Thursday 30 April 2015

“I'll go barefoot”

(Originally posted on Wednesday, 23 September 2020)



Unused tailcoat
Leaky coat
Worn shoe

Forgotten shawl
Has holed up in a corner
Not fashionable anymore

Every thing
Dreams about something
Set aside
Still wants
To be fashionable
Before it quietly expires

And only when
God calls
Then I'll bid farewell to
All these things and again
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot

And only when
God calls
Then I'll bid farewell to
All these things and again
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot

Lost somewhere
Umbrella, with it
I'm waiting for the rain

Clock doesn't know how
Without my hands
Should lead its life

In a big pile
They mount
Set aside
Each wants
To be
Taken to the other side

And only when
God calls
Then I'll bid farewell to
All these things and again
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot

And only when
God calls
Then I'll bid farewell to
All these things and again
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot

They'll close the door behind me
I'll go barefoot
I won't take anything
I'll go barefoot
They'll close the door behind me
I'll go barefoot
I won't take anything

And only when
God calls
Then I'll bid farewell to
All these things and again
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot

And only when
God calls
Then I'll bid farewell to
All these things and again
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot
I'll go barefoot

“Water has run”

(Originally posted on Saturday, 10 October 2020)



If only so
My youth would return
It will not return anymore
Because water has run



"Let's enjoy the little things (for in them the formula for happiness is written)"

Here is a beautiful Polish song that features great lyrics:



None of us remembers anymore
How carelessly days went by
We didn't need much
Me and you and not much more
We didn't ask questions
We didn't play games
Today we calculate everything
There's no madness in this, I know
What can we do about it?

Refrain:
We're building our house on sand
Price doesn't matter today
We bought almost everything
But we still have nothing
I want to get my thoughts together again
To hear the beating of our hearts
To see how much happiness in itself
Every little thing hides
Let's enjoy the little things
For in them the formula for happiness is written

There will be sparks between us again
We will find brilliance and charm
We will end the sad shopping
Of artificial, gallery joys
And it will be like before
Let's stop hurrying
Let's start from scratch
From these little things

Refrain:
We're building our house on sand
Price doesn't matter today
We bought almost everything
But we still have nothing
I want to get my thoughts together again
To hear the beating of our hearts
To see how much happiness in itself
Every little thing hides
Let's enjoy the little things
For in them the formula for happiness is written

And it will be like before
Let's stop hurrying
Let's start from scratch
From these little things / x2

Refrain:
We're building our house on sand
Price doesn't matter today
We bought almost everything
But we still have nothing
I want to get my thoughts together again
To hear the beating of our hearts
To see how much happiness in itself
Every little thing hides
Let's enjoy the little things
For in them the formula for happiness is written

Let's enjoy the little things
For in them the formula for happiness is written / x2

(Sunday, 7 February 2016)

Blessed (are) the merciful

(Originally posted on Sunday, 14 February 2021)



Wednesday 29 April 2015

Cool song and true little story

Below there is a song that I got to know only yesterday. To be precise: there are 2 versions of the same song – the first one is from the official music video and the second one is a live version of the song with subtitles in three languages: French, Polish and English. Enjoy!





I heard the song on the radio when I was going to work. I liked it very much already on the first listen and toward the end of the song I felt the need to know the singer and the title of the song. Normally I would remember the most common lyrics phrase and google it later, but this time it was impossible – the song was in French and I don't speak this language at all. How do you remember words that you can't even distinguish?

I decided to record a short movie using my mobile phone to play it to my wife later. She can speak a little French, so I thought maybe she would be able to distinguish some words. And then my splendid plan was ruined – my mobile phone refused to cooperate because when I pressed the “record button” the mobile camera just crashed to desktop. It had happened to me before and I knew that I had to just restart the phone, but there was not enough time to do it. When the song ended the radio hosts didn't mention neither the singer nor the title of the song and I was devastated.

