I turn my music up

This week I have been listening to a new album I bought this week. After hearing Christina Perri's songs "Jar of Hearts" and "Arms" on the radio, I decided to buy her CD, lovestrong. It's pleasant enough, although I have the feeling that it's one of those albums that if I listen to it too much, I will get bored with it.

I added the songs on the CD (minus the first one, which has some mildly objectionable words in it) to my Windows Media Player playlist, "All (listenable) music." My favorite way to listen to music is on shuffle--the more variety the better. I have a lot of holiday music on my computer, and I don't like listening to it out of season (in part because that dilutes the seasonal feeling). So I made the playlist so that I can easily move holiday music in and out. It also allows me more control to take out music I don't like hearing in a shuffle setting.

So what is in my playlist? I will tell you, according to how many songs of the various musicians I have. (Please note that there is some discrepancy between what music I would like to have, and what I actually have.) This is how it stands at this moment, but it changes periodically.

Cherie Call, 64 songs. I wrote a blog post about Cherie Call last month. I have all seven of her albums but I only listen to six of them because one is a Christmas album. Her first album isn't very good, but I listen to it anyway.

Vince Guaraldi, 42 songs. Since fifth grade, I have loved the Peanuts franchise. Not only do you get the comic-strip brilliance of Charles Schulz, you get the jazzy genius of Vince Guaraldi, who did the music for fifteen Charlie Brown specials from A Charlie Brown Christmas to It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, as well as the feature length film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I believe that I have every available musical cue from the specials. What I like about this is that it gives me a lot of holiday music; I'm pretty sure I have all but two musical pieces from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. But of course I don't listen to that when it's not in season.

Coldplay, 39 songs. I hadn't (knowingly) heard of Coldplay until my birthday in 2007, one day short of two months before I left on my mission. My sister got me their premiere album Parachutes. I liked it, but I did find it a little bland at times. I associate this album with that time. Early tracks like "Don't Panic" and "Spies" make me think of driving home from Walmart on October evenings, while the final track, "Everything's Not Lost," makes me think of November days when I was scared out of my mind to leave. These feelings are being diluted the more I listen to the songs, but they still come up.

On my mission, once I was with another companionship (long story there) and my companion and another elder were changing the CD in the car. For the brief moment between CDs, the radio came on, and the song happened to be "Viva la Vida," right at the line "my missionaries in a foreign field." I had never heard the song before, so I said, "Did that just say missionaries!?" When I came home, I remembered that incident when I heard the song on the radio. I really liked it, so last New Year's Eve I bought the Viva la Vida album, which also came with a bonus EP Prospekt's March (sort of a sequel album). I really like this album, much more than Parachutes. In July I was in an FYE (For Your Entertainment) store in Orem, just to browse, but there was a sale of "buy one used item, get one used item half off." I found a Vince Guaraldi CD that I was unlikely to get elsewhere, so I also decided to buy the Coldplay album A Rush of Blood to the Head. I like that one too--more than Parachutes but less than Viva la Vida. I really like their new single "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall," so I think I might get their new album when it comes out in October.

The Beatles, 25 songs. I got the 1 album my sophomore year of high school. It's pretty much the soundtrack of those awkward three years. My senior year I got the LOVE album for Christmas. I had both of these in my playlist but I removed LOVE because I was getting Beatled out and because it's not meant for listening to on shuffle. Interesting that both of these aren't actually original Beatles albums.

Michelle Tumes, 25 songs. She is an Australian Christian singer. A popular song among missionaries is "Healing Waters," and Michelle Tumes's album Listen floats around as a million burned copies. Once my companion and I were in a Christian bookstore, and I ended up buying The Very Best of Michelle Tumes. Most of my companions liked it like I did, although there were a few songs that were a little raucous for missionaries, but I can listen to them now. When I went back up last year, I decided to buy Listen. But Amazon didn't have it, and their sellers that were selling it new had it at ridiculously high prices. So I had to get it used. This made me realize that despite her popularity among Mormon missionaries, she's not that popular. Which is sad because she's a good singer.

Owl City, 24 songs. I first heard "Fireflies" on the way home from a fossil excavation last summer. The girl I was riding with had lots of songs on her iPod. I instantly fell in love with it and got excited whenever I heard it after that. It took me a while to find out who sang it, but I was content when I found out. In February this year, I bought Ocean Eyes and really liked it.

One day this past spring, I was thinking about modern music and musicians--Katy Perry's Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top, Bruno Mars's immoral lazy days, and such--and comparing them with Owl City, who lists "God," "optimism," and "G-rated movies" under his interests. I thought, "This is the kind of musician we should support." So I preordered his latest album, All Things Bright and Beautiful. It arrived the last day of spring classes, and I listened to it on my way home for that weekend before summer semester. I like it even more than Ocean Eyes. I don't understand it--I like all of his songs, yet "Fireflies" is the only one I've ever heard on the radio (excluding Pandora), although I've heard "Vanilla Twilight" in the grocery store and "Alligator Sky" in Kohl's.

The Monkees, 24 songs. I got a Monkees CD in my stocking on Christmas morning in 2004. I thought, "Why on Earth did Santa get me this?" but I listened to it and was pleasantly surprised. For my birthday in 2005 I got The Best of the Monkees which is what resides in my playlist, minus the theme song, which is just terrible. When Media Play closed down that year I bought their first album, which is just full of 1960s rock-and-roll cheesiness.

