Rec Request: Music

[forestofglory]

I'm not very musical. I have an auditory processing disorder and I've always kinda treated music as some kind of sound emotion magic that doesn't really work on me. When I was younger people used to ask me what type of music I listened to and I would embarrassedly mumble that I didn't. Thankfully no one had asked me that in a while.

However I've in the last several years I've made friends with other people with auditory processing problems who listen to music and it's made me wonder if I could enjoy that too. I want to learn more about music, so I'm doing a project.

Every day for the month of June I'm going to listen to a new song. And as I have very little idea of what I like I’m asking all of you to please recommend some music you enjoy. It can be anything. I’m trying to learn and experience new things! If you can please write a bit about why you like the song or what it means to you -- I find it easier to engage with music when I have some context for it.

I know listening 30 songs isn’t going to make up for all my unmusical years but hopefully I will find some things that I like, and some things to explore further.

Comments

[worlds_of_smoke]

People with APD unite! -offers fistbump-

I have such a wide music taste that I'm not sure what to recommend. XD But I can tell you what I like about music to help narrow down what you might like?

[forestofglory]

yay! -accepts fistbump-

Thank you! Reading a bit about why you like music would be super helpful!

[worlds_of_smoke]

The short version is pick out the parts you can focus on, the ones that make sense. I tend to focus on things like the bass line in Marilyn Manson songs or the piano and supporting strings in Tori Amos songs or how Layne and Jerry's voices harmonize in Alice in Chains songs. I mean, my most favorite lyric of all time is my favorite is because of how it's delivered. I'm eventually going to get the lyrics tattooed on my arm whenever I can decide on a font, because the lyrics are gorgeous too. But it's the delivery that gets me. The rhythm just makes my spine shiver in a good way. I won't link up the video because the story of the video is centered around the lead singer considering suicide on the edge of a bridge, but it's part of the chorus of "Silver and Cold" by AFI ("As a rapturous voice escapes, I will tremble a prayer and beg for forgiveness") if you're interested in looking it up.

I also got to a point where I was just... okay with misunderstanding lyrics. I mean, people do it all the time. There are bands that I've been listening to for decades and, when I look up the lyrics, I go "holy fuck, I have that so fucking wrong." XD But being okay with misunderstanding lyrics only goes so far. I won't listen to music where there's absolutely no chance for me to at least semi-understand the lyrics without looking them up. So a lot of heavy metal with Cookie Monster singing is just not my thing.

If you're not okay with messing up the lyrics, listening to the song along with reading the lyrics online helps them click so much better. You may need to do it a couple times for it to stick, but it definitely helps things out!

Also, headphones are a GODSEND, especially if they are good at blocking out surrounding sound.

[forestofglory]

This is so helpful, thank you!

[worlds_of_smoke]

Not a problem at all! :) Music is kind of my life, so if I can help someone learn to like it, I'm happy to help.

Another thing that might help is to just let the music be in the background. I almost always have music going unless Jenn is in the room watching TV or I'm having a particularly bad pain/brain day and it just feels like too much input. (If that even remotely makes sense. XD) Trying to focus on the music might lead to being overwhelmed by input.

Also, you might want to start out with soft music without a lot of distortion or complicated instrumental parts. I love metal, but it's not something that I would necessarily recommend to people just getting into music if they have APD because the guitars might come off as noise and overwhelm your brain. In fact, I often avoid metal if it's a bad pain/brain/mental health day, simply because of the extra input that comes with distorted guitars and all that is a bit too much, even if I know the lyrics by heart. It takes up too many spoons when there's that much input.

As far as actual recommendations go, this just came up on my music player. :)

[forestofglory]

Thank you again! (Also that song is beautiful)

[isis]

I am a big fan of folk-ish music in languages I don't understand! I expect I have the largest collection of Polish sea chanteys in Colorado. :-) I think a lot of it is that the vocals become just another instrument.