I knew right away that there was nothing I could do. NOTHING! What a terrible feeling. Then a thought occurred to me. It was like this: “If I am meant to learn the singer and the title of the song, then it will happen some other way, beyond my control”. And I pretty much forgot about the song.

The next day after I came back from work and when I was eating dinner my wife started to talk excitedly about a new song that she loved. She told me that the lyrics of the song fit her perfectly and started quoting them in Polish. She was so anxious for me to hear the song that she took her tablet and played it while I was still eating dinner. It turned out to be the same song I heard the day before. Wow.

My wife told me that she heard this song just today, but she, unlike me, knew the singer – they had been talking about Zaz on her French classes some time before and they had been listening to some of Zaz's songs there. That's why she knew Zaz's voice and was able to find the song on the net. But it's still interesting that we both heard the same song one day after the other.

(Wednesday, 20 April 2016)

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Every generation got its own disease






Every generation got its own disease

The more we take the less we give
That's the modern way to live
Someone says live fast die young
But the time runs always faster, son

Diseases come, diseases go
Welcome to the final show
So let's shake hands with plastic gloves
And watch out for the last white doves

And believe me, baby
Every generation got its own disease
I've got mine, so help me please

I think that I'm too young to die
Love that girl and say goodbye
Change the girls like underwear
Using bodies without care
The love has gone and what we've got
Sweet perfume of sex and blood

And believe me, baby
Every generation got its own disease
I've got mine, babe, so help me please


(Saturday, 20 September 2014)

Monday 27 April 2015

The Best of Telemann



My rating: 9/10

My mini-review is for people like me – people who enjoy listening to some “classical music”, but have almost no knowledge about it.

To be precise: Georg Philipp Telemann was a Baroque composer and some people point out that Baroque music should be considered as “early music” rather than classical music.

To me “The Best of Telemann” is a great “album”. I am not a specialist and I don't know how to describe music properly, so I will do it in my own words. To me the music is “warm”, relaxing and enjoyable. Most importantly the music is not “whining” (if you know what I mean) and not depressing – rather the opposite, without being pompous.

I've learned about Georg Philipp Telemann while visiting the city Żary (in Poland). I saw this memorial bench and I got interested.


Then I found many interesting things about Telemann, especially on Wikipedia:

“Georg Philipp Telemann (14 March 1681 – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes.”

“He remained at the forefront of all new musical tendencies and his music is an important link between the late Baroque and early Classical styles.”

“Telemann was the most prolific composer of his time: his oeuvre comprises more than 3,000 pieces. The first accurate estimate of the number of his works was provided by musicologists only during the 1980s and 1990s, when extensive thematic catalogues were published. During his lifetime and the latter half of the 18th century, Telemann was very highly regarded by colleagues and critics alike.”

“Telemann's music was one of the driving forces behind the late Baroque and the early Classical styles. Starting in the 1710s he became one of the creators and foremost exponents of the so-called German mixed style, an amalgam of German, French, Italian and Polish styles. Over the years, his music gradually changed and started incorporating more and more elements of the galant style, but he never completely adopted the ideals of the nascent Classical era: Telemann's style remained contrapuntally and harmonically complex, and already in 1751 he dismissed much contemporary music as too simplistic.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Philipp_Telemann

The same day I ordered the above CD and I am very happy about it.

PS. I've read that some “tracks” on “The Best of Telemann” are just parts of some bigger compositions, but to me it was totally inconsequential. You can read more about it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Telemann-G-P/product-reviews/B00004TQOX/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm/179-5391325-9081501?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00004TQOX/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm/278-1321249-5450513?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

(Monday, 7 December 2015)

“Only Texas has it all”

(Originally posted on Sunday, 6 June 2021)




My favourite parts of the lyrics:

“We're laying down tracks you're never gonna walk in,
Ahead of our time while you were busy watching.
Everybody wants to be a lonestar, a hero,
But only Texas has it all.”

(…)

“It doesn't matter what you say,
We're growing stronger each and every day.
It doesn't matter how we do it,
We came, we saw, we conquered what you couldn't.”