When I came home from my mission, after a week or two I was excited to listen to the music I'd missed the last two years. So I put on my Best of the Monkees--and was surprised. I couldn't believe I liked them so much in high school! Now I find them best in small doses.

Taylor Swift, 14 songs. Last Christmas I threw around a bunch of artists that my parents could get me for a gift. I think Taylor was the only one my mom heard of or remembered. I like her, but I honestly don't understand why she's so wildly popular. I don't think she's really contributed much that's unique to the music world, except for bridging the gap between country and pop music, and Lady Antebellum and some others have also done that.

I would like her more if she didn't have such a one-track mind. All of her songs have a very teenage-girl feel to them. I realize she started out as a teenage girl--but that's no excuse for her now!

Jarrett Burns, 12 songs. Jarrett Burns is or was a BYU student. I had a musician roommate who was playing in a friend's band at his EP release concert, and Jarrett Burns also performed. (This was at the Sammy's restaurant in Provo.) I'd been home from my mission six months, and I thought Jarrett Burns was good enough to be on the radio. Now that I've actually listened to the radio, I'm not sure I totally think he's as good as I originally thought, but I still think some songs are great and he has great potential as an artist.

Christina Perri, 11 songs. I had seen her album--plenty of copies--at the Target in Orem, but when I went back a few weeks later, I didn't see it anymore. I bought it at Smith's Marketplace last week, and when I put it on my computer, the info Windows Media Player found said the genre was folk. Maybe that's why I couldn't find it at Target--I was looking in the pop section. Then I played "Arms" for my mom, and saying how much I liked her sound. She said, "She sounds like a folk singer." I never would have made the connection, although many of her songs do remind me a little bit of Peter, Paul and Mary.

Briana McCurdy, 10 songs. She was a girl in my ward this past school year. She graduated from BYU last year in media music, and I home taught her. She put out an album this spring, so to be a supportive home teacher, I bought it. I think she has potential.

Danny Elfman (Corpse Bride soundtrack), 5 songs. I think Corpse Bride has some of the most beautiful background music ever. I had the whole soundtrack in my playlist, but I felt like it didn't really fit in that setting, so I took out everything but "Victor's Piano Solo" and the four jazz bonus tracks.

Lady Gaga, 2 songs. One Saturday morning in February, I was driving on I-15 to come home for the weekend, listening to the radio. The commercial break had just ended, so I was surprised when another commercial came on so soon. "It doesn't matter if you love him," it said, "or capital H-I-M." Shortly I realized it wasn't a commercial, but a song. A very strange song. Did she just say, "You're Lebanese, you're Orient"? When the My 99.5 voice said, "Born This Way. Lady Gaga," I thought, "That explains why it was so weird." The more I heard this song, the more it got stuck in my head. I think it's been stuck in my head ever since March. The more it was stuck in my head, the more I realized I kind of liked it. So I finally gave in and paid for my first ever download (all other downloads had been free). I might not agree 100% with all the lyrics, but I like the overall theme--"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are." My second download ever that I paid for was "The Edge of Glory." But I would never buy a Lady Gaga album. I think she's one of the most talented contemporary musicians, so why does she have to spoil her talent by singing inappropriate things?

Jessie Clark, 2 songs. Jessie Clark now goes by Jessie Clark Funk, but the album I bought, Clay in His Hands, was before she was married. I bought it at the Families Forever Bookstore in Lewiston, Idaho. I associate it with summer afternoon drives between Lewiston and Lapwai, the Indian reservation, although these feelings have been diluted. I had all of the tracks in my playlist, but I have reduced it to just the first two, "New Jerusalem" and "Clay in His Hands."

John Mayer, 1 song. Following some Amazon purchases last year, I got three free downloads. When I decided to redeem the downloads, it was Valentine's Day night, so I was excited when I found a song called "St. Patrick's Day." It isn't actually a St. Patrick's Day song (which means I keep it in my playlist year round), but it is holiday-related, which is my kind of thing. Do I like John Mayer? Well, I know he sings some less-than-appropriate things ("Your Body is a Wonderland"), and yet his music is really mild and laid back. There are lots of musicians like that. Why would I pick a dirty mild musician over a clean one?

Nik Day, 1 song. Nik Day was my roommate's friend who was releasing his EP at the concert mentioned with Jarrett Burns. I bought his CD to be polite--after all, it was his show. I had all five songs on my playlist, but there were four I just couldn't stand, so they got the boot.

"Various Artists," 1 song. When I got a Vince Guaraldi CD from Amazon this year, I got a free download. I really like the hymns in the hymnbook (I could write an entire post just about hymns) and I like to get to know them. The Church has made CDs and MP3s of recordings of all 341 of them, but they are horrible. Like, I really don't know how they could possibly make them so bad. They should have just had the MoTab sing. Then they would be good. Anyway, I would like to find legitimate recordings of all the hymns, so I got hymn #3, "Now Let Us Rejoice" from the Home Teachers soundtrack. But my hymn recording goal won't get very far--I can't find a single, solitary recording of hymn #4, "Truth Eternal," except for the abysmal Church-sanctioned recording.

Michael Franti, 1 song. I first heard "Say Hey (I Love You)" on that same post-fossil-excavation ride mentioned above. I have heard it other times on the radio and on Pandora. Strangely, one of my strongest memories of hearing it is traipsing around Salt Lake last October on a day I had three job interviews, one of which I ended up getting (and is the one I have now). When I ordered Owl City's All Things Bright and Beautiful on Amazon, I got another free download, and this was the winner.

I'm always up for new suggestions on good music!