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Movie music:

2 pieces come to mind:

The first is Pan's Labyrinth's Lullaby...the ending was so sad, torn between a desire for the story to be a dream and yet, reality deems otherwise.

The other is Brokeback Mountain's love theme...I've never loved a country-styled song as much...

Edited by glowingember

After all, tomorrow is another day. ~ S O'Hara

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I love the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack. I even have the theme remixes which I remembered buying from a Tower Records when I was in the US and the movie was all the rage! Here is the Gabriel & Dresden Remix. I also had "The Wings" theme music as my handphone's ringtone once :) haha. The movie was par excellent, tragic, romantic and totally heart wrenching.

Also from Air Playground Love from the movie Virgin Suicides. Love the book, look the movie, look the soundtrack too! Another beautiful tragedy....the story of our lives!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wGzJBtLsjo

Only to lie like this between the bombs, dreaming away and not alone, because time was very short.

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I love the ting tings....

LOVE the Ting Tings too!!!...Went for their concert before at Fort Canning Park. Awesome show! Can't wait for their new album. They are totally original and kick ass!

Only to lie like this between the bombs, dreaming away and not alone, because time was very short.

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Because of some personal issues, I actually ran away from home after NS, for 16months. Guess where?

Was in New York. Was doing a part time job here. Met Rebecca and her NYC hubby who planned to return to States. She loved me like a young brother, so she took me along. Through them, I applied as student pass permit, but was working happily in their restaurant. But when the time was ripe, and I felt I needed to be strong to face the music back home here.

So I bid them farewell, and came back.here once more, to face the music bravely.

Thus no more running away.

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I like Soul Asylum! :)

For me, I used to listen to Mary Lou Lord's album Got No Shadow in my Discman on my way from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi where I was spending a good part of my army days in an overseas attachment.

If she had married Kurt, maybe he would not have killed himself. Instead, he married Courtney.

I think it was written somewhere dat Mary wrote this song for him.

The indie girls of the 90s were so cool! Love them!

Edited by PaterTenebrarum
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Ting Tings!!!

They sound so 80s...My fave is We Walk...a very liberating song..and Jules De Martino is pretty cute too. :)

@Pater - Death Chick is very fun. I like.

Virgin Suicides was a strange movie to me...Air's music suited the movie very well.

After all, tomorrow is another day. ~ S O'Hara

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Hey Pater, Jane Siberry and The Lightning Seeds were brought up before. Both much loved by me too. I noticed that those born in the 70s grew up listening to all sorts of music (I think there is a separate thread discussing this topic).

But let's return to the present and I'd like to just share Beirut's latest album which I have just downloaded called The Rip Tide. Beirut was recommended before in this thread. I'm thoroughly enjoying this new offering from them. Beirut's lead vocals reminded me so much of GusGus, though both music styles and sounds are worlds apart. Take a listen to both of them and tell me what you think.

Only to lie like this between the bombs, dreaming away and not alone, because time was very short.

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Feels strange introducing Faye Wong here. But I find her pretty alternative.

This is a cover of Sophie Zelmani's Going Home.

I remember hearing Faye's version one evening in my friend's car before he was sent overseas.

He was driving and I looked at him with the streetlights flashing by, and the song was so apt then.

After all, tomorrow is another day. ~ S O'Hara

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Still on the topic of covers, I think it's perfectly fine if an artist takes somebody else's song and makes it his/her own. But F Wong, imho did not make them, her own.

For example, her cover of bluebeard is almost identical to the original! Ditto for Rilkean Heart cos CT did make an acoustic version of it.

I think i's ok to cover one or two songs but when you cover a whole lot of songs by other people, record them on albums and some of the songs you are best known for are covers....well....

Forgive me for ranting, eh? Not getting personal, so FW fans, you shld know that. If u feel angered by wot I said then mea culpa.

Two great covers which I think were excellent.

Tori Amos doing Total Eclipse of the Heart.

And these dudes doing a cover of Albert Niland's cover of Kate B's Wuthering Heights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5riBf-irZuQ

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Heh! Inspired. Not covers.

To each his own, eh?

I think she's a ripoff. But her fans may disagree....

I remember times when I played C. Twins and guys would say: "Wow! I didnt know an Ang Moh group covers FW." AARGGGHHHH!!! :D

Hey Pater! I'm a HUGE and AVID fan of Faye Wong....YES she has covered some Cocteau Twins songs...BTW I'm an even HUGER and more AVID Cocteau Twins fan....but you will be surprised to know that in Faye's 1996 album Restless, Cocteau Twins actually wrote 2 songs for her. Check out Fracture and Repressing Happiness, totally cool and awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0_lZ7ZYdtg

Faye also lent her vocals on Serpentskirt on the classic and fantastic Milk and Kisses album.