Sunday 26 April 2015

Trumpets and saxophones in modern music

(There is an update at the end of this post - I leave the beginning unchanged.)

Recently I have enjoyed modern music with trumpets or saxophones. On my blog there are already 2 examples of such songs featuring trumpets:

Rewind The Film – a masterpiece
Honouring and remembering regular soldiers

Below there are 3 more examples. The first one is a little old (2011), but I've got to like this song only recently. It has a very strange video and I used to switch a channel every time I saw it. Later I have enjoyed this song on a radio without recognising that it is the same song. Now I realise that there is a trumpet that I enjoy so much. The remaining 2 examples are quite new (2013) and they both feature saxophones. The last one has a strange video too (my wife can’t stand it), but the song is good and the saxophone parts are great.










UPDATE:
I found a new great song featuring saxophone. The video itself is joyful and eye-catching, especially to men. On the other hand the lyrics should be enjoyable rather to women. Anyway, the song is very energetic and the saxophone parts are simply awesome.




(Sunday, 2 March 2014; updated 12 August 2014)

Saturday 25 April 2015

Energetic and positive music videos

Recently I have been regularly watching two music videos that make me feel very positive.

When I look at the first music video I think that it stands in opposition to the lyrics, but it is exactly what makes it so enjoyable. I believe that people living in average communities are generally more happy than people living in high-class communities. Which boils down to the fact that it's not money that makes people happy.




The second video is very fun. Even though the lyrics are about partying (I have never been fond of partying), the song is so energetic that I can let it go and simply enjoy the music.



(Sunday, 27 December 2015)

Friday 24 April 2015

Perfect wave (Perfekte Welle)

I have recalled a great song from 2004. Even though it's in German I like it VERY much. I found a translation into English and the lyrics are great.



Perfect wave

A dream came along with every wave
But dreams pass
Your board is dusty
Your doubts bubble over
You’ve waited your entire life
You’ve hoped that it exists
Almost lost all your faith
And didn’t move at all

Now it’s slowly approaching you
The water hits you in the face
Your life passes by like a movie
You can’t believe that it's gonna break

That’s the perfect wave, that's the perfect day
Just get carried away, don’t think about it at all
That’s the perfect wave, that's the perfect day
There’s more than you know, there’s more than you say

Your hands are already numb
You’ve got salt in your eyes
Between tears and dust
It’s difficult to still have hope
You’ve waited your entire life
Never counted the waves
You didn’t want any of it
Have lived your life way too fast

Now it’s slowly approaching you
The water hits you in the face
Your life passes by like a movie
You can’t believe that it's gonna break

That’s the perfect wave, that's the perfect day
Just get carried away, don’t think about it at all
That’s the perfect wave, that's the perfect day
There’s more than you know, there’s more than you say

You stand right in the storm and shout: I’m here, I’m free!
All I ask for is time. I’m here, I’m free!


I've found the lyrics here:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/perfekte-welle-perfect-wave.html-0

(Saturday, 20 September 2014)

Thursday 23 April 2015

"Dad, where are you?"



(Sunday, 5 January 2014)

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Living on a prayer



(Friday, 16 October 2015)

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Freed from desire

I have just seen a great music video from 1996 – Freed From Desire by Gala (Italian singer). It was a hit in Europe at that time, but I was a teenager then and I didn't realise how great the lyrics really are. Now, after so many years, I must agree that many problems of people come from empty desire.

Below there are also two other singles from 1990s which are still great today. One is All 'Bout The Money (from 1998) by Meja (Swedish singer) and the other one is You Gotta Be (from 1994) by Des'ree (British singer).



