Book Of Natter

The final 10. These are the songs that stood out the most and left the most lasting impression on me. I hope you enjoy the songs as well, but I make no attempt to make them “popular” or “cool”. These are the songs that had the affect on MY life.

So, as the Doctor would say: Allons-y!

10.  “Birth and Death of the Day” – Explosions In The Sky

Instrumental rock done to perfection.  They have a way of drawing every emotion out of you that they can, and it’s amazing music.  I got this album a few months before I started at my current job, and when I gave a copy of it to a coworker I said “Birth and Death of the Day is the most epic song.  I nearly drove off the freeway drumming along the other night” (which was 100% true).  The next morning all he said was “I know exactly where you were in that song when you drove off the road.  I did the same thing”.    I will leave it to you to find.

9.  “Indestructable” – Matisyahu

The world needs more music like this: catchy and with solid religious lyrics.  In fact, the LDS music genre needs to get on board with stuff like this.  Matisyahu has been a favourite since I first heard of him (a year or so ago), and it has seen nearly constant play on my ipod.

8.  “Caring is Creepy”  – The Shins

Another Shins song from Garden State, go figure right?  It was a powerful movie to me and was my first introduction to the Shins.  I’ve never fully been able to figure out WHY I like this song so much, so I will just let the music speak for itself.

7.  “Waiting For My Real Life to Begin” – Colin Hay

This originally came out in 1994 but this album (Man @ work) came out in 2003, so it fits into this decade.  Lucky for me because this song is incredible and I urge you to listen to it again even if you know it by heart.

6.  “JCB” – Nizlopi

Sung from the point of view of a 5 year old boy riding with his father on a JCB (a brand of excavator).  This song was quite easy to connect to, and as it was Nizlopi’s most famous song, I assume I am not alone in that feeling.  Any song that mentions: tractors, nun chucks, Bruce Lee, T-Rex, and Transformers is automatically a win in my book.  Listen to this song, you will like it if only for the beauty of the lyrics.

5.  “Another Day” – The Album Leaf

This song, to me, was a fusion of the sparse beauty of IDM music (the glitches, pops and clicks) and the engaging instrumentation of Sigur Rós (who helped record this and can be heard at the end of the song).  This song always reminds me of watching a snow storm, as this was what I was listening during that HUGE snow storm we had 5 years or so ago.

4.  “Sleeping In” – The Postal Service

This was not the first time I had heard a collaboration of Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard (see song #1 for that), but this was the first time I had heard them under the name “The Postal Service”.  Was there anyone that didn’t like them?  This seemed to be a band that crossed all boundaries and is accessible to nearly anyone, not to mention that they are just fun to listen to.

3. “Archangel” – Burial

“Wow” was all I could think of the first time I heard this.  I don’t think this was my first introduction to Dubstep as a genre, but it was the song that stuck with me the most.  I still listen to it and am blown away at all the layers at work here.  This song constantly astounds me with it’s beauty.

2.  “Starálfur” – Sigur Rós

They were described to me as “Music so beautiful, they had to make up a language to sing it in”.  This song is pure Icelandic (rather than the Hopelandic they use on many other songs), but I will agree that it is simple beautiful.  Chris, who has the best description of their music I have ever seen, says: “I always tell people the easiest way I know to describe Sigur Ros is to imagine what a “rock” band from Rivendell might sound like”.  I can’t think of a better way to put it than that!

1.  “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan” – DNTEL

This was the first time (to my knowledge) that Ben and Jimmy ever collaborated and to be honest I believe I got this song from the original Napster.  This was also one of my first introductions to IDM (the glitches, cracks, pops, and random sounds).  If I had to guess, I have probably listened to this song well over 500 times, and it has been on countless mix CD’s I’ve made over the years.   Simply amazing work by these two and was the forerunner for The Postal Service.  This will probably remain a favourite for years to come.