The Finale: 21-30 of 30 Songs I Can’t Live Without

This has got to be by far the most difficult meme I’ve had to answer.
Granted, I didn’t really have to, but I was in a meme kinda mood when I was tagged. And now, a week and a half later, I’m finally sitting down to finish what I started.

Oh and if this is the first one you’re reading, part 1 is here and part 2 here.

Let’s get down to business.

21. Ryan Adams – Wonderwall
The YouTube video is slightly different than the mp3 I have, but it still possesses that vibe. That vibe — the confusing one — where my body can’t decide whether it’s going to come or cry or come or cry or both.
Let’s not forget, Oasis’ original was good, but Ryan Adams just completely changed the feeling of this song in its entirety. Ah, love, lust, and awesome cover versions.

22. Jon McLaughlin – So Close
And here you see how much of a cheeseball I can be.
And how much movie soundtracks matter to me, too.
How the song is used in a movie can make me love it or hate it. I honestly can’t tell if I would have fallen in love with the song the same way had I not first heard/seen it in Enchanted. But, no matter, I love it now. I’m all rainbows and butterflies and ladeedah once this song starts.
Should Eric Benet fail me (see previous posts), I’m jumping to Jon McLaughlin for Future Wedding Song #2.

The next 2 songs that are here for the same reason: Hopelessness.
23. Amy Winehouse – Love Is A Losing Game
Simple, straightforward words on this one, but Amy Winehouse’s voice expresses resignation and despair in ways that spoken words can’t.

24. The Fray – Vienna
“There’s really no way to reach me, because I’m already gone.”
Yeah, sometimes I feel completely alone. This song rubs it in. I should hate it, but I love it all the more for that. Ugh. I sound like a certain lame character from a dreadfully-written book whose movie version was even worse.

25. Alanis Morissette – Your House
First off, if I had it my way, I’d put the entire Jagged Little Pill album on here. But I’m not gonna do that, am I?
Your House was the bonus track I almost missed on the cassette tape I bought with my own money because it wasn’t listed on the sleeve.
I left the tape running accidentally at what I thought was the end of it. There was a long lull. Then Alanis started narrating, singing a cappella. I’m not even a big fan of narratives, but it was almost like she really did just walk into her boyfriend’s house, saw the letter that wasn’t in her writing saying “Hello, Love. I love you so, Love,” and broke into song before finally breaking down in tears.

26. Damien Rice – Blower’s Daughter
Again, with the raw, almost a cappella song. Again, with the movie soundtrack.
Again, with the simple words + beautiful melody + dreamy voice = musical gold! :)

27. Moony - Acrobats (Looking for Balance)
Before you raise an eyebrow in judgment, let me explain:
I’m not a big fan of house, or clubs that play house, or dancing to house, or dancing as a whole. But I did have 1 or 2 albums with music like this that kept me company years and years ago (mixed in with my Slapshock and Up Dharma Down and The Killers, uh huh). Songs like this and this and this take me back to the times I can no longer remember. All I recall are the good places these bunch of songs took me to.

28. Stillwater – Fever Dog
Nothing beats a live performance of really good rock songs. Now if this were an actual song from an actual band, then I would love to see this live because the energy from when this song was used for like a minute in Almost Famous was crazy.
From the first few hits of the drum alone, you know you’re in for a rockin’ good time. (And I’m sorry that last line sounded like an old-fashioned slogan for some radio show.)

29. Our Lady Peace - Somewhere Out There
I came across this song at a time in my life when I was still unbelievably naive and had no idea what I was getting myself into. It brings back cringeworthy memories, but at the same time, reminds me of how far I’ve come.
Also, it’s just a really pretty song.
After all I’ve learned though, I still don’t know what purple hair is supposed to be. Don’t tell me; I don’t want to know.

30. 3 Doors Down – Away From The Sun
This song was mine once. Not legally or rightfully even, but mine in a sense that the words sounded exactly like the ones I would write on my notebook/makeshift journal.
I still call it my Suicide Song.
Not that I was or am suicidal, but if I were, this would be the song I’d off myself to. (Disclaimer: All these things, I think, not do. Suicide is a bad idea… not to mention fuckin’ lame.) I’m not trying to be morbid. I’m just saying, like a lot of the songs on this list, this one’s on it because it hit a sensitive spot, not a sexily sensitive spot, but an emotional bullseye.