Only to lie like this between the bombs, dreaming away and not alone, because time was very short.

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The wuthering heghts done by guys are quite refreshing...it's a difficult song to sing.

My fave Tori songs...

First is iieee...it seems to be about her miscarriage...not too sure from the lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vi3U_dNMbM

The other is Me and A Gun. A chilling song about rape...especially the parts where the victim's thinking of prayers while being raped and unusual things people think about in difficult situations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw5z3OfsKd0

Edited by glowingember

After all, tomorrow is another day. ~ S O'Hara

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I though Spark was the song abt her miscarriage?

I like a lot of Tori songs but my fave are these:

You are very right. Spark was written about her three times miscarriage.

This is an interview on her where she openly talks about such 'taboo' and bravely faces her pain. The beautiful part was 'I counldn't bring them to live, so I give them life thru a song...." something like that. Absolutely breathtaking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1tr8LLl6qM

Tori's songs are very personal to me. They were like wisdom that guided me through my own hours of darkness. More or less, our lives were abit parallel.

Crucify - religious persecution I faced in a all boys Christian school

Me and a Gun - me as a survivor of two brutual rapes

Silent all these Years - the betrays you face from people you trust until you almost lost your mind and soul

Leather - Many disappointing setbacks in many of my ONS

Flying Dutchman - when the world dont understand you and still wanna tear you apart, you got to trust your inner strenght

Pretty Good Year - for a friend/s who lost himself/themselves to drugs

Tear in your Hand - the pain and disappointment you face when your love one walked out of you for someone, for more stupid

superficial reasons ( he is got more money and a car !!)

Frog on my toe - moments when I miss a departed friend. They were moments describing a sucidal phrase I went through

Honey - feels like the pain when you rush but too late, as you witness your own friend, jump out from his window..sucide

Mother - lost spirits lost souls which I can commnuicate and feel when I am chanelling

Winter - when someone cant make up his mind and procratinate about things that affects your relationship.

Waitress - feel like killing your stupid incompetent boss

Past the Mission - If only Christians stop believe everything about the bible. They don't even know Jesus went to India

for 18 years

Not the Red baron - somehow I relate it Lady Diana's death...

Indian Summer - moments when you feel connected to Mother Earth. Esp when I toured in one summer in the countryside of Europe

Twinkle - the saddess I feel inside when saw the poverty in India/ a blind beggar boy who have to sing to beg for money

with a bowl in his hand

A Thousand Ocean - a deep regret. I did something that indirectly unknowningly, killed my best friend. Nothing can bring him

anymore.

China - those days when you desperately tried to salvage a relationship that has lost that passion.

Little EarthQuakes - hate those hypocritical politicians. Everytime they set a ruling, they dont care how it affects the

lives of million. Somehow, deep in my unconscious memory, got this feeling I was many times a witch in

my past lives and was burnt by those Christians at the stake !!

Cornflake Girl - when all fairytales becomes a big nightmare. Its like when you are you are in a dream, you are tormented

by Snow White and Sleeping Beauty

And for the rest of other artists' works, her rendition is so different. transforming all their songs into another dimensions

Perfectly haunting, like if you can be so high on her songs..without taking drugs !

Yes saw her live before.

Btw..I think Faye Wong and Bjork...are just crappy . They are just trash to me.

Edited by TheVisitors
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AHHH....Tori Amos....anybody remembers her other classics? Caught A Lite Sneeze and Professional Widow? Other than her Cornflake Girl and Silent All These Years of course....LOVE LOVE LOVE HER!!!

Only to lie like this between the bombs, dreaming away and not alone, because time was very short.

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You are very right. Spark was written about her three times miscarriage.

This is an interview on her where she openly talks about such 'taboo' and bravely faces her pain. The beautiful part was 'I counldn't bring them to live, so I give them life thru a song...." something like that. Absolutely breathtaking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1tr8LLl6qM

Tori's songs are very personal to me. They were like wisdom that guided me through my own hours of darkness. More or less, our lives were abit parallel.

Crucify - religious persecution I faced in a all boys Christian school

Me and a Gun - me as a survivor of two brutual rapes

Silent all these Years - the betrays you face from people you trust until you almost lost your mind and soul

Leather - Many disappointing setbacks in many of my ONS

Flying Dutchman - when the world dont understand you and still wanna tear you apart, you got to trust your inner strenght

Pretty Good Year - for a friend/s who lost himself/themselves to drugs

Tear in your Hand - the pain and disappointment you face when your love one walked out of you for someone, for more stupid

superficial reasons ( he is got more money and a car !!)

