Five Star Songs: Care of Cell 44

I don't watch Mad Men. I'd like to, I find the show to be very appealing, but I didn't jump on the bandwagon before the seasons piled up and it was too late. Anyway, the latest episode featured a song by The Zombies and it immediately stirred some waves between the oldies lovers. Slate wrote a nice article about it and I encourage everyone to read it. The song is called This Will Be Our Year and is taken from the band's 1968 masterpiece album, Odessey & Oracle. For today's edition of Five Star Songs, though, I chose a different song from that record, Care of Cell 44. It's the album opener and, as such, sets an incredibly high standard. Luckily enough, the rest of the LP keeps up wonderfully.

The Zombies are one of the lesser known bands from the 1960s, but also one of the very best. They released only two studio albums in their first incarnation, that lasted from 1962 to 1968. The debut is mostly significant for containing their biggest hit, She's Not There, which was recently used in a Coco Chanel commercial. But that song was only a sign of things to come, because The Zombies' vastly superior sophomore album is what they will be remembered for.

The Zombies weren't breaking any new ground with Odessey, as the psychedelic era had already been a few years underway by the time they recorded it. Originally, the album wasn't even very succesful. But time proved to be very generous to its blend of baroque pop and jazz, and it has since become one of those endearing classics. Rolling Stone has it at #100 in its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list, it's included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and, above all, is a staple of my humble CD collection. I hope you enjoy it too.

Five Star Songs: Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)

Tonight, I'm gonna share with you a song, that's been stuck in my head for these past few days.

When Melanie Safka, a twenty-two-year-old singer from New York and a prettier version of Carrie Fischer, was walking up the stage at Woodstock at 10:50pm on the first day of the festival, she was pretty much unknown. Half an hour later, she went down as a celebrity. During her set, people started lighting candles and lighters to fight the rain that had been falling. It must've been a powerful view to behold. Melanie later wrote a song about that experience and released it as a single from her third album, Candles in the Rain, in 1970. It became her breakthrough hit, reaching top ten on charts all around the world.

This is one of the best songs ever written about the festival. It's up there with Joni Mitchell's Woodstock and its cover by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The gospel chorus is what really gets me, I just can't get enough of it. Your thoughts?

Five Star Songs: Side

To celebrate the release of a new Travis album, let's look back at one of their most famous songs to date, Side, from their 2001 album The Invisible Band. The very first time I heard (about) Travis was actually when I saw the music video for Closer. But it was only when I listened to Side, that I fell in love with them, and, well, the rest is history. Travis became one of my all time favourite bands, and since then, I awaited all their albums eagerly. It's a shame they haven't released that many of them over the recent years. On the other hand, if they are all as good as the last one, then I'm okay with it.

Few songs ever havve been so unbelievably catchy and so immediately likeable, and Side is one of those I could never get tired of.

Five Star Songs: Ballad of Easy Rider

It was only a matter of time before one of The Byrds' songs appeared here. I just didn't know which. Many of the band's songs hold the five star rating in my library, and it's too difficult to pick only one. Well, at least it was before I stumbled across the wiki page of the song Ballad of Easy Rider, featured prominently in the film Easy Rider, and set my eyes on the following paragraph.

The star and script writer of Easy Rider, Peter Fonda, had initially intended to use Bob Dylan's song "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" in the film but after failing to license the track, Fonda asked Roger McGuinn of The Byrds to record a cover version of the song instead. Fonda also wanted Dylan to write the film's theme song but Dylan declined, quickly scribbling the lines - "The river flows, it flows to the sea/Wherever that river goes, that's where I want to be/Flow, river, flow" - on to a napkin, before telling Fonda to "give this to McGuinn. He'll know what to do with it." The lyric fragment was dutifully passed on to McGuinn, who took the lines and expanded upon them with his own lyrical and musical contributions to produce the finished song.