31. …No, wait.

THAT’S IT! I survived a 3-part blog entry! Having to list down 30 essential songs to the soundtrack of my life was harder than I thought. I’m sure, in the coming days, I’d be coming up with about 5 more songs I’d want to add and more. But I won’t. Oh well. I did say these songs were put up in random order, except the order in which they popped into my brain.

Hopefully some of you guys got this far, too.

Now, no more memes, no more tags at least for the time being. I’m fresh out of song titles.

11-20 of 30 Songs I Can’t Live Without (still without a better title)

If you have no idea what this is about, take a quick trip to part 1 right here.

It gets harder and harder to come up with songs, let me tell ya. There are a lot of songs that I love at the moment… But all of these are fleeting flavors of the moment. Like flings, they’ll make love to my ears a few times. It’ll be fun, it’ll be wonderful, but it’ll get old real fast and I’ll be moving on to the next sexy song I hear.

You’ll see none of that here though. Here are 10 more songs that I will love. Forever:

11. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
(Credit goes to Cindy for introducing this song to me!)
Simply put, it’s an old-fashioned straight-up “Oh, how I wish you were here.” love song. *sigh*

12. Bjork - Pagan Poetry
Apparently I like my songs to be deep, expressing of pain and borderline masochistic. Pagan Poetry is it.
First of all, Bjork is a musical genius. I’ve got no idea if I interpret her words right, but the melody is slow and slightly creepy and it sounds like a desperate cry for… something. Heck, it sounds like she’s crying. Songs mean different things to different people, and whatever Pagan Poetry means to you, it means “crying my heart out” to me.

13. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
for its sheer AWESOMENESS. Hello?

14. Dave Matthews Band – The Space Between
“The space between the tears we cry is the laughter that keeps us coming back for more.”
Ahh. The “Remind me again why I’m here.” song. For relationships, for drama, for work, for everything.

15. Bob Marley – Redemption Song
“‘Cause all I ever have: Redemption songs.” Which are, incidentally, what these songs I’m listing down are to me. Sometimes, all you’ve got is your song to keep you sane, to keep you safe… to redeem you, so to speak.

16. Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven
It was a choice between this or Immigrant Song. I already had Baba O’Riley to take care of that whole screaming, wake up, get-your-day-started-right kinda vibe, so I went with this. Stairway to Heaven is the kind of song that stops you, makes you close your eyes, shake your head to its slow melody like an idiot, and sing along, no matter that you don’t know the words.
Also, hello Funeral Song #2.

17. Incubus - Aqueous Transmission
If you hadn’t noticed from the last 16 songs I listed, I seem to have a pattern of taking the melody to heart more than the words. It’s the entire “feel” of the song that does it for me.
Watching Incubus when they came here last year, this was their final song. It prompted what I like to call A Lighter Moment. The crowd shots you see in videos of live performances when their lighters are up in the air swaying to the slow song? That was Araneta for a moment. To me anyway. And it was… dreamy. I like dreamy.

18. The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
I fell in love with the video years ago before I took a moment (years later!) to actually listen to the song and say, “Heyyy, the song’s actually pretty nice, too!” Now all you gotta do is throw in some Cruel Intentions intensity and it finds itself in a solid spot on my 30 Songs list.
Another thing: I’m a walker, you see. I like walking, and I like walking fast. So, this is perfect for the days I walk around and am not in the mood to be fucked with. “Stupid car, can’t you see I’m crossing the street? You honking your horn at me? Well, yeah? Fuck you! *walks right atop the hood*”

19. Jill Sobule – Supermodel
For when I want and/or need to feel like a girl again. Hee. *bats eyelashes*

20. MoZella - Light Years Away
I was sitting at home, days after we’d placed my dad’s ashes in his new little box house at the church in Pasig. Not really in the mood to do much, what with my dad dead and all, I killed time sitting in front of the PC with 5000+ songs on shuffle in the background. This song came on — I didn’t even know I had this — I heard a few lines and I just froze. Heck yeah, I cried buckets. It was spot on. I know, being from the soundtrack of One Tree Hill, it’s probably a cheesy love song some girl sang to some guy who broke her heart. But to me, it’s a song from a girl to a dad she had a strained relationship with, with no longer any hope of repair because it was too late, and she had no choice but to just let it go.
“I don’t blame you anymore. There’s too much pain to store,” it says. For what it’s worth, try to make it true.

