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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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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One of the things I’ve learned by recommending fabulous music for you guys is to always pay attention to interesting songs featured in movies or TV shows. I have previously featured several songs that are taken from the soundtracks of popular movies.
Today’s featured song is from the soundtrack of the immensely popular TV show Alias. I havn’t been able to watch the entire 5 seasons of the show when it was running, so I recently got them and started watching season 1. On the very first episode, a short but catchy song, by the Irish alternative rock band The Cranberries, was featured in a love scene between Sydney (the main character) and her boyfriend.
I looked up the song. It’s called Never Grow Old. It was the first song on The Cranberries’ 2001 record Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (mmm!). Honestly, the lyrics of this song are nothing to write home about. What I mainly like about it though is Dolores O’Riordan’s whisper-like singing voice and the song’s overall chilled-out style.
It’s really a shame the guys in this band went their separate ways in 2003. They had this unique quality in their music that you won’t find in any other band. Some of my best moments in college come back to me when I play back their songs (see recommended songs below).
I vividly remember a night when I was home after a long day of classes and we had a building blackout. Obviously I couldn’t do nothing but lie down and wait. But then I remembered that I copied The Cranberries album to my (then new) Pocket PC mobile. So I turned it on and started playing their songs. Without realizing, my phone’s battery ran out as well, and I risked losing all phone data (because that phone would lose all data if its battery completely runs out). So I had to quickly over to my friend’s place to recharge it. At the end of the day, the album was saved :)
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BONUS: Bryan Adams & Sarah McLachlan
Well I’m back with one last installment for the fabulous Canadian musicians series: a duet song by two of the artists we featured previously: Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan.
Truth is, I’ve been playing lots of Bryan Adams songs lately ever since I wrote about him. I couldn’t get enough so I went looking for more material and I stumbled by this soundtrack he composed for the animated film that was released in 2002 called: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
So I went ahead and watched the movie. It’s a pretty decent one that I highly recommend because it’s one of those few movies that (as a reviewer puts it):
In a time when Hollywood is making money by showing our weaknesses, despair, crime, drugs, and war, along comes this film which reminds us the concept of the "Indomitable Spirit". If you are feeling beaten down, this movie will free your mind and set you soaring. We all know how tough life can be, sometime we need to be reminded that persistence and courage will get us through. That’s what this film did for me and I hope it will for you.
Honestly, for me, the soundtrack is also what made this movie even more entertaining. Bryan Adams did an amazing job writing the songs of the movie along with Hans Zimmer. The song I’m featuring today was played in the ending credits along with Bryan’s famous Here I Am. It features background vocals of Sarah McLachlan, who also does a wonderful job of giving the song a much-needed feminine touch.
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Sometimes a bad movie isn't all that bad if, as part of its soundtrack, a song really makes it up for you.
I think that particularly applies to a movie I've seen lately. It's called Employee of the Month. It focuses on events that happen at a Costco-like store (and indeed filmed in a Costco store), where two co-workers, Zack (Dane Cook) and Vince (Dax Shepard), compete for the affection of the new cashier, Amy (Jessica Simpson). The script is very badly written, it's really neither a comedy nor a love story.
However, somewhere towards the end of the plot, a song got played that really caught my attention. Looking it up afterwards, it turns out to be one by a band I've never heard of called Highwater Rising. The song is called Wasted Days.
I dug up the whole Internet looking for this song but couldn't find it. So I looked up the song on Last.fm and requested it from some of the people who recently listened to it. Never thought it would work, but I got a message back from a lovely person who uploaded the song for me and sent me a link. What a lovely gesture!
So here is the song. I think you'll pretty much enjoy it. It's pretty laid back and easy to listen to. I especially love the guitar and drum works on this one.
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Way Back Into Love is a song from the film Music and Lyrics. There are two versions: a demo version (from the film) by Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore and the original version by Hugh Grant and Haley Bennett.
Music and Lyrics is a romantic comedy film released on February 2007. The film stars Hugh Grant as Alex Fletcher, a 1980s pop star and Drew Barrymore as Sophie Fisher, a former English literature university major. It chronicles their attempt at writing a song for singer Cora Corman (Haley Bennett).
Ok a little confession is in order: I'm secretly in love with Drew Barrymore! Yep, she is that gorgeous and I've been a big fan of her ever since I saw her with Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates.
But that's not the reason I'm posting this song today. Well, actually it might be part of it :) But the song really deserves special attention because of the touching lyrics and beautiful melody. Watching this movie, you get to see how this song gets written and played step by step and that really tells something about what goes into song writing. Plus did I mention that Drew is plain gorgeous? Oh, I guess I did.
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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for the first time Rob Thomas manages to knock me off my feet with this hit single which he released in January early this year. I’m usually quite resistant to Rob’s stuff because there’s something about his voice that aggravates me. However, this song is way different, for some reason.
The song is part of the soundtrack of a new computer-animated film produced by Walt Disney called Meet the Robinsons, which was just released a week ago in US and UK. I’ve yet to see the movie (usually I’m not big on computer-animated films, but few of them manage to be really entertaining for me like The Incredibles).
Anyways, back to the song. Click here to download →
