Seven Songs For Seven Somethings

Maybe weeks would be more appropriate at this juncture? I am gonna keep it short so this is not quite the monumental endeavor that it normally is.

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Whatever you think of funk, guitar, George Clinton, or Eddie Hazel, you better like this song. The sound is just outright ferocious - there's an apocryphal story that Clinton told Hazel to play "like his mother had just died." I would say that's a pretty apt description; the man sounds like his soul is on fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3bleXWaCk

Manowar - Odin
Besides my fascination with all things Norse, this song has some of my favorite elements of music - ever. One thing I tend to get giddy over is when a song by a band pulls in small parts of another song; here, Manowar pulls in bits of "Army of the Dead" off the same album. The piece they repeat is actually another of my favorite things: giant vocal melodies layered to create insane harmonies. The solo leading into the gang chorus isn't too bad either. Manowar's vocalist's name escapes me at the moment, but the particular piece where he lets it rip really showcases how good this super cheesy band can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epDVnBvCFIs

XV - Awesome
I would like to pat myself on the back for finding yet another not-too-well-known hip hop guy with catchy-as-fuck songs and upbeat lyrics. Good job, me. And good job to XV for producing an intelligent, classy mixtape full of some really good songs. I'll be curious to hear a more recent full length (hopefully coming up soon). 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaJDfBUw-XM

Nevermore - Sell My Heart For Stones
I'm not actually a big fan of Nevermore. They're pretty well-accepted as ballin' in the world of extreme metal - they don't fuck around with making big, complex songs with strong lyrical and music content. It might be the singer's voice - Warrel Dane has a strange, highly affected style - high and tremulous at points. When he wants to open up, though, it's really impressive. That's exactly what the chorus in this song is - slamming drums and guitars and Warrel Dane letting it rip. Well worth a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afYDNN8HoK0

Jurgen Vries - The Theme
I suppose this is the song that doesn't belong. I have a little bit of a soft spot for electronic music that is impossibly infectious, and this qualifies. Try listening once to the main line and not having it in your head for a few weeks.

Good luck.

PS: I've had a devil of a time actually finding where you can legally procure the vocal mix of this song - if anyone knows, I'd appreciate it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrQ3blJcQ5A

Mercenary - Lost Reality
Mercenary is one of the many bands in the second wave of melodic death metal that I feel like, in general, encompasses acts like Skyfire, Kalmah, Noumena, Insomnium, etc. There were far more, of course, but those are the few that really have survived and not been winnowed out by the cruel cullers of unoriginality that are music listeners.

Lyrically this song is a little weak, sadly - I often mishear the higher sung words and hope or imagine they're something more awesome than what they are. But the music is what Mercenary does well - driving aggressive songs full of melody and good singing contrasted with distorted vocals and more difficult blasting sections of rhythm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ov5SSVobm0

The Alan Parsons Project - Wouldn't Want To Be Like You
I've been listening to the Alan Parsons Project for about as long as I've been listening to music in general. The band accompanies Survivor, Steely Dan, Huey Lewis, Toto, the Police, and Steve Winwood as the first real stuff I paid attention to when it was playing in our house. There was plenty more played than that, of course - my dad has a terrible habit of putting on Handel or other classical music when he is grading papers, but I wasn't particularly interested in hearing any of it. Especially since he seemed to think that since he was working, everyone else should be as well.

The Alan Parsons Project is interesting in that its a rotating cast of musicians and singers - and thus the tone of songs can drastically vary inside an album as the singers interchange. Adding to that, the albums themselves are usually pretty strongly stuck on one theme; one takes its name from Isaac Aasimov's most famous novel, another is based on gambling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8suW-JBzE