Friday Five

Ickmusic’s Friday Five: November 14, 2008

If you are a minority of one, the shuffle is the shuffle.

Ah Friday it’s time to relax and you know what that means a glass of wine, your favorite easy chair and of course the Friday Five shuffling on your home stereo. So go on indulge yourself, that’s right, kick off your shoes, put your feet up, lean back and just enjoy the melodies. After all, music soothes even the savage beast….

For those who have not joined in the Five, here’s how it works: … I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five with a bit of insight for each track.

Then it’s your turn! Just share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments and see what your fellow readers are listening to as well.

Here are this week’s tracks:

1. Effcee – Purple Rain (from Electro Goth Tribute to Prince)

Imagine Garbage covering Prince with a less adept lead singer (Shirley Manson is amazing) and that is about the sum of this. To illustrate just how bad this collection is, Rebecca Romijn (yes, that one) performs “Darling Nikki”. For a much more fitting (and listenable) tribute head over to Psychotic Leisure Music and check out Dump‘s That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice, it’s well worth the time.

2. Diana Ross & Lionel Richie – Endless Love (from 80s Gold)

I’m not sure what frightens me more, the fact that I have no less than 4 instances of this song in my iTunes library or the fact that I actually genuinely, in my heart of hearts, like this song.

3. Ra Ra Riot – Too Too Too Fast (from The Rhumb Line)

A record that is sure to place highly on my year end list, The Rhumb Line by indie pop darlings Ra Ra Riot delivers 10 undeniably catchy and sprite tunes. If you don’t have this record yet, you should.

4. JellyfishThe Ghost at Number One (mp3) (from Socrates, Pathos, and Plato)

This is the demo of the tune from the bands power pop opus Spilt Milk. I’ve been revisiting my power pop past lately and this is always at the top of the list. The quality is not all that great but this one absolutely deserves to be played on 11.

5. The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back (from Greatest Hits)

This is the first bass line that I ever tried to learn. So damn funky!

What’s kicking you into the weekend?

7 Comments

  • Jonathan

    My weaknesses this week (although I also love Endless Love, almost as much as You and I) are Come Monday and How Deep Is Your Love. I’m apparently having musical flashbacks lately.

  • Coz

    Weird thing is that I was listing to Spilt Milk this morning… “How does it feel to be a visionary poet?” Not bad.. Not bad at all…

  • Gonzo

    Hmm. I wasn’t that taken with Ra Ra Riot, but I’ll have to give them another shot.

    1. Lupe Fiasco – Go Go Gadget Cool

    I like Lupe Fiasco, but I find that he’s worn on me pretty quickly. At any rate, this is probably my favorite from his latest.

    2. Suicidal Tendencies – Won’t Fall in Love Today

    Just gave this a spin after years of neglect. “Institutionalized” is a great track.

    3. A Tribe Called Quest – Scenario [remix]

    A bonus track from The Love Movement. Ok mix, doesn’t come close to the original.

    4. Rammstein – Du Riechst So Gut.

    Well that was random! Haven’t listened to Rammstein in years either. But for a summer in high school, I listened to them A LOT.

    5. Kool Keith – Plastic World

    From the Sex Style LP, for which there is also a rather humorous video that pokes at MJ among other things.

  • whiteray

    Just past 5 p.m. here in the Midwest . . .

    1. “Rooms” by The Mamas & The Papas from “The Papas & The Mamas,” 1968. An album track from a later album. Still, a nice folk-pop sound with great vocals.

    2. “The Look of Love” by Segio Mendes & Brasil ’66, A&M single 924, 1966. Smooth single with that Latin influence. Somehow seems sad tonight . . . must be a memory calling out to me.

    3. “It’s All Over Now” by Rod Stewart from “Gasoline Alley,” 1970. Nothing subtle here. Good old rock with raspy vocals.

    4. “I’ll Find A Way” by Rachel Yamagata from “Happenstance,” 2004. See, I do have some newer stuff! Still amazed by this album . . .

    5. “Leftover Wine” by Della Reese from “Black Is Beautiful,” 1969. I didn’t know I had this. Another sweet, somewhat sad song.

  • Anne

    I love the Ra Ra Riot album and it is on my top 10 list of albums for the year. Now to my Friday Five.

    1. “Now At Last”, Feist, “Let it Die”, 2005. This was the album where I discovered Feist.

    2. “Ghost Wiring”, Neko Case, “Live from Austin, Texas”, 2006. I am sure that Neko has come up in my shuffles before. I really love her and I think that she is coming out with a new album in 2009.

    3. “Fixing a Hole”, The Beatles, “Sgt. Peppers …”, 1967.

    4. “Fade Into You”, Mazzy Star, “So Tonight That I Might See”, 1993.

    5. “Songbird”, Willie Nelson, “Songbird”, 2006. I have many versions of this song and quite frankly, this is not my favorite version. But I still give him credit–it is still a good version.

  • Daniel Ross

    Not sure how/when I stumbled across the blog, but I’ve been reading for several months now. RIpped off your Five for Friday and am doing it at my blog as well. Here are mine for this week:

    1.) David Crowder*Band: “We Win” (from Passion: Everything Glorious)
    I loved this song for a few minutes in 2007. Crowder has at least one song on each album designed to be a crowd participation number (think ‘Undignified’ and ‘Sing Like The Saved.’). This has a cool call and response in the middle. Crowder always has a million things going on in each song so there’s plenty of ear candy here, even live.

    2.) dc talk: “There Is A Treason At Sea” (from Supernatural)
    It must be CCM day here or something. This is one of those bonus deals where they let one member of the band (Kevin Max) indulge his poetic side while weird sounds play in the background.

    3.) Collective Soul: “Heaven’s Already Here” (from Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid)
    This is the album with “Shine” on it. It is really just an Ed Roland solo album. A song, presumably, about his wife and how much he loves her. They are divorced now.

    4.) Lifehouse: “You and Me” (from Lifehouse)
    Oh man, this is a total CW song. I’m sure this has been on “Smallville” and “Gilmore Girls” a million times. Sappy and I’m sure it’s been played at a million weddings. I kinda like it anyway. Good melody.

    5.) Bon Jovi: “Hook Me Up” (from Bounce)
    From one of the band’s worst albums (save your snarky comment some of you out there). This song falls prey to what the band was trying to do with this album in trying to capitalize on the success of “It’s My Life” on their previous album “Crush.” Every song sounds like the band is trying to stay relevant in the 2000s by adding de-tuned guitars, bleeps and boops and whatnot.

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