Song of the Day: Eclipse of Time (by Uematsu Nobuo from Lost Odyssey)

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Arleigh

The latest “Song of the Day” is another favorite music track from the Lost Odyssey soundtrack by Uematsu Nobuo. The title of this particular track is “Eclipse of Time” and one of the most beautiful pieces in the game’s soundtrack.

“Eclipse of Time” becomes a sort of motif for one of the game’s characters, Queen Ming Numara who also happens to be another immortal like the game’s main protagonist, Kaim. We first hear this music playing when we enter her Ming’s room and it creates an ethereal musical backdrop which accentuates the Queen Numara’s eternal beauty. The track is quite simply played as a harp solo and it’s a rare thing to hear the harp as the main instrument in most game soundtracks. It’s Uematsu’s inclusion of such an instrument which raises the Lost Odyssey soundtrack to classic status.

This particular track reappears time and time again in different version and tempo throughout the game. It usually means that Queen Numara is either the focus of the scene or something she’s involved in a way. Unlike “A Return, Indeed…” this song doesn’t really appear in any of Kaim’s 33 dream-memories which is a shame, but understandable since the piece doesn’t really match the tone of Kaim’s dreams.

Of all the pieces of music in the Lost Odyssey soundtrack this is the one I can listen to over and over and not get tired of it.

Song of the Day: Pasties and a G-String (by Tom Waits)

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Arleigh

When I saw necromoonyeti post that Tom Waits will have a new studio album out this October 25th I instantly went over to Amazon and placed a pre-order. As necromoonyeti has mentioned in his post Waits is a one-of-a-kind musician and definitely one of America’s treasures. There’s really no way to describe his style of music since he experiments so often and, at times, his style is more performance art than anything.

For the latest “Song of the Day” I pick the one song that’s almost like a gateway to the aural drug that is Tom Waits. There’s nothing else to say other than listen and marvel at Waits’ “Pasties and a G-String”.

Pasties and a G-String

Smelling like a brewery,
looking like a tramp
I ain’t got a quarter
got a postage stamp
Been five o’clock shadow boxing
all around the town
Talking with the old men
sleeping on the ground
Bazanti bootin
al zootin al hoot
and Al Cohn
sharin this apartment
with a telephone pole
and it’s a fish-net stockings
spike-heel shoes
Strip tease, prick tease
car kease blues
and the porno floor show
live nude girls
dreamy and creamy
and the brunette curls
Chesty Morgan and a
Watermelon Rose
raise my rent and take off
all your clothes
with the trench coats
magazines bottle full of rum
she’s so good, it make
a dead man cum, with
pasties and a g-string
beer and a shot
Portland through a shot glass
and a Buffalo squeeze
wrinkles and cherry
and twinky and pinky
and FeFe live from Gay Paree
fanfares rim shots
back stage who cares
all this hot burlesque for me

cleavage, cleavage thighs and hips
from the nape of her neck
to the lip stick lips
chopped and channeled
and lowered and louvered
and a cheater slicks
and baby moons
she’s hot and ready
and creamy and sugared
and the band is awful
and so are the tunes

crawlin on her belly shakin like jelly
and I’m getting harder than
Chinese algebraziers and cheers
from the compendium here
hey sweet heart they’re yellin for more
squashing out your cigarette butts
on the floor
and I like Shelly
you like Jane
what was the girl with the snake skins name
it’s an early bird matinee
come back any day
getcha little sompin
that cha can’t get at home
getcha little sompin
that cha can’t get at home
pasties and a g-string
beer and a shot
Portland through a shot glass
and a Buffalo squeeze
popcorn, front row
higher than a kite
and I’ll be back tomorrow night
and I’ll be back tomorrow night

Song of the Day: A Return, Indeed…(by Uematsu Nobuo from Lost Odyssey)

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Arleigh

One of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in the past ten years was from a title that was the creation of the man (Sakaguchi Hironobu) who made the wildly-popular Japanese role-playing game franchise, Final Fantasy, before he left to start up his own company. This company would be called Mistwalker and they would release two rpgs for the Xbox 360 between 2008 and 2009. The second of these two titles was Lost Odyssey and this was the title of which I spoke of above.

