauds. Lisa nods politely and walks briskly off-stage, more of a testament to her introverted and shy nature than anything else. She isn't the type to stand on stage and soak up adoration. Her coda in this recording gives me goosebumps every time.
13 - Lisa Hannigan - Home
If you aren't already in love with her, this song should resolve that. Her voice during the bridge (1:16, 1:30, 2:45, 3:00, 3:58) is my new standard for perfection in vibrato. For background detail, vibrato is, in my opinion, the most abused vocal technique, and possibly the fastest way for me to dislike or even hate a singer. For me, this was her standout track from this album, easily my favorite.
14 - Lisa Hannigan - Knots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYdPtcx-4mo&feature=relmfu)
She is the perfect woman. Oh yeah, the music. A fun tune with memorable lyrics carried at a great tempo. Watch the video, I can't get through a viewing without laughing (I hope it only took one take).
15 - Lisa Hannigan - Little Bird (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRdj8MRj9Js)
This song causes me to subconsciously minimize my breathing, in order to minimize the background noise as I listen. That's how beautiful it is, and that is one of my criteria for moving a song to my highest tier of favoritism. Listen to her voice at 2:20.

16 - Azure Ray - Larraine
A pretty song. The lyrics are very sad. So much, that I almost did not include it on this disc.

17 - Adele - Cold Shoulder
From her first album, "Cold Shoulder" has a lot more funk than anything else she has done. Her drummer is clearly having a good time, which is almost guaranteed to draw me in.
18 - Adele - Set Fire To The Rain
My favorite Adele song to date. One more song that I have on my "sad" playlist.

19 - Rush - Entre Nous
One of my favorite Rush songs. The lyrics explain it all, so I'll let you explore it on your own.

20 - Lo-Pro - Texas
Easily my favorite song on this album. I should have had this on last years CD, but forgot. I've been a fan of Lo-Pro since Ryan recommended their first album many years ago. I was greatly pleased that this album kept the same energy and quality as their first.

How to format your audio filenames

It has come to my attention that some of you may not properly format your audio filenames correctly. I don't want to say who does this, because that would be embarrassing to Marianne. Here is the correct format:
  Artist - Album - Track # - Track Title
Where "Artist is the name of the artist, "Album" is the album name, "Track #" is the track number, and "Track Title" is the title of the track. I probably did not need to explain that, but it's typed now, so deal with it.

And here is the reason that format is important. If a file is ever copied or moved to a folder that contains other files, this format keeps everything organized (assuming you sort folders by filename, which you should also do). I see a lot of filenames formatted as
  track_# track_title
(screw you, iTunes), and it's starting to bug me. Recently, someone who may or may not be my younger sister, moved a lot of tracks into one folder on our family's Dropbox music folder. There are 8 files that start with "01", each from a different artist. So if you want to play all the songs by Joan Baez, you have to hunt and control-click all over that folder.

If you have a large music collection, there are software tools that can rename files based on the tags already present in the music. Just do a Google search for "tagger" or "tagging" software, and pick one for your OS. I use "EasyTag" in Linux, and WinAmp in Windows. I don't have a Mac, so I have no recommendations for that OS.