My love has got no money
He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no power
He's got his strong beliefs

My love has got no fame
He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no money
He's got his strong beliefs

Want more and more
People just want more and more
Freedom and love
What he's looking for

(…)

Freed from desire
Mind and senses purified
Freed from desire
Mind and senses purified

(…)




Sometimes I find another world inside my mind
When I realise the crazy things we do
It makes me feel ashamed to be alive
It makes me wanna run away and hide

It's all about the money
It's all about the dum dum didudumdum
I don't think it's funny
to see us fade away
It's all about the money
It's all about the dum dum didudumdum
And I think we got it all wrong anyway

We find strange ways of showing them how much we really care
when in fact we just don't seem to care at all
This pretty world is getting out of hand
So tell me how we fail to understand

It's all about the money
(…)




Listen as your day unfolds, challenge what the future holds
Try and keep your head up to the sky
Lovers, they may cause you tears
Go ahead release your fears, stand up and be counted
Don't be ashamed to cry

You gotta be
You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser
You gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger
You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together
All I know, all I know, love will save the day

Herald what your mother said
Read the books your father read
Try to solve the puzzles in your own sweet time
Some may have more cash than you
Others take a different view, my oh my, heh, hey

You gotta be (…)

Life asks no questions, it goes on without you
Leaving you behind if you can't stand the pace
The world keeps on spinning
You can't stop it, if you try to
This time it's danger staring you in the face

(…)

(Saturday, 10 October 2015)

Monday 20 April 2015

The best of Pink

There are 4 songs by Pink I truly LOVE. Because of lyrics – musically she's always great.









(Tuesday, 26 January 2016)

Sunday 19 April 2015

Keep The Faith



(Saturday, 12 March 2016)

Saturday 18 April 2015

Honouring and remembering regular soldiers

Below there is a music video I enjoy very much. About honouring soldiers carrying out orders of their commanders while serving for their country. And about remembering those who have died doing it. Regular soldiers can’t be sure if a war they carry is just or not, but they do what they are told, believing that it is just.

Soldiers fighting in the same wars on different sides, no matter what their sides are, believe in similar things. And I think that they should all be honoured and remembered. They don't proclaim wars and they don't give orders on the grand scale. And they all have their families who mourn them.

I want to, I must and I feel the need to write something about all those revolutions happening around the world, especially about Syria and Ukraine. I don’t state who is “just” and who is not. I only want to state that fallen soldiers from the regime sides of such conflicts should be honoured and remembered too. They lost their lives serving for their country and carrying out orders of their commanders, like regular soldiers should do.



(Sunday, 23 February 2014)

Friday 17 April 2015

Radio Orchid

(Originally posted on Thursday, 26 May 2016)

This is one of the best bitter-sweet songs that I have ever heard.



There's an old lady living in an old house
Since her husband died she hasn't been out
She lives in her own world with her own little nightmares
And she's stopped counting the days

She buys a radio station with her husband's legacy
She does her own show 10 hours a day
Plays poems and listens, lets feelings run free
Helps people talk their pain away

So if your world falls down
Can't see the light of day
Call the lady, call the station today

This is radio orchid, listen and cry
To all the others that suffer and die
This is radio orchid, listen and cry
Take your lonely heart and let it fly

Sending her message, she's solving the problems
Of millions and millions and who solves hers
The old lady gets older, still lives in her old house
But when she dies, we'll all live alone

So if your world falls down
Can't see the light of day
Call the lady, call the station today

This is radio orchid, listen and cry
To all the others that suffer and die
This is radio orchid, listen and cry
Take your lonely heart and let it fly

Take your lonely heart and let it fly

So if your world falls down
Can't see the light of day
Call the lady, call the station today

This is radio orchid, listen and cry
To all the others that suffer and die
This is radio orchid, listen and cry
Take your lonely heart and let it fly

Take your lonely heart

Thursday 16 April 2015

"We'll go"

(Originally posted on Sunday, 7 August 2016)

Wednesday 15 April 2015

A different kind of renegade

(Originally posted on Saturday, 10 September 2016)

Below there is a lyric-video for the song Renegades by X Ambassadors. By the way, I have no idea what this band is like and I don't really care – this very one song is all that matters to me.