Frog on my toe - moments when I miss a departed friend. They were moments describing a sucidal phrase I went through

Honey - feels like the pain when you rush but too late, as you witness your own friend, jump out from his window..sucide

Mother - lost spirits lost souls which I can commnuicate and feel when I am chanelling

Winter - when someone cant make up his mind and procratinate about things that affects your relationship.

Waitress - feel like killing your stupid incompetent boss

Past the Mission - If only Christians stop believe everything about the bible. They don't even know Jesus went to India

for 18 years

Not the Red baron - somehow I relate it Lady Diana's death...

Indian Summer - moments when you feel connected to Mother Earth. Esp when I toured in one summer in the countryside of Europe

Twinkle - the saddess I feel inside when saw the poverty in India/ a blind beggar boy who have to sing to beg for money

with a bowl in his hand

A Thousand Ocean - a deep regret. I did something that indirectly unknowningly, killed my best friend. Nothing can bring him

anymore.

China - those days when you desperately tried to salvage a relationship that has lost that passion.

Little EarthQuakes - hate those hypocritical politicians. Everytime they set a ruling, they dont care how it affects the

lives of million. Somehow, deep in my unconscious memory, got this feeling I was many times a witch in

my past lives and was burnt by those Christians at the stake !!

Cornflake Girl - when all fairytales becomes a big nightmare. Its like when you are you are in a dream, you are tormented

by Snow White and Sleeping Beauty

And for the rest of other artists' works, her rendition is so different. transforming all their songs into another dimensions

Perfectly haunting, like if you can be so high on her songs..without taking drugs !

Yes saw her live before.

Btw..I think Faye Wong and Bjork...are just crappy . They are just trash to me.

Heheh! Bjork can be annoying and F W is unoriginal but many think she's some musical genius.

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Heheh! Bjork can be annoying and F W is unoriginal but many think she's some musical genius.

Bjork looks and sounds like some demented elf. Always suspected she wasn't normal, until she proved my suspicion right when she attacked the reporters some years ago.

Faye Wong? She is in between a parrot and a copycat. The Queen of the Most Unoriginal. Sure, in Asia she will be worshipped. But if the west, she will be mocked for being very unoriginal. I can't even stand The Cranberrys or Strawberrys(?)

When she mimicked their singing style, I really wanted to choke her with a bagful of my own fart .

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Wow.

Tori Amos' music means a lot to you.

The friend who introduced Little Earthquakes to me also felt very strongly to the album and he could relate to every track, but the one that struck me was still Me and a gun.

The track that had me biting my nails was Strange Little Girls' 97 Bonnie and Clyde.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7YxrYKQBP8

Faye Wong and Bjork - There will be differing opinions on whether they are genius or nuisance - and that's the beauty of music appreciation. To some people, alternative music itself is too out there to be appreciated but it doesn't matter as it is about personal connection too.

After all, tomorrow is another day. ~ S O'Hara

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First is iieee...it seems to be about her miscarriage...not too sure from the lyrics

iieee is among my top favorites too.

I though Spark was the song abt her miscarriage?

The acknowledged-and-known miscarriage songs are Sparks and Playboy Mommy.

There's this Tori website which forum I used to hang around for quite some time years back. The website also collected official information about songs, and it seems to imply partly that, yes, iieee is possibly about miscarriage too.

http://www.yessaid.com/talk/6iieee.html

I'm usually not a hip-hop fan,

but this one grows on me,

and it's climbing up the UK singles chart as we speak.

Your non-typical alternative?

For one, it has melody and not just beats; may help us to relate to the song better.

My favorite hip-hop artist is still Kanye West. His second album impressed me, and I digged back to his past works and has since followed his career. Also, the way he re-appropriated songs from Chaka Khan, Shirley Bassey, and Daft Punk into his own works, imo, beat the originals.

Kanye West is one rare case of mainstream rap acts who are willing to experiment with stylistic diversity. He got a big ego, but he can back it up.

“Do not take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.” — Elbert Hubbard

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I have close to zero knowledge of Faye Wong's music. Some listens to the songs posted on this thread tells me that I'm impressed with some and found some others not to be my liking; so I'll refrain from commenting much on her.

