I can’t believe I went this far with my music recommendations without featuring one of my all-time favorite bands, ever!
It puzzles me why the indie English alternative rock band, Embrace, have not received such world-wide recognition and appeal like similar bands such as Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol. To date they have released 5 studio albums. If you were to ask me, I’d say Embrace’s signature style of music, mostly based on piano rock, is a fabulous one that produced some fine collection of mostly amazing and well-crafted songs (check the recommended songs below). In fact, today’s featured song, Nature’s Law, is a true testament to that.
Nature’s Law is the leading single from Embrace’s latest 2006 studio album, This New Day. It was released a week prior to the album release charting at number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, the band’s highest chart entry to date (although there’s some controversy that it should have been a number 1 single).
I remember when this song came out in 2006 and I got to hear the sample in a promotional page for the song, I was completely and utterly hooked to the melody right in the first few seconds. In a way, it’s a sturdy, uplifting song with a powerful message (although one might disagree with the song’s invitation to simply follow "nature’s law", wherever that path might lead you into).
There are also some other fabulous songs in this album, which collectivly contribute to making This New Day one of Embrace’s finest and most successful records to date!
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Travis is a British indie pop band that’s been awarded British album of the year twice at the annual BRIT Awards. They’re often credited with having paved the way for bands such as Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol, all of which are all-time favorite bands of mine. I actually came to know of Travis when I was browsing a Keane forum site back in 2004.
Closer is the first single from their 2007 studio album, The Boy with No Name. I have to admit that very few songs of Travis’s material appeal to me, but this song was an instant favorite when I heard it for the first time. It has a gorgeous chorus melody that’s very heart-warming. Unfortunately, this is about the only song that stands out from their latest album, which forces me to file Travis under "bands with occasional decent records".
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Not to be confused with my other favorite Bryan Adams, Ryan Adams is a country and rock and roll singer/songwriter. I haven’t heard of him or his music until one of his songs was featured in the first season of Alias (yeah I know, Alias has given me a wonderful selection of tunes to post on this blog).
Admittedly, Ryan’s music did not quite appeal to me. However, the song I’m featuring in this post, called La Cienega Just Smiled, is an exception. When I heard it on Alias, it immediately caught my ears due to its beautiful laid-back and easy-listening nature. It’s a song to kickback and relax to. I hope you enjoy it.
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Here is a living proof that reality TV shows can indeed bring out talented singers to the spotlights. Winner of the UK talent show, The X Factor, for 2005, Shayne Ward is just a musical wonder. Even though he may still be considered a youngster having produced only his debut album, he is by far way above the average. He has one of the most extraordinary voices I’ve heard in a long time. He also sings with such passion you can almost say this guy’s been through what’s he’s singing about.
The song in this post is from his debut self-titled 2006 album. It’s called A Better Man. It kind of reminds me of my old favorite Robbie William’s song: Better Man. Speaking of whom, Robbie has made a comment that Shayne Ward is on his way to become a "future star". That’s big coming from such a international musical icon.
Overall, I’ll be watching for more to come from Shayne. He really struck a cord with me, and I’m sure he will with you or anybody who appreciates good old pop music full of meaning, melody and passion.
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Coldplay is one of my all-time favorite alternative rock bands. There’s just no doubt about that. While most of their earlier material wasn’t so appealing to me, their latest record, X&Y, was a huge hit with me, as it was with the 1270+ customers at Amazon who rated it an overall score of 4/5.
Almost all of the songs in this record are worth posting. However, I had to pick the song that scored the most playback time for me. In this case, it was Swallowed by the Sea.
This song, apart from being a really catchy tune, contains a lot of meaning and symbolism, which can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Personally, this song holds a special meaning for me and that person who walked into my life and "made me realize what I could not see".
I also like the part where he sings:
Oh what good is it to live
With nothing left to give
Forget but not forgive
Not loving all you see
These simple words tell the story of how we as human beings strive for self-fulfillment through giving and caring. We’re also creatures of forgetfulness and that’s a blessing from God, because not all times we can forgive those who we cared about but hurt us. And through these experiences, we keep learning that not everything is what it seems to be and we’re not supposed to fall in love with everything we see.
Three powerful messages in 4 simple lines, this song is simply amazing!
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I’m an avid music lover, so I have a knack for spotting parts of songs that would make great ringtones. Since getting my Sony Ericsson K750i in 2004, I’ve been gradually building up a library of personally crafted ringtones.
The process is simple: when I’m listening to a great song and part of it just sounds like a perfect ringtone, I’d launch up my free and trustworthy Audacity. Audacity is a free, open-source audio editing and mixing application. Then I’ll load up the song in Audacity, find the part that seems perfect for a ringtone, cut out either ends and apply fade-in/out as necessary to perfect it.
Using this method, I’ve compiled over 30 ringtones from various songs in the English and Arabic musical worlds. It just occurred to me yesterday that I’ve yet to share those MP3 ringtones with you guys, so here they are. I hope you like them:
Click here to download →
Give You Back is yet another great song from the soundtrack of the first episode of Alias. It was an immediate favorite and I had to check out the band, called Vertical Horizon. I listened to more of their stuff. They play alternative rock along the lines of Goo Goo Dolls (another favorite band of mine, who by the way I haven’t featured yet!).
For more great stuff from Vertical Horizon, check out the recommended songs section.
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In time for my return from India, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to explore world music, starting with Indian music. When I was leaving to India, a friend of mine asked me to get some instrumental Indian music. Granted, this type of oriental music can be really soothing at times.
One of my training instructors was a music lover. He used to play music on his laptop until everybody gathered in the morning. I asked him once if he could recommend any such type of music. I was looking specifically for instrumental music, because as far as Indian singing is concerned:
- I don’t understand a word of it.
- It annoys the hell out of me (I’m talking specifically about those high-pitched female Indian vocalists).
So in the last day of training, the trainer played a beautiful composition that took my breath away. I asked him about the artist and he said it was A. R. Rahman, an Indian internationally renowned musician, best known for composing film scores and soundtracks. The song playing, Bombay Theme, was from the soundtrack of the award-winning 1995 feature film, Bombay. I haven’t seen the movie, but I have seen how enormously talented A. R. Rahman is. I have recently downloaded more of his film scores and he literally blew me away with the sophistication and diversity of his instrumental composition. I also like the fact that he is a converted Muslim (according to his Wikipedia page), which just makes me proud, especially seeing the many achievements he’s made along his career path.
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