Here's a song that I've liked for a long time, Lihiyot (To Be)/So Far by Habanot Nechama. I recently accidentally rediscovered it on YouTube while looking for something else, and it got stuck in my head. It's in Hebrew, with the chorus in English. I think what I like about it is the sort of minor key bits, with a monotone-like section (kind of like rap) which contrasts with the melody of the chorus. (There are a couple of translations in the comments if you're interested.)

https://youtu.be/qaSg9Ks2w4s

[ambyr]

Sure--here's After All by Dar Williams. There was a period of my life when I tried to watch the sunset as often as possible, and this was part of the music mix I listened to while I did so. Like a number of Dar's songs it deals with depression and recovery, and she's always been helpful to me on that subject because she acknowledges that recovery is a process, that you don't just instantly flip from depressed to normal overnight. The lines "But when I chose to live/There was no joy it's just a line I crossed/It wasn't worth the pain my death would cost/So I was not lost or found" were helpful to me because they told me it was okay to be in that in-between place--that it wasn't a failure to not have found joy in an instant. (And of course, by the end of the song, the narrator's recovery has progressed beyond that--but it takes time and deep exploration into themselves and their family history.)

ETA that I also have audio processing issues, so 90% of why I listen to any music is the lyrics. I mostly think of songs as poems with extraneous background noise.

[oracne]

Hmmm. I am wondering if Arvo Pärt might be of interest (or a total flop) because he's what's sometimes called a Minimalist composer. His instrumental stuff in particular is uncluttered, so maybe that would help with the processing? I love his choral works - they tend to have really dense chords, but they are delivered very deliberately, so I can sink into them.

This piece gives an idea of his instrumental work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtFPdBUl7XQ

A choral work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYXXvZoi2hE

If you end up liking Pärt's choral work, I would also recommend Poulenc's choral stuff, which has funky, jazzy chords and moves faster.

[cgbookcat1]

If you aren't accustomed to music, for songs with words try looking up and reading the lyrics before or after you listen. Then you won't be trying to process that at the same time as the notes. You can also try listening more than once or with your eyes closed -- I do that sometimes.

This may be way too many songs, but here are a few favorites:

Chanticleer's Io Son La Primavera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kByRU9zSQ34
I was introduced to this song in high school choir and loved it immediately. It's acapella (without accompaniment) so all there is to hear is the blend of voices. Some sections are together, and in other sections the voice parts layer together like ocean waves. The lyrics are in Italian, and celebrate the coming of spring.

Sarah Vaughan's The Nearness of You. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV61GrA8PME
Sarah was a popular jazz singer and has a deep, expressive voice. She could sing the phone book and I'd buy it.

John Gorka's Ignorance and Privilege. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp_Yez3ZhJs
I love the lyrics of this song. It's not often you get a retrospective about class and racial privilege!

Here's a recording of Enrique Granados playing his piano piece Andaluza. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUyu4UUf7wg
I played this in high school or college but not like this! If you aren't used to piano music, try listening to the interplay between the left hand (lower notes) and right hand (higher notes). I like the sense of motion and energy in this, and the way he changes the volume and pace to be expressive.

Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer's Tanglewood Tree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuKpO36-sfo
I love both the lyrics and the haunting melody of this piece!

Heather Dale's The Road to Santiago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y2835AXs9w
This piece contains some percussion (clapping, drums) along with the vocals. Heather's voice manages to be both light and full at the same time, and the rhythm and note choices are both unusual.

Rhiannon Giddens' Angel City. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjMsLLEkt2E
Both the melody line and the singer's voice are beautiful. I also find the lyrics comforting.

Last but not least is Bird Song by the Wailin' Jennys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2QC3nM-Ec
Folk trio who have a lovely three-part harmony with violin and banjo accompaniment.

[melita66]

I love music and there are few genres where I can find *some* song that I like.

Here's an acapella song, Bright Morning Star by Oysterband, https://youtu.be/ZWgOQ582j8Y
I love John Jones voice--so warm.

A crazy, lyrics-full song by Barenaked Ladies, One Week. Definitely check out the lyrics before. https://youtu.be/fC_q9KPczAg

I like figuring out different bits of the lyrics like the Kurosawa/samurai part.

Umm Kulthum (Om Kalsoum) - an Egyptian woman singer
Enta Omri, https://youtu.be/1wBvuZVE7FI
When I first heard her on a PBS biography, I was amazed by the power and emotion in her voice.

Seinn O by Mouth Music, celtic traditional remixed with electronica, in Gaelic
https://youtu.be/Wx9x1o_qRNk
Energy and power with a strong beat.

[jo_lasalle]

It can be anything.

