iPod song of the week – best song ever
Naturally, you have a photographic memory of what I write in the J-Ball and you’ve been reading for a year or more, so you’ll remember that tomorrow is Martin Gore’s birthday (get it? photographic? never mind), informally known as “play all of Depeche Mode’s catalog in an exhaustive, completist effort.” But that’s a little unwieldy.
Anyway, despite the fact that I try to go with something at least a bit obscure for the iSotW, owing to the original mission to turn you on to or remind you of songs that you might want to add to your iPod, it’s hard for me to think of DM that way simply because I have listened to every one of their songs so many times that they are tattooed on my brain. So I’m going to go in the opposite direction and pick a popular one, and, who knows, maybe it’s obscure to you.
Recently, on another website, the question was asked, “what’s your favorite song?” I can never answer that question because I have way too many. When I was a kid it seemed easier and changed all the time but now I don’t even know what criteria to use. But lately, it has begun to dawn on me that without knowing it I have had a favorite song all this time. It’s the song that comes unbidden into my head with regularity and is often the soundtrack to my thoughts. See, that was the problem: I was trying to find a song that when I heard it my eyes widened and my heart beat faster, and I have a lot of those. But if songs like that are foie gras, then this song is mac n’ cheese, the song that will always make me happy, that is so familiar to me that it can’t possibly excite me because it’s in my mind way too often, that I could have every day and not get sick of it. It didn’t even make my Top 5 DM songs last year! And yet, I would argue that if I were launched into space for a year, away from all music, and were allowed one song, this would be it. I can hear the riff in my head right now, in all its unassuming glory. Ba dum ba dum buuuuuuuum.
Napster:
Depeche Mode – Everything Counts
Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.
Good choice!
Happy bday Martin! eat cake!
My favorite Depeche Mode song EVER – “I Am You.”
Happy Birthday, Martin!
I think “I Am You” might be my favorite on that album. Great vibe.
Oh, wow. I haven’t thought about DM in a long time. Now I have to go spend more money on iTunes. I don’t have anything on CD, it was all cassettes.
You could always try my handy “turn your cassettes into mp3’s” tutorial but if you have a lot of stuff iTunes is probably best. But see? I knew it would remind someone.
Becca, I was just thinking (scary, huh?). If you like the vibe on, “I Am You,” you might like some of the stuff on Ruby’s (how the heck do I use HTML to underline for correct MLA formatting of an album title? I don’t know, I’ll use all caps, instead. I’ve obviously had way too much caffeine already.) SALTPETER. Very mellow, dreamy, almost trip-hop like but with a slightly kinkier, more “Lords of Acid on sedatives” feel to it.
I do love that record, Ima, and actually, I’ve sent you an e-mail on a certain aspect of it.
PS, I also try not to think whenever possible.