I needed some time to fully appreciate the song because I am a lawful person and I didn't like the lyrics referring to rebels, mutineers and outlaws. However, over time, I realised that in the future ALL the free-thinking people (ALL OVER the world) may be called rebels, mutineers and outlaws.

Already the madness of political-correctness uses the over-interpreted term “hate-speech”, even when people are just stating their personal opinions ABOUT THEIR OWN FEELINGS (not about facts that can be verified in any way). Such an opinion should NOT be considered a crime because it is just a result of the calculations made by a human brain. My own opinions that are based on my own feelings are my own business and I will never stop saying them aloud. This way, in the future, without changing my behaviour at all, I may become a renegade, just a different kind of renegade.



PS. I think this lyric-video is a fan-made video because I had seen it much earlier on a different Youtube account. It seems that the band made this video their own lyric-video only after some time. It would explain why the lyrics are not perfect in this “official” lyric-video.

By the way: some Internet sites (including Google Play Music) give lyrics that in my opinion are wrong: “Spielberg's and Kubrick's” – they don't make any sense. The lyrics in the lyric-video above (“Spielbergs and Kubricks”) are correct – they mean “(all hail) people like Spielberg and (all hail) people like Kubrick” (the noun “people” is a plural noun and so are the nouns “Spielbergs” and “Kubricks”).

Tuesday 14 April 2015

„That something” in Polish women

(Originally posted on Friday, 23 September 2016)

Recently I saw (again) a music video from 2010 (the first video below) that made me think about “that something” that can be seen in many women from Poland. Something that defies description.

When I was watching this video for the first time (several years ago) I got utterly confused. On one hand everything seemed to be of foreign origin too me – a girl was singing in English, the DJ and the other guy had T-shirts with English texts on them and the setting seemed a little foreign too. On the other hand some voice inside my head was screaming “These girls are from Poland!”



Later I learned that yes, they come from Poland. All of them. The DJ created his pseudonym C-Bool after his Polish surname Cebula (the word “cebula” means “onion” in Polish), the singer is definitely a Pole and the other girl (the one who is dancing) is almost certainly a Pole too (I have found absolutely no info about her, so she is definitely not famous). By the way, I was also right about the setting – the video was shot not in Poland, but in Germany (in Berlin).

There is no universal Polish type of beauty and obviously some of the Polish women are more pretty than the others, but most of them have “that something”. The recent music video released by C-Bool (the one below) shows a totally different girl than the girls in the first video, but she’s eye-catching too. She’s almost certainly a Pole, because the video was shot in Poland (in Wrocław – the city I spent my college years in). I have found absolutely no info about her, so she is definitely not famous either. By the way, the girl singing (not shown in the video) is not a Pole, but a Vietnamese.



I have to mention that Manic Street Preachers (a band from Wales, my favourite music band) seem to appreciate the Polish type of beauty too because they included some pictures of a Polish-American girl in the official CD booklet for their 8th studio album Send Away The Tigers.




When I was looking at the pictures for the first time I had the same, odd feeling about this girl, as I had about the girls from the first video. There was “that something” in her. When I learned that she was a Pole (or a Polish-American girl – the info about her is very scarce) on one hand I couldn’t believe it, but on the other hand it was like: “Hey, it explains why I was staring at her pictures this way!”

PS. Below there is a link about Polish women with a fragment that made me laugh:

Is it true that Polish women are more attractive than women from other countries?
(…)
– I think the thing is there are more attractive ones per 100 women than in other countries. If that makes any sense.
     – This is actually a real concept. It's called a percentage.

https://www.reddit.com/r/poland/comments/1mmufj/is_it_true_that_polish_women_are_more_attractive/

Monday 13 April 2015

Summer Jam (the original cool version)

(Originally posted on Thursday, 13 October 2016)



Sunday 12 April 2015

This is fantastic!

(Originally posted on Tuesday, 25 October 2016)

The combination of the images, the lyrics and the music is simply fantastic!



