Shuffle Me

Took a page from Adam's old blogs and decided to a 10 song shuffle w/ commentary:


Ryan Adams & the Cardinals- Sweet Illusions from Cold Roses.
A decent start to the shuffle. Love the slide guitar in this song and the subtle female backing vocals in the chorus. Adams has a great voice and excellent song writing ability. This is a perfect example of his craft.


Las Savy Fav- The Year Before the Year 2000 from Let's Stay Friends.
Awesome, quick paced drum beat... its sounds hurried, almost rushed. And the chorus drum beat is pretty sweet too. "19-99! 1999 is allright!" Awesome!


Death Cab for Cutie- Little Fury Bugs from We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes.
My favorite Death Cab album and a great song. Seems a little weird after hearing the quick paced and aggressive track before it. I like the drums coming in toward the last third of the song. Pretty minimal, but interesting and appropriate. Yeah, I love this song.


Serj Tankian- Saving Us from Elect the Dead.
The lead singer of System of a Down's first solo effort. Honestly, it sounds like System without the crazy arrangements and whatnot... which is what I loved about System. The chanting bridge section is sorta cool, but then it goes into a faster drum beat (that predictably leads to a half time breakdown) that isn't nearly as cool as similar drum parts with System. This is why I don't listen to this record ever.


The Hold Steady- Massive Nights from A Positive Rage.
A pretty cool live version of a great song. But as with the rest of this album, I'd sorta rather just listen to the album version. The backing vocals, which are all over this song, sound pretty good for being live. B3 organs are cool.


Led Zeppelin- Four Sticks from IV.
With the amount of Zep I have in my iTunes, it seems pretty fitting that they'd show up here. Great drums (big surprise) with a cool tom beat accented by a continuos hi-hat keeping the groove. The open, clean sounding guitar and drum accents throughout are also very cool. A good example of Plant being an awesome vocalist, especially through the fade out at the end. And also a display of John Paul Jones' under-rated and very cool keyboard playing.


Saves the Day- Lonely Nights from Under the Boards.
I've been listening to a good amount of this band lately. Really love them. Great pop melodies with subtle and interesting parts. The vocals are really high and upfront in this song, and I really enjoy it. Love the middle section where the piano and guitar almost battle for the melody line. When the bass and drums come in, it comes together very interestingly.


Ryan Adams- Call Me on Your Way Back Home from Heartbreaker.
{Skipped because I didn't want two from the same artist.}


Neutral Milk Hotel The Fool from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
What a great intro. Loving the horns and the 3/4 waltz style beat. Short song though. Really want the next track on the album.


Robert Plant & Allison Krause Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us from Raising Sand.
Actually a nice song to follow The Fool. Krause's voice is hypnotizing and the music with the light yukelale (I think?) strums making it sound like a gypsies camp fire. Plant takes a nice back seat in this song just adding light Plant style flairs (see: Four Sticks), but without the usual over-the-topness.


Imogean Heap Have Got it In You from Speak for Yourself.
Interesting intro. Cool use of digital delay on a keyboard (I think?). Her voice is very interesting and unique. There's a ton of layers as this song begins to kick in and I really enjoy the attention to detail. For example, there's a quiet triangle part that really sounds cool. And her signature use of multiple vocal tracks, which sometimes sound like an instrument themselves, are very clever. I'm not a huge fan of the drum beat, as it seems a little too simple... but I don't hate it enough to dislike the track. Good use of stings towards the end.


Overall, a good shuffle. Nothing came on that I instantly wanted to skip and only one song that I didn't really enjoy.