Taking you at your word... ^_^

絆 (Kizuna) by Kamenashi Kazuya is one of my favourite songs ever. Musically it's a fairly straightforward pop ballad, but a well-done one, where the final key change still does its thing to me even after ten years. I also love it for context (it was the insert song in a very slashy drama called Gokusen, and there is credible rumour that the singer wrote the lyrics for his co-lead colleague).

And in a heavy genre shift from Jpop: Kid Fears by the Indigo Girls, I love for the theme of the lyrics, and for the entertwining voices in the duet part that even turns into a trio at the end; I keep switching which voice I want to sing along to.

Best of luck with the June project! I hope the music trial will be a good experience!

[spindizzy]

Vienna Teng did a mash-up of Ain't No Sunshine and Lose Yourself that's really cool because she's mostly singing it acapella, and you get each individual layer of the song at a time.

That Man by Caro Emerald was the song that Lex and I danced to at our wedding.

Dessa's The Bullpen is one that I have no idea whether you'll like, but her stuff always feels very clever to me?

My fondness for Jerk It Out by The Caesars is probably 100% nostalgia, but also I am physically incapable of not bopping to it when it's playing.

[worlds_of_smoke]

Here are some of my favorite songs from artists that tend to do quiet/less complicated songs that I listen to when my brain is too overwhelmed for harder music:

(Yes, they do tend to be female artists.)

"Never is a Promise" by Fiona Apple

"Blue Caravan" by Vienna Teng (lyrics are in the description)

"Talkin' Bout a Revolution" by Tracy Chapman

"Dear God" by XTC (literally the only song I have from them, but so worth it when I'm having quiet days.)

"Hurt" by Johnny Cash. (Originally by Nine Inch Nails!)

and then you get to Tori Amos, and uh...

Well, here's the thing. If you don't know Tori, she does some... weird pronunciations. XD So she can be a bit hard to get a grasp on. Luckily, you can find all the original lyrics online! IIRC, those are like the official lyrics from Tori herself. I could totally be wrong about that, though.

"Parasol" and "The Beekeeper" are two songs that I listened to on repeat when my grandmother was dying.

"Silent All These Years"

"America"

"1000 Oceans"

This is definitely not a quiet/uncomplicated song, but I love "Many Moons" by Janelle Monae. It's the first song I heard of hers and I immediately fell in love. XD

[forestofglory]

Thank you!

Sorry it's so long!

[suncani]

Hope this is okay, thought it might be easier to keep them all together and I'd have more room to write on a DW post than twitter. What all of them have in common is there is something that's fascinated me about them. A strong riff that I don't get bored with, a unique voice style, a memory attached to it, interesting lyrics or just doing something clever with the arrangement.

Paloma Faith - Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful Paloma Faith has a very interesting voice and its a mixture of modern and vintage sounding. I find it a little bit difficult to hear what she's actually saying but it's worth looking up the lyrics. I randomly found this song when I was at uni when my housemate at the time and I were flipping through channels at midnight and an acoustic version was playing.

Placebo’s cover and the Kate Bush original of Running Up That Hill. The placebo version is a lot more stripped down and eerie. It's almost a lack of emotion rather than having too much. The lyrics are much clearer though. The original one, it's Kate's voice that makes it, but then I love a lot of Kate Bush because again she has a very distinctive voice and at the time what she did was quite odd and unusual although probably less so now.

Jean-Michel Jarre - Concert in China the whole album but in particular Fishing junks at sunset which is Chinese instruments combined with a synthesizer. I grew up listening to this as both my parents loved his music. It's very mellow with lots of interesting rhythms. Jarre was also the first western performer to be allowed to perform in the PRC and this is a recording of that concert.

Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
This is completely down to reading The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger as violent femmes are the band Clare and Henry go and see. I love the riff and the singers voice, I tend to not really take in the lyrics.

I'm in two minds whether to rec this one or not as you really might not enjoy it but I'll explain why I’m recommending it. Fiona Apple - Hot Knife it starts out very simply and is just a couple of lines repeated. But as the song progresses, each set of lines is layered on topso it's almost in a round (when one voice or group sings and another sings something else at the same time, not necessarily in harmony, usually the same line the first voice has just sung) It's an amazing effect but it can be a lot to take in particularly if things have a tendency to blend in together.

Re: Sorry it's so long!

[forestofglory]

Thank you!