Saturday 11 April 2015

Two energizing songs

(Originally posted on Saturday, 28 January 2017)

Recently I have recollected two very energizing songs and I have been playing them over and over again. The first one is from 2011 and the second one is from 2014. Over time neither of the songs has lost its appeal.







Friday 10 April 2015

Several great songs

(Originally posted on Friday, 11 August 2017)

There are several great songs with very good music vidoes that I would like to share. Here are the things that I like about them the most:

1. Wise lyrics and cool guitar solo toward the end of the song.




2. Cool bits of Irish folk music and fun acting performance of Saoirse Ronan.



3. Interesting pharase “Don't let this be our final song” and cool
“oh-oh-oh” motive.



4. Fantastic “ooh-ooh-ooh” motive.



5. Trumpets and similar instruments together with pretty women from Poland.



6. Energetic song featuring Demi Lovato, who at that time looked … um … less troubled.




7. Beautiful song that was used in one of the episodes of the sitcom Scrubs.




Thursday 9 April 2015

What if I say I will never surrender?

(Originally posted on Sunday, 5 November 2017)

I can't believe that I didn't fall in love with this song (The Pretender by Foo Fighters) earlier. The main reason was probably that I didn't read the lyrics and I had trouble to understand them by ear. The lyrics can be interpreted in many different ways (any way that suits you) and the refrain is simply awesome:

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one
of your plays? You're the pretender!
What if I say I will never surrender?


The first video below features full lyrics of the song. The second video is the official music video (it makes much more sense to me now). The last video is a cover of this song by a female music band (of real sisters) – awesome performance by all of them!







Wednesday 8 April 2015

This album is PURE GOLD

(Originally posted on Friday, 16 February 2018)

“This album is PURE GOLD.” I have to say that I fully agree with this opinion. I found the opinion among the comments to this Youtube video:



How lyrics (right-click and “open in a new tab/window”):



The song (How) comes from a debut studio album by The Cranberries titled "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" that was released in 1993. The song was never a single, but I love it as much as I love the song Wanted (from the same album):



Wanted lyrics (right-click and “open in a new tab/window”):



The recent death of Dolores O'Riordan (the female singer of the band) and the opinion above made me want to own the whole album (previously I heard only some of the songs). Originally this album featured 12 songs, but it was later re-released with 6 bonus tracks from the years 1991-1993 (4 additional songs and 2 remixes) that fit the original album perfectly. I have just bought this extended edition:



The best thing about this album is the fact that it was released before Dolores O'Riordan developed a less natural image (like in the music videos for the singles from their second album) that combined with a change in the band's music (the second album is darker and harsher). The first album ("Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?") may be melancholic but it is also beautiful and very melodic. PURE GOLD.

Rest in peace Dolores.

Tuesday 7 April 2015

There She Goes (a great song from the 1980s and the 1990s)

(Originally posted on Sunday, 10 March 2019)

The first video below combines the song There She Goes with the film Aliens, which is just hilarious.


The version of the song used in the video above (performed by Sixpence None The Richer) is actually not the original version, but a cover (I've just learned about it). Below there is the original version of the song, performed by the La's. It's actually the second music video for this song – the first one, recorded in 1988, was of very bad quality.


Monday 6 April 2015

The Force Awakens OST review

(Originally posted on Monday, 1 June 2020; updated on 12 August 2020)

OST means Original Soundtrack, which is also called a film score or simply a score.



My rating: 8/10




The Force Awakens Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (this is the official name of the CD) is the first Star Wars OST that I have ever bought or even listened to in full. Interestingly I decided to buy a Star Wars OST after listening to the end credits of Attack of the Clones and noticing how beautiful the track Across the Stars is. I have to thank my little son for this – he is too little to watch Revenge of the Sith, so he keeps asking for Attack of the Clones and watches it till the end of the end credits. Anyway, that was when I decided to buy a CD with the music from Star Wars.

