#25: CJ's Addictions 5

It hasn't been long since I posted an addictions post but what the hell, I've just gotten hooked on a bunch of songs lately. For different reasons.

The first thing that should strike you is the weird start to the song, almost á la Odessa (by Caribou). Which is probably what hooked me. The second thing is that it's called Midnight City - two of my favourite ideas smashed together in one beautiful song (I like black and cities). I still don't know the lyrics but I don't care. That's not the point of the synthy goodness that is Midnight City. The point of it is to listen to the kickass awesomeness and get lost in your own little midnight city. (Oshit, I'm turning Zen all of a sudden: CJ + sleep dep = Zen.) Anyway, this song is pretty awesome. I love the sax bit starting at ~3'2". I wish I knew what song it reminded me of. I can hear the other song in my head, but I can't work out lyrics or a title, or an artist. Or a song. Fuck.

I reckon this sits almost perfectly with Odessa as one of my songs of 2011: I first heard it in 2011 and it reminds me of exactly this year. Awh yeah. Loving them song memories. I wanted to start a project whereby I looked at every single song in my library, and wrote a short memory associated with that song. Problem is, at nearly 9,000 songs, doing a hundred songs a night would take three months. And my collection is expanding. So I'll settle for remembering events along with musics whenever I hear the songs. And speaking of which:

Yes. This is me all over. The song's about music (I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym) and my gods yes, I agree with the philosophy exactly. An old song addiction coming back to life in a few years' time is not only plausible, but it's happened to me fuckloads this year. Not just this year either. Hell, it's been happening for the last few years. I actually have a log (of sorts) of those addictions - see here for more. But back to topic. Apart from the fact that it's synth(pop), which I'm slowly beginning to enjoy more (thanks largely to bands like Au Revoir Simone and La Roux) it fits almost perfectly with my ideal song pattern. For reference:

• two verses maximum
• no bridge, or a bridge that can be integrated as part of a verse, or a single bridge between verse 2 and the second iteration of the chorus
• no chorus, or a chorus that does not mention the song title, or mentions it in passing
• EVOLUTION
• the entire song does not mention those self-promoting bastards, the bands themselves

Yes, I'm freakin' fussy, but I really mean it when it comes to that last point. I know of one song that I like that names the band explicitly in the song lyrics - Domino by the Bloody Beetroots. This excludes artists with self-titled songs like Flower Power, The Screetch and The Drill - all of which are instrumental, incidentally - because that makes sense. It also excludes artists or bands that mention other artists or bands in their lyrics - Duck Sauce did that with Barbara Streisand and Zuper Blahq went through about half a dozen others in I'm In The House (although he did mention himself as well... fuck. So, bearing that in mind, I don't hear the lyrics "cansei de ser sexy" in Hits Me Like A Rock so it passes my non-douchiness test. The only thing that fails it from being a perfectly-patterned song is that the lyrics go "hits me like a rock" over and over. Not a bad effort though.

Let's drip out one more tune.

I first heard the Armand Van Helden remix of this on some MoS compilation - I forget whether it was Clubber's Guide or Annual. Probably the Annual. So, let's run through the checklist. Music: synth and beat, but not grunge. Check. Bag Raiders: check. Song pattern: good enough. Check. Evolution of song: not so much, but it's passable. Check. Decent video: cute girl, interesting plot, band doesn't appear. Check. The song can take a remix: fucking A it can. It loves Armand Van Helden. Check. Conclusion: a few flaws, but hey, nobody's perfect. I want to make music like this. Wish I could make music at all, for that matter. But hey, nobody's perfect. Hey, um, wait. That's the whole point of the video, isn't it? I suppose, though, if you strive for perfection you're gonna get part way there and fall a fraction short, which is a little bit above average anyway. So. Drop me a tune and I'll tell you how close to perfection it is. This one is damn near and that's why I've spent the last stupid amount of time not only addicted to it, but also ripping it to shreds and finding... not much. Join me again soon when I accept another sisterly challenge.