We live in a time when "tracks" have gotten us used to listening to single songs, without paying attention to the flow of the record, the whole work as a piece. If you add the promotion of single songs on tv and radio, many of us think we know bands because we know their hits, and we don't pay attention, many times, to their most intimate songs.
I thought we could pitch some "I-don't-know-how-they're-not-a-single" songs we learned to love, those songs that are lost in records and make us happy to have bought the whole thing (I still buy original CDs...) for getting to know that particular song.
That I can think of right now, I can mention:
The climb -No doubt -coming from their "Tragic Kingdom" CD is the seventh song of the record -Steve Vai would have a say on this. It's amazing how Gwen Stephanie starts "climbing" with her voice until reaching picks impossible to reach by a regular singer... that girl can sing. Also, the song builds up a momentum that literally explodes at the end.
Just a man -Faith No More -I had the chance to listen to this song live and, god! it rocks! The same as "The climb" -I can't help thinking that, in this aspect, Gwen Stephanie is a female version of Mike Patton-, the song starts very calm, very cool, and starts building up until you feel Patton is flying with his voice. Number 13 on "King for a day" (one hell of a record, in spite of what many Faith No More fans might think -what is being a FNM fan, by the way? is that possible?), you don't know what to listen to next because no other song can take you that high.
I can't hear the music -James Blunt -Closing a record is one of the most difficult things to do... almost as hard as opening it. I think this one is a perfect closing for "All the lost souls". You can picture two people dancing in the dark when everybody's gone... I don't know why, that's the image I get when I listen to it.
Don't damn me -Guns n' Roses -Is it possible to name a Guns n' Roses song that still hasn't been played over and over again? Especially from the "Illusions"? This particular one, another number 13 on "Use your Illusion I", is a hate song against those who attacked the band after their first album. It features the lyrical cadence of Axl Rose's lyrics (which he achieves once again in "Better" or "IRS", by the way) making it all alright... I guess many people would like to be insulted like that. When the song finishes, you don't know what hit you. The power! The power! Of metal (Ugly Kid Joe would say... well... rock n' roll)