ARTIST: PINK FLOYDSONG: ATOM HEART MOTHER SUITE [23:44, 1970]SOUNDS LIKE: YOUR FAVORITE FILM SCORE, BUT BETTER
This song should be the soundtrack to your life. Coming in at just under twenty-four minutes, this epic track uses swelling brass instruments and a wide range of strings and keyboard crescendos to convey a feeling of intense surrealism. If you listen to this song, you’re guaranteed to be imagining yourself in impossible scenarios, escaping within inches of your life.
-John Harrison
Artist: Celine DionSong: Taking ChancesSounds Like: What music should sound like
Celine Dion’s newest album appropriately titled Taking Chances contains16 songs, all of which are examples of what music should sound like. In today’s world where we are constantly being bombarded with noise that is called music, and cuss words called lyrics, it is nice to be able to take a break from the constant banging and shouting radiating from our car stereos, and sit back and hear a voice that hits all the notes, and takes you back to a time where you remember what music is supposed to sound like. It’s an insult to the great pioneers of music, such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and many others when we live in a world that recognizes people like Amy Winehouse, but ignores the talent that exists and is never given an opportunity to showcase it. I am glad to see Celine come back and do what she does best. In the world we live in today, Taking Chances does just that: It takes a chance to be different, to be unique, but most of all, to be capable and timeless. Thank you Celine, for showing us that good music is everlasting. -Sarah E. Markoff
Artist: Ghostface KillahSong: Be Easy feat. Trife [3:24, 2006]Sounds Like: A Straight-up Staten Island Block Party
A hard-hitting drum line, a bunch of guys yelling, and battle lyrics like only Ghostface can spit. What you have here is a real life Staten Island block party in your CD player. What’s so great about this song is that it contains all the elements of what makes real hip hop music so appealing, and takes you back to the days before the invasion of mainstream rap music on our radios. Some songs are nice to chill out to, some songs make you think, but this song makes you want to turn your car stereo up to maximum, roll all your windows down, cram as many friends into your car as you possibly can, drive down the block, and yell the hook at the top of your lungs. It is physically impossible to be unhappy while listening to this song. -Paul Sieger