Sorry for two giant posts in a row
bono_212
Absolutely wonderful playlist, Ashley. That was a real treat to listen to. I'm marveling at the way it all goes together so seamlessly. You have all these songs mixed up in an order that I would have never thought possible, but holy shit, they go together so well. I'm looking at the list and seeing, for example, Marillion into Steve Perry and thinking, that can't be good. But it was. The only hiccup I could find was Ruby Tuesday into Walk Away Renee, and that's only because the latter starts so suddenly because of its original source. I also think it would have been cool to keep the instrumental intro that leads into Maggie May on here, as it would have sounded great after Okkervil River (it's featured as a single track on many compilations, although I understand they are separate on Every Picture Tells A Story).
Rosalita would have been a great inclusion, but for what you were going for, no way it would have worked with it being so long. Candy's Room makes up for it anyway. Although I protest the omission of Betty Davis Eyes.
Yeah, that Marillion into Steve Perry transition was actually one I had been planning from the very inception of the competition, mostly as a gentle jab in Axver's direction. He was the one who turned me onto that song in the first place and it always amused me how much it sounds like an 80s power ballad.
There was a lot of back and forth on whether or not I was going to end up using Maggie May or not, because of the length and then I was reminded that a single edit existed. I hate losing the intro, it's my favorite part, but, I had this stupid idea to fit my playlist to a track # length, so I was stuck.
Rosalita was a very difficult cut to make, you can rest assured it was on the original list.
It just leaves Bette Davis Eyes for another list someday, though! Thank you for the kind words!
bono_212:
Really, really enjoyed this Ashley. Fun/unique theme, pretty good flow, and lots of great songs. My favorite new discoveries here are The Magnetic Fields' 'Candy'(might have to check more of them out), The Cure's 'A Letter To Elise' (I like the Cure but I haven't delved too deeply into their catalogue, but since this is on the same album as Friday I'm In Love, maybe I'll start there), Fleetwood Mac's 'Rhiannon', and the Nails' '44 Lines About 88 Women', while my favorite returning favorites are Steve Perry's 'Oh Sherry'(which was just used in the last Breaking Bad episode coincidentally), The Killers' 'Believe Me Natalie', Jane's Addiction's 'Jane Says', Simon & Garfunkel's 'Cecilia', the Stones' 'Ruby Tuesday', Bruce's 'Candy's Room', and the Knack's 'My Sherona'. Just lots of great songs here.
You also get extra bonus points with me for using/opening with the Pete & Pete theme, which for people of a certain age who watched a certain channel in a certain era, is sort of overwhelmingly nostalgic, and also for using Shawn Colvin's 'Sunny Came Home', a track I loved from my top-40 listening early teenage years a decade and a half ago but that I didn't think anyone else here cared for. I've always found here voice to be one of those really pleasant, soothing, comforting voices, and that song has a beautiful melody, so it's great to see it in a DI list.
Great job.
If you liked that song, you should probably definitely hear more by The Magnetic Fields, but be mindful that they very quickly switched to Merritt on vocals, so it's a guy basically most of the time
. Also, I wouldn't recommend starting with that particular Cure album. If you're looking for something a little poppier, start with The Head on the Door. If you want to go with the best, though, start with Disintegration.
The Pete & Pete theme is going to always and forever be a favorite song of mine. It was the perfect opener for this list.
Thank you !
Okay, just finished listening to bono_212's list. Haha yours was an interesting one. First of all, the concept itself is pretty cool and piqued my curiosity sufficiently enough. Second thing is, I only warmed up to your list around track 12 or something but from that point on, really enjoyed it till the end!
I liked the opening song as well as the Ramones one but after that, the songs weren't really registering in my mind very well. Around Steve Perry or so, I found myself enjoying what I was hearing. And it was quite consistent from there more or less until the end. Also, there were some songs here that I had heard before but had no idea about the name of the song or artist. Examples: Amie and Chelsea Dagger.
The flow was quite good throughout and was very good in some parts, for example: Fratellis - Knack - Amanda Palmer. The flow from National to VU was so good that I didn't even register in my mind that another song had started. lol. Of course I was also a bit pre-occupied
and I don't enjoy the National all that much.
Overall, I really enjoyed this list. Lots of familiar stuff especially in the second half or bottom two-thirds of the list rather.
ETA: Oh... and that last song was brilliant! Never heard of this new wave group called the Nails!?! Where do you guys find such stuff?
If this list did anything, it apparently got a lot of people intrigued by The Nails, which I couldn't be happier about
.
Shame you didn't like the intro, that's probably my favorite part XD.
If you couldn't tell, Amanda Palmer and The Knack worked so well together because Palmer purposely copped most of the latter for her own song
Thanks!
Just finishing up Ashley's list.
Alright Ashley, in the past I have not gotten on with your lists very well. And I must admit that after the first five songs, I was little worried that it would be the case again. I didn't care for the songs and the flow/transition seemed a bit iffy. But the good news is that the first five songs were my least favorite section. Once "A Letter To Elise" came on, your playlist didn't let up (well, except for "Meet Virginia", which I've never liked). I mean, holy fuck, this is great! Lots of fantastic stuff in here.
This list included some of my favorite songs by some of my favorite artists ("A Letter To Elise", "Believe Me Natalie", "Only Heather", "Cecillia", "Kim & Jessie", "Dear Prudence", "Rhiannon", and "Karen"), some great songs by artists I enjoy but am not head over heals for ("Oh Sherrie", "Eleanor Put Your Boots On", "Carrie Anne", "Ruby Tuesday", "Gloria", "Ruby", "Chelsea Dagger", and "My Sharona"), and one of the best Bruce Springsteen songs I've ever heard (which is saying a lot because I wouldn't consider myself a fan of his at all but I loved this song!). Favorite parts were "Cecillia" to "Ruby Tuesday" and for a shorter spurt, "Oh Sherrie" to "Kim & Jessie" was absolutely perfect.
This is quite easily my favorite of your playlists. Well done!
ETA: My mathematical way of grading things is to take the total amount of points I assign to a particular track added throughout (out of 10) and then divide it by the number of tracks on the entire playlist. I then take a number to its hundredth decimal place and that is how I rank each playlist. Funny story: Travis and Ashley tied exactly to the hundredths place. What a weird fucking coincidence!
I like to think that I'm going to be the only person ever complimented on their playlist section consisting of "Oh Sherrie" to "Kim & Jessie"
As for the ETA: Weird, wild stuff!!
Thanks, Andrew, glad I could put something together you enjoyed for once
wink: )
Ashley, as I expected in the beginning of the tournament I really dug your list. One of my favorite so far. Loved the concept - so simple, and yet fun and comprehensive. Before reading the song list, I think the one song I really expected to hear was Allison, so I was surprised (in a good way) to see that your Elvis Costello pick was Veronica. Would have loved to see Judy and the Dream of Horses too, but I guess there's just too many songs with a woman's name in the title.
I didn't have any issue with the transitions, which flowed really well. My favorite moments were "A Letter to Elise" into Wild Nothing, Franz into Okkervil River into Maggie Mae, and the entire end sequence starting with The New Pornographers. Really good stuff. Your list also reminded that I need to check out The Left Banke more. Like the stuff I've hear so far. Anyways, had a lot of fun listenig. Well done!
I had hoped from the beginning that a playlist like this would be one that couldn't help but be fun. When I've been driving in my car listening to it, I've felt that I achieved that.
I thought about using Allison, but it had been on so many playlists, I opted for the (also poppier) Veronica instead.
Let me know if you ever listen to The Left Banke, I'm curious to know if they're worth checking out more of.
Thank you, Gump