Music is better when you don't know it

So, I just got a CD from a friend of mine. Not a professional album, but rather a CD that she compiled of music that she thought I would like. Unfortunately, my computer can't read any of the artists or song titles- if they existed- so I just have 19 songs here that I am completely ignorant from. This seems like the perfect opportunity for an objective judgement of the songs to me- think about it. If someone presented you with the exact same song, but one had your favourite musician as the artist and the second had Hanson, which would you pick? Assuming Hanson isn't your favourite artist. Then again, if they are you should probably stop reading this.

So, let's do a review of the album as we go, shall we? Not playing on shuffle- that's new to me.

Track 1 starts out quiet, but grows slowly throughout the song in both intensity and volume. I love that effect, from quiet and peaceful building up to a huge explosion of glory, and then right back down to the original calm. Perfection. This song has vocals, but they seem to fall back to the instruments here. It's all about the chords.

The second track opens with drums and nothing else. Not a big drum fan myself, but it might work. And it does. Once the vocals and guitar join, it's got quite a blissful feel to it. The line, "got a quarter in my pocket, hoping you pick up" really fits the tune I think. It's just a happy song about little things- no striving for a concerto or anything like that.

Track numero trois has a piano intro: this bodes well for my enjoyment. And it sounds vaguely familiar too, sadly. That ruins the objective view, really. I must have been shown this already. Very simple, just piano and some breathy vocals. Nice, but after the last song it's a bit too... boring, really. Male vocals entry! Oh, I do know this. I forget the song but in the video someone is a balloon, because she gets beheaded by some guy in an alley. Then the man comes along and picks her head up, which starts floating. So he turns it into a balloon and walks around with her head, that's started moving and appears to be alive still. Then some kid pops her face. Interesting.

Track 4 has a good poppy feeling to it. Happy major chords, you can just hear the singer smile, and some wonderful vocal trills. The lyrics aren't genius, but it's the sort of song where it really doesn't matter, you know? Oh. Um. the song FEELS happy, but I just picked up a line: "blood will rain down, run down the mountainsides." Bit of a misconnection between words and melody.

Fifth track has an interesting intro. Think little girls layered, but fed through a narrowing mic. It's hard to describe but a fascinating effect. The words here sound so forced. Every word is enunciated, pressed out, very little pause behind them. The only word I can think of is intense. It reminds me a little bit of Hide & Seek of Imogen Heap, not the vocals but the rest of the song is similar.

Track # 6 reminds me of my childhood. Nostalgia alert. Of course, it might be the peanut butter and banana and miches sandwich I'm eating. My only sustenance until I was about ten. Distinct asian vibes to it, with a pentatonic scale and lots of jingly bells.

Seven sounds like Ingrid Michaelson. Is it? Her voice is somewhat distinctive, but if I'm wrong then this is just embarrassing. Repetitive piano, duh duh dee duh, it's as if her fingers are just jumping about on the keyboard, here there split here. Nothing spectacular here.

The eighth track has a finger strumming intro. Same voice as 7, I really think it is Ingrid. Here comes the cello- or the base? Viola? Some sort of non-violin string.

9 takes a while to get into. It has the same repeated guitar and drumbeat for about eleven seconds before the vocals join... and still, the same basic tune. OH! I like this. Strong singing, the guitar is interesting and built up now; it feels like Shaye, if anyone gets that incredibly outdated reference. Remember this song? First link of the post- well done Jack. Yeah, nine is my favourite track so far. Lemme check... yep, goosebumps.

Well. Ten is a change. Sounds like spoken word, talksinging and short, harsh violin strokes. I wish I could say Ten was my favourite just for the doc who reference, but it doesn't even come close to the ninth one.

Track eleven has a nice breathy, folky intro. Simple strummed melody, some nice horns, and basic vocals. No huge bands here, no giant intensity, but it's the sort of thing you might hear at a summer fair. Elegant in its simplicity. Her voice isn't the strongest, but it's not thin. It sounds... young. Like a little girl.

So I know I said there were nineteen tracks up there- didn't I? Did I?- but I'm running out of time and this make such excellent blog fodder (blogder? New term!) that I'll postpone this until Tuesday. If nothing else, it'll make sure you stay tuned for then. If this was interesting at all, and not just a huge block of boring text. Either way- part 1 fin, part 2 in the works.