I ordered the CD “Music From The Star Wars Saga - The Essential Collection” with the best tracks from the episodes I through VIII (featuring Across the Stars, obviously). However this is NOT an OST, but a re-recording done by a different symphony. I'm still waiting for this CD, so I can't review it right now. For some reason I still felt the need to have a Star Wars OST conducted by John Williams himself, so I decided to buy another CD, this time from a single movie.

As the best tracks were not crucial to me (because I would have them anyway in the above mentioned collection), I concentrated on the overall composition, especially the “character of music”. To judge it I listened to the samples of most of the tracks from all the Star Wars movies that can be found on some sites selling digital music.

The biggest problem to me was the fact that most of the Star Wars OST featured significant number of tracks that were either too pompous/
/bombastic/grandiose or too menacing/stressful. I prefer listening to uplifting music that features few “heavy” instruments. This problem is connected with another problem – all of the Star Wars OST had some very big differences in volumes of the music between the loudest and the quietest tracks. I hate that. Sure, there have to be some differences, but when one track is deafening and another is barely audible then it's NOT good.

I chose The Force Awakens OST simply because the problems mentioned above were least pronounced AND at the same time the music felt rather “warm” and uplifting. It was not too pompous/
/bombastic/grandiose, but it was also not boring. A perfect combination to me.

My hopes came true when I listened to The Force Awakens OST in full for the first time. I liked it very much from the very first listen! There are some awesome tracks, very good ones, good ones, a few average ones and only one weak one. Here are my ratings for all tracks (in the brackets there are numbers showing the order of the tracks on the CD):

Tracks rated 10/10:
Rey’s Theme (6), March of the Resistance (16), The Jedi Steps and Finale (23)

Tracks rated 9/10:
The Scavenger (2), Farewell and The Trip (22)

Tracks rated 8/10:
I Can Fly Anything (3), Follow Me (5), The Falcon (7), Finn’s Confession (10), Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle (13), Han and Leia (15), Torn Apart (19), Scherzo for X-Wings (21)

Tracks rated 7/10:
Main Title and The Attack on the Jakku Village (1), The Rathtars! (9), The Starkiller (12), The Abduction (14), On the Inside (18), The Ways of the Force (20)

Tracks rated 6/10:
Rey Meets BB-8 (4), That Girl with the Staff (8)

Tracks rated 5/10:
Maz’s Counsel (11)

Tracks rated 3/10:
Snoke (17)


UPDATE:

Music From The Star Wars Saga - The Essential Collection (mentioned above) is very good (9/10). All the iconic Star Wars tracks on one CD! The fact that it is a re-recording done by a different symphony is a double-edge sword to me. In my opinion some tracks are actually better because they are less “noisy” OR the sound volume is more even (volume differences in particular tracks are not as big as in original ones). The track that instantly comes to my mind is Dual of the Fates – I find the original one actually annoying, but I love the re-recorded version on this CD. On the other hand some tracks are somewhat weaker, especially Across the Stars, but it's hard to describe why.

Interestingly one of the best tracks on this CD are the best tracks from the Force Awakens OST: Rey’s Theme and March of the Resistance! Yes the Force Awakens OST is THAT good! But I am still glad that I bought Music From The Star Wars Saga - The Essential Collection because of all the other iconic Star Wars tracks that it contains!

Sunday 5 April 2015

Great old music

(Originally posted on Saturday, 15 August 2020)

While I was looking for old medieval folk music I found this great video with beautiful pictures:


Here's another great compilation:


By the way I somehow found this fantastic video:


It inspired me to find some other REAL sea shanties. Nowadays the phrases “sea shanty” and “sea shanties” are used to describe all music connected with sea and seamen, HOWEVER the real sea shanties were sung without ANY musical instruments, because they were sung DURING WORK on a sea-ship – one sailor sang a short fragment and then the rest responded and/or repeated the same fragment. Because the real sea shanties were purely “work songs” they were relatively simple and had a steady rhythm. Here is the best example I could find:


Somebody wrote a comment to the last video that made me smile: “I'm sure I was a sailor in an earlier life.”