Pick Word #40 - Modern

1. The Phoenix Foundation - Modern Rock

2. The Arcade Fire - Modern Man
3. Watson Twins - Modern Man
4. The Strokes - The Modern Age

5. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Modern Romance

Pick Word #39 - Ordinary

1. Duran Duran - Ordinary World
2. Patrick Watson - Just Another Ordinary Day
3. Here We Go Magic - Ordinary Feeling
4. Sade - No Ordinary Love
5. Eels - Ordinary Man

Pick Word #38 - Noise

1. The Cure - Signal to Noise
2. Archive - Noise (Live at the Zenith)
3. The Verve - Love is Noise
4. Arcade Fire - Ocean of Noise

5. Ex Cops - White Noise

Pick Word #37 - Ophelia

1. Natalie Merchant - Ophelia
2. Marila Hackman - Ophelia

3. Borough - Ophelia

4. Orchidee Noire - Ophelia

5. Dance for the Dying - Ophelia

Pick Word #36 - Miles

1. Reamonn - Million Miles


2. Gomez - Miles End

3. Jason Lytle - A Thousand Miles from Nowhere (Dwight Yoakam Cover)

4. New Order - 60 Miles an Hour

5. Maya Isacowitz - All of the Miles

Pick Word #35 - Sleepless

1. Andy Stott - Sleepless

2. The Decemberists - Sleepless

3. Rachel Goswell - Sleepless and Tooting


4. Kate Havnevik - Sleepless
5. Alex Kaneko - For Sleepless Minds

Fog (Pick Word #33)

1. From Indian Lakes - Fog 

2. Interpol - Fog Vs. Mould for the Length of Love


3. Los Jardines de Brusales - Fog in Australia
4. Mercury Rev - Nite and Fog

5. The Walls - Out of the Fog

Grace (Pick Word #29)

Grace is a well known term which appears on the Theological writings, speaking of the divine gift which is given to sinners in order to help them to find the right way. It is also a feminine given name, taken from the Latin name Gratia. While digging in my music folders, I've found five great songs about Grace by Grant Lee Buffalo, Elbow, Jeff Buckley, Magnolia Electric Co. and The Mountain Goats, hoping you'd like them too...

Grant Lee Buffalo - Grace (Taken From Fuzzy, 1993)

Elbow - Grace Under Pressure (Taken From Cast Of Thousands, 2003)

Jeff Buckley - Grace (Taken From Grace, 1994)

Magnolia Electric Co. - O Grace! (Taken From Josephine, 2009)

The Mountain Goats - Ezekiel 7 And The Permanent Efficacy Of Grace (Taken From The Life Of The World To Come, 2009)

Mistake (Pick Word #33)

We all do mistakes. Some of them are big (Natalie Imbruglia), some of them are ours (Smashing Pumpkins); Sometimes it's just a mistake (Moby), sometimes it's an honnest (?!) one (The Bravery) and sometimes we keep doing it (The Beautiful Girls). One thing is for sure, we'd rather avoid them...

The Bravery - An Honnest Mistake (The Bravery, 2005)

Moby - Mistake (Wait For Me, 2009)

Natalie Imbruglia -Big Mistake (Left Of The Middle, 1997)

 

The Smashing Pumpkins - My Mistake (Judas O, 2001)

 

The Beautiful Girls - My Latest Mistake (Spooks, 2010)

Cathedral (Pick Word #32)

When I travelled to Paris at the start of this millennium, I was amazed by the beauty of the Cathedrals and churches which we saw so often. I tried to imagine how it was thousand years ago, when the rule of religion was stronger than these days. Meanwhile, here are five songs about Cathedrals By Tanita Tikaram, Macklemore And Ryan Lewis, Red House Painters, The Decemberists and Kristin Hersh

Tanita Tikaram - Cathedral Song (Taken From Ancient Heart, 1988)

Macklemore And Ryan Lewis - Neon Cathedral (Taken From The Heist, 2012)

Red House Painters - Grace Cathedral Park (Taken From Red House Painters, 1993)

 

The Decemberists - Grace Cathedral Hill (Taken From Castaways And Outcuts, 2002)

 

Kristin Hersh - Cathedral Heat (Taken From Sky Motel, 1999)

Hill (Pick Word #31)

When I was a young child, I lived in a small town surrounded by beautiful endless green fields and a view to the sea. But most of all, I loved the little hill, where I found myself running up and down without any particular purpose. It seems that many songs were written about hills, five of them by The Beatles (Of course...), Marketa Irglova, PJ Harvey, Emma Pollock and Gorillaz, which I find wonderful and intersting are here. Enjoy