Bjork, on the other hand, is an artist that constructs an alternate landscape of her own making. It is, of course, to her conscious choice to detach her music from the realities of our world that annoyed many people to no end. I remember the first time hearing Bjork ("Oceania"), and I swore it's the most horrible crap I've ever chanced upon; gets turned off by her for a few years until I decided to give her another try and, for once and all, I begin to get her. Only when a listener has agreed to wander into Bjork's fantasies that the colors and joy of her works unravel.

I have trouble deciding what I like most about Bjork:

- Her lyrics always frames her subjects with a fresh new angle, which I once saw described by a web critic as "providing a pseudo-naive look on complex things and trying to make them look simple by writing complex lyrics about them". Her first single, 'Human Behavior' is a clear example of this.

- Her songwriting bends the rule of traditional songwriting. It's never easy to predict what comes next because she doesn't abide to conventional song structures. But while there are no clearly-defined structure, in some respect Bjork has glued it into intriguing set of melodies. With 'Hyperballad' and 'Venus As A Boy', for example, you cannot pinpoint the exact magic where the hooks live, but those refrains are so goddamn catchy you can hardly be bothered at all.

- Her arrangement is colorful. Even when she stays on one particular color (e.g. Vespertine), like a good musician, she pulls out various shades out of her hat. Music box, splashed with digital crackles and scratches, pinned under the recorded sound of people walking in ice, etc. Granted, this sort of creativity is not unprecedented or without peers, but Bjork never surrenders to the most obvious choice of arrangements.

- Her voice bursts, fades from roars to angelic coos like a good jazz instrument; and as the instrumentalist of her vocal cord, she has complete mastery of it. It phrases a persona that commands for your attention. Likewise for her phrasing, which she uses integrally to accentuate certain parts of her songs.

It's tempting to argue that she's not original. I don't know about that. But even if she doesn't innovate new sounds/techniques, she does warp her influences into something unparalleled and completely of her own... at least until Kate Bush and Richard D. James decide to copulate and raise a child together.

“Do not take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.” — Elbert Hubbard

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Anyone ever heard of singer/songwriter/violinist Andrew Bird? Awesome artist who is signed under Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe label... his music style is basically baroque pop, with blends of jazz, folk, Latin, rock, and even tinges of gospel.

His poppier stuff, like the above video, is most accessible (and imo, best too), but if you are keen to see his classically-influenced violin in work, the below video may give you a taste of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O16jFToYosQ

“Do not take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.” — Elbert Hubbard

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Anyone ever heard of singer/songwriter/violinist Andrew Bird? Awesome artist who is signed under Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe label... his music style is basically baroque pop, with blends of jazz, folk, Latin, rock, and even tinges of gospel.

His poppier stuff, like the above video, is most accessible (and imo, best too), but if you are keen to see his classically-influenced violin in work, the below video may give you a taste of it:

Never heard of Andrew Bird....heard of Angry Birds though....haha...lame joke :lol: but such a big difference from the first very hip and retro song which I like to the next violin piece. Also he looks quite dishy too. Definitely his poppier stuff me like.

Back to alternative, on female singers and cover versions, this is one by Kahimi Karie with Otomo Yoshihide covering Jim O'Rourke's beautiful Eureka in French.

KAHIMI KARIE!!! And I thought I'm the ONLY person who loves her. She is the pioneer of the ultra-girly breathless voice that so many are trying to imitate now. She tried to break into the US market once but failed unfortunately. Think she is still active in Japan. But I'm such a big fan, I have quite a few of her CDs. Listen to Candyman and you'll know what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ebYM5wGmo

Frente with the song from the Pebbles and BamBam show (I think. Correct me if Im wrong)

OMG!! FRENTE!! Whatever happened to them??!! I still have that ONE album of theirs and I remember a gift CD single of theirs when they came to perform at Tower Records in Singapore many many years ago which I saw. Thanks for bringing them up....brought back such wonderful memories of my youth. Here's my fave song from them Labour Of Love.

Only to lie like this between the bombs, dreaming away and not alone, because time was very short.

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And Gothic Archies! I <3 Stephen Merritt and I <3 bubblegum.

This is my fave Magnetic Fields song but I don't think it's sung by Stephen. But still it's a typical Magnetic Fields, tender yet sidesplitting -- "Now that you've made me want to die, you tell me you're unboyfriendable". Haha

And Chewy Chey by Ohio Express to brighten everyone's day :)

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@teeshirt

Grease!!!! I've watched it at least 10 times. From cinemas to TV to dvd. I can even sing the strange sound-words in We Go Together. :D

Movie music- I like this opening of the film 20 Centimeters about a prostitute solving his/her penis problem to be a woman. I particularly like the camerawork that syncs so well with the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6VzXQdOfrs

After all, tomorrow is another day. ~ S O'Hara

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