日志

The sidebar in my profile gives a brief synopsis of my taste in music, but it doesn't explain anything in detail. First, I usually listen to music to accompany other activities rather than setting aside periods of time to just listen to music. So, one of the most important factors affecting what I listen to is what I'm doing. I commonly listen to music while writing, reading, working, and exercising. For reading, I like to listen to music that helps me focus. For focusing, I often prefer instrumental music, though music with lyrics is fine as long as my attention isn't drawn to them too much. A steady rhythm, such as found in rock or fusion, often helps me focus, but when I'm already focused and just need to avoid distractions, ambient music can be best. For writing, working, and exercising, I often enjoy something that helps me move. In general, much of the music I listen to has to be good for focusing and moving. Other factors that are important to me are intellectual interest, emotional appeal…

I am writing this journal because I think a lot of people are curious why I listen to so much Nordic music. I'm going to direct people to this journal whenever they ask why I listen to a lot of Nordic music.
My Story
Note: This is pretty long. If you want to read an overview and a possible reason why I prefer Nordic music read the next section.
When I first came to last.fm as a thirteen year old I only listened to three artists. They were Ladytron, Metric and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I really wanted to discover new music. I discovered a lot of new music. One problem I had was that most indie music sounded bland to me. Two artists that stood out to me were both from Sweden. They were The Knife and The Sounds.
I also got into Björk, an artist who I used to think was a bit too weird for me. The person who let me borrow her Björk CD, also introduced me to Metric and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That made her recommendation more trustworthy. She also recommended PJ Harvey, Ani DiFranco and Jewel. I haven't really gotten into them. I still have some of their songs on my iTunes.
After I got into Björk and The Knife last.fm started to recommend Nordic music. I felt a bit intimidated because back then Nordic music was foreign and new for me. When I got into Icelandic music I discovered a few artists that actually sang in Icelandic. This was new for me. After I listened to a lot of Icelandic music I got interested in learning the Icelandic language. When I was learning Icelandic I also learned about Icelandic culture in general.
…

Well if you haven't heard, radio station Triple J is running a poll to find out the best songs of the last twenty years (1993 to 2012). Everyone gets twenty votes and I can tell you, it's tough finding 20 songs from out of my absolute favourites. It's taken me more than a week, so...

Here it is, the final list in no particular order:

Daft Punk - Aerodynamic (2001)
The Presets - My People (2008)
The Whitlams - Melbourne (1997)
Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains (1995)
Korn - Freak on a Leash (1998)
Ladytron - The Lovers (2008)
Ministry - Lay Lady Lay (1996)
Nine Inch Nails - Closer (1994)
Muse - Hysteria (2003)
Pulp - Disco 2000 (1995)
The Distillers - Coral Fang (2003)
The Grates - Burn Bridges (2008)
Kaiser Chiefs - I Can Do It Without You (2007)
The Prodigy - Voodoo People (1994)
The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings (1995)
Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? (1999)
Radiohead - Paranoid Android (1997)
Röyksopp - Happy Up Here (2009)
The Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun (1997)
…

I had to make a Sawdust & Diamonds compilation for a few reasons, firstly so that I had the song more readily available in the car without just having the Ys disc in there, and also just to get a few other songs in that I've been listening to, particularly Passion Pit's Swinning In The Flood.

So this is it.

1. Bat for Lashes - Bat's Mouth (4:25)
2. Björk - All neon like (5:53)
3. Passion Pit - Swimming in the Flood (4:58)
4. Bent - Sing me (5:17)
5. DZihan & Kamien - Drophere (4:29)
6. Washed Out - A Dedication (4:17)
7. Hurts - The Crow (5:33)
8. Bent - As you fall (3:37)
9. Madita - A Walk (3:24)
10. Bat for Lashes - Laura (4:26)
11. Joanna Newsom - Sawdust & Diamonds (9:55)
12. Bat For Lashes - I Saw A Light (6:24)
13. Last Days - Hanami - (3:35)
14. Susanna - Lily (2:34)
15. Colin Kenniff Ft. Hollie Kenniff - Wind and Distance (5:43)
16. Peter Broderick - Pause (4:48)

O Japão sempre foi visto em sua vida musical com destaque pelas suas cantoras e seus timbres um tanto peculiares, porém muito semelhantes entre si. Aqui estão listadas 10 cantoras cujas vozes valem a pena serem ouvidas, mesmo que o gênero das mesmas não agradem elas se destacam, seja pelo seus timbres ou pela sua originalidade. vale lembrar que este post é pessoal e não reflete uma opinião pública, mas sim pessoal. Agora vamos lá.

10° アンジェラ・アキ
Não bastasse ser linda e instrumentista, a pianista Angela Aki se destaca na décima posição da lista pela sua bela, doce e incomparável voz. A cantora lançou-se no ano 2000 nos EUA, mas foi no Japão que debutou, além de ser metade italiana, metade japonesa, sabe cantar inglês fluentemente. De suas produções destacam-se 告白, Kiss Me Good-Bye e This Love.

9° 宇多田ヒカル
A cantora de JPop Utada Hikaru se destaca dentre suas "concorrentes" pela sua voz peculiar, muito calma. O Pop de Utada acompanha sua serenidade…

Made from 1st March to 1st April. I have tried to limit it to a maximum of 3 tracks per artist but sometimes remixes and collaborations will technically take some artists over 3, too much effort to think about that though.

Spotify playlist is here (270/400)

Youtube playlists: Part 1 / Part 2 (396/400)

Blog: Soon (At some point I'll write a blog so I can say a bit about each track, but it will take a while)

FAQ:

Why 400?

Because you can have 200 in a Youtube playlist, 200 wouldn't have been enough, 600+ would have been a struggle. 400 seemed doable.

Some tracks are down on the Youtube playlist.

I'll come back to the Youtube playlists occasionally and replace the dead tracks but I'm not going to do it everyday, sometimes some tracks will be taken down in-between.

I can't play some tracks in Spotify / there are tracks on Spotify you haven't added.

Some stuff on Spotify is country-specific, obviously I'm in the UK so only tracks that are available to UK users will be there.
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