Heavy and Light Playlist

Here's something a little different: I'd like to occasionally offer up a set of songs that are setting my CD and MP3 players on fire. Yeah, you heard that right... my CD player. Not Youtube or Spotify or whatever streaming service you favour. I do discover new (and old) music on Youtube and A Journal of Musical Things and through friends, but once I truly latch onto something, I want the best quality sound on my home audio system. My Sennheiser headphones deserve only the best. As do my more modest JBL speakers. And that means CDs for this guy; I can barely stand the dynamically diminished sound of MP3 audio files, so even when I resort to my old-school portable player, I go for WMA files or whatever else sounds most faithful to the original. Now I'm not a vinyl purist... I don't have the ambition or resources to revamp my set-up to accommodate a turntable and to store the much larger record sleeves, so I have stuck with the compact disc. I still like a physical medium that includes printed artwork and liner notes. I grew up on records and tapes, and the CD packaging falls somewhere in between those two formats for legibility and enjoyment.

The original Van Halen lineup delivered the best rock of the era

Anyway, as for the actual music, I'd like to present a playlist of some of the songs that I've had in serious rotation lately. It's not all brand new, cutting edge stuff... in fact, most of it is older music, but it is what I am drawn to again and again these days. Songs that stand the test of time. 

See what you think of these heavy, light, and in-between tunes:





Tracklist:

1. Killing Technology - Voivod
2. Big Money - Rush
3. No Tomorrow - Le Matos featuring PAWWS
4. Fragile - Kylie Minogue
5. Metal Heart - Accept
6. Square Hammer - Ghost
7. Room Service - Kiss
8. That's All Right - Elvis
9. The Conjuring - Megadeth
10. Turn of the Century - Yes
11. Girl Gone Bad - Van Halen


I sort of missed out on Canada's Quebec thrash metal band Voivod back in the 80's (though I loved their music video for their cover of Pink Floyd's Astronomy Domine), but I have recently found something to love about many their early albums. So far, Killing Technology, both the record and the song, is my favourite. 

Rush's Big Money has long been a fave, ever since that metallic bouncy rock release Power Windows blew me away back in 1985. I stumbled upon Le Matos via the Quebec-produced film Turbo Kid (2015); the music soundtrack absolutely entranced me, and the track No Tomorrow - with guest vocalist PAWWS - in particular struck a chord with me. Its sweet synth-pop style has a distinctly retro-80's vibe... fun and bouncy.

I was appalled by Kylie Minogue's music back in the 80's, when I was a hard rock and progrock fan, but after a gradual process of introducing dance-pop into my listening habits, I found that I loved just about every song she recorded, especially her output from the 90's until present. There are times of the year when Kylie is all I listen to (it's good medicine)... and Fragile is representative of her best work. 

Kylie circa 2001... just getting better with age... if she ages at all

Then some searing guitars appear in the form of Accept's Metal Heart, among their greatest molten tracks from the 80's. Square Hammer is a more modern rock song, just one of the many heavy yet melodic tunes by mysterious Swedish band Ghost that I play endlessly. Room Service, by Kiss, is of course a 70's classic, influential for many guitar-slingers in subsequent decades. And I grew up on Kiss, devouring their early albums as I learned about the "dark" side of music. 

Then going WAY back, we've got Elvis' That's All Right, from 1954. I've appreciated The King of Rock'n'Roll ever since I first got into music... as I was nearing my tween years back in the 70's. This song still sounds fresh, energized, and rockin'... truly a timeless classic. Jump back to the 80's and there's a devilishly aggressive Megadeth track, The Conjuring, to set heads a'bangin'. I simply cannot sit still with this one cranked up!

Some gentler sounds from Yes now, with Turn of the Century, which displays the band's beautiful and tasteful songwriting, as well as their supreme musicianship. I think it's one of their best - and probably most underappreciated - songs. Last up on my playlist is the hard rocking gem, Girl Gone Bad, from Van Halen's 1984 album. Perhaps overshadowed by radio and MTV hits Jump, Panama, and Hot For Teacher, this track blows the roof off any building it's playing in... pure Van Halen party music!