The title was a nice throwback to the classic Final Fantasy titles Sakaguchi was responsible for while dressed up in nextgen visuals. But what made this game so memorable an experience for me wasn’t just the visuals but the great storytelling and music it also had in great abundance. The music itself was the product of one (if not the greatest) of the greatest video game music composer in the industry, Uematsu Nobuo. It’s from Uematsu’s soundtrack for Lost Odyssey that I pick the latest “Song of the Day”.

“A Return, Indeed…” (“Kaette kuru, kitto…” in Japanese) is part of the game’s soundtrack which makes several appearances throughout the game, but it was during the first found dream sequence (the game’s greatest highlight and reason to play it) which really sold the song and the whole soundtrack as whole as being great. This version is the piano solo one which is really the best version which appears in the game. This piano solo version was arranged by Satoshi Henmi from Uematsu’s original composition and it fully convey’s the song’s sorrow melody in the beginning but gradually transitions into a sound full of hope before finally ending in a simple few notes. Those few notes giving a hint that hope is always a possibility but in the end always fleeting.

What better way to inaugurate 33 days of “A Thousand Years of Dreams” than the song which kicks it off in the game.

Song of the Day: Blade Runner End Titles (by Vangelis)

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Arleigh

While I find my thoughts on how to continue my review on one of my favorite films of all-time I began to listen to it’s soundtrack for inspiration. So, while listening to the Vangelis composed score for Blade Runner I came across what has to be my favorite track from the many different editions of this film’s soundtrack. This track I picked to be my latest “Song of the Day”.

The track I chose is simply the “End Titles” which plays during the film’s end credits sequence. This version of the Vangelis ambient score comes directly from the Esper Edition of the soundtrack which was a bootleg edition that made the rounds in 2002. More specifically, this version of the “End Titles” track is a demo version of what would finally end up in the film.

Vangelis was one of my favorite film composers growing up and it’s saddening that he hasn’t done as much work in the last decade or so. But then his work on Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was his best and it’s been difficult to top since. Everything about the “End Titles” track was able to convey each and every genre influence the film would mash together to make it into the masterpiece it has become. It’s ambient and electronic synthesizer melody has hints of film noir and, of course, the very science-fiction the film’s foundation has it’s origins in. This was a soundtrack that was one-of-a-kind and as much as others have tried to copy and emulate it they’ve never succeeded.

Song of the Day: 4th of July (by Soundgarden)

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Arleigh

It is now just minutes since the 4th of July finally arrives in the US once more (at least on the West Coast since the East Coast has been celebrating the 4th of July for 3 hours now). What better way to celebrate the arrival of another 4th of July than to pick the song of the same name for today’s latest “Song of the Day”.

Soundgarden’s Superunknown album from 1994 may be part of the grunge scene which sprouted during the early 1990’s but this album has more metal about it than the grunge espoused by the disciples of Cobain. The song I picked for today I consider the best in the album which contains other classics. “4th of July” is such a heavy song that so many casual fans of the album fail to miss the heavy influence of early Black Sabbath in the song. They also fail to realize just how un-grunge it is with its dark lyrics (not emo mind you, but dark in a palpable sense). “4th of July” becomes an accidental introduction for newbie metal fans to the world of doom metal.

This song is the very definition of heavy and doom. From the heaviness in the guitar riffs to the subdued, but evocative way Cornell sings the dark lyrics (lyrics I always thought of someone just experiencing and living through the aftermath of a nuclear war). But in the end this song really shows it’s Black Sabbath and doom metal pedigree from the sludge-like sound coming out of the bass guitar chords.

“4th of July” once heard cannot be unheard. It’s a song that grabs one by the throat, doesn’t let go until the final doom-laden lyric and note has finally faded into the air.