I think it's an interesting fact from making one of the quintessential films of the New Hollywood era, and it gives an idea about the relationship between Dylan and The Byrds.

I've been listening to the band all day. All twelve studio albums arranged chronologically, played front to back. It makes up for over seven hours of incredible listening experience. Right now, I think I like The Byrds a little bit more then every other band, including the Fab four.

Five Star Songs: Parallel Worlds

I realized I haven't written much in the past few weeks due to being constantly busy with school and perfecting my procrastination skills, and I thought that the Five Star Song section needed an update. So yesterday, I was going through my music library searching for something to write about, perhaps a band I haven't heard in years, some hidden gem of a song, or maybe an undying classic, and then I set my eyes on Elliot Minor.

It must've been a very long time since I listened to them for the last time, because I completely forgot they existed. And boy, was I missing a lot. Five years since its release, Elliot Minor's eponymous debut hasn't aged a day, and the melodies are just as infectious as they've always been. It's no wonder that that kind of magic only happened once and the band's following effort didn't live up to its promise.

Parallel World was the lead single from their first album, and still serves as a perfect example of the band's refined sound and instrumental skills, but is often overshadowed by their most notorious song, Jessica. They both hold five star rating in my library, alhough I've always kind of prefered the former. That being said, Elliot Minor's self-titled includes several other fantastic songs and it wouldn't be fair not to mention them. Time After Time, Lucky Star, Still Figuring Out... And once you start listening to the album, it's hard to let go.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, after the release of Elliot Minor in 2008, the band quickly started to lose momentum and eventually went on a hiatus three years later. Since then, most of the members started their own projects, so there probably isn't any future for the band. Thankfully, they left us with at least one great album.

Five Star Songs: Big Casino

To further honour the release of a brand new Jimmy Eat World track, let's look back at one of their best songs to date. In my opinion at least. The band has put out quite a few gems in the span of their twenty-year-long career, and many of them retain five star rating in my library. This is just the first one in a long line, and more are sure to come...

For me, out of the whole Jimmy Eat World's catalogue, Big Casino has always been the song of choice. It's instant accessibility, huge chorus, everything I love about the band embodied in one of their rockiest moments.

Chase This Light tends to be unjustly overlooked in the band's discography. The cleaner production, radio-friendly sound and uplifting lyrics -- especially in contrast to the gloomy mood of Futures -- aren't usually the type of things that get much love from more serious listeners. However, the tunes are just as good as they've always been. And Big Casino is just as good an opener as Futures or Bleed American were. Flat out one of their top songs.

Five Star Songs: Carrie Anne

Well, the start of my obsession with The Hollies dates back to the last summer. Since then, they have never left my playlist for more than several days, and many of their tracks make up a significant portion of my soundtrack of the sixties. Whenever I feel like listening to them, my song of choice is usually Carrie Anne. It was written by Allan Clarke, Graham Nash and Tony Hicks, recorded  by The Hollies on 1 May 1967 and released as a single in the same month. It became a hit in 1967, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also a hit in the US, peaking at #9 on the pop charts. (citation)

I just came across this amazing video. Needless to say, this live version is sligthly different from the studio recording, but is equally flawless and powerful. Every single time I listen to it, I have persistent urging to sing along to the chorus. At least in my mind, when there's people around.

Five Star Songs: Awakening

Well, this was just an idea... Since I am into the whole star ratings business, I thought why not throw in my some of my favourite five star songs every once in a while and express my love for them. So from this moment onwards, expect notorious singles, timeless classics and songs that tend to be kinda overlooked and underappreciated or even unknown.

Let's kick off the new column with Switchfoot's Awakening from their sixth album, Oh! Gravity. This is not the first song that pops into people's heads when they think about the band, nor it is the second, nor the third... But it is by far my favourite of them all. It is the reason why I even listen to the band in the first place. The chorus is just huge and irresistible, and it's an instant reminder of how good Switchfoot have always been. Ladies and gentlemen, behold...