Name of iTunes Playlist: Forgotten Favorites Rules: Rating is ***** (5 stars). Play count is greater than 5. Skip count is less than 4. Last played is not in the last 24 months. Date added is not in the last 24 months. [See all lists.]
Top 10 From the List
1. "Dreams" by TV on the Radio ("Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes"). Play Count: 22. Last played: Sept. 18, 2006.
2. "The Good Times Are Killing Me" by Modest Mouse ("Good News for People Who Love Bad News"). Play Count: 21. Last played: July 30, 2006.
3. "Keep on Breathing" by The Delgados ("Universal Audio"). Play Count: 20. Last Played: Aug. 27, 2006. 4. "Last Broadcast" by Doves ("The Last Broadcast"). Play Count: 20. Last Played: May 30, 2006.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRy8N1P1EUI&hl=en&fs=1]
5. "Dreaming of You" by The Coral ("The Coral"). Play Count: 19. Last Played: March 26, 2006.
6. "Silverscreen" by Jesca Hoop ("Silverscreen Demos"). Play Count: 18. Last Played: Aug. 27, 2006.
7. "Dear Catastrophe Waitress," by Belle & Sebastian ("Dear Catastrophe Waitress"). Play count: 17. Last Played: Sept. 18, 2006.
8. "There's Too Much Love," by Belle & Sebastian ("Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant"). Play Count: 16. Last Played: Aug. 16, 2005.
9. "The Wrong Girl," by Belle & Sebastian ("Fold Your Hands etc."). Play Count: 15. Last Played: Sept. 18, 2006.
10. "At the Bottom of Everything," by Bright Eyes ("I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning"). Play Count: 13. Last Played: May 28, 2005.
Annotation: Some favorite songs stay in rotation through the years, but others are forgotten for one reason or another. This smart playlist is intended to remind me of songs that I played heavily then forgot. Some were simply played out, overplayed. Or whatever drew me to them is no longer there, for one reason or another.
Some strike me as embarrassing: Modest Mouse?
Others surprise me: Is it really two years since I played the excellent "Dreams" by TV on the Radio? I'll play it right now, and restore it to the list of favorites I still play. I still remember the Delgados and Doves cuts as if they were yesterday, I'll probably play them now. What a pleasant surprise to see them again.
I am still fond of the Glasgow ensemble Belle & Sebastian, love their lyrics and their sound, but after burning through that oeuvre at warp speed I no longer play them obsessively, trying to figure out what they're getting at in those enigmatic lyrics about love and books and tragedy and disappointment. It was more clearly a phase, I guess. They were already pretty well established before they came to my attention, and most of their best stuff seems to have been written in the mid-90s. This title song is not the best of the cuts on "Catastrophe Waitress," so it's no surprise I haven't listened in a while, but "Wrong Girl" still resonates. I feel no need to play it, though. There is more, too much more, Belle and Sebastan further down the list, after #10, with a few brief infatuations like "Stacy's Mom" from Fountains of Wayne.
The Coral was a brief fling. I remember buying the CD at Tower Records on the Upper West Side, knowing nothing about them except what I could glean from the listening post setup in the store with their terrible headsets. It may have been the last time I was in that store, or any big record store, years ago now.
The Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes album "Wide Awake etc." is his best -- the histrionics and goofy digressions are kept to a minimum -- but this is not actually one of the better songs on that record. I still play some of the others, but this one dropped out of rotation. I remember it having a Buddhist flavor. It's starts with a monologue about a plane crash that gets old after a while.
I'm glad to see some strong female vocalists on here -- Jesca Hoop and half of The Delgados. Lower on the list (not shown here), some Rilo Kiley. I first heard Hoop on KCRW, a demo track, and it took some detective work to hunt it down.
The Delgados reached a high mark with "Universal Audio." The song "Keep on Breathing" has a meditative quality, and it can still give me chills. It also must have had some resonance that year, as I recovered from massive blood clots that nearly destroyed my lungs.
Am I still the person who listened to this music so much a couple of years ago? I am not sure, but I have kept breathing, at least.