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

4th of July

Shower in the dark day
Clean sparks driving down
Cool in the waterway
Where the baptized drown
Naked in the cold sun
Breathing life like fire
Thought I was the only one
But that was just a lie

Cause I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of July

Pale in the flare light
The scared light cracks & disappears
And leads the scorched ones here
And everywhere no one cares
The fire is spreading
And no one wants to speak about it
Down in the hole
Jesus tries to crack a smile
Beneath another shovel load

And I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of July

Now I’m in control
Now I’m in the fall out
Once asleep but now I stand
And I still remember
Your sweet everything
Light a Roman candle
And hold it in your hand

Cause I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of July

Song of the Day: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (performed by Gil Scott Heron)

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have to admit that watching and reviewing all of those Planet of the Apes films got me into a revolutionary state of mind. Taking that into consideration, here is today’s song of the day — The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by the late Gil Scott Heron.

Song of the Day: Into the West (by Howard Shore feat. Annie Lennox)

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Arleigh

This latest “Song of the Day” marks the final and third entry in the weekend-long theme of picking song and music from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. What better choice to cap of this themed weekend than picking the final song to close out Peter Jackson’s fantasy epic: “Into the West”.

It’s this song as composed and arranged by the trilogy’s master composer, Howard Shore, featuring the vocal talents of singer Annie Lennox. Her work on this song was at times quite gentle and subdued with some strong vocals once the chorus arrives and repeats a second time. Some have complained that someone with more classical training would’ve been better suited to tackle this song, but I rather enjoyed Lennox’s powerful rendition of the chorus in the song.

“Into the West” is a song that’s both one of hope and a bittersweet lament as it speaks of the leaving of the Elf race on their Grey Ships to sail into the west towards Valinor. Some of the lyrics in the song even comes from sections of the final chapter of The Return of the King novel.

When this song played at the end of The Return of the King it surely brought more than just a few people to tears as it helped marked the end of three years of fantasy filmmaking which became a cultural phenomenon from 2001 through 2003 as the world became enraptured by Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy. What better song to end this weekend theme than the very song which ended the trilogy of which this weekend was all about.

Into the West

Lay down
Your sweet and weary head
Night is falling
You have come to journey’s end
Sleep now
And dream of the ones who came before
They are calling
From across a distant shore
Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see
All of your fears will pass away

Safe in my arms
You’re only sleeping

What can you see
On the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
A pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home
And all will turn
To silver-glass
A light on the water
All souls pass

Hope fades
Until the world of night
Through shadows’ falling
Out of memory and time
Don’t say
We have come now to the end
White shores are calling
You and I will meet again

And you’ll be here in my arms
Just sleeping

Song of the Day: Theoden Rides Forth (by Howard Shore)

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Arleigh

For my chosen song from Howard Shore’s orchestral film score for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers I picked the tune which starts off my favorite scene in from that film. This will be the latest song for “Song of the Day”.

“Theoden Rides Forth” begins with the scene of Theoden, Aragorn, Legolas and what remains of the Rohan cavalry riding out for one last time out of the Keep at Helm’s Deep into the thick of the Uruk-Hai forces. The song takes the “Rohan theme” first heard in the early part of the film, but with a heroic flair that transitions to full brass blaring the theme to great effect. The song then segues into a brief appearance of the “Fellowship theme” as Gandalf, Eomer and the Rohirrim appear to save their king and companions. From there the song brings in the “Shadowfax theme” with child soprano Ben Del Maestro providing the solo chorus as the charge comes down the steep incline and into the ranks of Uruk-Hai waiting below. But the song doesn’t end there as it moves into the follow-up scene using the “Nature theme” to show Treebeard and the Ents make their final march to war against Isengard.

This track from the score finishes off the two parallel story lines of Helm’s Deep and Isengard. The transitions in the song from one story line to the other were flawless. The fact that Shore was able to incorporate and combine so many different themes not just from this film but from the previous one shows an artist who is definitely a master of his craft. There’s no denying why “Theoden Rides Forth” became the best tune from the The Two Towers film score and why so many fans of the film and the score wholeheartedly agree.