Continued here.

1-10 of 30 Songs I Can’t Live Without (for lack of creativity for a better title)

Still recovering from the 100-song meme Baddie made us do (one I decided to limit to my Facebook buddies for fear of judgment from the music critics’ eyes) and already another one comes up asking for another 30.

Why do I even bother? I mean, how many more songs can I come up with? And how many times do I have to express my love for these songs? I don’t know. But with less songs, I figure, I can try my hardest not to repeat artists. And, with emphasis on the phrase “can’t live without,” I’m definitely putting more heart into it.

There’s something about music-related memes that make them irresistible. No?

Now, some of these songs I’ve loved since childhood. Some are, you’ll notice, quite new (or newly discovered), but in one way or another, have moved me.

These, my friends, are the 30 songs I would die without. (Well, the first 10. I’ll be doing this in 3 parts so kids with ADHD won’t shriek in horror at the text overload. Consider yourself welcome.)

Here it goes, in no particular order except for what came to mind first and whatnot:

1. Jason Mraz feat. James Morrison – Details in the Fabric
When I have a kid, I’ll be singing this to him/her. Unborn Child, you should know that you should “hold your own, know your name, and go your own way.”
It can double as a lullaby, even. Ahh.

2. The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever
Because everybody needs their own “Strawberry Field” to run to, where “nothing is real” and “there’s nothing to get hung about.”

3. John Lennon – Imagine
I’ll try not to get into it TOO much, but this song — omigod THIS SONG (and Strawberry Fields Forever) is just… perfect for me. Imagine embraces everything I believe in, everything I want to believe in, and everything I hope for.

4. The Who – Baba O’Riley
(a.k.a. “Teenage Wasteland”)
We’re all in need of some motivation or some release after a long hard day at work, or any other source of stress. And this is it. Upbeat and screamworthy: “OUT HERE IN THE FIELD!!! I WORK FOR MY MEALS!!!!” Hell yeah!

5. John Mayer – Dreaming With A Broken Heart
I could have gone with his lesser known songs on Continuum, but I couldn’t. This song just hits the spot right where it’s emo. Plus, it’s got piano.
“When you’re dreaming with a broken heart, waking up is the hardest part.” Ouch.

6. Eric Benet – The Last Time
Yes. More mush!
Someday, I’ll have someone to sing this to. Or play this song for, being that I can’t sing for shit. Either way, this, my friends, shall be my wedding song when the time comes. Never mind that Eric Benet was Halle Berry’s sex addict ex-husband.
“This is the last time I’ll fall in love.” Yihee.

8. Elton John – Tiny Dancer
It was the scene from Almost Famous. Tension was high in the tour bus, and the kid, William, was wanting to go home. A familiar song came on the radio. Piano intro, then we hear Elton John. “Blue jean baby, LA lady, seamstress for the band…” A band member can’t help but sing along. Looks are exchanged. A smile creeps up on each member’s face. Then everybody breaks into a full-on sing-along. Needless to say, the tension was broken, and somewhere along the way Penny Lane puts her hand on William’s face and says, “You are home.”
Beautiful.

9. Oasis – Champagne Supernova
When I die, I want to go and be in that champagne supernova in the sky.
Sometimes, words don’t have to make sense to be something meaningful.

10. Yann Tiersen – Comptine d’un autre été: L’après-midi
(from the soundtrack to Amelie)
There was a time that I was alone at home and feeling down. It was the type of melancholy that couldn’t be helped by noisy rock music or even the upbeat songs from the Beatles’ moptop days. It was one that needed to be, how shall I say… embraced. I didn’t need a distraction. I needed background music to my pain. No words, only the thoughts in my head and the sweet slow painful melody played on piano by Yann Tiersen. I put this on loop. It turned out to be just what I needed.

Continued here.