The Beatles - The Fool On The Hill (Taken From Magical Mystery Tour, 1967)

Emma Pullock - House On The Hill (Taken From The Law Of Large Nunmbers, 2010)

Marketa Irglova - The Hill (Taken From Once OST, 2007)

PJ Harvey - On Battleship Hill (Taken From Let England Shake, 2011)

Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill (Taken From Plastic Beach, 2010)

Blue (Pick Word #30)

That's been a wonderful day today with a blue sky and beautiful sunshine. It reminded me of some songs about the Blue color, so here are five of them by Passangers, Moby, Elbow, Nick Drake and Cocteau Twins. Seems that I'll publish more notes about this beautiful color.

Passangers - Your Blue Room (Taken From Original Soundtracks 1, 1995)

Moby - Into The Blue (Taken From Everything Is Wrong, 1995)

Elbow - Powder Blue (Taken From Asleep In The Back, 2001)

Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll (Taken From Blue Bell Knoll, 1988)

Nick Drake - Way To Blue (Taken From Five Leaves Left, 1969)

Empire (Pick Word #28)

We're living in the modern age, in which the idea of Empire is no longer used in its classic form. In contrast to the Roman Empire or the Persian Empire, we can see the forecast fall of the world's greatest economic and ideological lighthouse, USA, while the emergence of China as the new Empire might be completed in the next few years. If the classic empire tried to invade new territories in order to expand its control over natural sources, today the struggle field concentrates in economic advantages and ex-Territorial fields such as the cybernetic space. Still, we can find some artists who sing about their own views about empires such as The National, Manic Street Preachers, Gorillaz, Andrew Bird and Kasabian. which kind of empire do you like the most?

The National - Fake Empire (Taken From Boxer, 2007)

Manic Street Preachers - My Little Empire (Taken From This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours, 1998)

Kasabian - Empire (Taken From Empire, 2006)

Andrew Bird - Scythian Empire (Taken From Armchair Apocrypha, 2007)

Gorillaz - Empire Ants (Featuring Little Dragon, Taken From Plastic Beach, 2010)

Milk (Pick Word #27)

Milk is the first liquid we drink when we are born. Naturally, we get it from our mothers but we can see that more people use milk substitutes instead of the real thing. Meanwhile, dairy farms worldwide produced over 730 million tonnes of milk in 2011. We also know that China and Russia are the world leading importers of  milk products, India is the world leading consumer of milk and New Zealand, EU, USA and Australia are the leaders in exporting. So here are five songs which might (Or not) make you go to the refrigerator and drink a cold glass of this tasty beverage by Beck, Sea Oleena, Massive Attack, Nick Drake and Garbage. 

Beck - Milk And Honey (Taken From Midnite Vultures, 1999)

Sea Oleena - Milk (Taken From Sleeplessness, 2011)

Massive Attack - Black Milk (Taken From Mezzanine, 1998)

 

Nick Drake - Milk And Honey (Taken From The Family Tree, 2007)

Garbage - Milk (Taken From Garbage, 1995)

Dumb (Pick Word #26)

Being Dumb means you're unable to speak because of speech disorders. If once it was a disorder which meant that you could never get along in this world, then these days, if we put aside our prejudice, most of the obstacles of being Dumb has been removed due to technological development. You can see dumb people speak to each other using Skype or Mobile Devices (Of the third generation and up), which help them conduct a visual conversation, you can also purchase all the products you need without speaking to any person via Internet. Sometimes being some people wishing being Dumb in a certain situation which finds them speechless, here is one song which deals with that (and four other songs about the kind of Dumbness you can not resolve...) by Cocteau Twins, Nirvana, Garbage, Sufjan Stevens and Grandaddy

Garbage - Dumb (Taken From Version 2.0, 1998)

Nirvana - Dumb (Taken From In Utero, 1993)

Cocteau Twins - Blind, Dumb, Deaf (Taken From Garlands, 1982)

Sufjan Stevens - Dumb I Sound (Taken From A Sun Came, 2000)

Grandaddy - He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot (Taken From The Sophtware Slump, 2000)

Dare (Pick Word #25)

It seems that I've got a pretty eclectic morning today because I can't understand how did  I managed to listen to Stone Temple Pilots on the one hand and The Pointer Sisters on the other. Well, sometimes music takes you to a surprising trip through wonderful unheard (yet) music, you just have to Dare and leave your place as Dr. Seuss suggests in one of his famous books. So here are five songs about Dare from The Pointer Sisters, Gorillaz, Stone Temple Pilots, The Replacements and Kaiser Chiefs, hoping you'd like it...