Song of the Day: The Breaking of the Fellowship (by Howard Shore)

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Arleigh

With my favorite scene from The Fellowship of the Ring chosen and posted it’s now time to pick my favorite piece of music from that film’s orchestral soundtrack. This was a soundtrack that I consider just one-third of a massive 12-hour symphony. The song I’ve chosen is actually a re-edited version of this film’s “Complete Recordings” release: “The Breaking of the Fellowship”.

Howard Shore’s work as composer for Peter Jackson’s monumental and epic (if there was ever a subject deserving of that overused word it would be Jackson’s fantasy trilogy) has been hailed by critics and fans alike as one of the best, if not the best, film score of the new millennium. Shore doesn’t go for the typical overly bombastic score that’s become the go-to style for epic films of any stripe. His work on this first third of the total Lord of the Rings score even manages to outdo John Williams’ own compositions for the other major fantasy series to come out the same year in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer Stone.

Where Williams’ had begun to partially cannibalize his own past film scores for his recent ones, Shore was able to look at what Jackson was creating and decided to base the entire score for The Fellowship of the Ring on three motifs which were airy, subtle with the loud and expressive brass section only appearing in one of these three. “The Breaking of the Fellowship” ends the film on a mixture of triumph and sadness as the track’s title describes. Shore takes the peaceful “hobbit theme” from the beginning of the film and combines it with the more rousing “Fellowship theme” then topped with as bonus with sections from the “Rivendell theme”. These three themes combine to highlight not just the breaking of the fellowship in the end of the film, but some sense of loss of innocence of the hobbits in the group as heard by a more somber and pensive rendition of the “hobbit theme”.

Of all the musical cues in The Fellowship of the Ring it’s the one which makes up “The Breaking of the Fellowship” that fully expresses the overall thematic and narrative themes of the film. It’s a song that tells the audience that the peaceful nature of the hobbits have now been tempered by their complete understanding of the exact nature of their fellowship’s quest. It also underscores how even in triumph the fellowship will encounter heartbreak and tragedy. These two themes will continue to be explore in the next two films and their respective score, but it’s in this first one that it truly shines.

Songs of the Day: Game of Thrones Main Theme and Finale

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Arleigh

A Sunday night has arrived and that means the latest episode of HBO’s instant medieval fantasy hit series, Game of Thrones, adapted from the George R.R. Martin novel of the same name. This show has pretty much ruled my Sunday nights and for the past ten weeks I and a couple other writers for the site have done recaps and reviews of each episode. As great as the show has been the soundtrack to the show has been equally grand and epic in sound. Tonight’s season finale finally unleashes the finale music and, paired with the now recognizable “Main Title” music for the show, becomes the latest song to make “Song of the Day”.

I can’t pick the “Finale” by Ramin Djawadi without also including the “Main Title” music which the former is born from. Ramin Djawadi has taken the initial song, with its blending of medieval chamber sound with some Mediterrean stylings, and adds in an ominous and martial quality for the finale. It helps punctuate the season finale and how it ties up the loose ends of the premiere season’s prologue storylines and lays the foundation for what looks to be second season with the world of Game of Thrones fully at war with dangers not just from north of The Wall, but now a resurgent old royal line across the Narrow Sea.

The “Finale” doesn’t actually return to the “Main Title” motif until a third of the way through but certain notes and chords from that initial theme could be heard throughout until the finale reaches it’s final 30 seconds and the “Main Title” motif returns in a crescendo of brass, percussion and strings before finishing suddenly. It’s a testament to Ramin Djawadi that the score never dominates the show unless it’s in the intro title sequence and the end credits when the music won’t overcome the performances on the screen. Other composer might look at the opportunity to flex their musical muscle and just go full bore from beginning to end, but not this score.

It’s a good thing I bought the Game of Thrones soundtrack off of iTunes. It’s definitely joined the Conan the Barbarian and Lord of The Rings orchestral score as some of my favorites.