Gorillaz - Dare (Taken From Demon Days, 2005)

 

The Replacements - I Will Dare (Taken From Let It Be, 1984)

The Pointer Sisters - Dare Me (Taken From Contact, 1985)

Stone Temple Pilots - Dare If You Dare (Taken From Stone Temple Pilots, 2010)

 

Kaiser Chiefs - I Dare You (Taken From The Future Is Medieval, 2011)

Suzanne (Pick Word #24)

Suzanne is a common female given name, which was popular, especially in the US in the 1950's and 1960's. It was listed among the 200 popular given names in the US from 1930-1980. The origin of the name might come from the Hebrew name Shoshannah which means lily in English. Anyway, most of us heard Leonard Cohen's famous song about a girl named Suzanne, but I managed to find four more songs by Lou Reed, Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions, John Mellencamp and Anna Calvi, who dedicated their songs to this beautiful name.

Anna Calvi - Suzanne And I (Taken From Anna Calvi, 2011)

John Mellencamp - Suzanne And The Jewels (Taken From Human Wheels, 1993)

Hope Sandoval And Warm Inventions - Suzanne (Taken From Bavarian Fruit Bread, 2001)

Lou Reed - I Love You, Suzanne (Taken From New Sensations, 1984)

Leonard Cohen - Suzanne (Taken From Songs Of Leonard Cohen, 1967)

Chemistry (Pick Word #23)

When I was a student in high school, I liked Chemistry classes because of it always seems to me the closest  thing to innovation and entrepreneurship, which always interested me. Chemistry is a branch of Physics which explains the composition, properties and behaviour of the matter. As such it depends primly on the Periodic Table, first developed by Dmitri Mandeleev in 1869, and contains right now 118 Chemical elements. Chemistry is currently used in all fields of life from medical treatment to food industries and it's expanding its boundaries rapidly. As part of Lesson For Life series, I found five songs which deals with this magnificent science by Unkle, Donna Regina, Suede, Queens Of The Stone Age and Peter And The Wolf.

Unkle - Chemistry (Taken From War Stories, 2007)

 

Donna Regina - Bad Chemistry (Taken From Late, 2003)

 

Suede - The Chemistry Between Us (Taken From Coming Up, 1996)

 

Peter And The Wolf - Chemistry Set (Taken From Golden Stars, 2010)

 

Queens Of The Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry (Taken From Rates R, 2000)

Martha (Pick Word #22)

Martha was a biblical figure who lived in Bethany near Jerusalem. She had one brother, Lazarus, and one sister named Mary. Her story in the Bible was written about her request of Jesus to come and heal dying Lazarus. Jesus has arrived to Bethany a few days after Lazarus died but he raised him from the dead in one of the famous miracle stories in the Bible. Later on, according to the Provencal Golden Legend, Martha came to Tarascon, helping the population there to fight a scary monster which threatened them for a long time. Finally, she died and buried there. Many songs where written about "The Mistress" (That's the Hebrew meaning of the name Martha), so I've collected five of them for you, as part of Name The Girl project, sung by Lisa Hannigan, The Innocence Mission, The Smashing Pumpkins, Jefferson Airplane and All About Eve...

Lisa Hannigan - Martha (Tom Waits cover version)

The Innocence Mission - Martha Avenue Love Song (Taken From Befriended, 2003)

The Smashing Pumpkins - For Martha (Taken From Adore, 1998)

Jefferson Airplane - Martha (Taken From After Bathing At Baxter's, 1967)

 

All About Eve - Martha's Harbour (Taken From All About Eve, 1988)

Josephine (Pick Word #21)

Josephine is a female given name, which is the feminine form of the male name Joseph from the Holy Bible. It is also known as the English version of the French name. Josephine was the name of Napoleon Bonaparte and other princesses or queens in Europe. I found myself wondering about this name after listening to Magnolia Electric Co's last album Josephine (2009), after it was announced that the leading singer of that group Jason Molina has died. So here are five beautiful songs I've found about that name by: Reamonn, The Wallflowers, The Magnetic Fields, Josh Woodward and Magnolia Electric Co. of course....

The Wallflowers - Josephine (Taken From Bringing Down The Horse, 1996)

 

The Magnetic Fields - Josephine (Taken From Distant Plastic Trees, 1991)

 

Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine (Taken From Josephine, 2009)

 

Reamonn - Josephine (Taken From Tuesday, 2000)

Josh Woodward - I'll Be Right Behind You, Josephine (Taken From Only Whispering, 2006)